The Future is in Digital Organics
A LinkedIn Article by Andy Collen When looking back at my first introduction to the digital organic world, I recall my first steps into the
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An award winning animated short film, “Hero Sandwich” was inspired by a recording of family members who were exchanging stories about finding parking. The stories often inspire audiences to share their own stories, which is always fun. Happy Trails frequently makes short films as a way of exploring new ideas—in this case, we experimented with sand animation but took it to another level. Hero Sandwich is the first of its kind because it uses colored sand. Before Hero Sandwich came along, sand animation was most often lit from underneath while sand was manipulated on a pane of glass, resulting in black and white silhouettes that moved. Another process was to simply light sand from above and move it around. Hero Sandwich is a colored sand paintings!
This award-winning short film was a huge success!
Denver Int’l. Film Festival, Denver, CO, ACT Film Festival, (Olympic Games) Atlanta, GA, Rainy States Film Festival, Seattle, WA, Melbourne Int’l. Film Festival, Australia, The Best of the NW Festival , Portland, OR, Hollywood for Children, (IMAX Cinemas), NY, Annecy Animation Festival, Annecy, France
"Gideon the Great” was created as a short for a future series pilot. The intent with this film was to create a process where we make a seamless blend of puppeted and full-on 2D hand drawn animation. Gideon was also an exploration that allowed everyone involved to tap into their own childhood and pour that emotion onto the big screen.
This award-winning short film was a huge success!
Telly Award, Audience Award (Melbourne International Animation Festival), Golden Remi Award (Worldfest-Houston), Pixie Platinum Award (American Pixel Academy), and many more.
Cannes Film Festival2009 (Cannes Short Film Corner) -France, Action on Film Int'l Film Festival 2009, Kids First! Film Festival 2009, Del Ray Beach 2009, TriMedia Film Festival 2009, Chicago Int'l Children’s Film Festival 2009, Eugene Int'l Film Festival 2009, Heartland Film Festival 2009, Taos Shortz Film Festival 2009, Moving Image Film Festival 2009, Canada.
“For Annie” was created as a short to explore a combination of very simple animation living in an amazing digitally painted world. This digital painting style alludes to the film existing in the dream world.
This award-winning short film was a huge success!
2 Telly Award, Audience Award (Melbourne International Animation Festival), Creativity International Award, Best Narrative Short (Florida ART Film Festival), and many more.
Cannes Film Festival2007 (Cannes Short Film Corner) France, USA Film Festival 2007, Platform Film Festival 2007, Moondance 2007, LA Shorts Fest 2007, VISIONFEST 2007, Eugene International Film Festival 2007, Vine Shorts Fest 2007, The 7th Geneva Select Market 2007, 23rd Clermont-Ferrand Short film Market2008, 11th Annual East Lansing Children’s Film Festival, Florida ART Film Festival, 8th Annual Film Festival.
An award winning animated music video featuring a 2D technique developed specifically for the German band “FarmerBoys”. This animated technique was referred to as Cinemation. Our team at Happy Trails Animation hand painted every frame. This technique in this video was used to give the feeling of a dream or nightmare… in other words, it is a look that is out of this world!
This award-winning short film was a huge success!
Taken by Hayao Miyazaki, we wanted to create a western cultural version of anime-style animation. As a studio, we were taken by American illustrator Edward Gorey’s quill pen style of illustration. Animation is about visual communication and this project gave us the canvas to demonstrate that style with a message that conveys a very complicated message without any formal communication. We found that audiences around the world could still watch a silent film and form the same connection to the film and its messages.
This award-winning short film was a huge success!
Telly Award, Crystal Heart Award (Heartland Film Festival), Audience Award (Melbourne International Animation Festival), Golden Remi Award (Worldfest-Houston), and many more.
Mill Valley Film Festival, The Denver Int'l Film Festival, The NW Film & Video Festival, IndyMemphis Film Festival, Cinanima 2004 (Portugal), Cloud 9 Film Festival, Portland Int’l Film Festival Arizona Int'l Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, The Melbourne Int'l Animation Festival (Australia), Moondance Film Festival, Cartoons on the Bay(Italy), WorldFest-Houston, Seattle Int'l Film Festival, 21st Int'l Short Film Festival (Mo Fries) Hamburg Int'l (Germany), Animated Film Festival - Annecy (France), Boston Int'l Film Festival, Copenhagen Int'l Film Festival for Children and Youth-BUSTER (Denmark), Heartland Film Festival, Arts Electronica 2005 (Austria), Computer Space 2005 (Bulgaria), Golden Star Shorts Film Festival, Eugene Film Festival, Int'l Children’s Film Carnival (Hong Kong), Int'l Animation Festival (Turkey).
As a member of the “older and not so cool generation” anymore (sadly), we enlisted the “coolest” and most tech savvy group we could find and that was Happy Trails Animation. The work they have done for us is easily understood and considered fun by our diverse customer groups —anywhere from a professor of Medicine to the 14 yr. old whose mom just …
A LinkedIn Article by Andy Collen When looking back at my first introduction to the digital organic world, I recall my first steps into the
The Telluride Film Festival is great — it’s good to check out for a long weekend and watch a bunch of films; I inevitably get
Happy Trails Animation
Andy Collen, Owner/Producer