The other event not to miss at Siggraph is the Electronic Theater. A yearly compilation of the best animated shorts, excerpts from visual effects movies games and commercials, the electronic theater is always a visual feast.

After a few years of getting tickets in the evening and regularly missing the entire thing because of conflicting schedules with other events, I've now learned to book the first matinee event instead.

This year's crop contained a lot of fantastic material, and thankfully there was a lot less overlong and overbearingly artsy pieces. My favorites this year included some bio-mechanical snails kissing, a homework eating robot, a strangely unhelpfull superhero, some bizarre experiments on a laboratory mouse and a little bit of self-promotion. More images and links after the break.

458nm

Created by Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck and Tom Weber, all students of the German Film School Filmakademie, the beautiful animated short  458nm shows various bio-mechanical elements moving and flowing, revealing these amazing bio-robotic snails. This was definitely my favorite, from a visual point of view and also for the great electronic score.

From the beginning, we were fascinated by the beauty and impression of snails moving and 'kissing' each other. After much discussion, we decided to adopt this as our focus for the next four months. From this concept, we were able to develop the components that we wanted — strong images, a dark mood and music as a central role in the film. We wanted the music to play the same role as the images. Neither could be without the other. These components had a very strong influence on our working process.

A trailer for 458nm is available on their website. Unfortunately it's only in WMV format.

A Great Big Robot From Outer Space Ate My Homework

You have to love this short just for its title. A Great Big Robot From Outer Space Ate My Homework has a definite Canadian National Film Board feel to the animation, with the little boy explaining to his teacher that he was walking down the street and a big robot came from outer space and ate his homework. All of the action is explained without using a single intelligible word, which makes it even funnier. The animation was directed by Mark Shirra from the Vancouver Film School.

Into Pieces

From brazilian animator Guilherme Marcondes is another quirky animated short called Into Pieces. I love his style of animation, which mixes 2.5D, illustration and collage into a great little short. Guilherme worked with illustrator Daniel Bueno and Composer Paulo Beto on Into Pieces.

To create the story, we met in a bar, spread a lot of Bueno's drawings over the table, drank a few beers and laughed imagining what could be happening inside those illustrations. Starting from the original illustration, I didn't make considerable visual changes in it, apart from applying textures in the background. The process was to re-build the original illustration in After Effects from the layered Photoshop file Bueno sent me. Spreading the flat cut-outs in 3D space gave the film that so called "2.5D" look. To complete, Paulo Beto was responsible for the sound. For "Into Pieces" he mixed the most improbable samples, from animal sounds to audience claps. This insertions are unexpected but, at the same time, true to the meaning of the story. I really love the result!

Carlitopolis

This french animated short, directed by Luis Nieto, features a really clever idea, well executed in a mix of live action and visual effects. In Carlitopolis a young french student shows his biology thesis project in front of a jury, and starts experimenting with carlito the little mouse. I won't give away anything, just go see it.

Un mélange de prises de vue réelles et images de synthèses nous fait douter de la véracité des images, et aussi des mots.
« Carlitopolis » montre un étudiant qui présente son projet de fin d’études devant un jury. Un acte banal qui peu à peu devient une performance absurde et trompeuse, où une petite souris de laboratoire appelée Carlito subi toutes sortes d’expériences. Qu’est-ce qui est vrai, qu’est-ce qui est faux?

War of the Appliances & A Really Big Ad

A little bit of self-promotion for Natasha's work in the TVC (Television and Commercial) Department at Animal Logic. The Electronic Theater comitee selected both Toohey's "War of the Appliances" and Foster's "Really Big Ad" which got applauses from the audience (probably because siggraph attendees love beer).

You can get more information and view both Really Big Ad and War Of The Appliances on Animal Logic's website.