The 87th Annual Academy Awards are quickly approaching (Feb 22), and one of the categories we are most excited about are the animated shorts. One of the 10 short-listed nominees this year is A Single Life, an animated short from Netherland studio Job, Joris & Marieke. To build A Single Life, the studio relied extensively on CINEMA 4D as its central application to handle its 3D modeling, rigging, character animation, lighting, and rendering. What is A Single Life about? About 3 mins long. But seriously, the story is an interesting look at the effects of time. The main character, Pia finds a vinyl single that plays a mysterious song. When Pia plays the song, she suddenly has the power to travel backwards and forwards through her life. If she spins the record forward, she becomes older. If she skips backwards, she gets younger. Aside from the plot's potential, the trailer above shows the studio's effective use of several principles of animation. For example, there's effective follow through and overlapping action within Pia's hair and breasts as she responds in surprise to the record's effects. Although her faces shows little squash and stretch, the minimalism of her facial features is used to great effect. That is, we clearly understand her emotional reactions without the artist overdoing her smooth, toy-like facial design.