We're delighted to have sponsored the Animation award for Limerick School of Art and Design's 2019 Graduate Show & Awards Ceremony which took place on Saturday, 1st June!

Our panel of judges was incredibly impressed by the standard of work from this year's graduates. Brown Bag Films' 2D Artist Tracy Dalton attended the grad show and presented the Animation award to Leanne Dooley for her short 'The I Land' at the awards ceremony!

A huge congratulations to all the students on their fantastic work!

Be sure to check out the Student Shorts from LSAD's Animation & Motion Design students below:

The I Land by Leanne Dooley (Winning Short)

The I Land is an animated short that follows the main character upon her discovery of a deserted island. This thriving oasis is vibrant with a flourishing eco system, set in the middle of a vast ocean. The nameless islander works hard to survive by utilising the Islands resources. However, the more she takes the more vulnerable she and the island become. This animated short acts as a metaphor, attempting to hold up a mirror to humanity’s failure to acknowledge the consequences of our actions and how short-term gain can often lend itself to monumental loss.

A considered colour palette and tactile textures are combined with emotive compositions to convey the beauty and vulnerability of this secluded Island. Careful thought was given to the character development. The woman represents the complicated yet fundamental human failing in only thinking of one’s own needs even if they do not knowingly mean any harm.

Bright Eyes & Bushy Tails by Melissa Duffy

This piece is a hybrid between animation and film. Made using Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro and the help of fellow classmates and tutors.

‘Bright Eyes and Bushy Tails’ is a short film encapsulating the wild imaginations of a sick child and the wonderfully eccentric phrases heard frequently in the artists home. The piece delves into the the artists personal reflections and their appreciation for a childhood comfort toy. The phrases, motivated by a maternal inspiration, animates the child’s imagination into hallucinating large donkeys and mice. It is in fact the child’s own comfort toy who rescues him from his imagined terrors. The toy at first seems menacing, but soon proves itself to be a familiar friend. The toy provides great comfort to the child in his time of need and although his mother is busy, his toy is there as a constant comfort, until she saves her son from his tribulation.

The piece explores the idea that the maternal support cannot always be available, but the love of a soft toy can be a great comfort until she can be there. Through the mixed mediums of 2D animation and film, the piece exhibits the beasts in garish, kitsch heads, manically terrifying the child. This is starkly contrasted to the playful animated scenes of his reality. By animating the boy in exaggerated curves and shapes, he displays a liquid-like form, to represent the foreboding feeling of illness.

Three by Natasha Duffy

The concept for this project takes inspiration from crystalline structures. These geometric shapes are representative of the building blocks of the universe. The piece is designed to play on the audience’s curiosity, as curiosity is the instinct to ever expand our knowledge about how the world works. Through repetition and superstition, we are constantly learning about the workings of the universe as a whole. One such repetition is the number three. It is a constant reoccurring phenomenon within our universe and throughout history. The repeated use of familiar geometric structures represents the different ways the number three occurs in our world. The visuals are designed to take the viewer on a journey through our known universe and to hopefully come away with a new perspective on how the world works.

Piseogaí by Méabh Deloughry

Piseogaí is the Irish word for Superstitions When searching for inspiration for what I wanted to write my film about I looked to when I lived in England this past summer. I spent a lot of time telling the friends I met there the stories that all Irish people hear as children about the sinister fairies and the superstitions that come with them. That experience of telling others about our unique beliefs made me realise how much I value Irish culture and our stories. I wanted to make a film inspired by those stories but also one centred around emotion and atmosphere as those are the parts of film that have always resonated the most with me. This film is about a frightened, yet determined young child who has been trapped in a fairy realm and is finally making her escape, but there is someone stalking close behind her.

Foxglove by Liam Flannery

Foxglove tells the story of a young woman named Bridget Cleary, who in 1895, was murdered by her husband. He and the local townspeople believed her to be a Faerie imposter that had come to wreak havoc on their lives.

Bridget was an independent and successful dressmaker, while her husband Michael worked as a cooper. Michael felt emasculated by her success and rumors of adultery only fueled his resentment towards her. On a stormy March day Bridget fell ill and became bedridden, and Michael accused her of being a faerie and not the woman he married. He then gathered the local villagers to conspire against her. They beat her, poisoned her and ultimately, set her ablaze in her own home.

The piece was built digitally in 3D to allow the viewer to experience these key moments of the story with immersion and fidelity. Foxglove is a reenactment of this story and recreates Bridget’s environment as vignettes, moments in time, in hopes to convey the sense of isolation and claustrophobia that she would have felt in her final hours.

Leaba Gorm by Siobhán Ní Thuairisg

Leaba Gorm is a mythological tale in which explores a man’s obsession disrupts the balance between what exists and what doesn’t. Mythology is rich in emotional meaning. What turns a story into a legend is how far these emotions resonate. This animation is about the balance between this world and the other. Many old Irish legends in Connemara focus on this other world and employ a sense of fear in order to project their messages. This fear has always served to reinforce respect for the natural world and its inhabitants. Hares have many spiritual connotations in Irish mythology. They are believed to be messengers between this world and the next. The main character of this story is a hare named Cíb whose ability to travel between our world and the other becomes his only form of defence. This ability however unleashes one of humanity’s greatest flaws within his hunter who becomes obsessed with possessing Cíb’s power. He becomes ravenous in his consumption and as he continues to disrupt the balance between what exists and what does not, a sacrifice must ultimately be made to restore that balance.