'Space Stallions' from The Animation Workshop

This was first posted in the AN Forums two days ago. Check out this great video produced by students at The Animation Workshop in Copenhagen. It's a Bachelor film project for 2012, in the spirit of a 1980s action adventure cartoon.

As darkness is covering the multiverse, far away in the galaxy of the wild stallion, a spark of hope is born. Guided by the light of Mother Mustang, the Space Stallions must defeat the Demon of darkness, Destructo.

Credits include: Thorvaldur S. Gunnarsson, Jonatan Brüsch, Ágúst Kristinsson, Arna Snæbjørnsdottir, Esben J. Jespersen, Touraj Khosravi and Polina Bokhan

Composers :Friðfinnur Oculus Sigurðsson

Space Stallions has a Facebook site and you can also download the music here. Click this link to access the Forum topic

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New Character Rigs at AnimationMentor

A few months ago during one of my frequent trips to DreamWorks, I had the opportunity to talk to someone involved with recruiting new talent to the studio. I asked, from which school do you hire most of your animators from? They replied that of the last ten animators the studio hired, seven of them came from AnimationMentor. I don't know what the stats are now, but from what I learned that day and from what I see of the talent that this online school is developing, it's no surprise how much of an impact they're making on the production side of the animation industry.

AnimationMentor is a member of the AN Forums, and they've just announced a new and exciting development. They have 10 new character rigs available for students to work with in their animation program. Take a look here. Plus, they're waiving their $175 registration fee for new student enrollment for the upcoming Spring 2012 Semester. To take advantage of the offer, you'll need to sign up by February 12. For more details, follow this link and read what AnimationMentor has posted.

Joel Furtado's 'Zelda' trailer

Hard to believe this doesn't originate from a production company. It's a fan inspired animated trailer for "Zelda:The Lost Oracle", and it is very impressive. The artist is a fellow by the name of Joel Furtado with Cam Wiest handling the sound. The video went online on YouTube just four days ago and already has 584,755 views as of this writing. Amazing what individuals and small teams can do in animation nowadays. Take a look...

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Kyle Baker discusses the future

Or perhaps a better way of putting it, discusses what's happening now and what's available to artists everywhere thanks to the Internet and technologies that make it possible for us to compete and prosper independently. The topic is courtesy of long time ANer Greg Boone. In the video, Kyle Baker, a multiple award winning comic book artist, muses on his professional experiences and his plans to adapt to the brave new era we're living in. There's an interesting discussion developing in the Forum topic. Meanwhile, take a look and give an ear at what Mr. Baker has to say. 

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Yarim Machado's Demo Reel 2012

It's always a pleasure to feature the work of our members on AN's homepage. In this case, it's the second time we're spotlighting Yarim Machado, an animator in Puerto Rico. He was the subject of attention on September 16 of last year. Click here to see the previous entry and his 2011 demo reel. Recently, Yarim brought his latest demo reel to the AN Gallery. A nice sampling of sophisticated dialogue driven character animation. Click this link to see the original topic on the Forums. Here's a look at Yarim posted...

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'The Lorax' coming March 2, 2012

There's a new trailer out for the upcoming animated feature "The Lorax" that Hans Christian Jehger (hcjehg on the Forums) of HoBSoft brought to our attention. He also provides additional info about recent develops concerning the studio in Paris that's doing the production work on the movie, Illumination Mac Guff.

The Lorax is an adaptation of the classic tale by Dr. Seuss. It's the third feature created by Universal Pictures and Illumination following "Despicable Me" and "Hop". For a look at some graphics from the movie follow this link. Here's the trailer to enjoy...

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'The Secret World of Arrietty' - February 17, 2012

From the legendary Studio Ghibli comes "The Secret World of Arrietty", an animated adventure based on Mary Norton's acclaimed children's book series "The Borrowers". Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and written by Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. Cast includes Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, David Henrie, Carol Burnett and Saoirse Ronan.

Coming to theaters on February 17th, 2012 courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures. Here's the Forum topic, and here's the official trailer...

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Oscar Nomination for 'Chico & Rita'

We're more than excited to report that "Chico & Rita" has been nominated for Best Animated Feature for the upcoming 2011 Academy Awards!

This is a traditionally animated film that's been promoted on AN since we got wind of it, thanks to one of our members Hans Christian Jehger who goes by hcjehg on the Forums. Hans is affiliated with HoBSoft, the production system used to create Chico and Rita. Here's the Forum topic he started when he brought the good news about the film's nomination to our attention. I thought I'd include the following video for the homepage entry honoring this terrific development. It's the official announcement of the major Oscar nominees. You can catch the Animated Feature category at 3:30 of the timeline. I've also included the trailer for the film.

A complete list of all the animation category nominees can be found here, including Shorts and Visual Effects.

Congratulations to all the nominees from everyone at AnimationNation!

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The 2012 Demo Reel of Snakebite Cortez

Brilliant, bold, boisterous, brave, and beautiful. That's the 'Bite. Snakebite that is. He's been with us since the earliest days of the AnimationNation Movement. In fact, I met him on April 1, 1999 at The Great Alliance - the very first industry get together we organized in an effort to unify the artists of the Los Angeles animation industry / community. Ever since we've been closest of friends and brothers in arms.

Snakebite walks the talk. Staunchly independent, his professional life is based upon the principles he embraces. Cooperation, self reliance, creative strength, the light of truth. He is an outstanding talent, one of the pioneer digital colorization artists in the comic book industry. He's worked in animation on award winning shows and cutting edge productions. Currently he is proprietor and partner at Petra Gallerie, an avaunt-gard art experience in Beverly Hills, California. A great artist and a genius at Photoshop, here's a look  at his personal website and his latest demo reel below. The Forum topic can be found here.  

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