Pump Action Recognized at 15 Festivals and Counting: Animated Short Created By One Animator On One Computer Honored

THOUSAND OAKS, CA, June 12, 2000 – Pump Action, a 4-minute, 3D animated short has been getting lots of attention at film festivals around the globe. It has been praised for its technical excellence, entertaining character development and engaging story. Was it created at Disney, Pixar, ILM or any of the other well-known production studios? Were dozens of animators on numerous high priced computers utilized? Nope … just one.

Pump-Action is a self-generated, self-funded, solo project by animator, Phil Captain 3D McNally. This 4-minute character animation took 14 months to produce using a single Macintosh G3 and Cinema 4D XL software. That may seem like a long time, but compared to the three years, more than 100 animators and warehouse of expensive hardware it takes to put out a 90-minute 3D animation film like Toy Story, it's significantly little time. Especially when you take into account that this was Phil's first attempt at an animation short.

What do industry experts think? Every festival in which it was entered has recognized Pump Action. It took first place in the Computer Animation section of the American Digital Arts Festival in Florida, the overall Grand Prix award at the 10th International Independent and Non-Professional Short Film Festival, First Place in Shockwave.com's World Internet Animation Competition and has been selected to be in the prestigious Electronic Theatre Showcase at SIGGRAPH, the annual graphics arts trade show. It is also a finalist at Animago 2000, Flanders International Film Festival, Anima Mundi 2000, 6th Annual Golden Shower Video Festival, Bradford Animation Festival BAF!, Vancouver Effects Animation Festival, BBC British Short Film Festival, Darklight Digital Film Festival, Computer Animation Film Festival CA'00, California SUN International Animation Festival, Arizona State University Short Film & Video Festival, and the Big Kahuna Awards.

Pump Action stars Vic Vinyl (the Inflatable psychopath), Balloon Boy (who has nowhere to hide) and Balloon Dog (who surely must be a pig). Over four torturous minutes, the audience can only look on as the horrific scene unfolds as the forces of vinyl take on the innocence of latex in this curiously familiar workshop setting. Unable to help, the only option for the audience is to laugh.

"My goal of producing an independent animated, CG, short film suitable for animation festivals as well as my own show reel has at last been realized," Phil commented with a sigh. "The process demanded a wide cross section of movie making disciplines from story boarding through the practical skills of modeling, lighting, camera and animation to the more administrative aspects of render wrangling and backing up.

"I am very happy with the result and extremely happy that the project is finally complete. As for the next CG adventure ... I need at least a week off before I think about that," he added with a smile.

The equipment used to create the project was decidedly inexpensive compared to what large studios use. The bulk of the work was produced on an Apple Macintosh G3 400 MHz with 512Mb RAM (www.apple.com) and Cinema 4D XL 3D modeling and animation software by MAXON (www.maxoncomputer.com). This accounts for a retail investment of less than $6000.

"The gap is closing," remarked Paul Babb, president and CEO of MAXON. "Many believe, that this type of work can only be done by a large production studio with a six-figure budget. It's just not true anymore. We have hundreds of freelance animators using our software on consumer-level computers to create Hollywood-quality special effects and on-air graphics.

"It won't be long before we see a Blair-Witch-type full length animated movie released. The result will be a rude awakening for the Hollywood elite, and their big budgets and salaries."

You can find out more about Phil and Pump Action at his web site: http://www.pump-action.co.uk/.