Perhaps because each student creates their own films (rather than in teams), graduation season at the California Institute of the Arts always produces a wide and intriguing array of short animated films.

The four films presented here range from the dark humor of Josh Swallow’s “Please,” rendered in the vibrant style of a children’s picture book, to the intense psychopathy of Aram Sarkisian’s “Winston” and its nod to the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.
 

PLEASE
Director: Josh Swallow (4th year)
Composer: Gage Bruce
Voice actor: Joe Whyte
Thanks: Phil Rynda, Andrew Chesworth, Dariush Derakhshani
Toolkit: Maya
 
 

WINSTON
Director: Aram Sarkisian (4th year)
Cast: Winston – Matt Kelly
Story by: Aram Sarkisian
Written by: Gabby Capili, Aram Sarkisian
Writing Consultant: Caleb Roitz
Composer: Jacob Shrum
Music Sampling Engineer: Drew Denton
Sound Design: Ben Huff
 
 

CAT CITY
Director: Victoria Vincent
Sound design: Josh Yeung
Music: ask my bull, recorded by josh yeung
Voices: Ty Jonni, Isabel, Aster
 
 

STEPS
Director: Alex Avagimian (2nd year)
Sound Design: Logan Byers
 

Watch all the 2017 CalArts Character Animation films here.