Signe Baumane Studio

09/01/2026

How ambitious are you?
For ambitious animators Zippy Frames published a full list of Oscar-qualifying film festivals for animated short films. Submitting your film is the first step to make it eligible for the Academy Awards!
Some time ago a young animator told me that she didn't believe enough in her film to send it to 100 festivals. I answered that back in 2005 I sent my short DENTIST to 200 festivals (it got accepted in 100) not because I believed the film was great but because I believed in what I wanted to become: an independent animator with a reputation (good or bad).

All the animation festivals and events that qualify for Oscar in the category of the Best Animated Short.

08/31/2026

After a bustling summer in the studio filled with artists and interns, September is about to start in quiet, with only one Art Assistant - Avery Vang - toiling on sets, shading and scanning. It is a nice change of pace, but to get the film done on time we are starting the interview process to fill a position soon.

08/28/2026

There are pictures of Last Supper but this is the picture of the Last Lunch: our Brooklyn Team is undergoing a major shuffle and we will not be sitting at the lunch table in the same company for a very long time, if ever. Nicole Altan, our Art Assistant since September last year, is going to live in Mongolia for a year or two. We are excited for her but sad for us. And after a week long intensive internship our Tongal intern Sandra Suarez is going back to LA to make her own films. We are excited for her and we do hope to keep in touch!
Our Art Assistant Avery Vang is staying on and so is Sturgis Warner, our Producer, Casting Director, Lighting Designer, Lead Carpenter and Lunch Eater.

08/27/2026

The moment we put mud on the Farm House set we couldn't wait for the shoot to be over. The mud is made of cement mixed with vegetable oil and oil paint, and the oil stinks, seeps and leaks and gets on everything, including our best clothes. So today with tremendous relief we are entering the last day of shooting the scenes with mud. Sturgis is animating an ambulance in stop-motion moving through mud. The ambulance wheels are not cooperating, it is a frustrating shoot, but Sturgis has a patience of a Tiger. As a camera woman I am not getting my hands soiled in oil. Making Karmic Knot sometimes is a dirty business!

08/25/2026

Fan art alert! Our intern Lola made a drawing my TEAT BEAT OF S*X episodes Narrator who is based on me. The episodes enlighten audiences about s*x from a woman's point of view. An important but at times dangerous topic. Ask me why!

08/24/2026

Last Thursday was the last day of our wonderful summer intern Lola Molina Marzolini, an SVA MFA Computer Arts student. Not only she worked on making sets (like the trees for the forest) but she also diligently reworked in After Effects my Teat Beat episodes, turning them from postage size into HD for the big screen. She organized thousands of my drawings and took a crack at my ailing website. The most productive intern we have ever had! THANK YOU, Lola! I know any of your dreams will come true because you know how to make it happen!

08/20/2026

What would be a summer at an animation studio without interns?
One of our great interns - Yann Carrillo - came through Tongal's mentorship program that we teamed up with. Yann assisted with setting up sets, lighting, scanning and making props from paper mache. He is still a student at University of Southern California but already knows how to make things happen! Today is Yann's last day of internship and we are sad to let him go back to LA.

08/18/2026

Our ambulance is arriving on a new set!
Yesterday we struck the set of Helena's house and started setting up the Farm for Zinta and the Veterinarian to arrive. Outdoor scenes are a problem because our shooting space is not endless, the sky is a problem, and how to make environments believable is a challenge. You can see how our Art Assistants Avery and Lola are painting fabric that serves as the ground for the Farm. Sturgis will create mud and light the set. Moving forward!

08/14/2026

How does one choose a film to give an award? I usually refuse to be on a jury at any festival because I don't believe in sorting Art in a hierarchical order. You either connect with a film/art or you don't, or - it leaves you in a state of Ambiguity. Stating that one film is better than another dismisses the fact that the choice is highly subjective and thus pretty arbitrary.
But Greenpoint Film Festival convinced me to be a Judge for their Animation Program by scheduling their 2 animation events on my birthday. How could I refuse? And I do believe in supporting my community of filmmakers and animators. So I said YES.
The festival's Animation program was impressively strong. I was allowed to chose only one winner, although I felt there were at least five. In the end I followed the one and true guide into evaluating Art - my own subjectivity. As you may know, I am partial to subjects of love, s*x, body and a female point of view, so it was inevitable that I picked "Flamingo In The Garden" by Xinhui Ma.
Here's my justification:
"Flamingo in the Garden" is an imaginative, visually stunning meditation on love and personal growth in the modern globalized world from a young woman’s perspective. It rings true that love is a powerful drug able to induce fever dreams. Only once one is comfortable in their own body are they free to realize they may not be quite ready for it. "Flamingo in the Garden” showcases the power of animation as an exceptional medium to tell complex stories of colliding internal and external worlds."

Later I found out that the film was animated by 100 female animators around the world. It shows the level of ambition and determination of Xinhui to make the film despite the lack of funds. And it attests to her producer Siyi Chen's genius for organizing a production. From my personal experience I know that managing even 20 collaborators is nerve wrecking but managing 100 is a near impossible achievement!

Here's the film's page where you can see the trailer:

https://www.xinhuima.com/flamingo

08/12/2026

Our producer Sturgis Warner wears many hats in the studio. At the moment his hat is that of a Stop Motion Animator. Carefully, in small increments he moves the ambulance car backwards. In this scene Helena, the lady who lives in the cute house, makes a scene and the ambulance fearfully backs out of the driveway in reverse. This is our second take, we had to reshoot because the first time the ambulance wheels were not cooperating resulting in a jerky motion. We are hoping that our Compositor Team in Studija Lokomotīve will be able to do their magic, like adding the house reflection on the ambulance windshield.