Sandman Animation Studio

Sandman Animation Studio News
by Aaron H. Bynum

China Animation News

Headquartered in China’s Suzhou Industrial Park, Sandman Animation Studio is ready for the growth the 2010-year may have to offer. The studio concluded the previous year with a positive showing at the 2009 Sichuan TV Festival, picking up three awards for three different animated properties, and anticipates their recent success will continue during the launch of a few new titles throughout 2010. A very young studio, founded in 2006, Sandman Animation is a full-service company providing production efforts for traditional hand-drawn animation, flash, 2D hybrid animation, and various other editing functions. Recently, the studio has earned a credit line for their work on Galleon Entertainment’s Sokator442 animated movie [recent A.I. news: “UK/China Animated Movie News” (02/2010)].

from My Pet
The 10th Sichuan TV Festival, most recently held this past November, is an international program market with an emphasis on recognizing television and film content in China and Asia. Over the years, the Festival’s International Gold Panda Awards have become the event’s trademark honor for documentary, animation, or new/digital media.

The International Gold Panda Awards for Animation recognize TV, theatrical, and short form programming for top-notch direction, writing, and visual effects. Per the international panel of judges: “This is the most influential animation competition in China, promoting the latest and finest original productions.”

Of note here, three of Sandman Animation Studio’s projects — My Pet, OddBod, and Little China — gained favor with Sichuan TV Festival judges. “We are delighted to be apart of the awards, but to win three awards in an amazing achievement for our studio,” Nelson Zhu, Vice President, Sandman Animation Studio, commented. “To put three projects forward and for each project to win an award is a real credit to the animation team and directors of Sandman.”

Sandman Animation Studio is guided by the steady hands of three veteran animators — Kieron Seamons, Jane Jiang, and Nelson Zhu. Seamons’ experience is truly diverse, from England to South Korea, and from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) to An American Tail II (1991); to an equally wide assortment of hundreds of hours of television animation. Jiang, a producer for television animation in China for nearly fifteen years for clients such as Collingwood/O’Hare, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., and DiC Ent.; and Zhu, whose language and management skills span an even longer era of Chinese animation; also provide oversight to Sandman Animation. The studio serves as home for more than 120 artists.

A look inside Sandman Animation Studio
“My Pet was our first venture into our own productions, so it has a very special place in our hearts,” Zhu continues.

“To see the show picking up so many awards across the country, and with the TV reviews full of such excitement for the show, is really a dream come true for us.”

My Pet is a 2D series about a little girl whose imagination gets away from her more often than not. The series makes creative use of storybook-styled animation with a vibrant, high-contrasting color balance and delightful character designs.

When the girl imagines what type of wild animal might make for a great pet, reality kicks in, and comedy quickly follows. My Pet currently airs on U-Young (Beijing) and SMG TV (Shanghai); the fourth season is in production for full delivery by April 2010.

Elsewhere, Sandman Animation brought home awards for OddBod (104×11) and Little China (52×22), a newer title. The former is, for lack of any better description, an odd little comedy populated by an active (and unusual) little character questing to save the world with his recycling plant. The latter, Little China, is a 2D/CG blend based on the UK comic strip of the same name (published in Teddybear Club International), which is drawn by Sandman’s Seamons. Little China is scheduled to finish production mid-2010.

SANDMAN ANIMATION STUDIO, CHINESE ANIMATION DISTRIBUTION.

golden panda winners sandman animation studio.jpg

Sandman Animation Studio is an animation producer and co producer of the highest quality animation programing in China. Our shows have sold to many channels including Beijing u Yang and SMG TV and each project has won awards for excellence at animation festivals around the the world. Our mission is to produce high quality animation for family viewing, and to be a house hold name in quality childrens animation.

MY PET

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My Pet review “Probably one of the best 2D animation shows to come out of China. ‘My Pet’by the Sandman Animation Studio, is a beautiful concept for fun and education , set in a very striking visual style. The show takes us through Emily’s dreamy adventure to find the perfect animal, but the reality of the animal takes her on a very unexpected and comical adventure beyond he wildeness dreams. This is a truly beautiful way to show children the importance of animals not being used as pets and the beauty of the natural animal world. A modern classic !”

Emily is a little girl that dreams of having her own pet, but in her dream the reality of having a pet takes her on an outragiuos adventure. winner at the Shanghai Animation Festival and Golden Panda Animation Award . Pre school 104 x 11 minutes.

SEASON 1 AND 2 AVAILABLE NOW.
SEASON 3 AVAILABLE FEB 2010
SEASON 4 IN PRODUCTION

ODD BOD

oddbod sandman animation studio.jpg

Oddbod online review. ‘Oddbod is the craziest cartoon character ever produced from and Asian studio and the stories will always keep you on your toes. The most fun we have had watching an animated cartoon, the sounds alone are enough to make you laugh and the quality of animation here is superb. Planned as a 104 episode package, we can not wait for the next season. A must for any kid.’

Oddbod lives in paradise and lives a very happy life with his friends. but the land is eagerly wanted by the terrible machines who have over populated the surrounding, overly poluted towns. Odd bod must keep the machines at bay, with the help of his very special plant. Winner at the Shanghai Animation Festival and Golden Panda Animation Award. 104 X 11 MINUTES

SEASON 1 AND 2 AVAILABLE NOW IN BOTH english and chinese
SEASON 3 AND 4 IN PRODUCTION

CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION

WWW.SANDMAN.ME

Chinese Animation at it’s BEST !

golden panda winners sandman animation studio.jpg

China’s top animation studio, Sandman Animation Studio, are back in the award winning circle again after sweeping up THREE Golden Panda Awards at this year Sichun International Animation film Festival. This years festival has seen a higher than usual standard in the animation and film catagories and it has highlight some of the best works from around the world. The Golden Panda Award has gained great respect in Asia in the past few years and it is a wonderful festival to show films that compete on an international scale.

‘ we are delighted to be apart of the awards but to win three awards in an amazing achievement for our Studio. To put 3 projects forward and for each project to win an award is a real credit to the animation team and directors of Sandman.’ commented Nelson Chu.

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‘ My Pet’ was our first venture into our own productions, so it has a very special place in our hearts. To see the show picking up so many awards across the country and with the TV reviews full of such excitement for the show, is really a dream come true for us. It has been so popular that we are in production of season 4 of ‘My Pet’. Our second Golden Panda Award is for ‘Odd Bod’ a crazy comedy show produced in both English and Mandarin. This is new and hot of the drawing board, so for it to win is a great boast of confidence for us all and we feel that the 104 x 11 min episodes will be a fantastic success in Asia and Internationaly. And Finally, our 3rd Golden Panda award goes to our Panda story, ‘Little China’. Again this is a new project, and our biggest production so far. It has a great mix of 3D and 2D and is just an incredible production. What can I say, I am extremely proud of Sandman Animation Studio !’ continued Nelson.

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Sandman have gained a reputation for award winning high quality animation and in the last 2 years has won several awards for the impressive work. Not only winning multipile awards in the Shanghai Animation Festival, but their animation on BNW’S ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’, the festure animated film, won a BAFTA award and their work on ‘Horrid Henry’ was niominated for a BAFTA. Quiet and incredible track history for such a young and vibrant studio.

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Congratulations to everyone at Sandman Animation Studio………I have a feeling we will be seeing them all again very soon

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Shanghai 15TH Animation Festival Awards.

Shanghai Animation Festival Awards have become a very important event for the animation industry in China and the awards themselves have opened the doors for many of the top animation companies around the country.

Shanghai Animation Festival 2009 is co-hosted by the Organizing Committee of Shanghai TV Festival, Shanghai Culture and Technology Creative Industry Base and Shanghai Union Animation & Comic Industrial Development Centre.

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The awards not only launched into preliminary lavish events with up to 30,000 RMB awarded to selected project for demo making, but also focused on post-production promotion and marketing of the projects. 6 of the picked projects of the 2008 event had been presented by STVF in MIPCOM JUNIOR 2008 in Cannes, France in search of buyers worldwide. These 6 demos had caught the eye of many in the market, and gained 234 click-through rate from buyers. Chief among them were animation tycoons and TV stations like Nickelodeon, Disney, BRB, Cartoon Network, etc. Currently, several projects are under further negotiations with buyers. Besides buyers from abroad, domestic TV stations such as CCTV also showed great interest and investment intention.

This year the ‘Crystal Star Award’ was award to only eight animation companies. Among the winners was, Sandman Animation Studio,. A company that has already won 2 animation awards in previous years and sealed its name as one of the fastest developing and most exciting animation companies in China. Their project ‘Little China’ has become very well known and talked about at many of the Animation Awards and Animation Festivals across the country.

Jane Jiang , President of Sandman Animation “ we are delighted to win another award at this years Animation Festival. We have developed three projects through the company and every project has won an award, it is an incredible achievement for such a young company and I am extremely proud of Sandman Animation and everyone who works for us.”

The judges were very excited to see the 2D animated project, ‘Little China’ and very impressed with the extremely high quality of their animation and production values.

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‘ Little China’ is our current project and our most exciting. It pulls together 2D, Digital and traditional artwork design to produce an amazingly beautiful and educational set of stories for children of all ages.’

Sandman Animation has built a very impressive track record in only a few years, and have many eyes watching the development and growth with admiration. In only 2 years they have developed, won awards and put into production 3 of their own shows, ‘My Pet’, ‘Odd bod’ and ‘Little China’, making them a very hot property in the animation market today.

sandman star award 09.jpg

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Congratulations !

Sandman Animation at Suzhou “Wealth of Animation” festival.

Kieron Seamons

X - Media Suzhou “Wealth of Animation” in Suzhou Industrial Park April 16th-19th 2009 has become an important event in the chinese animation calendar, bringing together some of the best names in the animation industry.

This year’s event brought important speakers like John Stevenson - Director of ‘Kung Fu Panda’, Zareh Nalbandian - Founder and CEO of Animal Logic, Eric Rollman - President of Marvel Animation, Yaosh Ho - Director of Worldwide Digital Media, MGM to name only a few.

The quality of this years work had clearly shown a more mature China and a more international quality by many of the company’s. This year also brought together more 3d projects than in previous years, and the level was very impressive indeed. Work from Betop and Kimono lead the 3d showreels while the 2D animation had a clear quality leader in Sandman Animation.

sandman presentation

Sandman Animation had gained a lot from it’s impressive presentation last year, and many in China were waiting to see if they could raise that bench mark again this year. This year the crowd were not disappointed. Their presentation brought together the completion of 52 x 11 of My Pet, an already impressive achievement for such a young company, but also their 2 new projects for 2009. ‘Oddbob’ and ‘little China’ a total of 104 episodes planned for this year, is a mix of 2D traditional, flash and 2d digital animation left many in awe.

Sandman Animation has had a very exciting 2 years, not only by completing their very own IP show “My Pet”, winning 2 awards at the shanghai Animation Festival, completing a BAFTA nominated feature movie “ A child’s Christmas”, and completing the number one cartoon show in Europe ‘Horrid Henry’ but also by setting the next two IP projects in production for 2009. Making them one of the leaders in the animation industry in China.

When we talked with Nelson Chu, Vice President at Sandman about their impressive work todate, we asked how they planned to raise the bench mark for next year. “ Well, so far we have concentrated our efforts on 2d traditional and 2d digital animation, and brought together some of the finest artists in China but this year we also plan on setting up Sandman 3D, to make Sandman the leader in every aspect of the Animation field.”

Well, it seems Sandman are really pushing forward with every year, and with with this year showing such high standards in the 3D field, we can not help feel exciting to see just what they will have for us in the coming year. We very much look forward to the X – media expo next year to see just what they will surprise us with.

Sandman Animation Studio Wins Awards at 14th Shanghai TV Festival

my pet poster

The 14th Shanghai TV Festival will be held on June 9 to 13. The preliminary evaluation and examination committee of the event has elected “My Pet” and “Little China”, animation films submitted by Sandman Animation Studio Co., Ltd. of Suzhou, excellent works in the festival.

The two animation works are TV animation series independently produced by Sandman Company with IPR. in original creation. “My Pets” will be completed in 26 series by the end of the year, and a million RMB has put in the production so far.

Sandman Animation Studio was established in April 2007 and currently has a staff of 80 artists. Apart from pre-stage production, the studio offers all-round service and support in funding, technology, and personnel to overseas animation studios.

Within just over a year or so, Sandman Studio has successfully designed four project of original creation. At present, “My Pet”, “odd bob”, “Sandman’s Stories” and “Panda Bear Adventures” are in the process of production.

June 3, 2008, Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.2004 Copyright. All rights reserved

This article is taken from the SIP online news.Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.2004 Copyright. All rights reserved

Treasure.

Over the past 20 years of making wonderful cartoons, one show still stands out from all the others and that was Treasure. Treasure told the story of a teenage girl, growing up in a single parent Mother, her mad Grandmother and a drooling dog. Mother has a boyfriend called Brian, probably the most boring man on Earth.

These shows were directed by Francois Perrault ( the Canadian one, not the French one !, I say that as I meet them both in China within months of each other to the confusion of everyone, both great guys !) He directed it very well indeed and his passion for the project pours out all over the show. When Francois came out to China we spent a lot of time together getting all the walk cycles right and the working very hard on nailing down the wobbly, very expressive style. It was hard work but once we had it nailed the animators loved it. It had a wonderfully fluid feeling to it, and this really gave the animation a fantastic lively feeling.

I had a brilliant animation team on this, they just really grew to love the style and they really relaxed into it, and the show just came alive. I remember one particular animator, mad as a hatter, who just couldn’t work in the studio. He used to turn up, with that “ the lights are on but definitely no one is at home’ look in his eyes. He sat there and never said a word, never asked a question. He would pack up the work and rent a hotel room and work non stop, then return in a couple of days with an outragious amount of footage completed. It was excellent stuff too, not rushed, very full and everything there, with every breakdown drawn up too. In all the years I worked with him he only ever said one word and that was his name “ E.T “. I am sure he almost smiled too, when I fell off my chair in a fit of laughter. He was a great animator, I say was, as last year he drown in a lake. A very sad loose to the animation circles here.

The voices on this were fantastic, with Grandmother stealing the show every time. With lines like “ it’s enough to drive a weaker woman to drink, and all you get is tea around here !” it made the show a delight to work on and listen to. I used to love receiving the new shows and listening to the dialogue tracks, as they played like a really good radio show. They were just brilliant quality shows.

The backgrounds by the way were the only thing that was very unpleasant to do. They looked gorgeous but they were traditionally painted, no photoshop in sight, with a mix of paint, oil pastels and ink, and the oil pastels rubbed with turps to break them up. But they were so difficult to keep clean and almost impossible to keep from sticking together. It is shows like that that make me celebrate the magic of the computer, and the simplicity of doing corrects to complex back ground painting.

The format was 10 minutes with an extra 1 minute piece at the end. In many cases the 1 minutes were little gems on their own. Well worth seeing, if you have never seen them.

Sadly, Treasure seemed to disappear without a trace ! I never met anyone who ever saw the show or even heard of it. Funnily enough when I worked on this show I thought it was going to be one of those classic’s that went on for years to come……how wrong I was. There were only 13 episodes made………list of episodes below. But I loved every one of them !

If anyone out there has a copy of these, I sure would love to see them again.

Kieron Seamons.

Treasure Episodes.

1, Dog’s eye ball / what do you want
2, Eco Treasure / Big day out
3, Fame / who are you
4, Feminine Mystique / Treasures Party
5, Fit for life / feeding Treasure
6, Goldfish murderer / big sleep over.
7, little black dress / night club.
8, Treasure in space / links with Europe
9, Treasure is not stupid / Everyone go away
10, Two faces of Treasure / nightmare on Oxford street
11, two wheels good / grandmother wins a prize
12, unwelcome visitor / milestone year
13, when mum met Brian / Grandma’s room

www.sandman.me

Please note, Sandman Animation Studio website has moved to WWW.SANDMAN.ME

We did set up www.sandmanimation.com but it seems the provider is no longer working, so we have moved the site to WWW.SANDMAN.ME The studio is still very busy, working hard and producing fantastic animation, it is only that the old webite is down. But we have set up a new site, which is much better and easier to remember to www.sandman.me it is perfect.

Apologies for any inconvenience to our clients and animation friends and we look forward to working on all those wonderful Animation projects in the near future.

all the very best

Kieron Seamons
Sandman Animation Studio
www.sandman.me

Days of Dennis and Gnasher. ( Dennis the Menace )
 

beano comic

 

 

I grew up on comics, everything from the Beano to 2000 AD, so when my next job offer came up to be the animation supervisor for cartoon show DENNIS THE MENACE, I jumped at the chance.

I have worked on so many projects that many people never get to see or remember, so with Dennis the Menace he was already famous before I was even born. So it was always a buzz to work on something that everyone knew.

The show was put together back in the UK at Tony Collingwoods Studio, a studio and Director that I still have a lot of respect for. He inspired me in many ways, an animator , director, writer and gentleman to all. He had a wonderful energy about him, and used to get so excited about the projects he worked on that it fired everyone up. I had many a very enjoyable time working there. We actually designed season 1 and season 2 in London and then I supervised all the animation and production in China.

Dennis was the last cartoon that I made with cels. For those modern computer people cels were clear plastic that the drawing were printed on to or traced on to and then the characters colours painted on with a brush. A very romantic way to make cartoons but in reality, they could be a nightmare to correct and very expensive, if any corrections were needed to be made. In today’s computer world, it is all changed by the push of a button, no soaking the paint or scratching it all back………what a luxury.

I remember all the animators having terrible trouble trying to draw his spikey hair turning around in a convincing way, but in the end I think it worked fine but it was an animator’s nightmare for sure.

dennis hair

 

From Suzhou, we would wait for the work print to come back from the developers in Shanghai, and 5.30 am we would throw it on the Steinbeck and go throw the show. It was lovely to see the shows before anyone else, and there was always a very excited atmosphere, as we ran through the cartoon but It was always painful to see a hair or cel shadow……you don’t get those on the computer ! I remember in those days the Chinese working night and day to make these shows, their endurance was inspiring to any Western visitor and indeed myself. Even on the nights that I worked till midnight, I never left an empty studio.

dennis

 

Dennis first appeared in the “Beano” comic in 1951, and he’s still a star there

today. This isn’t the first time he’s been animated, though. Previously, Terry Ward’s

Flicks Films helped to bring Dennis and many other “Beano” and “Dandy” favorites in to animated

life in a series of small-scale video releases.

 

This newer series comes to us via director Tony Collingwood and, just as different “Beano”

 artists have brought their own slant to the strips, so they’ve given the characters

 their own little character tweaks to establish their TV persona. And it’s nice to see

 that even Dennis’ piggy pal Rasher gets to appear!

 Of course, the British Dennis should never be confused with the all-American,

 blonde-haired Dennis who is something of a icon over the pond. The American Dennis is a

menace with a heart of gold, but our Dennis is a proper little terror.

 

The Dennis the Menace or ( Dennis and Gnasher as it was re named to avoid it’s confusion with the USA show of the same name ) was a great success and still hold up very well today. They were so popular that we ended up doing a season 2 in China also. For those interested here are the episodes we made in China.

Kieron Seamons

www.sandman.me

 

 

    Dennis and Gnasher, Episode titles
 

    Series 1
   Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

   The Day They Took Gnasher Away

   The Bathnight Club

   Dennis Ahoy

   Revenge of the Robot

   Wanted

   Dennis and the Beanstalk

   Unidentified Funny Object

   Special Agent Dennis

   Dennis and the Grown Ups

   Gorilla Warfare

   The Secret Diary

   The Day TV was Banned  

Series 2
The Competition

Summer Holiday

Menace Power

Dennisaurus Rex

Adventures in Dennis Sitting

Haunted House

Oil Strike!

Mauled

The Trial

Journey to the Centre of the Bed

Skull & Crossbones

Snowbound

Monster Menace

 

Sandman Animation Studio has quickly become a bench mark in Chinese animation. Producing many American, European and Asian animated TV shows in 2D traditional and Flash/Digital animation.

It is also a producer of domestic and international animation, including it’s very own ‘My Pet’ 52 x 11 ( completed ) season 2 of 52 x 11minute in production, ‘Little China’ 104 x 11 minute ( in production ) and Odd Bob 104 x 11 minutes ( in pre production ).

Welcome to Sandman Animation Studio, the future of Chinese animation.

www.sandman.me