A Largely Visual History of Animation: Part 3
“Dude, sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something.” — from Adventure Time
Today, there are so many different studios and individuals packing the internet full of incredible animation. It’s pretty hard to keep track. Here are a few I admire. This list is indefinitely, incomplete.
> Pixar (Duh): Pixar represents a trifecta of story, technology and business. I really enjoyed reading Ed Catmull’s book Creativity Inc. John Lasseter and Catmull’s career paths are worth googling.
Studio Ghibli / Hayao Miyazaki: Often called the Japanese Disney. the amount of detail and attention that goes into every frame is astounding. I could watch their style of animating water, forever.
Frederator Studios / Pendelton Ward — Adventure Time — If you watch one episode of Adventure Time, let it be this episode, directed by David O’Reilly. Not exactly representative of the series, but I love how meta it is re: animation.
Bravest Warriors is pretty funny, too
Imaginary Forces (studio) → Prologue (studio) Both founded by Kyle Cooper, known for title sequences
MK12: Small motion graphics shop that turned a whole bunch of people onto After Effects about a decade ago. Still brings it!
Buck: commercial studio based in NY and LA. Insanely high quality across a wide variety of styles: CG, motion graphics, traditional animation and everything in between.
PES: Stop-Motion animation director
CRCR: French animation collective, modern cel animation
F5: French animation collective (these guys might have closed down, they were an old favorite when I was getting into this stuff)
Encylopedia Pictura: Collective that blends 3D, 2D and traditional (fabricated) FX to create detailed, surreal dreams
Impactist: mid-century modern vibe with a motion graphics twist
GMUNK: Known especially for slick, sci-fi interfaces of the future
Because this list could go on forever — this seems as good a clip to end with, as any. Disney’s original Tron.
blog roll: http://motionographer.com, http://www.cartoonbrew.com/, https://vimeo.com/channels/wineaftercoffee
