Recently I was talking to my class about how closely related music and animation are.  Both art forms are used to tell stories, convey emotion, and entertain.  We even use musical terms like timing, rhythm, phrasing, and beats to describe our motion.  Often times I find that the only way to describe some movements in my shots is through sounds.  This is something that I’ve always loved about animation.

I’ve also found it very common for animators to be musicians as well.  Adam, Jacob, and I have all been very involved in music.  Did you know that Adam composed and performs our intro music.

So, with all of this in mind, I asked my student to explore the interwebs and see what kinds of musically driven animated shorts were out there.  I propose to throw this same challenge to you our listeners.  Go out and find some really inspiring “musical shorts” and post them here in our comments section.  We will be posting our favorites as well.  They don’t have to be abstract, just drivin by a strong musical foundation.  To start things off, here are three of my favorites:

Runaway by Cordell Barker  Music by Ben Charest

Sensology by Michel Gagne Music by Paul Plimley and Barry Guy

Thought of You by Ryan Woodward Music by The Weepies

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Those were great right!?  Now post your favorites in the comments section and lets see how much music we can bring to this animation site!!

Between all of the online schools, professional and student blogs, and various websites there’s a ton of animation/visual effects content and knowledge being shared online these days.  People hear about a technique or start to study an art form they are new to and are happy to share what they’re learning due to the excitement of their newly learned concept.  This shared wisdom really allows students and those art forms to progress at a relatively fast rate.  I just heard about this new school being setup by the guys over at Stan Winston Studios on the Animation Mentor forums.  It’s exciting to see what they’re going to be teaching after viewing some of  the video clips on the school’s home page, especially since it’s coming from a group of people at a studio with a long and significant history.

Check it out here:

http://www.stanwinstonschool.com/

]]> http://www.speakingofanimation.com/2010/11/stan-winston-school-of-character-arts/feed/ 0 http://www.speakingofanimation.com/2010/07/something-left-something-taken/ http://www.speakingofanimation.com/2010/07/something-left-something-taken/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:49:27 +0000 Jacob http://www.speakingofanimation.com/?p=949

I really enjoyed this short and wanted to pass it along.  The style is incredibly fun, and there’s even a behind the scenes blog!  It’s really cool to see how they actually made this.

Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.

Walt Disney Animation has released a teaser trailer for Tangled!

Here is a trailer for a short film by a couple of students in France. Looks really fun!!!

Salesman Pete Trailer from Salesman Pete on Vimeo.

And you can check out their production blog as well.