We’re spotlighting our Animation Category Shortlist, platforming all things moving image.
This year our Animation Category is sponsored by Huion, the China based drawing tablet brand which provides drawing tablets, light pads, and pen displays, for beginners and professionals.
With both short form and longer form animations in this category, our new talent and professional Shortlist use innovative techniques, create captivating movement and use their illustrations to create immersive worlds to dive into.
We are sharing new talent and professional highlights as well as judges reflections and illustrator interviews.
Animation New Talent
These illustrations were created for “Night Market,” an animated film, created magical fantasy scenes and unique characters, conveying core themes and expressing the protagonist’s emotions. They provided comfort and hope to children with cancer, enriching the film’s emotional impact.
Inspired by her best friend’s life experience, this work focuses on the psychological changes in the daily life of a social phobic.
The first-person approach allows the viewer to immerse themselves in a day in the life of a social phobic, and to understand that social phobia is not just an introvert as society generally perceives it, but a reality that exists around us or in ourselves.
Animation Professional
To emphasise the feeling of freedom the mouths itself are running around, running free, free to speak as they want. To illustrate the cover for the ‘Freedom Of Speech’ theme of the month the image is both simple and strong, as the feature includes a number of articles with other more specific illustrations. We went for a playful and recognisable large head shape, hand-drawn style and typography.
This work is inspired by the many pets and their owners that Steph saw on a trip to Brooklyn in 2023. I wanted to capture the charisma, sass and fashion prowess that she saw pounding the pavements of New York.
Netflix were looking for an interactive animated project, so we pitched our story about an indoor cat and dog who lose their owner and must venture into the big wide world to find their ‘human’. It became the largest interactive project to ever be produced at Netflix, with over 87 BILLION different ways to experience every permutation of the story.
See more info and a link to the animation here.
Judges Highlights
“Very adorable story with a unique visual style. This animation combine the digital artwork with risograph printing textures perfectly… Thee characteristics of each insects is very funny, to see how each insect wakes up from nature and how they connects to each other is also very interesting.”
– Yawen Zheng – Animation Category Judge
“The different styles between the present day and the flashback scene are a really nice touch, particularly the use of riso to represent childhood – and it’s amazing that all of this work was achieved by one person. The illustration style, the colour palettes, and the compositions all do an outstanding job of communicating the themes”
Thom Milson – Animation Category Judge
Illustrator Interviews
Shortlisted in the Professional Animation Category
Why did you choose to enter this work?
Because it is my first piece of commissioned work and I love the concept of this animation, which is about the story of ‘things at the centre of humans’.
Read The Full Interview Here
See The Full project Here
Shortlisted In The New Talent Animation Category
Why did you choose to enter this work?
It allowed me to combine my passion for animation with a thought-provoking topic, presenting the concept of data in a humorous and engaging way to captivate and entertain the audience.
Read The Full Interview
See The Full project Here
If you enjoyed this curated list, be sure to keep check out the rest of the WIA2024 Shortlist Showcase. We’ll be adding content until September.
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