Anthropologie, darling.

It’s the holiday season! Well, I’ve been shopping more than the U.S. average, according to mint.com. I would say slap me, but you can’t fight crazy with crazy.

Last week I was just browsing. Sort of. I lost my way + wandered over to Anthropologie’s site where I discovered the sweetest stop-motion animation ~ which has officially made it to my all time favorites of this genre, second only to Rudolph, The Island of Misfit Toys.

Little ornaments called “The Branch Bunch” come to life as you hover the mouse over their images. Holiday spirit magic.

{just popping up to say, happy holiday!}

{my igloo is your igloo}

{…gifts rule}

{happy, merry, JOY: pass it on}

{…the eggnog effect}

Oh! This is wonderfully done.

Here’s another stop-motion piece for Anthropologie, designed by Creative Director Simon James Lee.

An artist like Mr. Lee knows better than anyone the priceless look that can only come from the use of real objects + photographs.

These fuzzy feelings make me want to buy cute things.

~Joy

30 motion tests in 30 seconds

I’ll just shut up and let motion designer Steffen K explain it to you:

“Over a period of 30 days I challenged myself to created 1 second of animation every day. The idea was to experiment and explore workflow in the software package Cinema 4D and publish one frame from my experiments daily..

The rules:
-Animate 1 second everyday
-Publish one frame daily at blog.steffenk.net
-Put it all together to approx. 30 seconds of animation”

You can see the individual 1 second tests over at his blog.

I’m a big fan of exercises in variety vs. constants and envious of his motivation to do something like this.  Not only is it a great challenge but it gives you simple, quick filler for your reel that would definitely stand out.

1 second a day … maybe I’ll start tomorrow?  Off to a good start already.

Noelle

Musical Motion Magic

A few days ago Motionographer posted a video called Resonance with this demand: “Stop. Put on your headphones. Go fullscreen, and sit still as Resonance blasts your earballs to pieces.”  I obeyed.

Resonance is a collaborative project with over 30 independent visual and audio designers/studios. The aim was to explore the relationship between geometry and audio in unique ways.

My favorite visual artist + audio designer pair was Jr Canest and David Kamp.  Here is their contribution, which happens at 2:50 in the full 11 minute video:

I love it because it’s fun and it’s simple.  While I found the other contributions to be very impressive, this one made me stop and look again.  And then I smiled and watched again.

Here is the full Resonance video:

Noelle

everybody’s kickin it back

Still from "The First Time CeeCee Did Acid" by Noelle Melody

Odds are the show is probably your basic dumb shit . But then you sort of think well maybe it’s beyond dumb, maybe it’s a ra-tard. Maybe it’s something really cool that you don’t even know about. And uh, and you started feeling like you definitely wanna be a part of it.

I’ve got to celebrate this teaser for the show, created by Taylor Armstrong.

Showcasing our submissions of half-cocked short-shorts, we promise you’ll be disturbed and/or left in great dismay.

It’s all happening at Glasslands this Wednesday, July 13th at 8pm — come experience some dumb shit AND drink a cold beer at the same time.

~Joy

Class Notes

Yesterday, James and I received a class note. Or 12!

Thanks guys, my heart is bursting!

A few weeks ago, James Buran and I had the chance to be a part of Career Day at Newbridge Elementary School in Bellmore. We met with 3 classes of 4th graders and explained that being an animator is the best job ever. After that we shot a series of still images of each one of them jumping in the air and later animated it to look like they were flying. Later it was cartoon time and we sat in the back of Mrs. Buran’s classroom, showing them different examples of animation – their favorite was the work I’ve done for MAD on Cartoon Network

~Joy

Workin it at Charleston International Film Fest ’11

Joy and I are the proud parents of this year's festival poster

We’ve been attending the Charleston International Film Festival since it was born in 2008 { see recap from 2008 and 2010 } and it gets better and better every year.  The weather was perfect for bike rides to screenings, enjoying yummy summer drinks, watching great films and staying up super late only to do it all again the next day.  This festival is fun in the sun.  Some highlights!

the lovely Tina McCard and Kelly Sharp { who wrote the script to our film }

2 for 1 margaritas for bike gangs

Jameson + margaritas at Taco Boy

iced coffees at our new favorite Charleston spot, KUDU

AND we won Best Animation for our little film Place Stamp Here.  This made us smile as the films in the Animation Block were amazing and to be chosen as the best among them is surprising and wonderful.

Place Stamp Here wins the Best Animation Audience Award

Thanks Charleston!  Work it baby.

Noelle

the dumbest sh*t i ever saw

hello children!  mickey with steve buscemeyes has an important announcement:

brought to you by metcalf loves you and twins are weird.

don’t let this fall through your crack!  for more information on the deadline and rules (that’s right, we made RULES damnit) go to our Dumb Sh*t tumblr.  it has the bokeh!

joy

Poster child

Did you feel that?  It’s film festival time.  And when it’s festival time, we make trailers and posters.

Joy and I designed the poster for the Charleston International Film Festival again!  (see last year’s poster)

We looooove this festival.  I can’t wait for the animation screening where we’ll show our FINISHED new short, Place Stamp Here.

We’ll be screening alongside Patrick Smith’s Masks as well as some more great films on May 19th – 4PM at the American Theater.

CHARLESTON BABY!

Noelle

Sleep is optional.

Sometimes, when Joy and I are supposed to be working on a million other things, we make a film instead.

This inevitably leads to a string of sleepless nights fueled by pots of coffee and takeout.  Our friends think we’re crazy and our mom calls to make sure we’re not dead, but it’s really fun when it pays off.

One of our Festival Bumpers, (the one for the Martha’s Vineyard Film Fest 2010) is up for an award at the ASIFA East Festival on May 1st!

And our brand new film, Place Stamp Here – which we made with the fantastic Kelly Sharp – will be screening at the Charleston International Film Festival on May 19th.

Sleep is optional.

Noelle

Remember that Peculiar Parade thing?

The Peculiar Picture Parade Joy and I put together at 92YTribeca last night couldn’t have been more fun.  The theater is small which makes for a really chill screening with the nearest and dearest.

Look at all the pretty faces

Joy and I surprised everyone with a film we did just for the Parade called “Place Stamp Here.”  It’s based on a short story by Kelly Sharp and the three of us made the film in about a month.  The music was done by The Chandeliers with Zach Knox on piano.

Thanks again to Brett W. Thompson for making the event flyer.

Brett Thompson rocks

There was a fantastic audience reaction from each film.  Our Q+A session with the filmmakers covered animation, crunch berries, sex and death.

Jessica Polaniecki, Brett Thompson, Dusty Grella, Signe Baumane and Kelly Sharp

Joy Vaccese, Lori Samsel, Katie Cropper and Noëlla Borie

Please enjoy the Signal Film by Taylor Armstorng – it is a 25 second documentary about how Joy and I put this lil animation show together.

And that’s how the magic happens boys and girls.

Here is the list of films in the screening:

One Minute Puberty by Alexander Gellner

Snack Track by Lori Samsel

Matter Fisher by David Prosser

Nosy Bear by Fran Krause

The Face Shop by Noëlla Borie

Sugar by Katie Cropper

The Backwater Gospel by The Animation Workshop – Bo Mathorne Schou-Nielsen

Place Stamp Here by Joy Vaccese, Noelle Melody and Kelly Sharp

Boobatry by Leah Shore

Masks by Patrick Smith

Letterbox by Dusty Grella

Animation Hotline Series by Dusty Grella

My Mother’s Coat by Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits

Animated GIF by Josh Burgraff

Fluidtoons Part 1 by Brett W. Thompson

Guard Dog Global Jam by Bill Plympton

To Have and To Hold by Jessica Polaniecki

Matatoro by Mauro Carraro

Excerpt from Rocks in My Pocket (Suicide) by Signe Baumane

Fluidtoons Part 2 by Brett W. Thompson

Thanks to all the filmmakers and friends who made it out.  Christina at 92Y invited us back anytime, so hopefully we will do this again soon.

Noelle