Demo Reel Review

Erica Pinto-  Her characters have nice, fluid movement. They sound effects and voices perfectly match the characters. However, she only showed her ability to animate cartoony animals, I would have liked to see her show more humans.

Dia de Los Muertos by Whoo Kazoo- This award wining animation is outstanding. The story is not hard to follow at all. Very straightforward. There aren’t any voices. Instead everything is told by action. The animation is solid, nothing seems off. The creator does a good job at giving his characters life, specifically the skeletons.

Origamy by Joanne Smithies, Eric De Melo Bueno, Michael Moreno, and Hugo Bailly- This animation is pretty good, and the design of the origami creatures are nice. It's also very atmospheric, utilizing the light of the paper creatures to signify balance and focus, while the black ink-like material signifies imbalance and lack of focus. The boy is a simple character, but, one who is made relatable, because he goes through something that we all do: impatience and lack of focus. His character arc is, naturally, to go through this surreal, dreamlike state, keeping his eye on the light, and focus on the task at hand, while avoiding the darkness, which signifies his own impatience and lack of focus. In the end, he learns to keep focused, not by ignoring the darkness completely, but, keeping it in perspective, and using the light to be his guide. While the animation could definitely be better and character design changed to fit the person better, the overall portrayal of the boy’s struggle was easy to follow.

Paranoia by 4 students for Thakur-Toonskool Advanced Animation Academy- The animation style for this demo is interesting. The students use both 2D and 3D. The animation is great, and facial expression/movement is 100% appropriate for the tone. It’s a very intense story that does not allow you to turn away, instead you are immersed into this story. At times you feel like you are the character. The animation end in a cliffhanger and you can’t help but want to find out. In real life, we often come across people we find suspicious and become a little paranoid. Certainly, we can relate to this guy. Despite being good at building tension, but there's no payoff. It doesn’t end as much as it just stops. I wish the creators had chosen a different way to end it.

R'ha by Kaleb Lechowski- In the realm of student animation, human interaction is very common. In this animation, we are taken to this sci fi world. It takes place in a futuristic world where a member of the R'Ha race is held accountable for defending his planets against an oncoming threat. Being a CGI short, it is definitely mind blowing, this almost seems like a movie trailer for an actual film. The protagonist’s animation is jinky at times, however, especially after it escapes. The story has an interesting, but predictable, twist. It seems the creator focused on plot and visual representation and gave very little time to character development. I would say in terms of visual effects, it’s successful for the most part. In terms of plot and character development, it’s not very successful.

The Origin of Creatures by Floris Kaayk- This creepy animated short film is made by the filmmaker, and visual artist Floris Kaayk. This futuristic vision of a post-apocalyptic world has very interesting visuals. We see mutated limbs apparently trying to communicate to build something. It starts of with one, but soon more of these creatures join. The CGI is great, it has lots of atmosphere and the movement is appropriate. However, it’s easy to get lost. It seems like there isn’t much plot, just the same repetitive limbs climbing, walking, building and oddly communicating. The category that this falls in is truthfully up to the one who perceives it, though it is a beautiful and delicate render of whatever it is trying to capture or portray. I was left unamused and unentertained by the end. I had no idea what was going on. Apparently it is based on one of the most well-known tales about collaboration, the Tower of Babel. This tale is transformed and twisted and is set in an imaginary future, after the world is hit by a catastrophe. Human bodies are divided into separated parts of the body and are fused to special beings. Together, these creatures form a colony, they can only survive when collaborating. In the rubble of destroyed buildings they are trying to build a nest as large and as high as possible, so that the colony's queen gets enough sunlight to reproduce. Most of the viewers wouldn’t have known this and instead would have thought this was only supposed to show off the animator’s render and animating abilities. As far as plot and character development goes, it’s dull.

On board by ESMA- This was made by five animators. Great animation, but the plot seemed unsuccessful. There was too much character and less plot. I kept asking myself who the people with the weird eyes were. The story didn’t answer that. I had to find out AFTER I watched it. It turns out they’re dead people. It was a custom to put coins in the eyes of the dead so they could pay the shipman for the ride to cross the styx in Greek mythology. It seemed to be going to be more mysterious due to the other-worldly landscape, like perhaps the shipman was escorting the dead to Hades, and the reason why he kept rejecting the monk was because it was not his destiny. By the end the shipman gives in and lets the monk on board to realize in the end that he has gone to hell. Character animation and design was good and detailed. As good as it was, the monk seemed to have more energy than he should have when you look at his physical appearance. His energy and personality were not likable, instead he came off as annoying.