This is my little and very quick contribution to the "Sky Doll hommage concours".
It's definitely been a fun way to wrap a lovely weekend!
And tomorrow...starting a new exciting job ;)
I've been doing some updates and added a few animations on my website now that The Secret of Kells is out and released in many countries (New York premiere is this weekend!)
So here it is: www.alessandrasorrentino.com
As many of you were curious to see the "special" flash sequences Alf and I animated for the movie, I decided to post some of them here.
Digital Fx are made by Jeremy Purcell.
The blackboard effect has been applied later by Digital Graphics on our black on white animation.
I might post some of the traditional animation here later, but if you wish to have a peek now, just go to my website!
Enjoy :)
Just a silly doodle but still..it's a new post :) Life has been nuts over the last couple of months or so, but finally Alf and I decided to take a tiny little break and go to the Annecy festival!!
IX secolo. Brendan, un ragazzo di dodici anni, cresce circondato da monaci nell'abbazia fortificata di Kells, sotto la tutela di suo zio, Abbott Cellach, un uomo severo e autoritario che lo educa con grande rigore, confidando nel fatto che un giorno potra' seguire i suoi stessi passi.
Ma ben presto la monotona vita del giovane Brendan viene sconvolta dall'arrivo di Brother Aidan, un anziano maestro illuminato che gli mostra la bellezza dell'arte e stimola la sua creativita' attraverso le pagine dello straordinario, ma non ancora completo, Libro di Kells.
La minaccia di una terribile invasione vichinga e' imminente, tuttavia Brendan e' determinato a inseguire la strada dei suoi sogni: completare le ultime pagine del Libro prima che sia troppo tardi. Per farlo dovra' intraprendere un rischioso viaggio e, accompagnato dalla misteriosa fatina Aisling e dal gatto Pangur Ban, scoprira' per la prima volta il mondo al di fuori delle mura dell'abbazia, e le sue piu' profonde paure.
Kells e' un piccolo centro abitato che sorge nella contea di Kilkenny, in Irlanda. Ed e' proprio qui che tutto ha inizio, 10 anni fa, presso lo studio Cartoon Saloon, dall'entusiasmo del regista Tomm Moore e il suo team di giovani talenti, ai quali col tempo si sono affiancati artisti provenienti da tutto il mondo.
storyboard panel from "Monsters & Pirates" - Copyright Graphilm
A couple of character shots from the pirates show I am working on at the moment. All drawn on Flash.
Our little tiger is very sick.
Today I got to enjoy a whole day free from work! The 24th of June here is San Giovanni's day, the patron saint of Turin and as per every year all the town celebrated with shows in the main squares, historical re-enactments, small markets selling delicious typical products, athletic events and of course, fireworks on the Po river. So nice to take it easy on a weekday.
I just found this thing called Flipbook. It's a little app on the Benetton (!?!) website that lets you make small straight-ahead animations with one brush tool and one onion skin view.
Mmm..it's been a while since the last post! Unfortunately I am not allowed to show anything I've been working on the last couple of months, so..here is our little lynx! I know, it's not really animation related but who cares, he's so cute! :)
In April 1988 one of the loveliest animated film from Studio Ghibli saw the light of day. So, I couldn't help but celebrate and draw one of my favourite moments in the movie.. :)
concept design by Tom Caulfield
For those who asked for a bigger version of the "storyboard to screen" video, I finally managed to upload a swf on my website.. :)
I'm finally settled in my new apartment in Turin! Yay!!
Italy is lovely these days, gorgeous autumn colours and a fantastic weather exactly as I expected. Winter is coming though, the air is getting cooler and the chestnut men have already taken their strategic spots in the city centre :)
Alfredo and I started animating on the feature again, working from home is very comfortable and I totally love the studio room we organized.. it's so cosy and there's all the equipment and supplies we need - italian coffee machine included, of course!
Quiz: ...who remembers who's the happy fella on the top? ;)
So just a quick post for friends to say that I'm still alive and happy and so so busy :)
I came back only a couple of weeks ago from my trip to the States, which was awesome!! Thanks to our friends Armand Serrano, Marcelo Vignali, Marcos Mateu, Paul Lasaine, Evan Smith, Mike Nguyen and all the lovely people we met at Sony, Pixar and July Films, we had a really fantastic time.
Above: the funicular in Bergamo
We went all together to the coast in the centre of Italy enjoying the sunshine, good books and the sound of the sea. On the way back to Bergamo we stopped in a lovely town, which is actually one of the smallest European microstates, San Marino. It's a country in the Apennine Mountains, completely surrounded by Italy. It has got a very irregular terrain and its highest point, the Monte Titano, is situated at 749 metres above sea level. On its three peaks are located the three towers of San Marino, which are depicted on the national flag. That day I visited also the national torture museum....really scary and disturbing, but a lot interesting from the history point of view.
Top: San Marino, Monte Titano - rooftops
Bottom: the National Ttorture Museum
After that, Alfredo and my dear friends Jesse and Adrien from Cartoon Saloon joined me in Bergamo and from that point, the roadtrip to Ireland started!!!!!!
We had a few stops in some very gorgeous places. First of all, my hometown Turin - I've been missing it soooo much, I just love it. The weather was so pleasantly warm even in the night and we had delicious gelato and soft, really tasty pizza like I haven't eaten in ages. :)
Top: old picture of Turin, Via Pietro Micca
Bottom: a couple of study sketches from different views.
Top: ducks in the Lago Piccolo, Avigliana
Bottom: Sacra di San Michele
That was the last stop in Italy. After that, la France! Really beautiful landscapes across the Alps. Adrien took us to a very cute village, Perouges, a medieval walled town near Lyon. Very pictoresque houses, small cobblestoned lanes, an old well, a fortress church and stores with stalls and evocative signs. Just lovely!
Top: Perouges and...the fig tree.
That said, it's been a fantastic holiday!
Oh my, it has been a while! I've been working with Alfredo on the flash sequences of the film, which I have to say are a lot of fun to animate.
Some of them are very different from each others, in terms of graphic style and animation timing.. my favourite one is probably the 'white chalk on a blackboard' sequence. It's basically frame by frame animation and childish drawings that come from Brendan's hand. I think it came up pretty cute and I can't wait to see the final texture effect that the oversea studio is adding to it.
Two more weeks of work and I'll see myself saying goodbye to the Cartoon Saloon studio and Kilkenny after all this time.. it feels so weird! But after that, a long well deserved holiday in my sunny Italy!!! :D
The sketch on the top is an early study for a little story I'm developing for the Cartoon Saloon Anthology. The book should come out in Autumn, I'm very curious to see what everyone here is sneakily working on!!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
So here's some pictures I took last week in Torino, my home town.
I've taken a break to recharge my batteries and it was really worth it.. it had been a fantastic time, as usual. Sunny days, awesome food, hanging up with old friends again and having long pleasant walks in the city centre.. Eating gelato... I missed all that so much! :)
Every time I come back to Italy I wish I could stay there for good, it's just so beautiful..
But work calls and so on, and now I'm back to Ireland and back to my coat!
other pictures at this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/pandaleina/Torino
Rainy, rainy, rainy days here in Kilkenny...
But this post is not to curse the irish weather (well, not this time..)!
It is to introduce you to a very talented artist who is also one of the nicest persons I've ever known. His name is Mike Nguyen and he has just made a new personal website called "Rainplace". Yay!
Here is the link: www.rainplace.net
Above: illustration by Mike Nguyen
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And here is the link of "My Little World", the feature film he's directing at July Films. http://www.julyfilms.com/
Have a look, you'll find amazing things :)
Enjoy the rest of the week, and me..I'll hopefully come back soon..
ciao-ciao
Some other Skunk Fu storyboard panels.
Ahh laziness.
I wanted to stop by the studio today, but it looks so cold outside..!
Another image from "Marla", my graduation film. I remember I had a rough animation test of that walk scene, somewhere....:(
Ahh messiness.
..ah well, I didn't know how to call this post, that's only what we cooked today for dinner ;)
I've just made some few seconds sketches from Peter Pan to analize a scene and I realized that I should do it more often because it's so enjoyable...and studying frame by frame those old school animations is always amazing.. sometimes depressing but still amazing... :)
so, other 8 days of work and I'll be packing my suitcase for Italy! these holidays will be so short but I can't wait to see my family and have breakfast with my favourite biscuits.
..When I was young I really Loved a japanese tv series called Memole ("Memoru" is the japanese title). It was one of the cutest things in the world, soft watercolour backgrounds and hundreds of tiny precious bouncin' pixies...!
I've just found this super-old drawing I made in the school years during some boring lessons, I was probably seventeen..:)
I wish I could post something newer..it's been a long time since the last one! I'm trying to work on a couple of illustrations in the free time, the animation on Brendan is getting very busy, more sleepless night and so on, but it's all good ;)
Hope to write here soon again, take care
Ale
These are from "The Art of Turtle Watching", my last Skunk Fu storyboard.
It was great to work on that episode, very funny stuff, lot of action and crazy chasings on ice and snow.
And Skunk looked so cute with the snow hat... :)
These are some of the secondary characters I've made with my friend Alice for our film "Marla".
And this is actually Marla, but with more comfortable shoes...she usually wears high heel shoes...
I've posted more stuff in my "marla" blog! Click on the link and enjoy :)
These are some storyboard drawings I've made for my pal Razmo's "The Art of Leaving Them Laughing", a very crazy and cool Skunk Fu episode!
Good night,
Ale
I finally posted some images on the blog of "Marla", the short film I made with my two friends Alice and Simona two years ago...ahh memories. Anyway, I'll add pictures little by little. here is the link:
http://calzette-rosa.blogspot.com
hope you'll enjoy it
Background painting by Donato Sansone (top) and Simona Ciraolo (bottom)
And...speaking of memories, here is the lovely card the Skunk crew have made for me and alf. We got a 'goodbye party' for our last day on the show..from next monday our desks will be downstairs, in the room where we'll be animating again with pencil and lightbox on the feature film "Brendan and the Secret of Kells", another fantastic project here in Cartoon Saloon.. So lots of different feelings, excitement, melancholy..we really had a great time on Skunk Fu, especially for the very nice people we worked with. We'll miss you guys! :)
This post is just an excuse to say thank you to all the great people in Cartoon Saloon.
Yesterday they sneakly organized a lovely birthday party for me, I was so surpised and happy to see ALL of them in the Skunk Fu room!
Lots of people, food, vino, a cake with candles and Totoro, of course...Sweet!
So thanks everybody, thank you with aaaall my heart. :'')
..'Marla' is the short film I've been working on with my friends Alice Lia and Simona Ciraolo, both great artists.
It is all about a pretty and bizarre girl, appeared in a weird situation, who walks in a town that stimulates her crazy imagination. She likes vintage fashion and all the cute and useless, girly objects. And she always gets what she wants, whatever comes her way..
I promised to create a blog just for her, to post all the artwork we've made..and little by little I'll keep my promise.
Inspiration sketch (top) by Alice Lia, Background painting by Donato Sansone
Hope to post the link soon..
Good night
Hi there, I'm finally back from my nice and relaxing holidays in Italy (sigh..)
Actually after two weeks of sunshine, great food, seaside and 36 degrees it was a little bit hard to come back to a cold and rainy Kilkenny...but anyway, here I am and now I can post some stuff again!
I just want to share with you this link, it's the blog of "Skunk Fu".
http://skunkfu.blogspot.com/
I'm working on this show as animator and storyboard artist, it's a very funny and interesting project. Lots of awesome artwork and lovely and talented people.
Check it out :)
Here are some other life drawings....
I still remember the cramp I got when I drew the one with my hands :)
And now, after this break...back to animate.
See ya
