Animation is getting democratized. After years of watching consumer-generated shorts sprout up on Google’s YouTube, NewsCorp.’s MySpace, and elsewhere, a Hollywood veteran wants to tap these amateur animators for help on projects that could hit the big time. With funding from Intel and Dell, former Sony Pictures digital chief Yair Landau is launching Mass Animation, a Web site that will enlist mouse-wielding animators to contribute scenes to five-minute shorts, some of which could one day make the leap into feature films.
Mass Animation, built to appear on Facebook, offers up a story line developed by Landau, who at one time supervised Sony’s digital animation operations platform. Titled “Live Music,” the first scenario features a rock ‘n’ roll guitar that falls in love with a classical violin in a music store, only to find that the hot tune he found so alluring had come instead from the cell phone of the store owner. One-time Frank Zappa guitarist Steve Vai will play guitar, with violin chops by bluegrass fiddler Ann Marie Calhoun.
Contestants will be given the opportunity to animate scenes from the story, which Landau intends to edit into a five-minute short that will play in theaters before the main attraction. The contest starts Nov. 17 and runs through Jan. 30, with Mass Animation users allowed to vote for their favorites starting on Nov. 24. Landau is working with studios to put the short before an upcoming film. A compelling short could eventually be turned into a full-length movie.
Mass Animation’s launch is timed to coincide with the release of Intel’s Core i7 processor. Animators entered in the contest will also make use of tools and 3-D models Autodesk Maya 3D Animation software, which is provided on Facebook. Animators whose work makes it into the finished product will each receive onscreen credit and $500 for their efforts.
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