Archive for Animation

Cary Huang, a Mind Behind Battle for Dream Island

Posted by morganni23 
· Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 
· 2 Comments

Cary K Huang is a creator whose journey started sooner that most would expect. Cary, in collaboration with his twin brother Michael, created an animated web series called Battle for Dream Island. Their first entry in this series, “BFDI 1a: Take the Plunge”  was released to YouTube, beginning the story of the original twenty living objects and the host and establishing that the contestants would battle to win a beautiful island. It did not receive a wide viewership at first, as it was through the steady persistence of their uploads that their audience would grow. Cary and Michael were twelve when the first episode was released on the first day of 2010, and over the course of exactly two years and twenty-four episodes totaling nearly four hours of animation, they gained more than a thousand subscribers.

The fans of Battle for Dream Island and a similar YouTube show known as Inanimate Insanity would come to be called the Object Show Community. This online community, as is the case with others like it on the net, produces large amounts of fan made content. Some may consider the OSC, especially as it exists today, to be a self-sustaining vortex of inspiration, animation, and creativity. 

The brothers’ journey in online animation had a good early chapter. It was followed by several false starts in the form of sequel seasons that did not get far off the ground. Through most of his time in high school and college education at Stanford, Cary was too busy to focus on animation. During this time, he was able to experiment with code in some interesting projects. It was not until a flurry of new episodes releasing in 2017 and 2018 that Battle for Dream Island was ready to return, this time with a far larger production team and renewed art style. Following a hiatus that can be attributed to a lack of time at the end of Cary’s college career, Battle for BFDI (aka. BFB) was able to release episodes regularly until it reached its conclusion. 

The BFDI team is still active today, and is currently producing the prequel season Battle for Dream Island Again and the sequel season The Power of Two simultaneously. Each new animated episode receives millions of views. Though the world and the scope of their creation has expanded greatly, Cary and Michael’s original vision from when they were twelve years old still persists in their modern efforts.

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Categories : Animation, Art, Comedy, Content Entrepreneurs, entertainment, Kid Entrepreneurs, Kids, Male Entrepreneurs, twins, Websites, Young Entrepreneur, YouTube
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Dreadhead Films

Posted by bonaquistmr23 
· Saturday, October 12th, 2024 
· 1 Comment

Meet brothers Julien and Justen Turner, young entrepreneurs in the film industry who do short narrative films, just at the ages of 25 and 21, respectively. Starting close to us, they have their business in Columbus, Ohio. Their inspiration started at an early age, where their parents had VHS cameras. They had the opportunity to use their mom’s old MacBook to play around with iMovie, where they got to play with special effects. They practiced their work first in the Midwest (Illionois), instead of the big cities like Hollywood.

Some of their inspiration flows from Tyler Perry, who made Atlanta a big film city. That’s their goal for Ohio. They don’t plan to move out of Ohio as they build their film industry. Another of their inspirations was The Karate Kid, where they got to see a black kid in a blockbuster film, and with a big afro, which inspired Justen to grow out his hair, which was the reason for the name of their film business.

Though young, their success has been noticed by many. They’ve been featured on platforms like Good Morning America, The New York Times, CNN, and MTV. They’ve also partnered with some big names, like Beats by Dre, Nike, Amazon, Air Jordan, and Adobe. They also received awards such as the Forbes Under 30, Webbys for the Best Video Campaign in Advertising and Best Video campaign for their Nike x Social Status campaign, as well as the gold award for New Director of the Year at 2023’s The Shots Americas Awards.

Their goal is to show their own journey and experience through their filmmaking life, by putting in some type of commentary in their work. At such young ages, they’ve been blessed with many opportunities, but due to their age, they’ve also been limited in what they can do. As they grow their business, they hope to bring longer-film narratives to the area. While they continue to pursue this career, they also want to be an outlet for others in the industry, by supporting other Midwest filmmakers.

 

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Categories : Animation, Art, Business::Entrepreneurs, Challenge, entertainment, Film, Movies, Sci Fi Inspiration, Television

Billie Eilish, a Genre-Defying Musician

Posted by morganni23 
· Tuesday, October 1st, 2024 
· 4 Comments
Billie Eilish holding several awards

Billie Eilish wearing one of her odd outfits and holding a trio of trophies.

Billie Eilish began her career in music when she was only fourteen years old, making a splash with the single Ocean Eyes. It was uploaded to SoundCloud to be listened to for free by anyone, and within only a few weeks it had accrued a million plays. Billie Eilish, whose full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell, rejects many of the standards for what a billboard topping artist can look and sound like. Eilish has a unique sense of style, frequently matching baggy and brightly colored and patterned clothes with large and eccentric jewelry. She is inspired by Pop, Industrial, EDM, and Jazz, among other music genres. The result is something timeless and innovative, what some call a whole new genre. Much of her songs and lyrics which are now trending internationally were first written in her home in collaboration with her brother. (He releases music separately as part of a band called The Slightlys.)

Billie Eilish is a very creative person. Eilish speaks in an interview with Noisey about how she gets many ideas from her strange dreams. She was homeschooled, enjoying horseback riding, dance, and singing. In her youth, she was a fan of Anime, specifically the movie Spirited Away. Billie Eilish has an impressive record when it comes to acclaim, trophies, and awards. She has had her music appear in 13 Reasons Why and Barbie (2023). She is the youngest person to win the Best Pop Vocal Album, Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year awards at the Grammy’s. Though her career has been highly successful, it has not been a very long one. As of yet, Eilish has only released three studio albums over eight years of music making. She’s just twenty-two years old currently, and has the potential to be a mainstay in the Pop music world, continuing to bring new, dark combinations of sound onto the billboard charts. She can be an example to us all that if you pursue your ideas (no matter how strange) with enough passion and vision, you can find an audience. Put yourself out there, and share your ideas!

 

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HmFgsLjpnM

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/4/18/18412282/who-is-billie-eilish-explained-coachella-2019

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Billie-Eilish

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Categories : Animation, Apparel/Accessories, Art, entertainment, Fashion, Female Empowerment, jewelery, Music, Musician Entrepreneurs, Pop, Teen Entrepreneurs, Women Entrepreneurs

The 14 year-old who Animated a Movie Scene

Posted by schlemeierej23 
· Monday, October 2nd, 2023 
· 4 Comments

If you like movies and animation, you’ve likely heard the name “Preston Mutanga”. Or, if not, you’re at least aware of Sony Animation’s most recent cinematic venture: Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse. The Spider-verse movies have revolutionized the world of animation, but I’m here to talk about one person in particular: Preston Mutanga.

A young man stands in front of a poster

Preston Mutanga in front of a Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse poster. Photo courtesy of Sony Animation.

Preston is a self-proclaimed lover of animation and an animator himself, but not in a “traditional” (and I use that term loosely here) sense. At 14 years old, Preston has found his niche in the world of Lego animation and is well on his way to mastering it. On his Youtube channel, LegoMe_TheOG, one finds multiple clips with Lego animated versions of movie scenes and trailers, among other things. As the sound on his videos is generally copyrighted, it is unlikely that his channel is monetized, but that is not to say that there are no future business prospects for Preston. When the second official trailer for Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse came out, Preston saw an opportunity for a fun video and got to work making a Lego version of the trailer (linked here). Within hours of posting, the video blew up on the internet (it is currently at 3.6 million views), and even caught the attention of Sony’s animation team. Through this, Preston was actually given the opportunity to animate a scene in the movie (which you can find here) itself! Information on the third Spider-verse film is very limited, so there’s no saying if we will see more of Preston’s work in it, but I have no doubt there are many things in store for him in the future!

In case you aren’t getting it, here’s the gist: A 14 year-old who loves animation was given the chance to animate a scene in the biggest animated movie of 2023 yet after reanimating the trailer for fun. Ultimately, I think there are some things we can all learn from this: 1) You are never too young to pursue what you love, and 2) Follow your passions! Don’t be afraid to start and be bad at something; if you keep with it, just like with a language or instrument or any other skill ever, you will improve and master it! God made us each with a specific purpose in mind, and it would be a waste of our lives not to pursue it.

Article: Elise Schlemeier

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Categories : Animation, Movies