So the Oscar results are in:
La Maison en Petits Cubes by Kunio Kato got the award for Best Short Film and Wall-E got the Animated Feature Film award.
More details of the individual films can be seen at the Animation World Network Oscar Showcase, click the links at the top of the page.
Wallace and Gromit are moving to a new home after creators Aardman Animation were given the go-ahead to build a £10 million headquarters.
The Oscar-winning studio will move to a three-storey complex next to its current dockside base in Bristol after the plans were approved by the city council.
It will almost double the number of staff currently working at the site from 110 to 200, as nearly all the company's employees are relocated to the new expanded development.
Aardman co-founder David Sproxton said it was an exciting time in the company's history, "the building will mean everyone can be together at last and out of the Portakabins."
The building will boast its own "mini cinema" and could feature four wind turbines on the roof - providing up to 25 per cent of the site's energy needs.
More details can be found via the Wallace and Gromit Forum.
There's plenty of articles about the other Bafta winners. Animation Ramblings is interested the animation winners. Congratulations to WALL-E and our home baked A Matter of Loaf and Death and a not forgetting Terry Gilliam who's films (and animation) have entertained us all over the years.
ANIMATED FILM
Winner - WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
PERSEPOLIS – Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Ari Folman
SHORT ANIMATION Winner - WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH – Steve Pegram, Nick Park, Bob Baker
CODSWALLOP – Greg McLeod, Myles McLeod
VARMINTS – Sue Goffe, Marc Craste
ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP TERRY GILLIAM
I'd like to share with you some links/definitions.
Association Internationale du Film D'Animation
ASIFA-Hollywood is the Los Angeles chapter of The International Animated Film Society
The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course
I came across these links in a round about way. I'd been told about John Kricfalusi's blog and although I've been reading it since before Christmas, he's be churning out a lot more than I can read. So much so that I've even been printing blog pages out to read on the bus on the way too and from work. I was a bit puzzled as to why these articles were so long and why the comments were even longer but I was happy to read them in ignorance of this fact. I've been particularly interested in his comments on clear staging and hope to write a short article on how it applies to CGI and model animation in the next few days. John had mentioned Preston Blair's book "Cartoon Animation" a few times so I though I'd get myself a copy.
After wandering around the books shops and failing to find a copy like an animated J.R.Hartley I decided to look on the web. After a few searches I realised a few things. The first is that Cartoon Animation is actually a compilation of Preston's earlier works, a series of booked entitled "Animation". The next was that the Animation Archive have posted the first of these online.
Preston Blair Animation Part 1
Preston Blair Animation Part 2
The final piece of the jigsaw that made sense of everything was that John was actually running an animation course based on Preston Blair's material hence why the detail in the blog articles and the inquisitive responses in the blog comments.
Stoke Your Fires Festival of Animation 2009 - call for submissions
Press Release by John Simmonds
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is excited to announce that the Stoke Your Fires Festival of Animation will return in 2009.
This year’s animation festival builds on the success of the 2008 event by hosting a month of animation themed events at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
The festival itself takes place on 2-3 April 2009 at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. This ticketed two day event will see professional animators come to Stoke-on-Trent to take part in seminars, lectures and masterclasses to share and develop their understanding of the industry.
The festival also has a major international competition element. Last year saw more than 100 submissions from animators across the globe. The Best Animated Short was awarded to Aardman Animation’s ‘The Pearce Sisters’ which now has more than 35 awards worldwide.
The competition is not limited to professional animators. The 2008 competition saw many pieces of original and engaging work by student animators.
The organisers of the 2009 festival would like to invite submissions in the following categories:
Best Animated Short
Best Professional Regional Animation ‘Made in the Midlands’
Best Animated Commercial
Best International Animation
Best In Game Animation
Best Student Animation
See www.stokeyourfires.com for more information about how to submit work to the competition.
