Just look at this lovely, joyful little film I came across on the blog of Genevieve Godbout. This is a 3rd Year group film from the Gobelins school in France, in which Miss Godbout was one of the students who contributed. The running time is just less than 2 minutes and the idea is very simple and clear. The characters are very simple and solid in their design, making them quite conducive to full, fluid animation. The backgrounds are a particular treat, being entirely hand painted as far as I can tell, with a warm and visually appealing colour palette. The main reason I am posting this, is that I am hoping it will serve as inspiration to my crop of 2nd Year students from last year who are about to embark on their 3rd Year group film project at Sheridan College. This little film well illustrates just what can be done when you keep your idea simple, resisting the temptation to do something more "epic" in scale. Also, in order to complete a film like this takes cooperation among all members of the group. A lovely effort like "Sebastien" proves that it really is quite possible to achieve!By the way, these thoughts are but a small echo of what Mark Kennedy also posted about last week in far greater detail. Definitely a good read.
Pete, this film is amazing! Wow, I love the simple-ness of the story, the fact that it focuses on more character acting [without dialog], and wow, the colour palette is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThis week we were shown another film by those gobelins, "Burning Safari". Definitely superb.
I am a MAJOR fan of the KISS rule [keep it simple stupid, of course], I endeavor to try to always keep things down to a simple, appealing idea. And I hope to do so on this and next year's films!
Thanks for the inspirato :)
FYI: Gobelins has some kind of contract with Annecy each year to create little clips for the screenings, hence the short, yet very effective storylines and amazing visuals. It's a great way for students to come together and create something as a team -- much like an animation studio, complete with deadlines and such. There have been many more from this school that you can check out online. For starters, the school itself:
ReplyDeleteGobelins Animation Gallery (Right now the site's not coming up for me -- maybe some server problems, but it's totally worth checking out when you have the chance!)
Here are a couple of other films that are worth noting:
Le Building (one of my favorites. check the pizza boy -- he's completely CG)
Pyrats