My brother and his wife requested me to create a ring pillow for their wedding.
They’ve also asked us if they ccould become background characters in the upcoming film.
So that was the wedding gift for them. Baby seal ring pillow and citizenship in an animated film.

A little while back, we did the animation production for our talented friends at
Labour on six 15 second Travelodge spots.
It was refreshing to work with such clean, graphic designs and the score by
Antfood is dynamite.
Direction: Labour, Animation Production: Tiny Inventions, Sound: Antfood, Agency: Berlin Cameron
Here are three of the six:

In the previous post, Teresa asked me some questions and I decided to turn the answer into a blog post. Thank you Teresa!

Q: what do you think or know is the reason why the japaneses (I don’t know if other places as well) have that obsession, or tendency, to do this craft work of small pieces, like small animals designs on drawings, anime, stuffed plushies, etc…

A:Japanese culture is based on a religion called Shinto, which people believe that every object has a little god living inside, even a grain of rice. So for example, if there is an umbrella left alone at a school, people will humanize the umbrella and empathize that it was left alone.
It is natural to treat an object as a living creature in Japanese culture.
Director Miyazaki from Ghibli studio says “good morning” as he opens all the windows in his studio in the morning. Because there are spirits living everywhere…!

There is something called “netsuke” which are miniature sculptures used as counterweights for objects suspended from a man’s sash from 17-19th centuries. (It’s like a keychain for a man-purse) They are miniature figures (often figures and animals) that is crafted beautifully out of stone or wood. People have always carried a small figurine as protection and I am sure that love for small objects is rooted in that belief.

This is totally a functional and logical answer, but Japan is a very small country and houses are very small. I was always surprised how American toys are so big and can be spread out. But none of those toys could have been popular in japan because nobody has the space. Hence little objects are popular.

To sum up the answer, it’s the combination of culture / religion and practical space.

Q:There were bad things on their history, wars and so on, so I think it probably comes from there, as some sort of way to express some feelings that were left behind during those times…

A: It’s obvious that there was a huge influence from wars especially World War II.
It is hard to ignore what happened and it was an extremely traumatizing experience as a country. However, there are many countries that have gone through multiple wars as well but do not have the same sensibility as Japanese culture. So again, I think it’s way deeper than just events from the 20th century but the history of cuteness and miniature craftsmanship will go back for many centuries.

Q:I also have known japanese families to be really strict, very good and wise people but they kind of have their sensitivity blocked, (that probably does come from all the wars and hard life they went through)so when I see this small cute crafting I think of that: a way to express sensitivity or feelings

A: When it comes to expressing their emotions, Japanese people tend to hold within. You’re not supposed to show your emotions.
It’s does not come from a negative influence but that attitude has been the culture for centuries. There are many sayings that you shouldn’t whine but just do it. Talking and expressing your feelings have never been considered to be the beauty. People who are disciplined, quite and calm who acted without announcing their motives have always been valued both for men and women.
So as you mentioned, art forms (writing, drawing, music… etc) are one of the ways to freely express your feelings without being conscious of behaving correctly.

“You must watch Fantastic Mr. Fox, you’ll LOVE it”
This is the line I heard from many people and for some stupid reasons, it took me a long time to actually go check see the movie.
Well, I finally did last weekend and I LOVE IT!
My friends were right! It is the best film in the past 10 years for sure!
I can’t stop thinking about how fun and inspiring that film is.
The pan of Mr. & Mrs. Fox taking a short cut blew my mind. What a blend of dialogue, music, action and fun. My favorite is Kyle the Possum and how charming he is. (How can you not love him?)
I love how his eyes swirl but he will still give a sign to Mr. Fox.
My favorite moment was at the very end, when the gang is dancing in the super market, Kyle is just sliding left to right. You can only do this in stop motion, if this was done in CG, the audience will take it as a mistake.
I had not seen any animated film that really took advantage of animation so much.
It cheated a lot by not showing their feet in walk cycles! I had not seen that in feature films for so long that it was almost refreshing. The techique was so retro that everything seemed unique and different.
What a genius film…..the writing was extremely funny, animation was beautiful and the sets are AMAZING! Amount of details that went into those sets is hard to imagine but every little effort was worth it.

Nina Frenkel & Ru Kuwahata presented “A Survey of Comtenporary Women Animators” for Women In Animation meeting on 5/28.
This is a list of animators and their animations that we talked about.

***Independent Animators***

-Laura Heit
“Look For Me”

-Eun-Ha Paek
“Hunger Like A Wolf”

“Music Video for Alain Mpela’s Vigilance tous Azimuts”
(You can watch under Eun-Ha’s website)

-Martha Colburn

“Myth Labs”
(You can watch parts of her films and interesting “the making of” at her website.)

-Signe Baumane

“Birth”

-Nina Paley

“Sita Sings The Blues”

***Commercial Animators***

-Norma Toraya aka Crankbunny
“Handmade” for Etsy

“Thought Bubble” for United Airlines
(you can watch under Crankbunny’s website)

-Gaelle Denis
“City Paradise”

“Open Science” for Dupont

“Two Worlds” for United Airlines

-Johanne Ste-marie aka Fluorescent Hill
“Try Telling That To My Baby” for The Heavy Blinkers

“Myriad Harbour” for The New Pornographers

***Student Animation***

-Corrie Francis

“Tracks”
“Conversing with Aotearoa”

-Nicole Mitchell
“Zoologic”

-Lizzie Marks
“A Few Of My Favorite Things”

You can also view other students animations done at Parsons Pre-College Academy Summer Intensive course. Enjoy and thank you for coming to our presentation!

“Davy Crockett in Outer Space” won 2nd place in Sponsor’s category! Hooray.
The certificate is amazing this year.
(Designed by Will Krause.)
Thank you for those who voted for our film, and it is very nice to be recognized for what we do.
My personal favorite was “Q&A” by Rauch Brothers.
It won the best of the festival and it totally deserves it.
The story is charming and characters are animated so beautifully.
Congratulations to everybody who won!