Tattoo

This is probably the most exciting piece of animation that I've seen in recent years. It's a teaser reel for a project called "Tattoo" that was done by ITS CARTOON, a Beijing-based animation company that is doing some phenomenal work right now. That's right, I said Beijing... as in China. Mark my words, China is going to be the next hotspot in cutting-edge animation.

I have no idea if this was ever made into a full-length thing. And it's hard to see all the coolness of this piece in this Youtube clip, but take a look anyway. The coolest of the cool starts at around 2:55 or so... when the helicopters show up:


I've never seen camera-control (movement, focus, zoom, etc.) like that used in animation before. And how cool is the use of 2D characters in a 3D-that-looks-2D environment? Shiny.