Sunday 27 March 2011

ANIMATION ARTERY

Earlier this year saw the publication of a "cracking new edition" of Cracking Animation, the book I wrote with Aardman Animation's Peter Lord on the history and making of stop-frame animated films.

The book (published in the USA as Creating 3-D Animation) has gone through three editions and it is probably my No.1 best-seller, despite the fact that (as a result of my having signed a really bad contract) I earn no royalties from its on-going success!

Sometimes, however, rewards come in different ways and I was thrilled to receive the following e-mail from American student, Emiline Mesmer...

As a young girl, I was always fascinated with stop-motion animation, but I'd always viewed it as being inaccessible or trivial.

Just a few months ago, I decided to give it my best try, by chance stumbling on your book Creating 3-D Animation. It helped me enormously and with my make-shift studio, tucked away in the corner of my high school's art room, I managed to create a few, small studies that will never see life off my computer.

However, each year at my school we host a blood drive in memory of one of the former students who lost her battle to leukemia. To promote the drive, the art department throws together a video of silly humor-ridden shenanigans centering on the day of donating. In light of my previous experimentations, I concocted an idea for a short, stop-motion clip that would grab attention. After three weeks of being holed away in my little corner of the room, I was left with a work that means more to me than any of my previous artistic adventures.

I thought that you might like to see it since it was your book which facilitated my happiness.

There is sound, but speakers have to be all the way up to hear it.

With gratitude,

Emiline

And here is Emiline's film...



Thank you, Emiline, for sharing your film and your enthusiasm. I'm delighted to have had an involvement (albeit inspirational) in its making and I look forward to seeing your next movie!



13 comments:

Suzanne said...

That was cute and really rather clever! Isn't it gratifying to know that you inspired it!

Arts and Crafts said...

Congratulations, a tender work.

Neil-W said...

What a great post, hope the inspiration your book has given people makes up in some way for the bad contract. Emiline's film is wonderful and is distinct and entertaining enough to make an impact .

Andy Latham said...

Great stuff! At least something came out of the bad deal!

Faff said...

Very impressive, and even more so for a first serious attempt. The royalties would be nice but they'd not match that warm fuzzy feeling you got from this film and helping inspire it.

Brian Sibley said...

I very much hope Emiline gets to read these reviews of her work and, yes, Andy and Peter, you are right!

Faff said...

Hope so too Brian. Popped over to her Youtube and left comment there hoping she'll see it and keep working.

SharonM said...

How lovely to learn that your work has proved to be inspirational and to see evidence of a young talent blossoming.

Keep up the good work, Briand and Emiline.

Mesmer Rising said...

Goodness! What an unexpected blessing! Thank you, Brian for your response and well... everything! Thank you all so much for your support and comments. I wish I could make this more eloquent but I'm quite overwhelmed with euphoria!

Nancy Reyes said...

I'd be more impressed if the video's EKG didn't lack a p wave and show an interventricular conduction defect.
;-)

But I guess it's for a good cause, so why quibble.

Brian Sibley said...

Mesmer (that is Emiline) – Glad you got to see the post, sorry it took so long to happen: trust I'm forgiven! :) Hope you'll be inspired to do some more stop-frame.

PS: I visited your (obviously new) blog and spotted a reference to snarks, does that mean you are an admirer of Mr Dodgson?


Boinky – Thanks for the medical input Doc! Also for your constantly diverting Boinkie's Blog.

Jo Griffith, Len Smith said...

What a terrific piece of work! I'll bet your folks are proud!

Max's Mom

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Graet stuff !!!