Dennis Michael Iannuzzi received his undergraduate degree from Temple University in Communications. He completed one year of graduate study in the Computer Animation program at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is pursuing his

“Vitruvius’ Toybox” is Mr. Iannuzzi’s first completed animated film. There was no additional crew on the film with the exception of the instructors who are cited in the final credits.

Professor Warren Bass / Department of Film-Media Arts / Temple University
Professor Stephen Grieco / Music Department / Community College of Philadelphia

“Vitruvius’ Toybox” explores the relationship between motion graphic techniques, typography, electronic music and the use of traditional graphic design ideas from print media as a way of creating and visually organizing an animated film.

The title of the film comes from the architect and scholar Vitruvius, who discovered the Golden Section Proportions(Golden Mean) used extensively in art education. The Golden Section proportions are based on a human preference for shapes and visual relationships that follow a pattern of 1:1.618. An example would be a preference for picture whose dimensions are 5 inches by 8 inches as compared to a picture whose dimensions are perfectly square (5 by 5 or 8 by 8). Another example would be a visual composition that contains a series of geometric forms that recede into the background by the same proportional pattern.

The golden section proportions can be found throughout nature and the environment created by human beings. These proportions can be found in mathematics. The Fibonacci Sequence (0+1=1,1+1= 2, 2+1=3, 3+2=5, 5+3=8, 8+5=13,13+8=21 etc…) follows a pattern very close to that of the golden section. Some of the earliest evidence of the use of these visual relationships can be found to date back to the architecture of Stonehenge.

I started with this idea as a beginning point for organizing the visual look of a scene within the film and then improvised the following visual images and movement as far as I could before they started to become overly repetitive.

The look of the film combines both traditional card stock animation with animation done in the computer using commercially available software packages such as After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Flaming Pear and Painter. I composed the music in Finale and then re-orchestrated the melodies in Pro Tools to create the final soundtrack. The objective of the soundtrack was to compliment and anticipate the rhythmic movements of the geometric forms on the screen.

Most importantly, the animation is intended to be fun.

Awards

2005 NextFrame Film Festival / 2nd Place / Animation category
2006 Twin Rivers Multi-Media Festival / Honorable Mention / Animation category
2006 Trenton Film Festival / Director’s Award / Best Direction – Experimental Shorts Category
2006 Rome International Film Festival / Nominated for Best Animated Short
2007 Trail Dance Film Festival / Nominated For Best Experimental Animation
2007 Open Apperature Short Film Festival / Best of Experimental-Music Video Award
2007 Tupelo Film Festival / Best Experimental Film Award
2007 Urbis Animax Festival / Best Film Award
2008 Park City Film Music Festival / Silver Medal for Excellence / Short Film Category
2008 Paso Robles Digital Film Festival / Festival Choice Award
2009 Winter Shorts Film Festival – Somerset Community College / Outstanding Technical Achievement Award
2009 SkyFest Film and Script Festival / 2nd Place / Animation Category