Saturday Morning Cartoons/Breakfast Danish
March 3, 2012 3:00 AM   Subscribe

The Story of Animation is a tongue-in-cheek educational film about the process of animation, aimed primarily at potential animation clients who are more clueless than most about how these toons get made (and how long it's gonna take and how much it's gonna cost). Made by-and-for graduates of the The Animation Workshop, an animation school in Viborg, Denmark, which has posted A LOT of impressive student works on YouTube...

(2012)
LOAD, set in a weird dystopian world where the protagonist is covered in armor made of post-it notes?
Ride of Passage, a whimsical adventure of a young primitive hunter on his first expedition and the help he gets from a surprising source
Slug Invasion, a military-themed depiction of the eternal battle between gardener and pest
Vaesen, a classically styled (and semi-NSFW) tale of a son's quest to do right by his father
Wing, a dark-ish fantasy that asks and answers the question "what is the sound of one wing flapping?"
and the previously posted '80s toon homage/satire Space Stallions!!!

(2011)
Backwater Gospel, a stark, gory (NSFW) fable about a grim preacher, an irreverent minstrel and a harbinger of death that seems to be taking a holiday
Captain Awesome, a stylish silver-age superhero spoof with potty humor
The Flap Crashers, a brightly-colored tale of adolescent birds and regaining your confidence
Mighty Antlers, a vivid and violent (NSFW) depiction of the revenge of nature (or supernature?)
The Saga of Biorn, an aging Viking's slapstick battles plus a 'heavenly' twist ending
Salma, a stark black-and-white-and-blood-red short about loss and cluster bombs
Vegeterrible, with veggies acting like animals and one eggplant gone very bad

(2010)
Dinorider, one angry kid's dinosaur-enabled punk-rock revenge fantasy
Elk Hair Caddis, a daddy frog escaping his hundreds of tadpole kids collides with a bear gone fishing and wild 3D slapstick ensues
The Fox Sisters, semi-abstract design used to depict the true story of a family of fake spiritualists
Last Fall, a father's devotion to his child brings him to an Anime/Steampunk Hell
The Lumberjack, in which a traditional tree-cutter faces new foresting technologies and their consequences
Out of a Forest, a stop-motion fantasy with plush animals and real landscapes
Teddy's Boy, kind of like Calvin & Hobbes, if Hobbes were a homicidally evil bear
Trainbombing, the 'colorful' adventure of a stereotypical graffiti tagger
Stop Motherfucker, a very NSFW wild ride with Martian hot rods to the planet's Last Gas Station
They Came from Beyond the Sun, in which two aliens come to earth to play

(earlier)
Alpha, the CGI story of a chimpanzee astronaut
Bertram, a little boy's daydreams about what he wants to be when he grows up
Dharma Dreameater, a storybook-styled folk tale of a little witch and her vacuum cleaner
Draw Poker, a game of cards turns into a surreal retro-modern bloodbath
Fishing With Spinoza, two fuzzy friends fishing, chatting and having more adventure than they intended
Girl and Robot, the steam-powered CGI story of an impatient robot builder and her iron giant
HUM, a B&W CGI piece about a little robot's special project
Katrine, an exercise in simple lines and words
Leit Motif, in which an old jazz man tries to find a new way to get his old band back together
Lost in the Forest, a dark kids' tale of bullying and payback
Paux de Trois, a woman animator's depiction of a non-typically-shaped dancer's battle with her body parts
Pig Me, a little pig escapes the slaughterhouse and tries to sell himself as a pet
Roadkill, the sketchily-drawn tale of a squished, but NOT dead, frog
Sheep, in which one well-armed sheep strikes back against a big bad wolf
What the Time Is, a moment of zen forced upon a couple frenetic toons
posted by oneswellfoop (13 comments total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
 
They missed out the part when the script goes back and forth twenty times for approval and has to be redrafted each time. Then the part when the animatic goes back and forth twenty times for approval. Then the part when the company top dogs watch the finished product and decide that at some point during the six months it took to make it, they’ve changed their minds about using animation and would like a crowdsourced web 2.0 social smartphone user-generated synergy app network instead. Also, one of them was reading an article about QR codes and doesn’t know what they are, but would like to include them as well.

At that point, the animator makes sure they get paid, puts the short online and starts the whole process again.
posted by him at 4:23 AM on March 3, 2012 [3 favorites]


But that film is "aimed primarily at potential animation clients", so it intentionally avoids telling them that they can do that!
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:30 AM on March 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


This is a very good point. Let’s keep that quiet.
posted by him at 4:37 AM on March 3, 2012


I know it’s incredibly juvenile of me to find that Captain Awesome short so funny, but, well, here we are.
posted by him at 4:47 AM on March 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Draw a nice picture, yes you. Now, later today draw twenty three more very nicely composed/shaded pictures. Now do that every day for two months. You now have one single minute of animation.

I love animators, but they are totally insane!!
posted by sammyo at 5:22 AM on March 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Draw a nice picture, yes you. Now, later today draw twenty three more very nicely composed/shaded pictures. Now do that every day for two months.

This is why they breed inbetweeners.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:55 AM on March 3, 2012


They missed the part where the studio executive "auditions" the artists with "board tests," making them do storyboards for free that would be worth a week's pay. If you get hired (and there is less need for paid animators, since they can con them into doing part of the work for free) then you're expected to work a minimum of 45 hours a week with no compensation for overtime, in fact, often times you get no pay for anything over 40 hours, you're expected to work for free after that. If you won't do it, they'll find someone who will, you'll never work in this town again. Then you work yourself into a heart attack, and you have no health insurance because you're an independent contractor. But don't worry, you'll have lots of time to recuperate between jobs, since there are so many people trying to get the few good jobs, you'll spend lots of time off. But you'll have to keep at it, and work until you die, because there's no pension plan for independent contractors, you'll have to join a union and buy your own.

I'd like to see an animated film about that.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:18 AM on March 3, 2012 [3 favorites]


Oh my god these are awesome. Thank you so much for posting this. I want Dreamworks to do a full-length version of Backwater Gospel.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 7:27 AM on March 3, 2012


Captain Awesome , a stylish silver-age superhero spoof with potty humor

Quite literally.
posted by ShutterBun at 7:55 AM on March 3, 2012


Oh, I see some of you have worked in the industry then.

Definitely some nice stuff from these students!
posted by egypturnash at 12:27 PM on March 3, 2012


This is why they breed inbetweeners.

...ensuring that the most difficult work is done by less-well-paid garden-variety inferiors.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 1:02 PM on March 3, 2012


I think it was Bill Peet who got hired at Disney doing 'tweens for some of the Donald shorts. The words he quit with were, "NO MORE FUCKING DUCKS!" Which, yeah.
posted by Trochanter at 3:47 PM on March 3, 2012


thanks, oneswellfoop - I almost missed this post, so glad I found it... thanks for the great compilation.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:33 PM on March 4, 2012


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