Animation: Pinocchio Marionette Animation by Frank Thomas

A few days ago, I decided to relive my childhood by watching a Disney classic. It was Pinocchio, the wooden puppet. Knowing a bit more of animation nowadays, I  have watched it from a animators POV. And I can say I was fascinated by the animation in there.  in particular, this scene animated by the legendary animator Frank Thomas.

Frank Thomas animated Pinocchio in his first appearance as a wooden puppet which was alive, and I was amazed by the how he did this piece of animation. On the "Making of Pinocchio", he mentioned that he could  not use any real live action footage to aid him on the animation as it would be really difficult to find, so everything had to come from his head.  

I dont know how he did it but the movements, weight and material are so believable , making us think that he is really just a wooden marionette.  

A beautiful piece of animation I would like to share!

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Inka Bola, 2009, Gobelins l'Ecole de l'Image Graduated Students 2009

While browsing the internet the other day I found this short animation from the famous Gobelins College in France, although a big fun of their students animation, watching most of them until now for some inspiration, I was completely unfamiliar to this one. It belongs to the 2009 Gobelins L'Ecole de l'Image students work, and it was produced by a group of students for they final year. 

Inka Bola is a short animation directed and produced by Mélody Cisinski, Jacques Jarczyk, Vincent Garcia, Floriane Marchix, Gwénolé Oul' Chen, Patrick Pujalte, a group of students already graduated from the famous college of image and animation. This short animation features a lazy Aztec guard and a cheeky little prince, who begins by throwing fruits at the guard. when he had enough the guard takes away the fruit, however a buzzard kidnaps the little one. And there it begins a funny and painful pursuit to get the baby back. Ending in a dark humorous funny way.  

What really caught my attention in this animation, was the art direction with really effective characters completed with associated olours but also the animation, where the principles of animation are applied perfectly, where it is visible a lot of squash and stretch, staging and timing, but also the way it is edited. 

A simple storytelling where the animation speaks for itself. 

Enjoy!

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Simon's Cat in 'Santa Claws'

To start this festive period I decided to post an animation from Simon Tofield. Simon Tofield is a British Animator, who does the Simon's Cat 2D short Animations that can be found on his Youtube Channel.
I firstly found these series while browsing Youtube for something else. However, I was drawn to them, because the 2D animation it is so effective, it seems so real and often I find me and my girlfriend associating the movements of the cartoon to of a real cat and laughing, because they are depicted perfectly. The series are based on the life of a Cat ( Simon's Cat) and his owner ( supposedly Simon), the short animations takes into the funny adventures of the cat who seems to have always strong appetite.

So once again to mark the commence of the Christmas Period here is the Christmas Special 'Santa Claws'.

Hope you like it ! and a Merry Christmas!!




Simon's Cat Website: www.simonscat.com
Simon's Cat Youtube Channel

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