Sunday, February 7, 2010

ANNIE AWARD!!



WINNER OF THE 2010 ANNIE AWARD
FOR BEST ANIMATED COMMERCIAL


Congratulations to everyone at Acme Filmworks, Yuval & Merav Nathan, Linn Bjørnland, and the amazing crew of this spot!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Um animador americano no Brasil.

Yesterday's news story about Worms, a feature film I've been animating on in Brazil:

From here.

Here's the teaser trailer. This was made before I came to the studio, but it gives you a sense of the movie's aesthetic:


Where I've been going to work each day:


Can't say too much else about this one right now, but there's a ton of talented people working on this very exciting project.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Yamasong: Cloudy with a Chance of Awesome

Working on a couple of big things right now that I'm not ready to discuss quite yet. But in the meantime, I'll do a little catch-up.

This is a fun project I worked on back in December. My friend Sam Hale is directing a short film/music video called "Yamasong" based on the music of the group On Ensemble. The film uses some beautifully hand-crafted rod puppets.

Heather Henson is producing and the film should start showing up at festivals (including her Handmade Puppet Dreams Festival) in the first half of this year.

Here are two links of some behind the scenes stuff for Yamasong's puppetry:
Link 1
Link 2

Now, you might be asking, "Pete, how are you involved with a film that seems to be all rod puppets?" Well, here's where Cloudy comes in. Cloudy is a Miyazaki-inspired floating cloud character that accompanies the heroes on their journey. He also happens to be the one stop motion animated character in the film.

Cloudy was designed by Jesse Gregg, armature by Greg Sesma, and foam buildup & finishing by Sam. I animated Cloudy in my garage and had a lot of fun doing it.


(Note the insulated animating gloves and full beard. It gets cold in the garage in December!*)

The rough cut of Sam's film looks incredible. Can't wait to see it finished and on the big screen!



*Unlike where I'm animating right now.