This is a spooky story about a little girl who is attracted into a doll shop. Alma is Rodrigo Blaas’ first short film as a director. Originally from Spain, Rodrigo Blaas has worked in animation for more than ten years, in Spain and at Pixar in the United States.

When he got the opportunity to direct his first independent short film, Rodrigo Blaas asked some of the best artists in their field to take part in this independent project: French animator Bolhem Bouchiba, character designer Carlos Grangel and Sergio Pablos, Art Director Alfonso Blaas, music composer Mastretta and sound designer Tom Myers.

More info at almashortfilm.com

The story of Oedipus, in 8 minutes, performed by vegetables, in the tradition of Ben Hur. A sword and salad epic, in classic CinemaScope. Featuring a Potato, a Tomato, Broccoli, Garlic, and Billy Dee Williams as the Bartender. It took two years, a volunteer crew of more than 100 people, and post production resources donated by Industrial Light + Magic and Skywalker Sound. One of the first stop-motion films shot on a digital still camera. Written, directed and produced by Jason Wishnow.

Me and My Potato (2005) behind-the-scenes of Oedipus …with vegetables

In a dark warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, they built vegetable-scale cities and taught a potato to walk like a man.

A reconstruction of Richard Williams’ animation masterpiece, “cobbled” together from the many existing cuts to bring the film closer to its original form. This version deletes the song sequences and other scenes, as well as redubbed voices added by The Completion Bond Company. Scenes are also added back, as well as long-unheard vocal performances by Sir Anthony Quayle and Sir Felix Aylmer. The aim of the Recobbled Cut is to provide the closest version that is faithful to Richard Williams’ vision, uses the best possible quality audio and video, while also presenting it in the full 2.35:1 Panavision widescreen format. This latest version includes many of the deleted scenes from a stunning 35mm workprint. Video reconstruction by Garrett Gilchrist. Video source courtesy of Orange Cow Productions. Copyright 2006-2008.

Note: This is a playlist with eleven parts.

The graphic style grips the viewer from the start, in this tale of rough justice in the Wild West. The textures applied to the computer generated characters make them look like they are hand drawn.

As long as anyone can remember, the coming of The Undertaker has meant the coming of death. Until one day the grim promise fails and tension builds as the God fearing townsfolk of Backwater wait for someone to die.

By: Bo Mathorne, Tue T. Sørensen, Arthur Gil Larsen, Rie C. Nymand, Mads Simonsen, Thomas H. Grønlund, Esben Jacob Sloth, Martin Holm-Grevy. It is a Bachelor film project from The Animation Workshop, Viborg, Denmark.

Making of The Backwater Gospel

This is a compilation of the work Bo Mathorne produced for The Backwater Gospel. It’s not a “making of” in the traditional sense, but might still be interesting for those seeking to learn more about the process of creating the short.

This is the nightclub scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit where we first see sexy Jessica Rabbit. This was filmed without the aid of computer animation, it was drawn by hand. Richard Williams was Director of Animation with live action direction by Robert Zemeckis and was produced by Steven Spielberg.

Read an interview with Richard Williams in Animator issue 24.

Just how small can you go and still animate the puppet? Aardman Animations have set a new Guinness World Record for “Smallest stop-motion animation character in a film”, with this movie shot entirely on the new Nokia N8 12-megapixel smartphone. See how it was made below.

Mark Baker’s work typically features a deceptively simple, almost childlike hand-drawn visual style, but this conceals a far more sophisticated, adult-oriented view of the world. In a closed community fuelled by gossip and suspicion, one man dares to be different. Nominated for an Oscar in 1993.

Godfrey Jones writing in Animator mag said “I went to a one-day workshop given by Robert Breer in Cardiff. It was a day that totally changed my ideas about what animation can do (or be): and a really nice man who gave me a lot of valuable advice.

I find it hard to tell you why I like this film, it just works, it’s funny, moving and very colourful. So readers, Brilliant! I hope, will sum it up, writes Paul Thomas in Animator mag.

This breathtakingly beautiful 3D animation was produced on a tiny budget in the animators spare time, after work and in the evening. Meline is a little girl who spends most of her time in her grand-parents barn, drawing. One day, a scared furry little creature gets lost in the barn. Meline tries as hard as she can to approach it.