Wonderful first year film from Cal Art’s Mallory Dyer. Love the teeth!

Wonderful film by Elle Michalka.

Dir. Nicole Mitchell / USA / 2007

A penguin and gorilla team up to lead the other animals in a comedic revolution against a zoo keeper who just will not leave them alone.

Winner of a Student Academy Award 2008

There’s a lot of stuff I just love about Kris Anka‘s latest film, but I don’t like that I’ve spent that last three days with, “Take me home tonight!” stuck in my head. Thanks Kris!

Stop by 11 Second Club and check out this month’s winner. It’s a great example of what I was just talking about. Les Watters did a wonderful job with the cigarette business in this piece. He’s also matched the visuals to the dated sound of the audio. Nice work all around.

Kyle Kenworthy has put together this excellent video outlining the laborious process of getting a piece of animation like this done. He’s labeled each pass in the top left corner of the video.

The kids at CalArts have finished their films for this year. Here’s my friend John Dusenberry‘s fourth year film, “The First Adventure of Morton the Hedgehog.” Nice work as always John, loved the voice acting too!

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I’m an animation history nut. Brian Duffy has tipped me off to The Richard Balzer Collection, a personal collection of early optical devices now online and available for your viewing pleasure. Some of this stuff is super rare, and represents the very roots of the animation medium. I remember re-creating a lot of these devices as assignments in some of my AAU classes, so it’s a real treat to see some of the originals in Dick’s extensive collection. Dick also has a blog, which you can find here. Thanks for the tip Brian.

CG Society has an article up on the making of How to Train Your Dragon entitled, “The Effects of Dragons, Fire, and Fur at DreamWorks.” Click the image to go there now.

After a bit of a break, Hans Perk is back at it, this time posting Dumbo animation drafts. Make sure you go get them if you want to study up on who done did what now and when.

Robert Welsh has informed me that Don Bluth is holding two Master Classes this summer in Arizona. There’s one for storyboarding and one for animation. For more info, go here. Robert will be attending the animation one, so look for his comments on the class if you’re unsure.

Personally I’d love the opportunity to learn from Don Bluth in person. If you’re in the area, I wouldn’t pass this up.

Unbelievable deal. Snap it up while you can…