Animation

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Animation

A Mysterious Presence in the Forest Grapples with Change in Guldies’s Stop-Motion Animation ‘MITOSIS’

In his latest stop-motion animation, Alexander Unger, who works as Guldies (previously), presents an idiosyncratic tale set in a nighttime forest. “MITOSIS” follows the transformation of a pine cone into an anthropomorphized log, which in turn morphs into timber, crates, and an idyllic cabin in the woods. Yet an eccentric presence lurks amongst the trees that, frustrated by the changes, confronts their new neighbor and inadvertently prompt the entire cycle to begin again.

“MITOSIS” takes inspiration from the biological process by which a cell produces two identical nuclei in preparation for cell division. It took Unger one year to complete the work, which incorporates 4,425 individual photos. Find more of Guldies’s work on Instagram and YouTube.

 

Animation Art Illustration

Everyday Objects Swirl in the Dizzying Choreography of Alain Biet’s Elaborate Animation

Items you might find on a shelf in the garage or packed away in the basement—like wrenches, your old MP3 player, key fobs, or spare light bulbs—become stars in their own right in Alain Biet’s mesmerizing animation. “Grands Canons,” which translates from French to “Big Guns,” opens with a close-up of the artist drafting a realistic, green pencil in watercolor. Once the rendering is complete, we meet another pencil, and another, as a “visual symphony” of thousands of precise drawings unfolds.

Biet’s intricately detailed illustrations highlight everyday objects we might find in a junk drawer, a closet, or even destined for the trash, emphasizing a variety of styles and how items have evolved over time. His survey of technology and tools stokes a tinge of nostalgia, too. Remember that old Discman, SLR camera, or Nokia brick? The gang’s all here in a dizzyingly choreographed sequence, accompanied by an original score that responds to the rhythms and movements of the drawings as they skitter and whirl across the surface.

Find more of the artist’s work his website and Instagram.

 

Animation Craft Design

An Adorable Hand-Crafted Totoro Collection Celebrates the Studio Ghibli Icon

The iconic round-bellied Totoro of Studio Ghibli’s (previously) My Neighbor Totoro stars as part of a broad array of new collectible ephemera paying homage to the anime icon. Created by teams of craftspeople connected to Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, the series translates the fluffy, two-dimensional character into adorable wooden sculptures made of camphor, the tree Totoro occupies in the film. Paired with textiles, ceramic works, and paper boxes all featuring the character, the collection follows the highly anticipated opening of Ghibli Park late last year, giving fans of Hayao Miyazaki another opportunity to enjoy his beloved animations.

The Totoro objects will be available through a lottery opening on March 1—find details on how to join on the Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten site. Watch the video below  and visit Spoon & Tamago for more insight into the process behind the collection and an upcoming opportunity to view a live demonstration.

 

Animation Art

Mesmerizing Paper Sculptures and Animations by Zai Divecha Convey the Subtlety of Change

In Phase Shift, San Francisco-based artist Zai Divecha (previously) translates the illusion of movement to monochromatic paper works. Her solo show, which runs from February 25 to March 25 at Heron Arts, features animations and sculptures that reference early stop-motion devices like zoetropes and phenakistoscopes. Both rely on sequential formations to imply progression, a technique the artist utilizes in her analog pieces that convey gradual changes.

Divecha is known for her singular use of white paper, which draws the viewer’s eye toward the texture, dimension, and depth of her works and the way they capture light and shadow. Mounted on flat planes, the pieces consider that “what we might see as static is actually changing incrementally over time.”

For more of Divecha’s multi-disciplinary works, visit her site and Instagram.

 

Animation

João Gonzalez’s Animated Short ‘Ice Merchants’ Follows a Cliff-Jumping Father and Son

A frigid and precarious tale, the beautifully animated short film “Ice Merchants” by João Gonzalez follows a father and son as they harvest and sell ice. The pair live on a cliff-side home and dive from their balcony each day, allowing their parachutes to deliver them and their product safely to the village market below. When temperatures rise, though, the ropes that tether their house to the mountain begin to fray.

Gonzalez, who also performed and composed the accompanying soundtrack, created “Ice Merchants” in a minimal, illustrated style similar to his award-winning “Nestor” and “The Voyagers.” He shares about the film: “Something that has always fascinated me about animation cinema is the freedom it offers us to create something from scratch. Surrealistic and bizarre scenarios and realities can be used as a metaphorical tool to talk about something that is common to us in our more ‘real’ reality.”

The full film was recently released on The New Yorker’s YouTube, and you can follow the Portuguese director on Instagram to stay up-to-date with future projects.

 

Animation Art Science

‘aBiogenesis’ Reimagines the Primordial Soup Theory in a Mesmerizing Animation by Markos Kay

In an ethereal animation by London-based CGI artist Markos Kay, a mysterious world is in the process of forming. “aBiogenesis” reimagines the origin of life in a mesmerizing rendering of the lipid world hypothesis—a theory suggesting that the first self-replicating, cell-like objects were composed of a kind of fatty acid that could not dissolve in water. The hypothesis postulates that lipids may have formed into generative bilayers in the oceans. “These bilayers would have acted like tiny bubbles or bags, enclosing and protecting the chemical reactions that would eventually give rise to life,” he says.

Kay has focused on the intersection of art and science in his practice, utilizing digital tools to visualize biological or primordial phenomena. “aBiogenesis” focuses a microscopic lens on imagined protocells, vesicles, and primordial foam that twists and oscillates in various forms.

The artist has prints available for sale in his shop, and you can find more work on his website and Behance.