Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/22917
Education How two animators used the Internet to gain fame Web Enabled T By Dustin Driver he Internet is the best thing to happen to independent animators. Just ask Patrick Boivin. Te stop-motion ani- mator used YouTube to catapult his career into the strato- sphere. Or you could talk to animator A dam Phillips, who has used his personal site and F lash animation por tal New- grounds.com to gain international acclaim. Both animators are part of a new movement. Tey’re break- ing away fr om the traditional model of studio-backed ani - mation, and they’re using the Web to do it. Boivin garner ed fame for his stop-motion action-figure films “YouTube Street Fighter” and “Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee.” Ten Google commis- sioned a stop-motion film for its new phone. Today, producers are beating down his door to offer him work. Phillips, mean- while, dropped his job at D isney to create Flash animations. His shorts, “Bitey of B rackenwood,” “Littlefoot,” and others won Flashforward, Webby, and TGSNT (Te Greatest Story Never Told) awards. Now, Phillips is on the v erge of making his own full-length feature film. “It’s the first time in the history of animation and mo vie- making that anybody can expect to be seen by someone from the other side of the planet on the same day he just finished his film,” says Boivin. Phillips adds, “Now you don’t have to go door to door with your work in a folder . You can just put it online, and if it ’s good enough, work will come to you.” The Web has revolutionized filmmaking and has spawned the careers of many novices. Stop-motion animator Patrick Boivin used the Internet to market himself and his talents. To this end, he gained fame for his film “Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee.” 36 December 2010 Succeeding Online Boivin started with sketching cartoons in his school notebook in Montreal. Ten he and some friends launched a com- edy troupe called Alliage that per formed in local bars. Boivin grabbed a VHS camera and started filming the performances. Ten he started making full-fledged films, complete with spe- cial effects. Te skits were so good that in 2002 Alliage landed a gig on the comedy TV show Phylactère Cola. From there, Boivin started directing television commercials. It was steady work, but not ideal. Te director wanted to cr eate his o wn films. Te plan: Launch a YouTube channel, get some attention, go indepen- dent. “On YouTube, it’s hard to get noticed, so I star ted do- ing the stop-motion animation clips to get attention,” he says. Boivin got some action figures, set up a greenscreen studio on his kitchen table, and went to work. Untrained in animation,