Libingan gets MTRCB "G" Rating

Click on the scanned image to read the details of the rating.

If you met the author of the Bible, what would you do?

Well that's almost what happened today, that is, if you are an animator or an animation enthusiast. Richard Williams, 3 time oscar winner and the man behind the successful book "The Animator's Survival Kit" was at the MoMA today and had a talk with fellow Oscar winner John Canemaker.

He probably has no idea how much he has contributed to the animation world today.
His book is practically the bible for all animators that I have met.

A great guy, despite all his achievements, he still remains very nice and humble
and I have to agree with the interviewer, Mr. Canemaker,
Mr. Williams is a very generous person.

Starting as an eager young animator, he relentlessly sought the advice from the masters of animation like Ken Harris, Milt Kahl, Grim Natwick and Art Babbit to name a few, and their great talents are only matched by their great hearts.

They shared what they knew, and Richard Williams, now a master himself, is continuing the selfless act and passing it to yet another generation of hungry animators.

This is the way to go. This is how you preserve an artform, a culture.

His message to us? "Best of luck!"


On behalf of the Tuldok Animators, thank you very much, Mr. Williams!

PS: if you need to spend wisely on just one animation book, I really recommend this one.



For the DVD version of his book, go to http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

Libingan on .MOV International Digital Film Festival

(click image to go to site)

Libingan is an official entry in the Open category of the prestigious .MOV International Digital Film Festival. We are greatly honored to be part of this. Thank you .MOV!

The Opening Night will be on September 30, Tuesday, and the Closing & Awards Night will be on October 4, Saturday. Parallel screenings in the cities of Bacolod , Dumaguete, and Iloilo will be held from September 24 to October 7. The 3rd .MOV International Digital Film Festival, headed by Festival Director Khavn De La Cruz has six major sections consisting of foreign and local full-length and short films, tributes, workshops, film concerts, and after parties. The motto for this year’s festival is “Blind The Eye Of The Storm” --- losing sight of the limits and controls that plague cinema, so that we can stare at our infinite possibilities as a culture.

STUDENT CATEGORY:
1. "123" by Minco Fabregas, International Academy of Film and Television Cebu
2. "Anomi" by Renei Patricia Dimla, University of the Philippines
3. "June 9" by Cheiradee Villanueva, West Visayas State University
4. "Kamatis" (Tomato) by Brian Javier, Colegio de San Juan de Letran
5. "Kumot ng Panaginip" (Blanket Of Dreams) by Jedd Chris Dumaguina, University of the Philippines
6. "Papelove" (Paper Love) by Aissa Peñafiel, University of the Philippines
7. "Pisi" (String) by Mel Rose Aguilar, University of St. La Salle Bacolod
8. "Publico Macata: A Societal Eulogy" (Public Poet) by Mark Sherwin Maestro, De La Salle University - EAC
9. "Start Stop Play Pause" by Arby Mari Larano, Far Eastern University
10. "Ultra" by Juan Alcazaren, University of the Philippines

OPEN CATEGORY:
l. "#cafe" by Leo Valencia
2. "Andong" by Milo Tolentino
3. "Ambulancia" by Richard Legaspi
4. "Ampo" by Jose Maria Basa
5. "Libingan" (The Burial) by Ramon del Prado
6. "Nekro" by CJ Andaluz
7. "Saling Pusa" by Antoinette Jadaone
8. "The Prayer" by J.I.E. Teodoro
9. "Tiangge" (Bazaar) by Ray Gibraltar
10. "VTR" by JP Carpio

Improve your Animations

Improve your Animations
By Jeff Capili

So you already have a good story to animate…..at least you believe your story is good enough….BUT WHY ANIMATE?!??? !?!?! It’s comparably cheaper to shoot live footage not to mention less time consuming. It can take you days, even weeks to animate a 3 second shot. You definitely must have a reason for choosing this medium. I remember when Disney’s Tarzan was shown in theaters, there were already previous versions and even a TV series when I was a little kid. So, what’s the reason they animated Tarzan? Live actors cannot perform the athletic capabilities of the animated version. No actor can swing from one branch to another in that acrobatic manner. No actor can jump that high, no actor can walk on all fours (using knuckles like a gorilla) and still not look silly and stupid. No actor can move the way the animated Tarzan moves!

Always have a REASON to animate

Animation as defined in Wikipedia is “the rapid display of a sequence of artworks in order to create an illusion of movement”. There is a good animation and a bad animation. The way they move is what separates the two. Ah.. So, it’s all about movement? Well, not exactly! You can make an animation that has barely any movement and still prove effective to the audience. There is a beautiful scene in Disney’s “Dumbo” where Dumbo visits his mother who was chained and locked inside a trailer. His mother’s trunk extends from the small opening in the trailer and caresses Dumbo. It has very minimal movements but they were able to show a “humanness” in the characters. What do I mean by this? Your animation should display emotions that humans can relate to, emotions that everyone can understand. The mother elephant’s trunk was used to imitate a hug, showing how much he longs for her son. It’s an act that we humans experience, something as I mentioned earlier we can relate to. So, a regular animation is just a bunch of moving artworks….but a great animation is a bunch of moving artworks that is able to move the audience. If your genre is comedy, then you must be able to make them laugh; if it’s drama, then it must touch their hearts. So, how will you move the audience? By giving your characters an emotion, by applying “humanness” in them. Whatever type of animation it may be, the most important thing that you have to consider is PERFORMANCE. Remember that you are the actor now. Of course, nobody wants to watch a boring actor. Even worse, nobody appreciates bad acting! I’m blessed enough to have attended acting workshops. It helped the way I animate now. I’m not saying that you must attend acting workshops too (although it will really help). You can improve your performance by just OBSERVING which I practice everyday. I observe how people react, how they walk, how things move, how nature moves, how one action influences another action, I observe the laws of gravity, physics, I observe almost everything…and I try to apply that in my animations. Try to observe the world around you and it will greatly help you animate. Another thing about performance is that you can have a great performance even without any words being uttered. Take for example the latest Pixar Film “WALL E”. It’s almost a mime! The film is mostly silent and the main characters are simple. So, how did they achieve a great performance? By maximizing on the available facial expressions of the characters. But wait! Wall E doesn’t have a face, he’s only got eyes!!! Then use whatever your character has to convey emotions.

Moving artworks with emotions that can move the audience will make a good performance… Making it a GREAT animation.

“Bring the characters to life”- is almost a cliché! But how do you really apply that? Disney’s first full length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs did just that. They gave the characters a PERSONALITY. Everyone is unique and so should your characters be. How they walk, how they react, how they move will depend on this. Blue Sky’s Scratch of Ice Age has a personality that makes him more interesting than the main characters (maybe that’s why he’s always in the promotional trailers). Personality makes your characters entertaining, it’s the thing that makes them endearing. Without this, your characters will simply not come to life (and it’s very important that they come to life). Now it’s up to you as the “actor” to provide that personality.

A good story whose characters don’t have personalities won’t come to life. .. Making it a BAD film.

Another important thing in animation is BELIEVABILITY. I remember there was a scene in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (which I watched more than 8 times I think) where Mrs. Potts (the tea pot) jumped from a high place towards the floor. Naturally, a ceramic which she was made of should break at impact or should at least crack. So, how did the Disney animators solve that? By adding a pillow to the scene cushioning her fall. See, now that’s believable!

Even if it’s just in the world of make believe, it still has to be BELIEVABLE.

So always have a REASON to animate and show a great PERFORMANCE by giving your characters a PERSONALITY and make sure it’s BELIEVABLE. To wrap this up, I would like to share to you a story that I read in Richard Williams’ “Animator’s Survival Kit” about the 99 tricks.

It was about a decrepit old Zen master wrestler who was visited by a very fit and powerful young wrestler. “I beg you teach me your ninety nine tricks”, said the young wrestler. The old master replied, “look at me, I’m old and decrepit and I’m not interested”. The young man keeps pestering the old man who says, “Can’t you see that I’m fragile now and when I show you the ninety nine tricks, you’ll just challenge me, they always do. You’ll make a mincemeat of me.” “I beg you, please teach me and I promise I wont challenge you”, said the young powerful wrestler. Reluctantly, the old man teaches him until he mastered the ninety nine tricks. The young man became a famous wrestler and one day takes his master into a room, locks it and challenges him. “I knew this would happen – that’s why I didn’t want to teach you in the first place”, said the old master. “Come on old man, it’s just the two of us here. Lets see what you’re made of”, said the young man. They start wrestling and right away the decrepit old master throws the powerful wrestler out of the window. The crumpled-up young fellow moans up from the street below, “You didn’t show me that one!” “That was number 100”, said the old master.

It will depend on you to master all the 99 tricks but the 100th will depend only from the Master….if He’s gifted you by a tremendous TALENT.

------------------------------------

Jeffrey Capili was the winner of Animahenasyon 2007's short film professional category for his first short film "Malaya". He was one of the lead animators for the film Libingan, where he animated Rambo, the dog, Tenyong the bully, and several Kapres and other special effects and props.

He is currently directing Tuldok's second animated film, coming soon!

More than A DOT IN THE STRATOSPHERE - September Fudge Magazine

Please click on the scanned image of the article to read it.