The Tourfilm Brazil is the largest festival dedicated to the tourism segment in Latin America, receiving productions worldwide.

The film produced by Animaking called "Worms Around the World" and was commissioned by the Department of Tourism to promote the Santa Catarina State. We used the characters Jr. and Grandpa from the movie "Worms" to introduce the natural beauty of Santa Catarina on the internet.

Watch the movie "Worms Around the World" HERE.
If you wants to check the other competitors, just click HERE.
For futher information - www.tourfilmbrazil.com

Those beautiful pictures were took by award winning professionals from Over Digital,a company owned by our director of photography Philippe Arruda. Check out the pictures by clicking HERE

Oh! and do not forget to follow us on Twitter! News, photos and the our daily production of the first Brazilian feature film in stop motion - twitter.com/wormsthemovie

As dates are confirmed, we will update this post.

- MAY - Novo Hamburgo Festival, RS

- ABRIL, 12 at JUNE, 05 - "Conecção Cultural 2010".
> São José SC
> Joinville SC
> Rio do Sul SC
> Rio Negrinho SC
> Gaspar SC
> Blumenau SC
> Castro PR
> Ponta Grossa PR
> Indaiatuba SP
> Rio Claro SP
> Pouso Alegre MG
> Camaçari BA
> Alagoinhas BA
> Arapiraca AL
> Escada PE

- JUNE - "Mostra Especial de Retrospectiva Brasileira", Locomotiva Animation Movies Festival in Garbaldi, RS.

Pete knows all about Stop Motion; he has built puppets, scenery, besides being a lighting director.(And good lighting is essential in this art of animation.) He is already a part of the crew who he believes are top notch professionals! What made Pete move from the Californian beaches to Floripa's? It was not because of the beaches, he said, even though they are beautiful, but the fact was the "Movie" in his words,to be different,and to be part of its uniqueness.He saw the teaser and wanted to be part of this project.And so he sent us his portfolio.

To learn more about his work, click HERE.

Next post: An interview with our animator Pete Levin of Los Angeles, directly from our studios in Florianopolis. His training, his films, his willingness to be part of this "unique project" as he himself said.

Stay tuned!

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For this experiment, they invited none other than the expert Carlos Meira - a disciple of the legendary Leo Monahan, he has been dedicated to this delicate technique of paper sculpture for many years.. Small children and grown ups, come early to the movie theater: the film promises to be amazing from the very beginning!

They were briefed in detail on the progress of the filming so they could see that we are doing our best in order to get our brave Worms to the end to their incredible journey in 2011.

In the picture: Paula Motta, Rita Siqueira and Antonio Almeida from GLOBO FILMES, Rui Moreira and Maria Amélia Rodrigues from GOODYEAR togehther with movie directors Paolo Conti and Arthur Nunes from ANIMAKING.

Besides having caught our director in his shorts, our Worms thanked their visit!

Now ,it was the time for our Minister of Culture Juca Ferreira and the Senator for Santa Catarina, Ideli Salvatti to visit us and check on how we are treating our little heroes. The movie's directors Paolo Conti and Arthur Nunes explained in detaill the process of the filming and thus, minister, senator and followers were happy to know that all is well with Jr and his gang.

Bienvenidos a todos!!!

And so we closed the week with two good examples of dedicated teachers who motivate their students to do their best.

Children from a Public School in Videira ( 400 km from Florianopolis) had the initiative to present a project about Animation and Stop Motion at their annual Science Fair. Surfing thru internet they found about our Teaser Worms. Besides their presentation they made their own T-shirt about the movie ( which we also want one!!!).

Everything happened because of Cleciane Tahrun, their amazing teacher who with her enthusiasm and dedication motivates us to make even a better film, as now we know, our amazing Worms are going to be seen and loved by a reaaaaaaly large audience.

Among all the guests who have been visiting the studios of Worms, including sponsors and experts from different cultural areas like communication and film-making, both from here and abroad – none had more authority to evaluate our work than this very important person who visited us last week. We are talking about "Taís Ribeiro" who represents one of the most important kinds of animation experts in the world: the children’s audience.

This 12-year-old pre-teen checked out thoroughly the set crew’s work and then evaluated the quality of the movie shot so far. Taking into consideration the talent of the actors performing, the scene action accuracy and how funny the jokes were, Taís applauded the shot sequences and congratulated Animaking for the outstanding job! However... she had called to out atention that one of the employees were taking a nap after lunch on the studios deck. Poli Graciano promised her that it had never happened before, and made it up to her by showing her how much work he had been doing as the producer coordinator of the movie.

There’s a rumor going around that Neco has been seen sighing and singing poems and smiling without a good reason. ”I told him to get real because Tais would not be interested in an eight-year-old nerd. But he did not listen to me and he has been weeping since her departure,” said Linda. The film directors were also very pleased with Tais’ approval and are motivated to keep up with the good work.

When the fine artist Gabriel Costa accessed the "WORMS" blog for the first time in the begin of 2008, he could not have imagined he would star in a post as a stop-motion animator. The newest member of our team is 26 years old and is from Cuiabá, MT. He has a degree in Fine Arts from UFBA ( Federal University of Bahia).Gabriel started to work in 3D modeling in 2006 when he was still in college. Later, he developed his animation skills when he worked as a free lancer.

In June, 2008 Gabriel was teaching classes about 3D in Florianópolis when he was invited to participate in the feature movie by Marcius Furtado, the 3D supervisor. He modelled digitally our worms’ mouths during six months and at the begin of this year he was invited to test as an animator

With the directors approval, Gabriel is now working in developing his skills in stop-motion , “It’s different from 3D because you have to work with the studio’s team and it’s very cool. It’s the first time I don’t have to take work home!” He also said that working in "Worms" is a unique experience and he is looking forward to watching the opening with the whole crew, laughing and speaking the lines at the same time as the characters.

“Everything happened very fast – when I saw the screws which hold the props getting loose and plants started to shake crazily” , tells Stella. Gabriel declared that the Universe conspired in his favor and everything ended up well - “I was lucky to have a brush in my hand when the attack began, so I could grab the beast’s neck and stick it in its throat, which gave time to Stella to act” he believes his arms were mistaken for giant worms.

These plants are used for rich earthworm meals but now they are trying to adapt them to a new diet suggested by nutritionists in order to keep our movie stars safe. Witnesses stated that was not the first time they got out of control: “the last time if happened was when assistant director Fernanda Fraiz confessed to the crew she was a veggie”, told by an undisclosed source.

Fortunately, everything ended up well and the "Worms" production went on without any further delay. For more information about green attacks, follow our blog.

Last week, our studios announced the conclusion of the first shooting phase of "Worms"! Directors Arthur Nunes and Paolo Conti celebrated the event by throwing a party to all of Animaking’s team on last Thursday, May 28th.

Arthur told us we should commemorate each minute that was accomplished for our movie. According to “the stop-motion philosophy”, where each animated frame is a result of really hard work, frame by frame, we are making a great feature film.

During the party, ready scenes of the "Worms" were shown as well a special video with some funny moments of the making off. Soon, all this material will be available on the wide screen ! Keep posted to our blog.

NT : Animaking Studios is structured in "cells", not in independent departaments as companies are usually organized. It is a more "organic way" of working where all the cells interact with each other.

He reported that on Friday his senses were weak due to the long work that he had done on set 5. After work, Paulo returned exhausted to his home with out realizing that he had left his cookies behind. When he returned to the studio, the next day, he found a shocking photo of the kidnappers with the stolen cookies. They demand the payment of 25 boxes of chocolate with 15 liters of coffee if Paulo ever wants to see his cookies again.

Unfortunately the kidnappers could not be recognized, but we have reason to believe that members of Worms might be involved in this case. Paulo told us that he is already gathering the demanded ransom and cries out “I only hope that all of this ends ok, with out any body getting hurt.” For more stories about the making-off of this film, continue to visit our blog.

Guided by the film director Paolo Conti, they visited the shops where puppets, props and sets are produced. The visitors were also introduced to the Sapiens’ Park Executive Director, José Eduardo Fiates, who showed them the scientific and technological projects developed by the Park.

An old member of Animaking, Sérgio Castro has followed the steps of his friend and partner, Tiago Calçado, as he just joined the animator’s team of “Worms”! Sérgio is from São Paulo and has a degree in Radio and TV from Faap. He has been working on animation for different Production companies for the past eight years. So far he has worked with animation in 2D, 3D, and motion design making this his first experience in stop-motion.

He was invited to audition in the beginning of this year and has already shown alot of ability with the technique. Sergio told us he is thrilled to participate in this movie and that it’s also a good opportunity to work on something different from comercials. He also believes this is going to be just the beginning of many projects for Animaking.

In the last year of "Worms" the production rush at Animaking couldn’t be bigger. Our teams are hot and sweaty due to working hard under the summer hot sun of Floripa. In the studios the situation is not different despite of the air conditioning. So, in order to carry on the demand for 80 minutes of film a new animator has just joined the team: the newest acquisition is Thiago Calçado, an old friend of our producer, who has already worked in lots of other projects in 2D and 3D animation.

Majored in cinema by FAAP, the “mineiro” from Uberaba started with animation in 2000. Since then he has worked at a number of well-known producers in São Paulo as well as in advertising and short films for festivals. Last year he moved to Floripa to work in some projects at Animaking. The invitation to join the feature film team came this year. Thiago says he always wanted to participate in "Worms" and thinks that after working with Jr, Linda and Neco it will be difficult to return to his computer. He is sure our earthworms will make a lot of noise when they get to the “big screen”.

Direction: Arthur Nunes e Paolo Conti;

Script: Arthur Nunes e Paolo Conti;

Art Direction: Walter Plitt;

Executive Production: Vladimir Medeiros;

Edition: Richard Comeau e Eduardo Amodio;

Sound Edition: Eduardo Amodio;>Producers: Animaking, Glaz Entretenimento, Globo Filmes and Wizz Films;

Distribution: Fox Filme.

This week she has traveled from Rio de Janeiro to spend time with the Animaking´s team. Here, Barbara is finding out all about our production, and is also busy working on the last details of the film's audio which is nearly ready. Meanwhile, our 'worms' are studying hard to charm the public all over the world! Access our blog and check out the latest news!

The sport references that we used to develop this game were skateboarding in pools (maneuvers, impulsion and moves), ice hockey (game strategy, moves) and basketball (basket, defense scheme and attack). The court looks like a skating bowl with a central basket. The equipment set is the rolly-polly, in-line skates and helmet.

As we can see at the drawing, Junior wears the national’s team t-shirt (fresh and new) and an Worm’s Jumbing helmet, while the other worm-boys wear old t-shirts and plain helmets. Although he’s the owner of the best equipment and the rolly-polly, Júnior isn’t a good player and that’s why he’s always the last one to be selected for playing by a team.