Naoyuki Tsuji

I first saw the work of Naoyuki Tsuji a couple of years ago at Media City 10. The work was called a Feather Stare at the Dark and was a beautiful creation myth of the world. Tsuji uses the charcoal animation technique to depict the surreal transformations of people and objects as the drawings smudge the paper leaving a motion trail behind. This same technique is used in Naoyuki's newest film Trilogy about Clouds. Beautiful faces of women appear in the clouds as they form and cascade across the screen. In this three part vignette clouds are malevolent in nature as they consume the children of cities and towns or benevolent as it brings life with the creation of water. Naoyuki's style is unlike the typical anime style that one associates with Japan. Rather he employs animation as an extension of his artistic vision and lets his imagination flow intuitively with the 'straight forward' animation. The lasting impression is as effective as the faint marks of charcoal left on the page. You can find his film Feather Stare at the Dark on the Thinking and Drawing: Japanese Art Animation of the New Millenium.(via Anipages)