June 26, 2009

One Lucky Duckie

Just by chance, I came across the trailer for a wonderful animated short that is making waves in the film festival circuit. The Happy Duckling is an eight minute animated adventure set in a pop-up book world.  It follows a young boy as he navigates his way through a pop-up book world as he evades a curious duck.

It is reported that the film was produced by a talented and dedicated team of students from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Arts and Design and Abertay University in England. The Happy Duckling was written and directed by Gili Dolev in 2008 and features original music by Mick Cooke of Belle and Sebastian fame.

This is some of the slickest computer representation of pop-ups that I have seen, and I hope to one day get to see the entire feature.  Looks like my best chance would be to view it at SIGGRAPH in August.  Fellow paper engineer, Matthew Shlian, took part in this conference last year and spoke very highly of its ability to showcase cutting edge collaborations of art and technology.

Even if I don’t make it to New Orleans for the film festival, I hope that these young animators will continue to dazzle us with their fun, inventive storytelling and computer craft.  Maybe one day we will be able to see a whole pop-up world unfold on the big screen.

- Kyle

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