Uptown United, 24 W. Park Place, will host a free 7:30 p.m. Tuesday screening of Pictoplasma's "Characters in Motion Vol. 2," a showcase of some of the most cutting edge, independent animation work in the industry.

Uptown United co-founder Chad Mount found out about the Berlin-based organization through his work as an animator and participated in past Pictoplasma projects.

"I went to school for animation and have been designing characters for clients and for personal use for about 10 years," Mount said. "It's not the kind of job that comes up in our local market very often."

In 2006, Mount was invited to take part in Pictoplasma's "The Bunny Mandala Shrine," where more than 500 artists designed 800 bunnies with styles ranging from large-eyed anime, tattoo-inspired art to grim and Gothic illustration.

The purpose was to show how varied the spectrum of character designers has become.

"In the last 10 years, the evolution of character design has expanded to a global scale," Mount said. "Contemporary character design has crossed over into lovable kitsch or urban art using abstract and elements reduced to the essentials. This has redefined the aesthetics of visual communication worldwide." 

He said he was so impressed with the work in "Characters in Motion Vol. 2" that he asked the organization to show the film at Uptown United. "Charles Martin