Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.
"A lizard wrapped in water represents Earth, which is composed of both land and sea. For human beings, living on this earth feels quite natural. However, the earth is both an enormous living organism and a planet in the infinite universe. It would be gratifying if, after seeing this work, the viewer could feel that we live life on a planet that itself is a living existence in space."
check out the jellyfish at 1:04! :)
"When I was doing this series, I put forth a concept I call “I’m gonna regret the rest of my life if I give up my transformers and be a mama’s boy.” (如果为了比别的小朋友小红花多 而放弃玩变形金刚，我会遗憾终生的。)(...) We started losing that happiness in high school when we were pressured to study excessively, and now we are pressured to work excessively, etc. – but what’s it all for? What’s the relationship between the “ideal” and reality? Is the “ideal” that we spend so much time studying and working really all that great?Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of all things “retro” in China – 8-bit music, of course, can be included in this trend. This trend has greatly influenced me and my work. I think the reason people are into these things is not because the retro games or fashions of the past are better than the modern games or fashions or whatever. It’s mostly because people nowadays want to rediscover the happiness we all had when we were kids. That’s what’s happening with 8-bit music, it’s being made all over again as a re-fabricated retro thing because it makes us happy."
Umbrella from philip vose on Vimeo.
VITAL "Airport" from VITAL on Vimeo.
download it for free here.
It's saturday morning, it's cartoon morning!
Link here to watch a fantastic animation titled “Shallow Sleep” created by Beijing-based Little Kong and Feng Ling.
The eight-minute short invites viewers to follow the adventures of a young girl as she explores her dream universe and meets incredible creatures, bizarre machines, and singing robots. The short is characterized by resourceful transitions, beautiful coloring, and a story-line that manages to ingeniously diffuse the boundaries between reality and the surreal realm of the subconscious.
The animation’s soundtrack is by Neocha.com-user The Curry Soap and Cha Liangfen.
This post has been originally posted on NeochaEDGE, a bilingual blog showcasing creative content from China that I contribute to. Picture source: Little Kong on NeochaEDGE.
Garuda from Andres Salaff on Vimeo.
This post has been originally posted on Neocha EDGE.
The China Environment Protection Foundation(CEPF) recently commissioned JWT Shanghai to develop three print advertisements using shan shui style art by renowned landscape artist Yang Yongliang. The advertisements, titled Global Warming, Industrial Pollution, and Automotive Pollution, aimed to raise public awareness of ongoing environmental damage to China’s environment and were displayed as subway posters and full-page newspaper ads.
The ads bear a striking resemblance to traditional Chinese paintings but, when looked at closely, portray environmentally unfriendly factories, cars, and buildings littering the landscape. The campaign has been a big hit with both the public and the press. The printed ads have received a number of international awards: Cannes Lions 2009 Outdoor Silver Ads, New York Festival Awards 2009, NYF 2009 Print Gold ads.
The print ads have been adapted into an excellent animated short (see below) directed by Li Hailong from Beijing's One Production to run on air and on plasma screens in the Shanghai People Square Subway Station. The animation short was awarded the "Spikes Asia Gold Craft Spike" prize in the Category "TV - Best Use of Animation/Computer Graphics/ Special Effects" at this year's Spike Asia - Asian Advertising Festival. Additionally, the entire campaign won a number of Lotus awards at AdFest 2009, including gold for social engagement, best use of illustration, best art direction, and animation.
Apart from its mere artistic value, the campaign has also communicational and educational value: Raising public and governmental awareness might be the first step towards change. The campaign's worth is to be seen in the fact that, it manages to highlight the threat that ignorance represents to cultural identity by making use of aesthetic cues charged with traditional value.
Li, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy with a degree in animation, told us he did not try to solely address environmental issues but also social ones as well: "The campaign expresses a societal attitude change with respect to the concept of "survival" – it activates an "environmental mindset" by addressing motives deeply rooted in everyone's psyche: the universal drive for continuance and the desire for a comfortable life." Li explained that he made use of exaggerated imagery in order to emphasize the lack of space and suffocation people are confronted with today in China – a phenomenon, he says, that leads to increased levels of societal anxiety, confusion, and ultimately, a redefinition of necessity that exploits nature and replaces it with artificial substitutes.
Bravo JWT and One Production.
I would like to thank Hailong for his interview, patience and helpful comments.
It's Saturday morning! It's cartoon morning!
Even though, I usually post animations from The Saturday Morning Cartoon Index, I have now decided to post other little jewels of animations that I find elsewhere, as well. This post was originally posted on NeochaEDGE, a wonderful site I was fortunate enough to be invited to contributed to.
"The Soliloquist" by Taiwanese illustrator and animator Ma Kuangpei (馬匡霈, aka Keats) is a modern fable about loneliness and self-deception. It tells the story of a heart broken man who receives letters and packages stating with the wrong addressee. Unable to return the letters, he starts to read them and develops a strange illusory relationship with his fictitious alter-ego.
Ma’s animated short combines Eastern and Western aesthetic concepts and is defined by a wonderful combination of collage and watercolor styles with brilliant transitions. Watch the entire six-minute film below.
Born in 1981, Ma graduated from the Tainan National University of the Arts. The Soliloquist (aka 我说啊，我说) was produced in 2008 as his graduation work. It has received amazing feedback ever since and was nominated and screened at numerous international film festivals. In 2009 it was awarded the “Little Nomad Prize“ at the Urban Nomad Filmfest in Taipei, Taiwan and it received the “Special Mention – Asian New Force“ at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards. Moreover, it has received the “Special Distinction Award” in the Graduation Films category at the 33rd 2009 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, becoming the first Taiwanese animated movie to receive an award at the competition. Ma’s success this year, in combination with this most-recent honor, will serve to show Chinese artists, most of whom are currently focused on the technical aspect of animation, another direction in which they can grow.
Ida's Luck Part 1 from Katy Towell on Vimeo.
Ida's Luck Part 2 from Katy Towell on Vimeo.
