Run Cycle

I want to show another piece of animation that I made, which is the only use I have been giving to this blog.

Run Cycle from Pipe Fonseca on Vimeo.

This is part of an animation I'm doing ... and it will take a while util it's finished.

I have to do more cycles of characters running (and walking too). It's the most difficult things to animate and it's so important. So much to learn and so much to explore.

Alda wins the portuguese Oscar

This old lady is full of big surprises. So big that sometimes I feel like giving her a kiss in the nose.

Last week (Wednesday) the Portuguese Film Academy  awarded the Sophia Awards (which is like the USA Oscars or the french Cesar...nut in Portugal). Alda was nominated for best animated short film. I wasn't expecting to win.

It was an honor and I'm very glad that finally Portugal has a Film Academy (it was created 3 years ago...yeah, a bit late). I'm very proud.

And the next stop for Alda is Brazil (and maybe France too). I wish I could go with her.

Vacation Sketches

I know, I've been away for so long. I was in vacations. I live for vacations.

I went to the south of Portugal. The weather was good but the water was freezing, I don't remember a year with the water so cold.

Of course I took my SketchBook, which I didn't touch for so long (shame on me). Beach is the perfect place to quick sketches - people are always moving and they don't notice me drawing (just sometimes). 

Here it is.

We found a chameleon next to the beach. Actually we found 4, but this was the only one we were able to grab. Of course we left it in the same place we found it. I like chameleons.

Alda goes to the Americas side

I made this drawing to advertise on Aldas's facebook that the film was selected for the New York Portuguese Short Film Festival. On May 31 it will be displayed in Lisbon, Cascais and in New York (Tribeca Cinemas) at 7:30 PM. Show up!

I leave here the sketch I did for this drawing. Let me put up my ego, because it's not every day that I'm happy with my work, but this one made me very happy. It's B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

Update

Very well, I haven't posted anything here for a while. It hasn't happened anything interesting, apart from a lot of work I have to do. Last week I went to the film festival Indielisboa, to see Alda, the most lovely old lady in the film history. Everything went fine, nothing extraordinary. 

I leave here some drawings of today's class.

This week we started to study the anatomy with the skeleton. Later we'll move to the muscles, and so on. Now I'll be a master drawing bones.

We even made a new friend. He's called Adolfo, lives in the catacombs and is widowed.

Alda - A more serious film

With Monstra on our back, April brings us a new film festival (which began yesterday): Indielisboa.
Unlike Monstra, this is a festival that gathers several film categories such as live action, animation, documentaries, and so on...

I have an animated film called "Alda" in it. I made it along with three more colleagues, my animation gang. It was our final project for the Digital Animation degree. I had never done such a long animation (it has 12 minutes), and it cost us a mighty back pain in the final sprint, but it was worth it. We ended up with a great movie that I invite all of you to watch (if you're in Lisbon). Don't forget: April 30th, 7.00 PM, São Jorge Theatre.

It will be shown on the  Brand New section, along with other films (ours is the only animated movie).
You can visit the movie page on the festival here: http://indielisboa.com/indie/en/movie/alda-2/

If you want to know more about the film, go to the facebook page and give Miss Alda a Like, please: https://www.facebook.com/aldafilm?ref=hl

And finally, here is the trailer for you to get an idea of what I'm talking about:

Alda - Short Film Trailer from Pipe Fonseca on Vimeo.

Maniacs

I haven't posted anything for a while, so I decided to show this animation I made in the second year of college, despite the fact that I don't have any pride in it.

I made this work along with a colleague. I animated the blue character and she animated the rose. 

It was made in Flash and the animation is not very good because the goal was to learn how to work with the software. I did not work very well with it and I didn't became a fan of Flash.

Another thing that it's not good: the story is hardly noticeable. Let me explain. There are two characters who are the pawns in a board game. They are maniacs. The blue one has a mania for orientation and is always afraid of losing sight of his way. The rose one has the mania for cleaning everything. When they see that on the top of the mountain is what each one wants, begins a race to see who gets there first, but their plans are soon ruined because they must return to the beginning.

Well, it's not good, but I show it to you anyway. Here are some studies for the characters.

Trivia: their voices is really our voices.

Classes update

I didn't publish anything about the drawing classes for a while so it's time to update this (take off that disgusted face and smile).

A few weeks ago we started drawing cloths. For me it has become more difficult because we only had 20 seconds to look.  Less time and more things to observe. I didn't even have time to look at the model's body. Here goes a mini-selection of those I think are the better.

This week we began to study the head. We've been drawing busts (there are some statues at the classroom). Today we did something different. We drew the head of our colleagues, very nice.

Still talking about the Lamp

The Lamp surprises again when I thought it was all over.

Yesterday was the closing of Monstra 2014, and, as such, there was a prize giving ceremony. My film won the Best Portuguese Student Film prize! Can you imagine?

I wasn't expecting it. At all! I wasn't even counting on going to the ceremony because I thought I was going there for nothing. I was wrong.

I saw great movies this week. Movies that left me amazed and thinking about how they have been made. How did my film win when there was such great movies in the festival?
It's true that this award was only for Portuguese films. There were 6 (I only know the filmmakers of 3 of them). Congratulations to all.

The trophy is made of cork and if you squeeze it, plays the sound of a monster screaming and saying the name of the festival. Very original.

Thanks to my family, friends, colleagues and Universidade Lusófona :)

The Lamp journey continues

Like I said, my film was screened last Wednesday and Thursday in Monstra. Iwas present only on the wednesday session and the room had a few aundience. What a pity.

For those who have not seen it, here is the animation.

The Fan and the Lamp from Pipe Fonseca on Vimeo.

As I said in the previous post, I believed this to be the last time the movie was walking around. I was wrong again because today I received an email and it seems that the film is going to a festival in Lebanon. In Lebanon, my God! That is on the right side of the map ....
I get to feel like the Lamp is a son who's going to war. I hope it comes back alive.

It doesn't stop.

The Lamp that went too far

I have a film that will be on Monstra, the animation festival, as I already said here. It's called "The Fan and the Lamp".

This was an exercise I did in the 2nd year of college. The aim was to animate a 3D lamp. I was just told to animate the lamp. Doing what? Whatever I wanted. I was free to create everything else.
It's not every day that I have a full creativity work, so I decided to take advantage of it and I thought to myself "Why not tell a little story?". I was late having an idea and that must have taken me half the timeI had available. With just a month away to deliver the work and no idea, I was worried that it would be a mediocre work. At that time I didn't know the success I was about to have with just a school work.

The animation was shown on "Over and Out", which is like the "Oscars" of my college. At the end of each year there is a night that shows all the films that were produced during that year in the college. But this is only for the final year students, so it was an honor to me, as a student of 2nd year to have my film there. 

The film also went to Indie Lisboa festival in the Junior section. I do not know how!

After that, the lamp went to New York in New York Portuguese Short Film Festival. I was very glad to be a t a festival that promotes Portuguese work in other countries. In addition to New York, they took my film also to London, Brazil and Angola.

NYPSFF '13 // Filipe Fonseca from Arte Institute on Vimeo.

After the movie had traveled around the world, I thought it was over. But no. He returned for one last (I think) screen on Monstra. It will be tomorrow, in Lisbon.

I wanted to show some "making of" things about the movie, but I don't have any. So, enjoy the interview which is already very good, with my weird voice.

Huge Monstra

Tomorrow starts Monstra. What is Monstra? An animation festival which will be held in Lisbon next week. And I have a movie in the Student Competition. Hurray! :)

This is the right time to show an animation I did for the Design Class when I was in 2nd year of college (in 2012).
The aim was to create a logo like if it was to be used at the real Monstra festival (but it was just an academic exercise).
I'm not the best at creating logos but I give my best. In the end, I had to animate this logo, as if it was a spot for the festival. The result was this.

Spot Monstra on Vimeo.

I was pleased with the result, despite of the frustration of having to work in Flash (animating in this program was mandatory, and it took me a week to animate ... since then, I never used Flash anymore, it isn't very good).
The reception was so good that last year I was contacted by the festival director, asking to use the video as a spot in the real Monstra. And so my spot served to advertise Monstrinha, the children's movies section (I had to change the name to "Monstrinha" for the occasion). It was very rewarding.


To create the logo I knew I had to have a monster character, so I started drawing and I came to this stripped semi-snake with arms. It's a friendly monster.

I started coloring it and joined it with the name of the festival.

I thought it would be funny to put him twisting the letter "M". I started playing with the character and the "M".

After the logo it was time to think about the animation. The path was clear. The monster had to be twisting the "M". I thought of a white background with an "M" and the character appearing to bend it. The rest came by itself. Here's the storyboard.

Therefore, if you're in Lisbon, I want all of you to visit the festival and support this small area that is animation. Surely you are going to find some great movies. Here's the festival site: http://en.monstrafestival.com/