New demo reel

My new animation demo reel:

Watercolour

ILM offered a watercolour class recently and I jumped at the opportunity because I've never had a chance to learn to paint before. Here are some of my work over those 6 weeks:

Life drawing / Gesture drawing

Some of my recent life drawing, some are very quick sketches (30 seconds, 1 minute), some 5 minute and some 10 minute poses:

Individual project animation reels

"There is a marvellous delicacy to the way he picks up Sophie’s tiny glasses with his enormous pudgy fingers." (Peter Bradshaw - The BFG review, The Guardian)

The BFG has just had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and it's been great seeing the positive reviews that followed.

Reading Peter Bradshaw's review for The Guardian, I was so happy to see that one of my scenes was praised in the conclusion of the text: "There is a marvellous delicacy to the way he picks up Sophie’s tiny glasses with his enormous pudgy fingers."

Working on a Spielberg film is a dream come true, and I'm so proud to have been a part of this.

Here's the full text: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/14/the-bfg-review-mark-rylance-steven-spieberg-roald-dahl

Had such an amazing surprise today at work receiving a note from Jon Favreau, director of The Jungle Book, thanking each of us for our work on the movie, which he personally signed, accompanied by a beautiful medal/seal with his initials. So incredible to get something like this from the director himself! And so proud to be a part of this movie, congrats to the whole teams at Weta and MPC for the stunning work. We also got this cool Mickey tsum tsum from Disney with a thank you note :)

Smaug interview on the Colbert Report

One of the coolest projects I have worked on was this Smaug interview that aired on the Colbert Report to promote the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. It was such a privilege being one of the animators working on this lip sync. Benedict Cumberbatch's lines were hilarious and Smaug is such an iconic character, so it was one of the most fun things I got a chance to do, just pure animation. And as a treat, he thanked us individually at the end of the show :) Here's a printscreen of that credits section and the video of it:

Animator on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy!

I'm very proud to have been an animator on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which is coming out today!!! :D

Go check it out!

For some of my Guardians of the Galaxy shots, please check the following clips from the trailers:

. I animated Groot at 2:17 | youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2LIQ2-PZBC8#t=137

. I animated Rocket and Groot at 0:12 | youtube.com/watch?list=PLK5HARgNfgj9Nzu9sVTzFzn1aPMm7aGlu&feature=player_detailpage&v=XkC8HuPTGW0#t=12

. I animated Groot at 1:32 | youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PLK5HARgNfgj9Nzu9sVTzFzn1aPMm7aGlu&v=d96cjJhvlMA#t=92




These are my favourite trailers:

 

 

Short film 'Ceci n'est pas une mouche'

My animated short film 'Ceci n'est pas une mouche'/'This is not a fly' (For full list of awards and screenings, please use the 'Awards & Screenings' link on the right):

New acting test

This is an acting test I have been working on in my spare time:

Dialogue/acting test from Carlos Fraiha on Vimeo.

Audi Hummingbird awards!

I worked on this advert for Audi about a year ago, and in 2012 we've had some great news - it was nominated for the VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY AWARDS in 3 categories: Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Commercial, Outstanding Environments, and Outstanding Animated Character in a Broadcast Program or Commercial.

I was particularly happy that we got a nomination for the character animation, since I animated the hummingbird, bees and ducks, as well as the flowers blowing in the wind! Unfortunately the marketing department in the company forgot to send the names of the animators in the team (Gemma Aliaga and myself), so you can only see the project leads' names on the VES website.

You can see our names here in the company page for that project, under 3D Artists:

Recently it also won the CG Commercial Award from the 3D WORLD CG AWARDS 2012:

And lastly, it was selected for the Advertising Producers Association Collection 2012, a collection that 'showcases the best commercials of the year from UK production, post and editing companies and UK agencies'.

You can see the full 60 second advert here:

Short film 'Fiat Lux' - Official selection at the CineBH Film Festival!

During my holidays in Brazil, I made a short film with my friend Juliana Andrade using images she had made of the demolition of a neighbourhood in Belo Horizonte for the expansion of city roads. We decided to give it a twist by showing the images in a different context, like that of the creation of the world, rather than the destruction of an area. Hence the title 'Fiat Lux', Latin for 'Let there be light'. I composed the soundtrack from sounds captured in the actual place. It was fun as my first experience composing music! The film was selected for the CineBH Film Festival and screened last October. Here's the link to the festival page http://www.cinebh.com.br/ and a capture of the timetable mentioning the film:

'Ceci n'est pas une mouche' invited to 6 new festivals/screenings!

- Curta Circuito: International Animation Day (Belo Horizonte and Ipatinga, Brazil, 2010/2011)
- box[ur]shorts at Kino Sputnik (Liestal, Switzerland, 2010)
- Cortoons TV (www.streamit.it) part of CORTOONS International Short Animated Film Festival (Rome, 2011)
- shortCUTS (Berlin, 2011)
- Anim!arte 2011 - Mostra retrospectiva 10 anos (Rio de Janeiro, 2011)
- Itinerant Festival of animated short films part of the 'Fémynie & Dignité' endowment fund for the defence of the education for all (Tunisia, 2011)

IMDb page

Because of the festival entries, I got an invitation from IMDb to create a page for my film 'Ceci n'est pas une mouche', which you can find at:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1439528/

And one for myself, where you can see information about listed industry projects I have worked on, like Primeval:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463870/

Skillset Interview

This was an interview I gave on Skillset Media Academies (Central Saint Martins, where I got my degree in animation, is one of them). You can find it below or at

http://courses.skillset.org/case_studies/223

BBC FIlm Network

'Ceci n'est pas une mouche' was invited to be showcased on the BBC Film Network, a website about new film-makers in the UK. You can see the page below or at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p007by0s

Recent projects: Samsung and O2 Broadband

Here's the Niggles and Narks O2 Broadband advert I worked on a few months ago. It was a great team to work with. This is the 60 second spot, for which I animated a few shots. I animated almost all shots for the 20 second spot that features the Mystery Mook, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately it is not on Youtube, but you can check my shots in the reel above:




The ad for the new Samsung 3D TV is finally out. I was very happy to animate all of the butterflies for this. I have my shots in the demo reel, and here's a link to the full advert:




And here you can find some more information on the projects and the credits. You can also find these at The Mill website:

Royal Reel Award for Excellence in Film-making at the Canada International Film Festival / Interviews for Central Saint Martins and Orgulho de Minas

I have been told by the Canada International Film Festival that I will be receiving the Royal Reel Award for Excellence in Film-making this March! As the event will take place in Vancouver, I will have a friend that lives there represent me at the awards ceremony.


Some time ago I was interviewed for the Central Saint Martins website. They chose a few students from the university and created alumni profiles for them. This is my interview:

http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/58278.htm


And this is an interview for the State of Minas Gerais blog in Brazil with text and video (in Portuguese):

http://blog.mg.gov.br/orgulho-de-minas-carlos-fraiha-animador/

Festival and broadcast news for Ceci n'est pas une mouche

My short film 'Ceci n'est pas une mouche' has been invited to be broadcast on MHz Networks in the US, a new satellite TV channel that reaches millions of viewers in the country. Their aim is to show more quality international content to American audiences. I was very happy to have been invited to be a part of their programming. The film should start being broadcast in March.

The film has also been broadcast on:

Propeller TV - (UK, 2009)
V1 (UK, 2009)
Bravo (UK, 2009)
ABC website (Australia, 2009)

And it can be watched by all customers of Virgin Media TV on demand for free.

It was featured on the DVD of the September issue of 3D World magazine as one of the nominees for the Bitfilm Awards. And after one year submitting it to festivals, I can finally show the complete list of festival screenings so far. They are over 65 festivals in 29 countries and it's great to see the film was seen by people from so many different cultures.


Screenings & Awards:

- Canada International Film Festival (Canada, 2010) - ROYAL REEL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILMMAKING
- Festival Internazionale del Cinema d'Arte (Italy, 2009) - SPECIAL JURY AWARD
- Dervio International Animation Festival (Italy, 2009) - BEST CHARACTER AWARD
- Portable Film Festival (Australia, 2009) - 2ND PLACE - GET ANIMATED CATEGORY
- Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (USA, 2009)
- California International Animation Festival (USA, 2009)
- Virgin Media Shorts - Finalist (UK, 2009)
- box[ur]shorts Film Festival 2010 - Los Angeles/New York City/Alpharetta/Park City (USA) Basel (Switzerland) Hiroshima (Japan)
- Toronto Animated Image Society Animation Showcase (Canada, 2009)
- Nuit Blanche Toronto (Canada, 2009)
- Globalfest (Canada, 2009)
- Animation Attack! (USA, 2009)
- NextFrame (USA, 2009)
- Portobello Film Festival London (UK, 2009)
- Rotoreliefs (UK, 2010)
- Bitfilm Festival (Germany, 2009)
- I Castelli Animati International Animated Film Festival (Italy, 2009)
- Cartoon Club International Festival of Animation Cinema and Comics (Italy, 2009)
- Bornshorts International Film Festival (Denmark, 2009)
- Giggleshorts International Comedy Short Film Festival (Canada, 2009)
- Athens Video Art Festival (Greece, 2009)
- Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival of Athens (Greece, 2010)
- PISAF - Puchon International Student Animation Festival (Korea, 2009)
- China International Animation and Digital Arts Festival (China, 2009)
- Propeller Studentfest Finalists - Screened at the Leeds Film Festival, Reading Festival, Latitude Festival and the Hull International Short Film Festival (UK, 2009)
- European Youth Film Festival of Flanders - (Belgium, 2009)
- Festival International du court-métrage d’animation de Neufchâteau (Belgium, 2009)
- Croq'Anime Festival of Animated Short Films (France, 2009)
- Festival Séquence court-métrage (France, 2009)
- Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market (France, 2010)
- Festival d'Oise du Court (France, 2009)
- Algarve International Film Festival (Portugal, 2009)
- FIKE - Evora International Short Film Festival (Portugal, 2009)
- Euroshorts (Poland, 2009)
- AleKino! (Poland, 2009)
- AniFest (Czech Republic, 2010)
- Budapest Short Film Festival (Hungary, 2009)
- Kinofest (Romania, 2009)
- Banjaluka International Animated Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2009)
- St. Petersburg International Youth Film Festival (Russia, 2009)
- Message to Man International Film Festival (Russia, 2009)
- International Short Film Festival of Montecatini Terme (Italy, 2009)
- Video Festival Imperia (Italy, 2009)
- ISCA - Istituto per lo Studio del Cinema di Animazione di Milano (Italy, 2009)
- Durban International Film Festival (South Africa, 2009)
- Anim!Arte (Brazil, 2009)
- MUMIA - Mostra Udigrudi Mundial de Animacao (Brazil, 2009)
- Festcine Festival de Cinema Universitario (Brazil, 2009)
- Expotoons (Argentina, 2009)
- Montezuma International Film Festival (Costa Rica, 2009)
- YOUKI International Youth Media Festival (Austria, 2009)
- Going Underground - International Subway Film Festival Berlin (Germany, 2009)
- Up-and-coming International Film Festival Hannover (Germany, 2009)
- International Low & No Budget Short Film Festival (Germany, 2009)
- Festival Internacional de Filmets de Badalona - Barcelona (Spain, 2009)
- Animacam (Spain, 2009)
- Cinekid Screening Club (Netherlands, 2009)
- Leith Short Film Festival (UK, 2009)
- Time Out ‘On the Up’ (UK, 2008)
- The National Gallery, London (UK, 2008)
- Istanbul International Children’s Film Festival (Turkey, 2008)
- Akbank Short Film Festival (Turkey, 2009)
- Discovering Latin America Film Festival (UK, 2008)
- Yobi TV - Semifinalist (US, 2009)
- Encounters Short Film Festival – Imagine Student Competition Finalists (UK, 2008)

Life drawing

These are some drawings I've made recently. The more sketchy ones were made during my friend's dance lessons. It was hard to draw them as they would never hold a pose for more than an instant, but these are some of the drawings in which I was able to capture some of the choreography, mood or shapes they were creating:






The more finished ones are from a life drawing class at Candid Arts:

Richard Williams

I went to the talk with Richard Williams for the release of the new expanded edition of his Animator's Survival Kit, and not only I got an autograph, I got to take a picture with the man himself! He was very generous in sharing loads of stories and tips from the new book and it was a joy listening to him talk about his career.

I also got to talk to animator Roy Naisbitt who worked with him for 25 years, 12 of which on the Thief and the Cobbler. He said he was actually born in Rio, where his parents were on holiday, and came to the UK after 3 weeks of being born!

Virgin Media Shorts awards ceremony

The awards ceremony was great. Each one of us got a 35mm print of our shorts, and it was very nice meeting all the other film-makers. Here are some pictures from the evening:



Receiving the 35mm print


By the poster for 'Ceci n'est pas une mouche'


With Tom Hebdon, friend and voice-over artist for the main character