I cannot tell if I like the music or the images more...
This set of 6 animations is a small branding package by Nervo for Zune Creative. The animated set will essentially work as interstitials, which the brand will use at events and other situations where other videos need to be accompanied by the Zune brand.
The brief for this project was quite open, which led us to explore different animation techniques and a more subjective concept. The Zune Creative team granted us a lot of freedom from the start, including creating the music and sound effects. Our approach was to connect various abstract associations to music: from relating it with the pleasure of eating candy (Zune Sweets), to the idea of users communicating and sharing music (Zune Hair), to the idea of tranferring music from one place into another, sharing (Zune Boxes) all the way to the idea of change, adaptation and collage of tastes, personalities, preferences / customization (Zune Liquid & Cages).
Nervo is a design and animation studio based in Portland, Pacific Northwest. Led by owner and Creative Director Nando Costa, the diverse collective of digital artists create filmed and animated artwork for a variety of applications. The studio's wide-range of styles and techniques is influenced by their great interest in analog art.
I am so glad that Siggraph is in Los Angeles this year. I don't have to travel or get a hotel! Also, the new staff for Siggraph seem to be working very hard to make the show more accessible to artists and broader than just the white papers and the usual techie stuff. The theme EVOLVE for this year's show couldn't be more on point.
I love the new perspective on what the show should be about, in light of the evolution of the medium and more and more artists working in visual effects. CG Society has a great article covering many of the new things Siggraph is exploring this year...Check the article out! It's looking like it might even reflect more of what Massive Black has been doing in San Francisco with the show Insomania.
The show is actually Monday through Friday (August 11 - August 15th) this year, instead of the usual starting on a Sunday. This is really better for the exhibitors since most people just are not there on a Sunday.
Last year, I was working for Side Effects Software. I got a real "behind the scenes experience" of what it's like to be an exhibitor for Siggraph. It's exhausting, so be nice to anyone you see working the floor and bring them a water or buy them a beer if you see them out at night. Especially Leyla Tirgari or Cristin Barghiel - they are going to need it.
As far as speakers, it's no secret I am a HUGE fan of Ed Catmull. last time I had the opportunity to see him speak in person it was 1995 at NATE and he was talking about the revolutionary new tool - NURBS. Wowsie Wow, that was a whiel ago. Anyways he is on fo the featured speakers and I just might have to be a little under the weather that Monday morning for work, if I am not allowed to attend.
SIGGRAPH 2010 Conference Chair Terrence Masson says to prepares for Siggraph this year: Ask your vendors for Exhibit passes as always ... but Basic one-day passes are only $45 (deal of the century IMHO), one day Computer Animation Festival passes are also only $50.
Club 740 in downtown Los Angeles Celebrate at one of L.A’s premier nightclubs. Featuring the latest news from Softimage and unforgettable guest performances, this event is sure to be the talk of the show. Space is limited – register now
Not the best animation, but such cute characters and heartwarming message. My good friend Mike "Utah" Warner made this little animated music video. May favorite part is the little puff of smoke coming out of the ship!
Henry is a popular dog. He stars in his own television series, in which he is a James Bond style secret agent who manages to survive the most wonderful adventures. Henry is the toast of the town, but then one day one of the stunts in his show goes terribly wrong, Henry loses concsiousness, and when he wakes up he finds himself on a train, thousands of miles away from his home. Henry has been a celebrity all his life and does not know how to handle himself in this new situation, but luckily he is able to make some new friends that he convinces to get him back home.
So, here is what Disney/Pixar has come up with after they fire Chris Sanders and reworked both the story and the artwork.
Bolt tells the story a dog who plays a heroic pup in a hit TV show and has some trouble recognising that he is in fact not possessed of extraordinary powers beyond the ability to lick his own nether regions. This becomes something of a hindrance when he is accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New York City. From there he has to make his way home with only the help of a manky old cat and an overweight hamster in a plastic ball. John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman and Mark Walton provide voices.
The Art Change: I honestly am not crazy about the new designs, but then I am really partial to Chris Sander's style and design sense because it is so different than most Disney styles. I feel the new Disney dog looks just like any other dog now - very homogenized, as well as the cat. The hamster character is cute and almost more fun to watch that the lead characters, from what I can tell from the trailer above.
The Story Change: I think the idea Chris had for Henry the Dog - as a celebrity on a train headed for who knows where? is stronger, and offers more of a change in Henry's personality. Chris's story offers an opportunity for Henry to learn about himself by being placed in a world he knows nothing about and with new people who know nothing about him. The whole Jame's Bond angle gives the dog more of a sophistication than the idea of "ohhh I am so hard headed that I think I have super powers like I do on TV?" The premise being he discovers he doesn't need superpowers to be a hero...I just think it's playing down to the audience and makes the lead character seem dense and not someone I would root for.
Watch this little clip from the original movie being made to see how much potential that one moment has where he wales up to discover he is on a train to somewhere far away.
The new Disney story creates almost an idiot savant personality for Bolt because he thinks he has the powers he has on the show. The dog isn't really learning anything about himself or growing, he is just going to realize like there is no Santa Claus and that he has no super powers and then goes back home.
I was REALLY looking forward to American Dog, but I am not sold on the Bolt turnaround just yet.
The PR Peeps at Pixar contacted me and as the premiere of WALL•E nears, they have four new featurettes! Each of these videos provides a behind-the-scenes look at the production of WALL•E. You can frame by frame these movies in hi-REZ and see all the Squash and stretch that happens to a robot! Don't miss when WALL•E is hit by lighting! ~Angie
WALL•E has a MySpace page (http://myspace.com/wall-e) for more fun features, such as giving WALL•E commands, building your own bot through the Build-A-Bot feature, and grabbing the social widget to use on your own personal sites.
For more information about the film, visit http://wall-e.com, and remember that the debut of WALL•E, June 27th, is just around the corner!
During a recent junket for WALL-E (opening Friday from Disney/Pixar), director Andrew Stanton was asked by AWN about the status of the upcoming JOHN CARTER OF MARS project at Pixar (which is reportedly being scripted by RATATOUILLE and THE INCREDIBLES head of story Mark Andrews).
"We haven't decided yet if it's going to be live-action or animated," Stanton confirmed. "The one thing I've learned at Pixar is spending the first year or two making sure the story's as good as it can be, and everything else will fall into place. So we'll let the story dictate that."
But Stanton acknowledged that Pixar's toolset will certainly be considered in figuring out which direction to take the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi epic.
The importance of this, of course, is that the sci-fi WALL-E raises the bar for Pixar with its new virtual camera system, allowing for more of a live-action look in depicting the futuristic world. In addition, the movie marks Pixar's first entry into live action with a few brief surprises.
Meanwhile, Brad Bird's upcoming 1906 for Warner Bros. will be the studio's first test case for handling CG vfx in this live-action adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel about the devastating San Francisco earthquake.
AnimBoom is in the final stages of their animated music video contest for Radiohead’s “In Rainbows" album. Voting just opened to determine which of the semifinalists will be presented to Radiohead themselves. From a field of more than 1000 entries, 13 semifinalists have been selected by users and judges from Aniboom.com and Radiohead for the final voting period and a chance of winning the grand prize of $10,000.
I find it interesting that animators went into a steampunk or vintage-y direction with their shorts. Radio head has such a moody sound, I guess it lends itself to these art directions.
Below are MY favorites from the 13 semifinalists. Vote for your favorite here.
Animated movies can do everything live action movies can do -- make us laugh, make us cry, make us go agape at the sheer wonder of it all. Actually, they can do all those things better than live action movies can, sometimes -- because they're drawn, which makes them that much more, you know, impressive. Check out these 25 awesome animated treats and see if you don't agree. -- By Glenn Kenny
Very Pretty, first shot is amazing. This is a great little short, it made ma laugh, it made me whimper a bit...
The walk cycles and movement is really well done in this little film. I wrote a little article on the Thinking Animation website about leads in a walk and how it changes the mindset, attitude and personality of your characters. These guys have mastered "the lead" with all of their characters.
Big Buck Bunny tells the story of a giant rabbit with a heart bigger than himself. When one sunny day three rodents rudely harass him, something snaps... and the rabbit ain't no bunny anymore! In the typical cartoon tradition he prepares the nasty rodents a comical revenge.
As a follow-up to the successful project Orange’s “Elephants Dream”, the Blender Foundation initiated another open movie project. Again a small team (7) of the best 3D artists and developers in the Blender community have been invited to come together to work in Amsterdam from October 2007 until April 2008 on completing a short 3D animation movie. The team members will get a great studio facility and housing in Amsterdam, all travel costs reimbursed, and a fee sufficient to cover all expenses during the period.
The creative concept of “Peach” was completely different as for “Orange”. This time it is “funny and furry”!
The Blender Foundation and Blender community have been the main financiers for Peach. As for the previous open movie, a pre-sale campaign to purchase the DVD set in advance will be organized.
Additional support from sponsors and subsidy funds has been realized as well.
Peach also was the first Open Project hosted by the new Blender Institute in Amsterdam. This will make the project more independent, without much involvement of production partners, and also will ensure continuity.
I heard from the people at Spore today and check it out!
You can make your own creatures, give them abilities and it looks a helluva lot better than most of the Web 3.0 apps like Second Life that already offer this functionality! I am not really a gamer - I just don't have the genes to push those little buttons, but I htink this is truly amazing.
As soon as you create your creature it is ready to start moving around! Hippity Hop is just silly but funny too and you can make offspring! I love the sounds it makes as you build it and I am positive this will be huge with women (pink market) because it's so customizable.
Wouldn't it be kewl if animators could just make creatures like that in minutes and start animating!
If you haven't yet heard of SPORE, the forthcoming game from Will Wright, the mind who brought us SimCity and The Sims, and if you haven't yet heard of SPORE's creature creation component, let me tell you just a bit about it here, and how it applies to you and the animation world: The SPORE Creature Creator gives anyone the chance to build their own unique animated creatures, bring them to life and play with them, as well as share them with friends and the world. Launching on June 17, the powerful yet easy-to-use creation tool also gives anyone, whether a PC or Mac user, an early introduction to the most anticipated game of 2008, SPORE. A free demo version of the creature creator will be available online from www.spore.com. The full retail version will be on sale for $9.99 in North America and 9.99 in most European territories.
With the SPORE Creature Creatorâ€'s simple drag-and-drop interface, you can assemble your creature from a wide range of more than 200 parts. Make a creature with shark fins on its back or eight arms; it''s totally up to you. Pull and stretch your creatures' parts exactly as you choose, then paint it with distinctive colors and patterns. Once you are happy with what you have produced, it's time to bring it to life and see how it moves. SPORE's unprecedented procedural animation technology intuits how your creature would move and emote even without the game animators ever having seen your completely unique creature!
If it doesn't sound possible, or if I'm being unclear, you can check out this 12-minute video that just went up last week that takes you through the creature creation process: http://pc.ign.com/articles/875/875963p1.html
For anyone who may have missed 30 Rock last week, here's the uncanny valley better articulated with the kind of references we can all understand (porn and Star Wars).