Siggraph

This year’s Siggraph Computer Animation Festival is an all-inclusive affair. Each standalone programmed screening runs approximately two hours and is made up of several short films and compliation works of varying degrees of length. Though they are the shortest of the short and often are promoting one thing or another, commercials and spots shouldn’t be overlooked as works of art worth celebrating, and the festival’s first program featured several worth mentioning.

The most astonishing images in the entire feature were from a German entry called Family Portrait by Emanuel Strixner. An old late 1800s-era photo comes alive in a three dimensional way as it morphs out of the rips and tears in an old rusty wall. Or something like that. The promo was so short (under a minute including a title card at the end) that it was over just about the time the brain was able to recognize what was happening. The somber faces of the family combined with their unique transformation was truly unsettling. It was one of two entries from Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg that was used to promote an art happening in Stuttgart (from what I could gather in the short time that information appeared onscreen).

The other German promo was also from the same school. It was also dark in nature, but with a twisted sense of humor too. Verena Fels and Csaba Letay’s The Moment is a slow-motion version of one stunned woman’s vision during a very bad car wreck. As her face smashes sideways in to the airbag, she glances out the car window into the dreary streets and sees possibly the last thing she will ever see: a flying candy-striped horse that’s all colors of the rainbow. Again, as soon as the “moment” registers, it’s on to the title card for some promotion.

Framestore CFC is responsible for the seamless real-world melding of human ice skaters and penguins on a skating rink in the BBC spot Penguins, but the popular UK production house was also responsible for an imaginative music video for The Chemical Brothers’ “The Salmon Dance” in which an entire aquarium comes alive. It was almost as if the song itself was tailor-made to the music video. Lip-syncing, choreographed fish moves are just the beginning in this spot that blends seamless visual effects and a bizarre sense of humor. Watch the video here.

A commercial for Bridgestone Tires called Scream was also included. Chances are you’ve probably seen this American-made commercial on TV if you live in the States. Chandra Irving and Stephanie Gilgar made this short for Method Studios, and the way the screaming squirrel and his friends react when the little guy is almost hit by an oncoming car (avoided only by the effortless precision of Bridgestone Tires, of course) is only funny if you actually see it. Describing it just doesn’t do it justice. Luckily for you, you can watch it here.