EuAnimationNews

2010 Oscar nominations are Up.

2010-02-03T08:51:00.003+01:00

The Oscar nominations awards have been released today. All the nominees from best animation short film are European: French roast (France) , Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Ireland), The Lady and the Reaper (Spain), Logorama, (France) and A matter of Loaf and Death (England).

Europe Animation has also been present in the Best Animation Film category with The Secret of Kells (Ireland). Cartoon Saloon, founded in 1999 by Paul Young and Tom Moore, is the company behind this film and is currently developing three new projects: Song of the Sea, Skunk Fu! The Movie and Bluebeard, according to its website. The rest of nominees for this category are: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up which is also been nominated for best film, best writing, best sound mixing and best music with Fantastic Mr. Fox competing for the same award.

Avatar counts with nine nominations, including best film and best director. This is the first year since 1943 that the best film category has 10 nominees instead of the usual five. “After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said AMPAS president Sid Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same—one Best Picture winner—but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

Full nominations listed below:

Best Picture
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), A Lightstorm Entertainment Production, James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• The Blind Side (Warner Bros.), An Alcon Entertainment Production, Nominees to be determined
• District 9 (Sony Pictures Releasing), A Block/Hanson Production, Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• An Education (Sony Pictures Classics), A Finola Dwyer/Wildgaze Films Production, Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), A Voltage Pictures Production, Nominees to be determined
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), A Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg Production, Lawrence Bender, Producer
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate), A Lee Daniels Entertainment/Smokewood Entertainment Production, Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• A Serious Man (Focus Features), A Working Title Films Production, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• Up (Walt Disney), A Pixar Production, Jonas Rivera, Producer
• Up in the Air (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios), A Montecito Picture Company Production, Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
Best Leading Actor
• Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight)
• George Clooney in Up in the Air (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Colin Firth in A Single Man (The Weinstein Company)
• Morgan Freeman in Invictus (Warner Bros.)
• Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)
Best Leading Actress
• Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (Warner Bros.)
• Helen Mirren in The Last Station (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Carey Mulligan in An Education (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate)
• Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Best Supporting Actor
• Matt Damon in Invictus (Warner Bros.)
• Woody Harrelson in The Messenger (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
• Christopher Plummer in The Last Station (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones (DreamWorks in association with Film4, Distributed by Paramount)
• Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company)
Best Supporting Actress
• Penélope Cruz in Nine (The Weinstein Company)
• Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight)
• Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate)
Best Director
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), James Cameron
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Kathryn Bigelow
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), Quentin Tarantino
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate), Lee Daniels
• Up in the Air (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios), Jason Reitman
Best Animated Film
• Coraline (Focus Features), Henry Selick
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (20th Century Fox), Wes Anderson
• The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney), John Musker and Ron Clements
• The Secret of Kells (GKIDS), Tomm Moore
• Up (Walt Disney), Pete Docter
Best Documentary Feature
• Burma VJ (Oscilloscope Laboratories), A Magic Hour Films Production, Anders østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• The Cove (Roadside Attractions), An Oceanic Preservation Society Production, Nominees to be determined
• Food, Inc. (Magnolia Pictures), A Robert Kenner Films Production, Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, A Kovno Communications Production, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• Which Way Home, A Mr. Mudd Production, Rebecca Cammisa
Best Foreign Language Film
• Ajami (Kino International), An Inosan Production, Israel
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haddock Films Production, Argentina
• The Milk of Sorrow, A Wanda Visión/Oberon Cinematogrà/Vela Production, Peru
• Un Prophète (Sony Pictures Classics), A Why Not/Page 114/Chic Films Production, France
• The White Ribbon (Sony Pictures Classics), An X Filme Creative Pool/Wega Film/Les Films du Losange/Lucky Red Production, Germany
Best Original screenplay
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Written by Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), Written by Quentin Tarantino
• The Messenger (Oscilloscope Laboratories), Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• A Serious Man (Focus Features), Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• Up (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy
Best Adapted screenplay
• District 9 (Sony Pictures Releasing), Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• An Education (Sony Pictures Classics), Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• In the Loop (IFC Films), Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate), Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• Up in the Air (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) , Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
Best Original score
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (20th Century Fox), Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros.), Hans Zimmer
• Up (Walt Disney), Michael Giacchino
Best Original song
• Almost There from The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• Loin de Paname from Paris 36 (Sony Pictures Classics), Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas
• Take It All from Nine (The Weinstein Company), Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
• The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Best cinematography
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), Mauro Fiore
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.), Bruno Delbonnel
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Barry Ackroyd
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), Robert Richardson
• The White Ribbon (Sony Pictures Classics), Christian Berger
Best film editing
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• District 9 (Sony Pictures Releasing), Julian Clarke
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), Sally Menke
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lionsgate), Joe Klotz
Best art direction
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Sony Pictures Classics), Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro, Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• Nine (The Weinstein Company), Art Direction: John Myhre, Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood, Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• The Young Victoria (Apparition), Art Direction: Patrice Vermette, Set Decoration: Maggie Gray
Best visual effects
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• District 9 (Sony Pictures Releasing) , Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
• Star Trek (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton
Best costume design
• Bright Star (Apparition), Janet Patterson
• Coco before Chanel (Sony Pictures Classics), Catherine Leterrier
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Sony Pictures Classics), Monique Prudhomme
• Nine (The Weinstein Company), Colleen Atwood
• The Young Victoria (Apparition), Sandy Powell
Best makeup
• Il Divo (MPI Media Group through Music Box), Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• Star Trek (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• The Young Victoria (Apparition), Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore
Best sound mixing
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• Star Trek (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro, Distributed by Paramount), Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson
Best sound editing
• Avatar (20th Century Fox), Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment), Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company), Wylie Stateman
• Star Trek (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• Up (Walt Disney), Michael Silvers and Tom Myers
Best documentary short subject
• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan, Province, A Downtown Community Television Center Production, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, A Just Media Production, Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, A Community Media Production, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Music by Prudence, An iThemba Production, Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• Rabbit à la Berlin (Deckert Distribution), An MS Films Production, Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra
Best animated short film
• French Roast , A Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films Production, Fabrice O. Joubert
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Brown Bag Films), A Brown Bag Films Production, Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), A Kandor Graphics and Green Moon Production, Javier Recio Gracia
• Logorama (Autour de Minuit), An Autour de Minuit Production, Nicolas Schmerkin
• A Matter of Loaf and Death (Aardman Animations), An Aardman Animations Production, Nick Park
Best live action short film
• The Door (Network Ireland Television), An Octagon Films Production, Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
• Instead of Abracadabra, (The Swedish Film Institute), A Directörn & Fabrikörn Production, Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
• Kavi, A Gregg Helvey Production, Gregg Helvey
• Miracle Fish, (Premium Films), A Druid Films Production, Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
• The New Tenants, A Park Pictures and M & M Production, Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Goya´s nominations

2010-01-09T12:08:00.005+01:00

Today Javier Fesser, Paz Vega and Álex de la Iglesia have announced the nominations for the Goya´s awards on behalf of the “Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España (AACCE)” that will take place next 14th of February in the “Palacio de Congresos de Madrid”. The Goya is the Spanish main national film award.

The nominees for best animation film are: Animal Channel, Cher Ami, Pérez, el ratoncito de tus sueños 2 and Planet 51 (also nominated for best song with “Stick it to the Man”).

The nominees for best animation short film are: Alma, La dama y la muerte, Margarita and Tachaan.

This is the 24^th edition of the Goya´s films awards that gives recognition to the best Spanish films released until December of the previous year. The awards have 28 categories with four nominees each. The prize is a bust of Francisco de Goya.

The AACCE is also the organization that selects the Spanish film for the chance to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar’s award.

For the complete nomination’s list, click here.

PLANET 51: The results

2009-12-27T23:36:00.003+01:00

Planet 51 has made over 12 million dollars, according to the Box Office Mojo, during its opening weekend in the United States despite the fierce reviews that had received from most American critics. A month after of its release the total gross of the Box Office mounts to nearly 40 million dollars in the

Although these quantities are much smaller than the ones big

America

’s Studios titles achieve; it is, by far, the biggest Box Office result that any Spanish animation film has ever accomplished.

Previous articles on this website have explained how Ilion Animation Studios was created by Ignacio Perez Dolset in the believe that Directors: Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martínez and Javier Abad would be able to deliver a high quality film that would change world’s perception of the quality of animation done in Spain.

When Ignacio was asked about the reasons why he thinks the reviews have been so negative at Capital magazine he answered: “at the same time that Planet 51 was receiving bad reviews, American Studios were trying to recruit our people. When you are good, they want you to be a part of their system, and if you do not, they want you to keep being European. Keep doing your arty movies where there is not much dialogue, explore weird subjects or themes and release in twenty screens. This way the critics will be positive, because you are not a danger for their system. If you do not take any of those paths and decide to make cinema at their style and screening on thousand of screens, you are attacking the Impery´s heart. Imagine the consequences of attacking the animation industry only controlled by two companies: Pixar and DreamWorks.”

The production that has taken more than seven years to make and which development has cost 55 million Euros will be shown in 170 countries from many of which data has not been yet available and, in some territories, it has not been released yet. However, ticket sales it is not the only manner to gain revenue for Planet 51.

Businessmen, and brothers, Ignacio and Javier Perez Dolset (CEO of ZED group) have created with Planet 51 a franchise that has allowed them “develop other ways to create revenue, such as videogames and Internet and mobile games and applications. We believe that 60% of the takings will come from other digital channels and not for the tickets sales.” Javier told to Capital.

The two brothers assure that the movie has started making money since its release with the International rights and the licences it has covered the cost of the film and the cost for the marketing of the film has been absorbed by the distributors.

Ilion Animation Studios is developing its second project, which it is still undisclosed and plans to be a major factory for Spanish Animation.

Avatar: A step forward on computer generated films.

2009-12-23T23:51:00.004+01:00

Recently released Avatar is a good example of how our entertaining environment has evolved in the past decade. Exciting and ambitious project, even with the guarantee of “Cameron’s name” it took the Fox a huge financial gambling to realize “the current most expensive film ever made” as reported the CNN, which could turn “around the 300 million dollars” according to the box office-tracking Web site boxofficemojo.com.

12 years after the huge Titanic worldwide success, the public and the professionals of the 3D animation industry are expecting James Cameron to fulfill again the high expectations due to his name.

As stated by The Wired, if the movie is positively close to the public expectations, “Avatar will dissolve the boundary between audience and screen reality and illusion – and change the way we watch movies forever”

Cameron has challenged and revolutionized the technologies with a live action movie as “nearly 60% of the film is computer generated” according to the BBC. Avatar “was supposed to begin production in the summer of 1997 for a 1999 release.”, as published on St. Petersburg Times in 1996, but the movie was technologically too advanced at its time to be produced. According to James Dyer, editor in chief of Empire Digital speaking for the BBC:

"He wrote this to push digital boundaries so much so that when he went to people at Digital Domain and said I want to make this film they said it can't be done we can't convincingly bring this to the screen".

So after years of patience and determination Cameron told The Wired that he “managed to bring up the relevant technologies to make Avatar possible by making “ a lightweight, dual-lens, hi-def digital camera capable of shooting precisely calibrated 3D images that won’t give viewers a headache” which will allow the “”strobing” to be less noticeable” as reported by Variety.

In the pursue of innovative technology, Cameron and his collaborators created“"The Volume", a motion-capture stage six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. To achieve the latter, actors wore individually made skull caps with a tiny camera attached, located in front of the actors' faces, which collects information about their facial expressions and eyes, which is then transmitted to the computers.” This new technology is a step forward to save time, as The Business Week reported, “This technique eliminates hours in the makeup chair, and various other discomforts, for the actors”.

The final Cameron’s main innovation according to The Daily Mail is a “'virtual camera', a hand-held monitor that allowed him to move through a 3D terrain”.

Like he has describe in The New York Times “It’s like a big, powerful game engine”- “If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale. It’s pretty exciting”

Without any doubt Avatar has challenged all the different aspects of a moviemaking and with the new technologies, it brought the spectator to the 21rst cinema. The competition is fierce and every time, the filmmaker will have to adapt themselves quickly and efficiently to meet the public expectations. Weta Digital, based in New Zealand, has been in charge of the visual and character effects and for the construction of the digital environments of this film. Spanish David Caeiro, Mariano Blanc and Juan Antonio Ambles, amongst other cast, have been involved with the project.

Avatar comes to show how new technologies are at the service of story telling at its best. This movie could not be done ten years ago because of the need for the visual credibility of the characters and the surroundings. Many could say that the story is the main issue to take into account but film goers appreciate when technology goes that step forward to make them live an amazing experience.

James Giannopoulos, co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, predicts in an interview for CNN Entertainment that, over the years, audiences will simply come to expect 3D movies and that it will become the dominant form of film.

ALMA available online

2009-12-18T01:19:00.012+01:00

Alma, a short film written and directed by Spanish Pixar character animator Rodrigo Blaas, is available online. Alma tells the story of a curious little girl that discovers a toy shop with a doll dressed like her.

The short has been developed with great professionals. Among them: Spanish animator Daniel Peixe, character designer Carlos Grangel and Sergio Pablos, ArtDirector Alfonso Blaas, music composer Mastretta and sound designer Tom Myers

The short film has won the following awards.

Best animation short at LA Shorts Fest.
Best creation at Animacor (International Animation Festival in Spain)
Best Opera Prima at I Castelli Animati in Italy.
Best National Creation at Boca Del Lobo in Spain.
Special Mention at Fantastic Fest.
Jury Honorable Mention at Siggraph.
Best of Festival at Animazing in Los Angeles.

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

To visit Alma's short film site, click here.

The Interview: Pau's World

2009-12-14T00:36:00.003+01:00

I have interviewed Ignacio Meneu creator of Pau´s World, an animation series in the making, and he is going to take us trough the process of developing such a project. For more information go to: http://pau-world.over-blog.com/

- What is Pau's World?

Pau's world is a series of children's entertainment, full of humour, entertainment that tries to show everyday things that children learn, know and discover with amazement and with great enthusiasm.

Pau´s World is located in an imaginary space. Full of clean and relaxing colours. Pau´s World floor is fully covered by an immense carpet, soft, smooth and decorated with lots of pictures and objects that may have all kinds of functions.

The carpet forms rolling hills that give the impression of a landscape covered by colours and patterns.

On the carpet there are objects of all kinds; animals, foods, vehicles, musical instruments, etc.. All are stuffed with soft-touch appearance of different types of fabrics, with rounded and cuddly forms. Everything is very pleasing to the eye of a child. We avoid loud colours and aggressive forms.

In some parts there are different layers of quilted fabrics piled on one another, with flower shapes that can be deployed. These fabrics are sewn by one of its parts so that when they are lifted and put into vertical elements can be formed to help develop certain stories.

For example: when one of these quilted fabrics it’s lifted you can see a big letter: the "A". This can help to develop a series of gags and stories to help understand the “sign”, in this case, the letter.

Another example: on the carpet you can see a road that it is lost in infinity. Suddenly he hears a siren, is stuffed fire engine that stands in front of our protagonists, they rise and go with it. They go to rescue a kitten from a tree.

- What are the main characters?

Our main characters (Pau, Mister Bear, Alí and Voice) are very different in their outward appearance, but the way they act and behave is that of any three or four year-old child.

It all forms part of the unique dream world of Pau, the main character of the series.

The other most important character is the narrator’s voice which shall be known as “Voice”.

Pau is a 3 year-old girl. She has a happy countenance, big blue eyes, fair hair drawn backwards in a ponytail and a short, spotted pink dress.

It is the human character of the series and her imagination has created the world of fantasy where the series takes place.

Her dream world is mainly linked to her playing area, which is the reason why this world is based on her playing carpet, padded, soft and full of multicoloured images. When she plays, her world has no limits and her imagination can create all the fantasy displayed in each of the chapters.

Pau is accompanied by two inseparable friends: Mister Bear, a great teddy-bear, which is taller than Pau and also Alí, an incredible robot, much shorter than she is.

The narrator can be considered as another character and is known as “Voice”. Pau has a great respect for “Voice” and feels she is someone very wise and always knows all the answers.

Hand in hand with Mister Bear, Pau learns different concepts related with nature and our environment. This huge teddy-bear will teach her, for example, how to take care of plants or how to feed and take care of various animals. The robot Alí gives Pau the opportunity of learning about other cultures and societies. In its huge memory, Alí keeps a large quantity of knowledge. The robot increases the amount of fantasy in the series, helping to develop the imagination of Pau and, with her, that of all the children who will surely identify themselves soon with our characters. Alí’s ability to fly or show her new things are some of the features of this character which fascinate Pau.

Pau is a very restless and active girl, who loves to learn new things. She loves to laugh and have a good time. One of her main features is her infectious laughter. Both Alí and Mr. Bear can’t help themselves when their friend breaks out laughing.

Mr. Bear is very big and strong, with a quiet and simple air around him. He wears a checked tie that gives him a grown-up look. He also has a self-sealing tape on its back. He is the least smart of the three characters, but very crafty and helpful during the various adventures that take place. He is usually wrong, but he manages to learn, bit by bit, despite his mistakes.

Mr. Bear is very happy with everything he learns and is the first to try out any novelty that comes about. He is very impulsive and emotional.

He has a special relation with Pau, whom he considers his best friend and the cleverest person in the world.

With regards to Alí, they are two best friends who are constantly playing jokes on each other and are very aware of what the other is doing. Mr. Bear is constantly awed by the various props which Alí can display, but what he really admires is Alí’s ability to fly. Mr. Bear wishes he could do that himself.

Alí is the youngest of the three. It has just turned three years-old, it’s very playful and a bit mischievous. Its looks are strange because it is made of recycled pieces from other toys, but assembled with such love and care that it has unique qualities.

Alí is the smartest of the three characters. It knows most of the objects and can face any new situation. Its electric connections are a constant surprise, since they can produce almost anything, so that it is of great help to solve those unexpected tasks where a special tool is needed. However, it is the most coward of the three. When it feels scared, its first reaction is to hide its head inside its body, such as turtles do, staying motionless as a simple computer. In its great innocence, it believes that way it shall not be taken notice of. It usually cries for Mr. Bear’s protection.

It is a very magical robot and can do incredible things. It can even fly when it opens its propellers above its head in the same way as a helicopter.

Its legs are extra-elastic. In its normal position it keeps its legs folded, so that only the toes can be seen, but sometimes it stretches its legs to walk, run or reach out to grab things.

Alí is very proud of the plasma screen on its tummy, which has a double use. On it, Alí displays images to illustrate interesting issues but when the screen is open, there is a magical pocket which provides Alí with all the tools and objects needed by our friends to complete the tasks on which they are working.

- How did the idea of Pau's World come out?

The idea of the series began with the invention of the main character: a girl who finally was called Pau. It's a female character and the major influence in creating this character comes from the observation of my daughter, who in those days was about 4 years.

Seeing the way she played I realised that children, but even more girls, tend to play in an imaginary space that limit without realising it and where they develop all their imagination, so that wherever they have their play space they create their fantasy world, where they play and where they develop their personality.

In the case of my daughter, her play area was surrounded by a carpet, fluffy, full of colours and gadgets with which to create her games. She also had a pile of stuffed animals, dolls and all kinds of toys, books, etc.. Despite the array of toys at her disposal, I noticed that she was particularly fond for two of them; with which virtually always played and made part of the stories she invented. These toys were a rather large teddy bear and a stuffed cat which he called "Michuco”. Michuco and the bear are still her friends now that she is eight years old and keep on treating them in a special way.

These elements began to take shape in drawings and gradually I added descriptions for the characters that I drew, adding possible personalities, attitudes, situations and so on.

When I noticed that I was accumulating enough material for an animation series, was when I began to develop individual ideas.

I kept the characters of the girl and the bear, but dismissed the cat, as I needed a character that was very versatile, fantastic and a bit unreal for the imagination to flow visually.

I decided to create a robot, but it should not be a cold or static character. On the contrary, Ali should be outgoing, talkative, playful, friendly, and almost perfect.For children to be able to relate to him I made him a little scared.

This is how the adventure of Pau´s World series started.

-Tell me a little about you background so we can understand how you could put together a project of this kind, please.

Let’s see where I start ... I will start from the beginning, although it is so many years ago that I do not know if I will remember.

My hobby, skill, gift, I don’t know how to call it, has always been drawing. Since I can remember I have always tried to capture on paper forms, lines and colours. Luckily, my parents always supported my interest and even though at that time in Spain was very difficult to obtain a profession such as animator, my parents help me all they could so I could go to train in Madrid studies Filman animation. These studies were working at the time for Americans and more specifically to the American studio Hanna-Barbera, making animated series as The Flintstones, The Smurfs or Lucky Luke. Thanks to the Filman studios and the professionals that were working there I could start my career as an animator.

I worked for several years as an animator in series and American and English films, Count Duckula, and Vicor and Hugo, Avenger Penguins, Benjamin Blúmchen, Once Upon a Forest, etc…

After the experience in Madrid, I decided to start the animation studio Camelot with a friend. Our big dream was to produce series and movies. We provided services for other producers, but we made some interesting things like a music video for a famous Spanish group called Radio Futura and their song "Tierra". We were also able to produce a short film of 15 minutes called Domestic Tales, which can now be seen on youtube.

This adventure ended when the financial problems came in and we wanted to grow in the profession.

In 1991 I worked in London for Steven Spielberg in Amblimation for the animated films: An American Tail II, Fivel goes west and We're back.

Back in Spain I was hired as Animation Director at Cartoon P in Valencia. This company gave animation services to producers from around the world; while producing their own television series.

The series produced and directed by me were Cutler Microfilms, Babala or Pumby.

Providing services for other companies I participated as Director of the Department of animation series such as: Captain Pugwash, Little Gray Rabbit, Terry Pratchett Discworld and others.

After seven years, I decided I needed a change of scenario and moved to work to Madrid. I worked on MSL Audiovisual and Media developing several animation projects, such as TV series like The Adventures of Marco Antonio or Bunnibal. We also did advertising or headers for various entertainment programs, Memoria de elefante o Un dos tres, a leer esta vez.

After my stay in Madrid, my career began to change with the new technologies and my work as traditional animator began to migrate to computer-generated animation, also known as 3D.

This new tool opened new horizons and endless possibilities.

I worked as an animator in 3 seasons of a children's series for Disney Channel called Alfred the postman. I also did some commercials for Danone's Actimel.

I went to work on two feature films produced by Dygra Films: El sueño de una noche de San Juan y Espíritu del bosque.

In the last three or four years I worked in my own company called: Pigmeos with Ecosystem Diversity producer from Madrid, where I was able to develop a children's game for PC, developed in mixed media, where we have used Flash, 3D and traditional drawing.

Currently, the project that occupies all my time is Pau´s World, which is in the process of production and development.

- What were the first steps you took to start this process?

Well, it is a slow and tedious process. I will start from the moment in which I have an idea of what I want to do and I have clear idea of the characters and main concepts of what will be the world where the stories are developed.

With this little information it is necessary to convince the partner to contribute with a minimum of funding to begin in order to start to give visual form to all the concepts that so far are sketches, lots of text and are all in my head. It's time to get to design and add new ideas and concepts to enrich our project.

The Bible, is what we call the book which contains all the information necessary to know what kind of project is that we face in animation. The Bible must detail each of the aspects and phases of the project. Usually we make the following points:

• Concept

• Target

• Style

• Main Characters

• Secondary characters

• Props

• Backgrounds

• Argument, of at least 13 episodes.

• Overview of 13 or more episodes.

• If possible it is advisable to include scripts or at least a finished first draft.

• Artistic, management and technical staff.

• Financial Plan

• Production plan.

• Budget

-You are in the process of seeking investors for the launch of the series, what are you doing to achieve this?

It is the process that I dislike the most, so I try to delegate this task to people who are more skilled, but still always have to take steps that you can not avoid, such as finantial or commercial meetings, filling endless forms for grants and so on.

There are many ways to get funding; almost all are initially in the form of government assistance, either at regional, national or European level.

Regional: In Valencia, instituto Valenciano de la Cinematografía (IVAC).

National: In Spain, Ministerio de Cultura and ICO.

European: MEDIA

All these subventions require a great effort to apply to, as it is necessary to prepare a large number of both administrative and artistic materials, so it is necessary to have a small team of dedicated people for some time to work on these tasks.

Currently we have only applied for aid for the creation of the pilot to IVAC, we await the resolution and hope that is favourable.

Other means of funding are co-productions, is the key to carry out projects with such high costs. We can also distinguish various forms of co-production:

-The co-production in which a TV station provides an amount of money in exchange for a percentage of profits or in exchange for emission quotas.

-The co-production for services, where businesses provide parts of the production of the series in exchange of a percentage of the profits.

-Financing through presales, is usually generated when you already have advanced the production and can provide with the availability date of the series.

-How have you managed to get to this point, ie the development of the script for the 52 chapters, the modelling, texturing and rigging of the three main characters and the development of several sets in 3D?

Well, as I said before, the initial development funding has been provided by the two producers involved so far in Pau's world project, Ecosystem in the financial side and Pigmeos in the artistic area.

We wanted a commitment to quality and for that we have not skimped on taking care of things in the main character design, environments, and above all we have tried to create scripts entertaining, fun and suitable for the age group of audience to whom it is targeted.

It has taken us a long time since we had to combine this development with different jobs. Most of all I have to highlight and thank the wonderful professionals who have worked creating these characters. First Abraham Meneu, my brother and a genius in modeling and animating in 3D, which gave three-dimensional shape of my doodles and got a particular style, great for the characters. Patricia Rivera, which has given its sensitivity to the cool surface textures of polygons which make up the characters. Luis San Juan, the creator of the rig with which we handle our characters, the rigger without which our characters would be inanimate statues. The script writer Ramón Agullé who, with his stories, made believable characters that speak in a language that we all understand.

I also want to thank the effort made by people who unselfishly have encouraged me to continue and not lose heart with each problem, please continue to support me.

-The production base is Valencia, where you reside. "All the production has been developed there or have you made use of the new technologies such as professional or ftp sites?

The core of the production is at Valencia; this means that it is where ideas are shaped, develop, directed and given form, but much of the production is done through the Internet, using all means at our disposal that help us to communicate and to have continuous access with the artists.

We use ftp to share files and upload and unload files on a daily basis.

Messenger, skype and any format in real-time communication helps us stay in touch at any time with each of the professionals. This provides a wide variety of people that you can count on everywhere and allows us to choose the best profile for the job.

-The target audience is children from 0 to 6 years old. Why have you chosen this audience?

I think it would be more correct to say that the series have “chosen me” and then I had to assess what age group was more appropriate.

Actually when you create a series, you cannot start thinking about the age at which must be addressed, you have to do this at a later stage because the ideas are emerging and piling up, little by little are taking a natural way and I think these ideas are the ones that help you to focus to a specific target audience.

- Have you already sold the series? What are the steps that you are taking or have taken?

Well, the series are in the early stages and it is too soon to start selling it, although it is a good time to seek new investors and co-producing partners.

We have been lucky enough as the series was selected to be presented at Cartoon Forum Rogaland. The Cartoon Forum is similar to a festival but focuses exclusively on industry professionals. It is organized under the program of the European Union, MEDIA. This year celebrates its 20th anniversary and since the beginning that it was held in Tenerife (Spain), has been taking place in a different European city every year, next year will be celebrated in Sopron (Hungary).

The intention with which this event is organised is to bring all parties involved one way or another in the production of animated television series.

The organization takes care of getting each of the selected projects to all broadcasters and investor partners. These show their interest regarding the projects received, so before the event takes place you have already an idea of who is interested in your project.

The event usually lasts 4 days and is organised in a way that all parts stay in the same emplacement to encourage negotiations.

At breakfast, the trailers of each of the projects are presented. There are three rooms where each producer presents its project and attendees can see and hear everything about the project.

Our project was very well received and we could make some important contacts for a possible sales and perhaps a co-production. We must develop a first chapter and work further in all that relates to visual development and content since we could only complete the trailer for the series to be shown at the presentation.

Investors are becoming more demanding and want to bet on sure things, this is why hey require a minimum of production developed and closed funding to ensure the project is going to be finalised.

- What are the fairs or the ideal places to present this type of project?

It depends, as I said earlier if the project is in its early stages, there is no doubt that the best thing is to be presented at the Cartoon Forum.

If it is an advanced project and already has a season completely finished and ready for sale, there are several exhibitions among which I can mention these:

-Mipcom and Mipcom Junior in Cannes, France.

-Annecy Festival, in France.

-Licensing International Expo and Napte, Las Vegas, New York Mipcom, UUEE.

-CON-CAN Movie Festival Studio Hard Deluxe Inc., Tokyo International Anime Fair Executive Committee, Tokyo.

-Hiroshima International Animation Festival, Hiroshima.

-Have you had access to a grant from Spanish Ministry of Culture?

Although I know they exist and are important, this year we could not apply since the dates were very close and we could not prepare everything necessary on time. There are a lot of forms to fill in and, above all, the whole project should have a very good graphical presentation for not being rejected.

I am sure we will be able to apply next year and have the confidence that it will be granted.

-The budget of the pilot is about 125,000 Euros. Could you explain me in which areas is invested most of this budget?

Luckily I have been able to develop the budget myself and, since I am an animator, I allocated a large part of the budget to the artistic development; that goes from the script, 2D designs, lighting, modelling, shading animation and so on.

For me it is very important final look that is achieved in each chapter and I do not skimp with the typical excuse that some investors are using by saying: "It’s only for children!" underestimating the most loyal and grateful audience and to whom we owe all our respect.

- What are your competitors, have you identified them?

Our competition are the series that are aimed to the same target audience, but I believe this should not be taken as a negative aspect as it should provide a stimulus for improvement so that we strive to achieve a better quality product than the one presented by X producer.

There is a lot of competition when you have to sell a finished work and television channels will always pay a better price if what is offered is new, attractive and has a good quality. A good advice is to get a good Sales Agent that knows best where and to whom to sell the product.

THE LADY AND THE REAPER shortlisted for the Oscars short film category.

2009-11-21T01:01:00.001+01:00

The Lady and the Reaper, a short film developed by Kandor Graphics and Green Moon in

Spain

, is still on the run to win the Oscar for the shortfilm category next March.

Today, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Societies announced that the list of the short films that still have a chance to win an Oscar have been reduced from 37 to ten.

The company behind this shortfilm is the same that has developed The missing Linx, with the support of Antonio Banderas as one of the producers and Raúl García as one of the Directors and writers.

The title lasts approximately eight minutes and tells the story of and old woman and her death. It has already won the public award festival and the best original music award at the ALCINE festival in

Spain

The final number of the Oscars nominees for this category will be five.

You can watch the teaser of The Lady and the Reaper clicking here.

PLANET 51 TO BE RELEASED THIS WEEKEND

2009-11-17T01:14:00.002+01:00

Planet 51 is due to be released on the 20th of November in

USA

. It has been created by Ilion Animation Studios in

Spain

, which was founded in 2002, and is the first Spanish movie that has achieved wide international distribution. Sony Pictures is behind it, with around 3,500 theatres in the

United States

. To put this into perspective: Paramount Pictures released “Up” in 3,886 theatres earlier this year.

The movie is the most expensive film made in

Spain

; with a budget of 55 million Euros. Only Agora comes close to that, spending 50 million euros on the developing of this Spanish live action movie getting in return around 20 million Euros in

Spain

, where it is still showing.

With these numbers it becomes clear the need to explore foreign countries in order to make a profit for these high budget films.

Spanish population is reduced (46 million according to the INE) compared to the 308 million with which counts the

United States

(source: U.S. Census Bureau). It seems clear that the movie needs to appeal to an International audience if it aims to make a profit.

The original idea comes from three directors: Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martínez and Javier Abad, although the final script has been developed by Joe Stillman (screenwriter for Shrek and Shrek 2). The film lacks of Spanish references, to the exception of the Macarena. On the contrary, the movie is set in an American resembling suburbia of the 1950´s.

Ignacio Perez Dolset had previously worked with Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martínez and Javier Abad at Pyro Studios (where the highly successful video game Commandos was created) and founded Ilion animation Studios for the development of Planet 51. He says in Cinemania 09: “We had a bit of pride and anger.

Spain

was a country of consumers of video games and animated films, but not of creators.”

Planet 51 has been seven years on the making with over 300 hundred people working on the film during production peak times. The company has developed its own render and in-house tools to make possible a visually competitive film. The central idea has been the reverse story of an alien invasion. An Astronaut lands in what he thinks is an uninhabited planet to find himself on the middle of an alien barbeque in a world that resembles

America

’s suburbia in the fifties.

The animation has been done with the voices of the actors Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman and John Cleese. It has been dubbed to other languages, including Spanish.

In the making: PLANET 51

2006-02-16T01:10:00.002+01:00

Planet 51 has been four years in the making but very little is known about this multi-million dollar production, however this is about to change as here we unveil everything about the CG production.

Ilion Animation Studios is the company behind this $50 million feature film that aims to do what no other company from

Spain

has ever achieved; to enter the international market of 3D animated films.

The movie is being produced by the CEO of Ilion Animation Studios, Ignacio Perez Dolset, and the CEO of Worldwide Biggies Inc., Albie Hecht. The director is Jorge Blanco and the script is written by Joe Stillman who has been Oscar nominated for Shrek and Shrek2.

The original idea for the theatrical release comes from Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martinez and Javier Abad (aka Bucho), the director and co-directors of the movie.

Planet One is the reverse story of an alien invasion; that is to say that the aliens are the ones that fear a “human” attack. This is a fresh angle of a classic theme. Aliens in Planet One are green, have eight fingers, two antennas and live in a world similar to America in the 50’s and are terrified that one-day they can be invaded from creatures of other planets. They have sci-fi films and comics that specialise on this genre and the authorities are even more obsessed than the civilians about it.

The movie will take us through the adventure where an astronaut lands on what he believes a deserted planet to interrupt an alien barbecue. It goes without saying that the aliens are not happy to see him, and the adventure starts for the NASA astronaut and the inhabitants of Planet One.

We talked to Marcos Martinez to find out how this adventure started and he told us that he met Jorge Blanco and Javier Abad at Pyro Studios, which is best known for the development of such games as Commandos.

Marcos Martinez, one of the co-directors of Planet One explains me that they left Pyro Studios and created Semillitas (www.semillitas.com) to start making its own projects, but this endeavour ended after only 6 months when their previous boss believed in them enough to offer them the opportunity to create a new 3D film. Ignacio Perez Dolset, from Pyro Studios, offered them the opportunity to make an animation studio that could break the Spanish barriers of animation and to be present in Europe and EEUU.

The three partners spent eight months coming up with an idea worthy to become a full-length 3D animated film. This time was spent on thinking tons of ideas to later pitch them to Ignacio… until one magic day the idea was great. To get the “big idea” was the main requisite to launch the studio. The next stage was writing a plot and to develop the look of the characters, concepts of the world, and animation tests. At some point we had a complete draft of the script and a clear idea of what to show the major companies of Hollywood. Then, we began working on three teasers that showed our characters, story and idea. Obviously, all of this was achieved with the help of a great number of professionals behind us, explains Marcos.

Marcos told us that the main reason for embarking on this project was that Jorge, Bucho and himself wanted to experiment with some activity to do with storytelling and some more advanced animation. They think that 3D is a good medium because they are comfortable in it and from a commercial point of view it makes sense to launch a 3D movie, as it’s very appealing at the moment. But he says that, above all, we just wanted to!

Julian Romero, the Production Designer of the sets of the film, explained to us the process that he followed to create the look of an entire new planet. He says that there were two key factors to take into account; one is that it is a movie in an alien planet and the other is that the director knew that he wanted a look similar to

America

in the 50’s.

My work method for developing a concept is to relate to the reality of what people already know or think they know. Taking these two notions as the starting point of the designs, I started researching about what people “know” about aliens. This was a long process but if I have to simplify it to the maximum; we “know” that they are green, fly in spherical objects and leave spherical signs in cornfields…

Based on these facts I created a planet with a new aesthetic where everything revolves around sphere-shaped forms.

In any event; I always bear in mind the narrative concepts of the movie and make the designs to support it in all of its aspects.

Empire magazine was especially interested to learn how the designs go from 2D to 3D. Juan Solis, Character Development Supervisor, told us that first the artists need to take a look at the general volumes and personality of the character, as the original design comes to the modelling artists in 2D. Then their job is to get the same feeling of the character’s individuality in 3D. On the technical side of things he says that they use 3D Studio Max, In-house software and Photoshop.

Animation is another critical part of the success of either a 2D or 3D film and it takes place later in the production stage. Enrique Oliva (aka kike), Animator, tell us that there has been a small team of animators experimenting with the set up and facial animation of the characters during the pre-production of Planet 51.

The film industry is an attractive business and since Walt Disney proved that money could be made from sweet little cartoons we have seen a steady growth in the competition of the animation industry.

Disney was the pioneer of animation and since it made its first feature-length film about a fairy tale called Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 1937 many things have changed, specially the technology. Disney’s first movie budget was, originally, $500,000 although it tripled in the end. The cartoon factory’s profits were around $8 million dollars at a time when each cinema ticket only cost 23 cents.

New technologies enabled Pixar to make the first computer generated animated feature film entitled Toy Story in 1995 with an estimated budget of $30 million. It made $192 million on domestic box office and $362 million worldwide. Disney was still involved on this business enterprise as the film’s distributor. Since then, Pixar, which has recently been bought by Disney, has led the market of 3D theatrical releases with blockbuster titles such as: Toy Story 2, Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

With this sort of profits is not surprising that other companies are being created to share this huge market. Huge successes titles Shrek, Shrek 2, Shark Tale, Ice Age, Robots and Antz come from DreamWorks and Blue Sky.

Ilion Animation Studios has been created to make high quality 3D films with a strong storyline to penetrate the American market. The studio is already starting to work on the development of an idea for a second film. Marcos Martinez says that this is top-secret information as new concepts for commercial films are very valuable nowadays.

What he could tell us though is that, at the moment, the storyboard sessions are his favourite part of co-directing this movie. He enjoys very much the process of the visual story telling of the script. Developing the personality of the characters and the creation of new gags is fantastic! Marcos explained.

He added: Right now, we have around 90 employees and a new script written by Joe Stillman. We are about to close a distribution deal for the film and we are working on the storyboard. It has taken four years to get up to this point and the movie is planned to be released in the second semester of 2009.

Javier Abad, Jorge Blanco and Marcos Martinez

Studios in U.K.

2006-02-03T08:23:00.000+01:00

· Aardman

· Bird Studios

· Blue-Zoo

· Bolexbrothers

· Cinesite

· Double Negative Visual Effects

· Fine Arts Films

· Framestore

· Glassworks

· Magic Light Studios

· MPC The Moving Picture Company

· Nexus Productions

· Passion-Pictures

· Picasso Pictures

· Smallfilms

· Spy Pictures

· Studio aka

· Studio-X

· The Mill

· Uli Meyer Studios

· Williams Street Studios

Studios in Spain

2006-02-03T08:21:00.000+01:00

23 Lunes (Valencia)
3DE3 (Valencia)
Abrakam Estudio (Bilbao)
Accio (Barcelona)
AEPA (Spanish Association of Animation Producers) (Madrid)
Animated Pixel (Madrid)
Animum Studios (Málaga)
Antomic (Barcelona)
APEmanStudio (Barcelona)
Art Alive Studios (Barcelona)
Background 3D (Sevilla)
Baobab Estudio (A Coruña)
Barton Films (Bilbao)
Bee Mind (Barcelona)
Bit & Mina (San Sebastián)
Bitart New Media (Bilbao)
Bitauro (Terrassa)
Black Maria Studios (Valencia)
BRB Internacional (Madrid)
Bren Entertainment (Santiago de Compostela)
Bus Animation (Madrid)
Cartoon Network Spain (Madrid)
Casual Monday Animation (Barcelona)
Cocoe Studios
Crea-Anima2 (Madrid)
Cromosoma (Barcelona)
Chicago 3D (Zaragoza)
D’Ocon Films (Barcelona)
Delfin 3d Animation Studio (Madrid)
Delirium Studios (Bilbao)
Dibujator (Bilbao)
Digital Legends (Barcelona)
Digizetta (Barcelona)
Dodecaden (Llanes)
Dygra Films (A Coruña)
Edebé audiovisual (Barcelona)
El Ranchito (Madrid)
Enne Entertainment (Salamanca)
Enxebre Sistemas (A Coruña)
Estudio Fénix (Barcelona)
Estudio Rodolfo Pastor (Barcelona)
Euroview CG & VFX (Pamplona)
Filmax Animation (Barcelona)
Filmax Internacional (Barcelona)
Forma animada (Sevilla)
Freeyourmind (Madrid)
Genoma Animation (Granada)
Ilion Animation Studios (Madrid)
Imira Entertainment (Barcelona)
Inkapache (Madrid)
I-Real Animation Studios (Madrid)
Iskra (Madrid)
Julio Mayo Animación (Madrid)
Kandor Moon (Granada)
Keytoon (Valencia)
Kotoc (Barcelona)
La huella efectos digitales (Madrid)
La pera animación (Barcelona)
Lion Toons (Barcelona)
Locomotion Pictures (Barcelona)
Lux Motion Pictures (Barcelona)
Mago Production (Barcelona)
Manga Films (Barcelona)
Miopia (Madrid)
Motion Pictures (Barcelona)
Neorender (Mataró)
Neptuno Films (Terrassa)
Next limit (Madrid)
Norma Editorial (Barcelona)
Oltoon (Barcelona)
Otiiplanet (A Coruña)
Paneka Animaestudio (Santa Mar)
Pasozebra Producciones (Valencia)
Pausoka (Bilbao)
Pigmeos (Valencia)
Pit-a-Pat Studio (Bilbao)
Pixel in Motion (Barcelona)
PixelDreams (Barcelona)
Potens Plastianimation (Valencia)
Producciones Tacatuca (Valencia)
Pyro Studios (Madrid)
Red Mouse Factory (Barcelona)
Revuelta 10 (Alicante)
S3d Pictures (Barcelona)
Saponia (Valencia)
Selecta Visión (Barcelona)
Serena Digital (Madrid)
Sergiopop (Valencia)
Silver Space Studios (Álava)
Sintesis (San Sebastián)
Sopa de Sobre (Madrid)
SOS Factory (Málaga)
Synthespian (Cabrera de Mar)
Telson (Madrid)
The Frank Barton Company (Madrid)
Tomavistas (Barcelona)
Tons of Toons (Empuriabrava)
Toones Factory (Valencia)
Traumatic Studio (Barcelona)
Uoku Net-Architects (Barcelona)
Vector Soul (Barcelona)
Vualá! de animacione (Valencia)
Zinkia (Madrid)
Zootrope (Barcelona)

Studios in USA

2006-02-03T08:20:00.000+01:00

Studios in Luxembourg

2006-02-03T03:03:00.000+01:00

· Studio 352

Studios in Ireland

2006-02-03T03:02:00.000+01:00

· Magma Films

Studios in Germany

2006-02-03T03:01:00.000+01:00

· Ulysses Filmproduktion

· UFA Cinema

· Studio Soi

Studios in France

2006-02-03T03:00:00.000+01:00

· Autochenille Production

· Hérold & Family

· Les Films Pelleas

· Sparx Animation

· TeamTO

· Xilam Animation

Studios in Sweden

2006-02-03T02:59:00.000+01:00

· www.whitesharkfilm.com

Studios in Italy

2006-02-03T02:57:00.000+01:00

· www.lumiq.com

About Me

2006-01-27T01:38:00.001+01:00

My name is Lorena Hueso and I have been working in the animation business for the last four years and indirectly involved for 15 years. During this time I have been able to make friends and contacts in the field that have helped me to gain knowledge of the growing animation industry.

This web site intends to cover a wide range of animation and/or computer generated films paying special attention to the work done in Europe as I identified a lack of coverage on this area.

It is no secret that the

United States

dominates the world’s film industry but growing technologies and talent are making possible for different studios to take the chance of making animated movies that try to compete with them. Obviously there is a long way to be able to compete with the big studios with even bigger budgets but little by little “we” are getting there.

As I am based in

Spain

I have more information of the studios located in this country, however I will be delighted if my readers can give me information about growing studios in different countries.

This is a non profit website that pretends to provide news and links that can be helpful to 3D professionals and artists in general.

Do not hesitate to contact me at: lorena.hueso@gmail.com to send me your comments about this website.

I hope professionals of the industry find this website useful.

Disclaimer: Images used on this web-site are under the Fair Use Doctrine and I will retrieve them from News Organisations that have previously published them. However, if any organization would like me to erase the photograph, please contact me.

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page5970.cfm

Don't I get to reprint an image without permission under the "fair use" doctrine?

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The U.S. Copyright Office notes that the factors that help determine whether use of a work constitutes fair use include:

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