Hedley Griffin Uses Animo to Shoo Away Pesky Shoe
04/06/03 10:42
Hedley Griffin Uses Animo to Shoo Away Pesky Shoe
4th June, 2003
http://www.hedleygriffinfilms.com
"Shoe," Hedley Griffin's latest short in his Furry Tales series, highlights the interactions between an obnoxious insect and the flower of his obsession. The animated short, one of a series that follows animals through a human's world, was produced with Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo 2D software. In the one-minute, 45-second cartoon, dragonflies, bees and butterflies flit from flower to flower outside a country cottage. A strange shoe-shaped insect arrives, and after surveying the scene, decides to woo a particular flower. "Shoe" moves in for a kiss but is promptly shooed away by the flower. Griffin created the comedy short by scanning pen drawings on paper with a Ricoh A3 scanner. The scans were imported into Animo where the objects and backgrounds were colored and blended. Unpainted backgrounds were colored using Animo's Ink and Paint module, which allowed Griffin to produce a flat, bright color. Griffin used Animo's blends to create soft shadows and subtle shading that lend a three-dimensional look to scenes. Automated in-betweening accelerated production time on the project. "Animo adds a great deal more body to the work," Griffin says. "It is a great tool for traditional animators such as myself. I cannot imagine going back to the traditional cel and rostrum camera method." After all of the scenes were painted, effects were added, and the final scenes were composited in Animo Director. The files were output as tga files to CD, which enabled an accurate digital reproduction for editing with in-sync's Speed Razor. "Shoe" has been entered in Rushes Soho Shorts, the British Animation Festival, and the Fantoche Animation Festival in Switzerland. About Animo Animo, developed and marketed by Cambridge Animation Systems ( www.cambridgeanimation.com ), has an installed base of more than 3,000 seats in nearly 60 countries, offering excellent opportunities to studios throughout the world to work with international partners. Animo software is used for feature films, television series, commercials, games and multimedia development by leading studios worldwide, including DreamWorks SKG, Nelvana Limited, Production IG, Yoram Gross, Uli Meyer, UTV Toons, Telemagination, Praxinos and Colorland. Press contacts: Erin Hatfield, Bob Cramblitt Cramblitt & Company 1-919-481-4599; cramco@cramco.com