Siggraph 2008
I watched all of the Siggraph animated shorts on the two disks and each time one finished I had decided that was my favorite. They were all so good and impressive. From the second disk I would have to say that my favorites were Tarboy, Chump and Clump, Shatter, and Mauvais Role. On the third disk my favorites were Mister Sandman, Oktapodi, and Jungle Jail.
Tarboy is the story of a Grandfather telling his grandson about when the “big-wigs” killed all the robots and from their demise rose Tarboy (literally a boy made of tar). Tarboy seeks revenge on the elite but ultimately fails when they melt him. It ends with the grandfather showing his grandson the remains of Tarboy that he has in a jar. The entire story is set to music and has a great rhythm. The grandfather’s narrative is reminiscent of slam poetry and the animation fits with it perfectly. It was done entirely in adobe flash.
Chump and Clump was so funny I was actually laughing out loud. It follows two beings (one a green cube and the other an orange sphere) as they wait for the bus. The green guy starts out by taking a sip out of his flask and then he shares it with the orange guy. When the flask is done, the orange guy pulls out a bottle of wine. Then the next few minutes is a montage of them drinking and doing all kinds of drugs ending with them finding and eating mushrooms on the ground. After hallucinating for a while the green guy hears the bus and they try to walk over to it (it is only a few feet away from them). Eventually, only the orange guy gets on the bus and looks back desperately for his pal. At the next bus stop (maybe 10 yards up the road) he gets off the bus and runs back to the green guy. Then it ends with them waiting for the bus again when the orange guy pulls out another bottle of wine. The timing of the whole thing was perfect. While neither of the characters talked at all, their eyes and mouths were so expressive you knew what they were thinking.
Shatter depicts shattering glass. This short didn’t have a story, but the animation was amazing. There were a few glass balls that fell and shattered on the ground. The camera follows them and watches the shattering glass in slow motion. It is very real looking. (The other short that was incredibly real looking was Fight for Life, which was about a fetus. It was amazing, but creepy because of how real it was, a perfect example of the uncanny valley theory.)
Mauvais Role was just such a clever idea I couldn’t help but enjoy it. It followed a video game bad guy after he quits his job in his fighting video game because he doesn’t want to be type cast anymore. Then after searching through dozens of other video games he finds the perfect role for him as a dancer in a game called King of the Dance. It was funny watching this big ogre looking guy dressing up in classic character costumes, like Mario, and playing through the games. It reminding me a little of Monsters Inc.
Mister Sandman is the story of the Sandman going around and dousing little kids with nightmares in their sleep. The character animation for the Sandman was very scary looking; he had an incredibly long neck and eyes set deeply into his pale face. I thought he looked like John Waters. However, the twist at the end was what made the story good. The Sandman goes into one child’s room who is having an amazing and colorful dream about animals and jungles. The Sandman takes the dream and goes home to sleep. Then his apprentice comes in and sprinkles the nightmare sand onto his face giving the Sandman one of his own terrible dreams.
Oktapodi has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it earlier this year online. It was nominated for best animated short this year also. It is the tail of two octopi who fall in love, however the girl one gets sold to a butcher and the boy one goes to save her. There is a wonderful chase scene through a small Greek village leading to the eventual escape of the two. But, as soon as they escape a bird comes and grabs the boy octopus and the chase begins again. The colors throughout the piece are vibrant and beautiful. Octopi are hard to animate because they don’t have a skeleton and the animators for this did a really good job working with that.
Jungle Jail was really funny. It is about a man who gets thrown in jail and gets beat up because he is the smallest. When he bumps into the biggest man in the jail a fight ensues, but the small man is saved by a little bug that the big man is scared of. The small man then becomes the king of the jail and everyone respects him. However, at the end we find out it was just a day dream and the big man is still about to beat up the little man. This was another one where there was no talking. I like that because I think it makes the animator work harder to convey ideas and it was done very well in this short.
