Due in UK cinemas on Friday 22nd March, “The Croods” is the latest 3D computer animated movie from DreamWorks Studios.

The 3D, prehistoric, comedy adventure follows the worlds first modern family as they embark on a journey of discovery. When their cave, which has always protected them from danger, is destroyed, they are forced to leave everything they know behind. Travelling across an incredible landscape, the Croods discover a whole new world filled with fantastic creatures, and their outlook is changed forever.

The voice-over cast includes a wealth of well known talent including Nicholas Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone. See the official trailer here

Comments are off for this post

We haven’t featured any really nice animation work in our blog posts for a while – so we thought we’d share this one with you. Disney’s “Paperman” is a hybrid of both 2D and 3D animation and recently won an Oscar for “Best Animated Short Film” at this years ceremony held in February. This marks a triumph for hand drawn animation – which is often thought to be a dying medium. Although the hand drawn element isn’t in the traditional sense, it highlights how effective use of modern technology can revive more traditional analog formats.

Comments are off for this post

We kick started 2013 in the studio with some great new projects lined up, sure to keep us busy over the coming months. In January, we also began making some exciting plans to travel to various conferences, exhibitions and meetings both nationally and internationally over the course of the year.

So far, we’ve reached February and we’ve already been out on the road! At the beginning of the month we braved the icy weather and visited the annual Subsea UK conference and exhibition in Aberdeen. It was great to catch up with some of our existing contacts and also to speak to some new people regarding potential new projects. We have many more conferences lined up for the year so be sure to say hello if you see us out and about!

We’re also looking forward to spending some time at Teeside University on Wednesday for their annual Animex festival. We’ll be taking a stand in the market place for the day, hopefully networking with other industry professionals and speaking to some of the students. Look out for our stand and come and say hello!

Comments are off for this post

After an incredible 2012 for Kuro Dragon, we’re currently finishing up for the Christmas holidays.

This year has proven to be a fun, exciting and greatly successful time in the Kuro Dragon studio as we continue to grow. We’ve enjoyed working with all of our clients, and attending all of the conferences and networking events throughout the year.

2013 looks set to be another exciting year, with a number of new projects lined up allowing the opportunity to expand our international client portfolio. We also have a long list of conferences we’ll be attending nationally and internationally so look out for us and come and say hello!

So, to finish on a festive note, Merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for 2013!

Comments are off for this post

We’ve had a busy few months in the Kuro Dragon studio, and as a result, we’re looking to grow our team. We’re currently on the lookout for 3D Generalists, preferably 3DS Max based, however we’re willing to consider anyone with a particularly impressive show reel, who could add value to our existing team.

We thought we’d leave you a little advice regarding speculative applications as we often look through numerous emails and CV’s and want to scream with frustration. First and foremost, read, re read and read again before sending any letters or emails. Please ensure your spelling and grammar is correct. We want to be really impressed by you, and if the first impression you give us contains mistakes, you’re presenting yourself in a really negative manner.

Secondly, streamline your message to be really precise and informative. We’re not looking for an essay, just a quick introduction and description about what you do and the role you’re applying for. Always include a link to your work in your first message. That way we can get a really good idea of your skills and capabilities without sending numerous emails back and forth.

Finally, and most importantly, do not cram your show reel with basic work, its better having a shorter, more impressive show reel than a longer one padded out with simple work. We only want to see you working to the best of your ability. We want you to wow us, so that we can’t wait to meet you and hear what you can bring to the team, so please spend a small amount of time perfecting your application, as it will definitely be beneficial in the long run.

We hope you take these tips on board and look forward to reading/viewing your applications! Please send any emails to Kelsey@kurodragon.com.

Good luck!

Comments are off for this post

This discussion continuously sparks a huge debate in the Kuro Dragon office. We all have our favourites and coming to a mutual conclusion proves almost impossible. This is the list we came up with but we just couldn’t decide on how to order them. Toy Story 3 seemed to be a common choice along with the other classics, Finding Nemo and The Incredible’s.

We also noticed that they all seemed to be quite recent CGI movies and when we stopped to consider all of the older classics we opened a whole new can of worms! (we’ll save that for another post).

What do you think? How would you order our list?

In no particular order:

Toy Story 3

How to Train Your Dragon

Lion King

Finding Nemo

The Incredible’s

 

Happy Feet

Megamind

Cars

Despicable Me

Ratatouille 

 

Comments are off for this post

Simple answer? No! It most certainly isn’t easy! It takes a great deal of skill, knowledge and practise to create a high quality piece of animation. That’s why there’s a lot of really poor quality work out there! The basics may be easy, but we think you need that special creative eye to produce real high quality, show stopping animation.

(take a look at our showcase ;-) )

To justify our opinion, we think this demonstrates perfectly why animation should be left to the real professionals. Take a still frame from a popular animation, replicate it in Maya in 30 minutes and this is what you’ll get.

NOTE: This is what we could be watching, if Kurobot and the team weren’t here to save us all!

1. Shrek and Donkey

2. Toy Story 3

3. Finding Nemo

4. The Incredible’s

5. Spongebob Squarepants

6. Jimmy Neutron

Source: http://badlyrecreatedanimatedfilmframes.tumblr.com/

Comments are off for this post

As Halloween approaches, and most of your plans for this years spooky celebrations are already set, here’s something to note for Halloween 2013.

Over the weekend Animation World Network revealed Pixar’s plans to bring Toy Story back to our screens come Halloween 2013 for a spooky TV special. “Toy Story of Terror” will be the first return of Woody and the gang since 2010′s Oscar winning Toy Story 3, which became the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

The plot centres around a road-trip in which the group stop off at a roadside motel, events take a turn for the worst when one of the toys goes missing. The rest of the group find themselves caught in a serious of mysterious events which they need to solve to find their friend. We’re hoping it’s as good as the Toy Story films and a teaser for a Toy Story 4!

Source: Pixar Animation Studios

 

Comments are off for this post

Frankenweenie is a black and white stop motion animated film by Tim Burton, originally created in 1984 as a short film of the same name. The tale features a young boy, Victor who loses his pet dog Sparky. Using the power of science, Victor brings Sparky back to life, much like the plot of the 1931 horror film, Frankenstein. When Sparky escapes, Victor finds himself, along with fellow students, teachers and neighbours, unable to control his pet whilst he causes havoc around town.

The film is the first black and white feature and the first stop motion animation to be released in IMAX 3D, and its also set to open this years London Film Festival from 10 October-21 October. The voice cast includes Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, and various other well known names. Clare Stewart, BFI head of exhibition who has recently taken control of the organisation of the festival spoke passionately about the film, “Frankenweenie is a perfect choice of opener – it’s a film that revels in the magic of movies from one of cinema’s great visionaries. Tim Burton has chosen London as his home city and hundreds of talented British craftspeople have contributed to this production”. The European première will be beamed to the BFI IMAX and 30 screens across the UK.

 

Comments are off for this post

Working in an animation studio, one of the most commonly asked questions is who actually needs animation and what do they use it for? Kurobot’s answer to this question? Everyone! Anyone with a business or a product/service to sell could harness this method of promotion.

Animation is one of the most versatile sales tools you could possibly use. Instead of expecting your potential customers to read a block of text on a page, you can create an interesting visual of absolutely ANYTHING to demand their attention.

Benefits according to Kurobot

Create a visual of something that could never be achieved through live film. Sub-sea animation demonstrates this need perfectly! 

Demonstrate how your product/service works. This can be particularly useful if your product is the size of a double decker bus! 

 

Present technical information or long explanations * yawn * in a fun, interesting, visually appealing form.

Use your animation to pitch your product/service to your target customer, show them how they could benefit from it and develop your animation to carefully position the product. 

If you’d like to ask me more about how I can help, you can get in touch here… http://www.kurodragon.com/talk-to-us/

Comments are off for this post