Category Archives: Animation

A BAFTA-winning short set in a woolly, fluffy world conjured by director Anushka Naanayakkara charting the literal entwinement of two entities: a cosy relationship unravelled by an unknown destructive force. 

shortoftheweek

Another animated journey through the mind of animator Jake Fried, who creates by building up layers of ink and correction fluid – a single drawing scanned and reworked hundreds of times.

Previously: Brainwave

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Sam Gainsborough’s excellent live action/stop motion short morphs clay faces onto human bodies to tell the story of a man fearing isolation but struggling to socialise or relate to his family. Of the warping rippling mugs of his protagonist and supporting cast (made from 450kg of Plasticine) Gainsborough sez:

He feels that his parents are these emotionless rock-like characters so they’re animated to look like gargoyles. Whereas he sees everyone else in the world as being effortlessly happy so they’re animated fluidly with lots of colour. But at the end of the day the feelings he has are false, what lies underneath that is reality, real people (with painted hands for some reason!). 

And here’s how he did it.

colossal

Contrary to previously apocalyptic predictions, the world’s population is actually expected to balance out at around 11 billion by the end of the century. But the big picture hides at last one alarming detail. In another fascinating animated essay, German educational design studio Kurzgesagt, explains:

Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019 it was home to a billion people living in 46 countries. Although its growth rate has slowed down in the last few decades, it is still much higher than in the rest of the world. While some projections expect around 2.6 billion people others reckon with up to 5 billion by 2100. Such growth would be a huge challenge for any society. But Sub-Saharan Africa is also the poorest region on earth. So is Sub-Saharan Africa doomed? And why do the projections vary by 2.4 billion people? 

Previously: An Antidote To Dissatisfaction

A lo-fi short by Mattias Pilhede and Sai Cheung featuring the philosophical ponderings of a spaceship’s door control system (something first considered by Douglas Adams) To wit:

In the far distant future, ships have Swedish accents because they are bought at IKEA.

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