Wire Cutters

Please click here to watch Wire Cutters

    Well I have to say that the graphics were pretty good, I find it interesting that all the animating was done by one man (that is pretty impressive). It is spotless as far as I can tell, and does well in not letting you get too distracted by then so that you can really get the point of the short.
    The theme of this short is eerily similar to Balance in that it really is about fighting over potentially useless things, and ultimately nobody wins. While Balance gave a rather broad interpretation this one really focuses on us fighting over resources. Anyways to distill it down a bit; basically we align if it benefits both of us, but as soon as an imbalance is introduced we leap to fighting, and in the end we are so short sighted we actually screw ourselves over just as much as the guy we got rid of. I actually originally thought I might not use this short because it was so much like Balance, I thought it was boring and a little worn out. Now that I really think about it; the real reason I didn't want to use it was because I have hear it too many times throughout my life, not as stories, but as hearing about events like this. It is worn out because it has happened too much, and will happen too much.

Never Piss off a Robot

Beat

Please click here to watch Beat

    Dang... that is a rush. Well the animation is pretty good, I would say there did a good job of mirroring the theme of the film with the animation. What I mean when I say that is that everything is the same blocky design, and then the heart is still blocky, but is in a random-ish assortment that is can move in many different ways.
    Well I would say the underlying tone is that of creativity vs. conformity. The character starts out just as another one of the mold, and that he discovers creativity's awesomeness. I do love the way they used music (particularly drums) to express creativity, I have never wanted to play drums as much as I do now. Another nice touch was the way he progressively started out with the rhythm and it got better as time went on (I'll let you figure that one out). Most of all I liked that as the "camera" zoomed out and the should fades away that his rhythm is as loud as the thunderous boom of the army of zombie -like office workers.

Me when my physics teacher blows my mind

Oh I almost forgot: THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

Heart

Please click here to watch the short Heart

    Well... that is definitely the most surreal thing I've ever seen. I quite honestly don't know how to respond to the animation. I found it interesting how the bodies were solid, yet the heads were both fluid, and could physically grow on command. Also the sounds were almost insect-like percussive noises. I don't think I can glean any useful info from the designs.
    Now this seems to exhibit a "greed" kind of theme to it. Particularly the "willing to fight" sub theme that is often used in this context. Now while I find this kind of theme to be a little overused, I did really enjoy the infinite cycle part of it though. I usually find that people overlook this aspect of things in general. I do have to say I saw the loop coming from a mile away, but it still makes for a pleasant surprise. I also find it interesting that it seems the head is used for killing in these creatures, I'm sure it could just be that the artist thought it would just be a cool feature, but then again it could mean something.

An image (just because I know Young likes pictures)