The 2006 Slamdance Film Festival presented eight extraordinary animated films in competition. Using various techniques, ranging from 5-20 minutes in length, the constraints of time and tight budgets that the filmmakers overcame in creating these films is a testament to the artistic dedication of all the independent filmmakers championed by the festival.

Troy Morgan received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short for Dragon at the 2006 Slamdance SparkyAward ceremonies at Suede in Park City. © Troy Morgan.

Dragon (USA, 7 minutes, color, World Premiere) Director: Troy Morgan
For his moody short, Dragon, Troy Morgan received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short at 2006 Slamdance SparkyAward ceremonies at Suede in Park City.

In the story, a tragic fire leaves a young girl orphaned. Locked in a cramped room of a dingy institution, she escapes her dismal fate through drawing, creating dark imaginary worlds. When the orphanage director discovers her talent, he exploits it for his own profit. The girl is forced to make more of her fantastic creations, until exhausted, she creates one last fiery scenario that comes to life with a vengeance.

Morgan creates his dark fantasy world using hand-sculpted foam rubber puppets and elaborate miniature sets. He shot in the classic stop-motion style of animation — 24 frames of movement per second. The use of traditional 2D animation brings the sketched title character to life. Drawn on paper, one frame at a time, then scanned into a computer, the 2D animation was composited in After Effects. The film was edited in Final Cut Pro. Morgan created every element of the production, including the music.

Morgan's youthful obsession with fantasy and horror films formed the super 8 films of his childhood, which utilized the stop motion-techniques of animation pioneer, Ray Harryhausen. He studied film and painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. Post graduation he created music video projects for American McGee and Chris Vienna of Nine Inch Nails. He works in Los Angeles as a freelance animator and vfx artist for clients such as JibJab.

Jason Hite puts his skills as an industrial designer and sculptor to use as he creates a futuristic world in Statis. © Jason Hite.

Stasis (USA, 7 minutes, color) Director: Jason Hite
Eight years of experience as an industrial designer and sculptor laid the groundwork for Jason Hite to create the futuristic world of Stasis. Beyond the reality of anything we know, this is a world where the graveyards are massive cryostasis chambers where the dead are held until some future time when they can be resurrected into a grotesque nightmare.

The short animation is the beginning of a feature film. The surreal scenario mixes live action with classic stop-motion. Characters were sculpted and miniature sets built. Both the cryo and bio-generator sets were erected in the living room of Hite's one-bedroom, furniture less apartment over the two plus years he worked on the film. The film was shot on a Canon XL1 mini DV camera, composited in After Effects and edited in Adobe Premiere 6. The stop-motion software, Frame Thief, was used to animate the machines and characters.

In 1995, Hite received a full scholarship to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, beginning his career in special effects. He graduated in late 1997 with a degree in Industrial Design and relocated to Los Angeles. His clients include Fox, Marvel, Disney and Nickelodeon.