Truely Amazing

I found this on You Tube and it blew my mind.
This is a seven second shot, and it's truly amazing. Staging, clarity, form, solidity, weight I don't thing you can name a principle of animation that doesn't show up in these seven seconds. Not a line is out of place or is unnecessary. It's also a mini short film. The conflict and character is there and is clear. It has a beginning middle and end. And the best part is it looks so simple, I don't mean it's simple to do, but simple in the sense of you don't think there is any other way the shot could be done.

Drawing Inspiration

Here's a great short called Drawing Inspiration:

Drawing Inspiration from Wesley Louis on Vimeo.

Even better is the production blog: http://drawinginspirationproduction.blogspot.com/

The thing I like about the blog is how it developed. The main wino character changed pretty dramatically from the beginning to the end. I love the page of faces that he did, trying to find the face. I think he made a great choice going with a more stylized look.

Great stuff.

Learn to draw, don't be lazy, make a film and find your own voice.

None of these videos are new, there's a good chance you've seen them all before. This combination of videos is what I think most animators need to see and to keep in mind as they more forward in their lives and careers. They're worth watching again.

The first is Saul Bass, if you don't know who Saul Bass is he is, just take a look at the graphic designs he did for movie posters and you should have a good idea who he is: http://www.cinemacom.com/saul-bass.html His work is amazing, the clarity and creativity of his design is unsurpassed. He is able to distill a complex idea into one graphic shape that anyone can understand in a second. This kind of clarity is what many of us struggle to get in our staging and animation. I feel like it is something that every animator should strive for. Here he is on the most important thing you need to learn:



Doug Tennaple is a great illustrator and comic book author. He mentions this same thing in every lecture he gives, and it's important every time he gives it: Artists are inherently lazy.



Besides learning to draw, working hard, Ralph Bakshi I think has the right entrepreneurial spirit that we all need to embrace.



Ira Glass is not an illustrator or an animator but he nails the idea of finding a voice, this is part three in his series, all four are very much worth watching. Here Ira does a great job nailing down what it takes to find your own voice:




Learn to draw, don't be lazy, make a film and find your own voice. This is the theme that I hinted on in my last post. The theme that I'd like to explore more of in continuing post. What these four things have in common is the push to encourage us to be artists and not just cogs. It's this idea that I don't feel like this idea is being stressed enough in schools today. The idea that you have to make films and lots of them. Not just shots for your demo reel, but true ideas, ideas you can build on, learn from and be proud of.

External World

I really like David OReilly's work. His latest film External world is as brilliant as it is insane:

Great Shot

Check out the first shot in this trailer, it's one of the best moments captured on film in a while:

http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/11/anne_geddes_the_movie.php

I love how entertaining it is. How the kid on the left jut goes back to doing his business like he didn't do anything wrong. How old are those kids anyway? I may be getting weak in my fatherhood days but I found that down right entertaining.

Oscar's Animated Shorts Preview

"The Wrap" was nice enough to compile a website with video links to all 10 of the animated shorts that are on the short list for the Oscar. Some of the video clips are the shorts in their entirety, others are just previews. This is the short list, five will get nominated, “A Matter of Loaf and Death” and "Partly Cloudy" are obviously going to be on the Oscar list. I have to say really hope Cordell Barker's “Runaway” gets the Oscar. His short is great, great pacing, great characters, a nicely told story. I can't say I'm a big fan of the teaser they put on this site, trust me it's a lot better then this teaser. I'm hoping the Oscar voters get a chance to see the short before they vote.

http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/preview-oscars-animated-shorts-10530

This is the Greatest Video Ever Made!

Video Refrence for Fantastic Mr Fox

Here's a interesting look at Wes Anderson doing video reference for Fantastic Mr Fox. I can understand how Wes Anderson wanted to make sure he got the performance that he needed for each take this was probably the best way for him to do that. I've seen video of Nick Park doing the same thing for Chicken Run, although he had his animators do the same thing. I wonder how much of the film Wes acted out, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't cut the film together three or four times using live action and story boards. He probably felt more comfortable that way and it probably kept Wes off the set when they were shooting the film. Anyone know the budget for this one?

I'm looking forward to seeing this film. I don't care much for the character design but I've really enjoyed Wes Anderson's films up tell now.





If you haven't seen this, this is a great video about Bill Melendez, I include it in this post because it has a great comparison of Bill's work to Wes's work. It's really a must see.




See even more Making Of Stuff here, man I wish I could have worked on this one!

Ralph Bakshi Surviving Tough Times

I like this video, I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of Ralph Bakshi's films. I did like what he did with Mighty Mouse, and I think he has a really nice drawing style and some great cartoony sensibilitys. But beyond that, his stuff just isn't my thing.

I do have to admit that he does make a good point in this video I don't agree with everything he says but I like the attitude in which he says it. Pixar got to be where it is today by making short films, they studied and perfected the craft of making them. And doing that got them to be where they are today. Sure theres a lot of other factors but if Pixar didn't make those shorts they'd still be making software today. A lot of good can come from a well crafted short. Go out there and make one.

Presto Clip

Wow, this looks amazing:

Doing Nothing

It's an old acting trick. Tell a student to get on stage, don't give him any direction just have him stand there. If you watch him, he won't know what to do. He'll fidget, and look around at the other students for support. His body will be a quiver because he's trying to figure out what to do. Now give him some direction, any direction. Tell him to look into the distance like he sees a bird. Now watch his whole body transform. All that fidgeting and nervous energy vanishes, now he has something to do.

We've all been assigned the shot where a character does nothing. He stands in the background and watches the main character do something. Even the main character stops and does nothing once in a while. It's one of the toughest assignments to get. But the easiest way to tackle it is to give that character something to do. Preferably something that fits in with the scene or story.

This is a clever video that Pixelsurgeon made, he calls it the day without news. He made it by editing together photage of BBC news anchors waiting for their cue start talking.

It's clever and funny, but that's not what interests me. These news reporters know this acting trick and they're using it. They're trying to give themselves something active to do so that they look good on camera. It's really interesting to watch, there's a lot of life in the way that they wait. It's worth watching a few times to see how good these people are at doing nothing.

Why I love Spike Jones

This is the into to a film called: Fully Flared directed by Spike Jone. It's a skateboarding fim made for a shoe company named Lakai. I haven't seen the entire film, but I love the intro.



Spike Jones is known for his award winning commercials and music videos, I love the way he uses "in camera" effects in most of his work. He lets things naturally play out instead of trying to control every element. The result is great. Check out the video and see for yourself.

You can see more of his work here:

Ikea video, this lamp has as much personality as Pixar's Luxo, but with no animation, fancy camera work and lighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsQXQGaasUg

Such a simple idea, such a powerful image, a man on fire running down the street:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPT7q825gwI&NR=1

This one is amazing, he filmed all the actors doing their actions backwards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmNIvlVt40M

This is probably his most well known video, he won the MTV Music awards for it (that year he beat Madana's video, she spent millions on hers and reportedly was very pissed off when she didn't win):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqrDWKq9gGU

Mr Lux

This is great, love the style, love the animation.



Found via Cartoon Brew.

Little Nemo Polot 1984

A pilot for the much anticipated but never made movie Little Nemo has surfaced on the web. It was directed by Yoshifumi Kondô and it was done at Studio Ghibli. If you've been to Cartoon Brew in the last few days you might have see this, this one is a little different though, it's a little longer and without the narration.



Cartoon Brew has this to say:

It was an American/Japanese joint project, with no less than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata involved in the pre-production stage (1982-83).

George Lucas, Chuck Jones, Gary Kurtz, Ray Bradbury, Chris Columbus, Moebius, John Canemaker, Leo Salkin, Paul Julian, Ken Anderson and Frank Thomas were attached to this film at one time or another.

If all of that is true, this film could have been legendary. I can remember when I was in school one of my teachers, Corny Cole brought in a drawing he did when he was asked to work on preproduction for the movie. I'm not sure how long he was on it I only saw the one drawing. It was on a huge piece of paper that took up an entire wall. It was a drawing of the dream city. I was a big fan of comic books and comic strips as a kid. I ran across a lot of Nemo Comic at my local library so I was fairly familiar with the characters and the look of the comic. This drawing looked a lot like the comic, except that it was all drawn in ballpoint pen (Corny's preferred method of drawing, he even animated with the damn thing). The drawing was very inspiring, I wish I could see it again.

Here's an example of what Corny's ballpoint drawings are like:

Horten Comparison reel

Check out Jeff Gabor's comparison reel. It will blow your mind!

http://www.jaganimations.com/ComparisonReelHD.mov

Looks like the link doesn't work right now. Check back later hopefully it will be fixed then. Frankly I'm not surprised it's broken, I'm sure he's getting a lot of hits.

More Viewing Pleasure

Here's some videos that came to me that i found entertaining:

Here's an Animjam that was made mostly using postits. It has a fun loose quality. I like to imagine the people making these were doodling while they were board working at McDonalds or something. It's probibly not true, it's just what I like to imagine:



The new trailer for Kung Fu Panda came out. It looks promising, still follows Dremworks "edgy comidy" formula but I think I'll enjoy it. There's some good animation in it, I particurly like the chopsitick battle!

http://pdl.stream.aol.com/aol/us/moviefone/movies/2008/kungfupanda_024474/kungfupanda_trlr_02_a_720p_dl.mov


Here's a blast from the past, it's clever and fun. Sure it's ripping off an old Marcel Marceau idea, but it does it so well:

Cool but Odd Animations of the day

These two short animated films plopped on my desk today. They're booth very cool, but they both make you think: "What the hell is going on?"

The first is a short film called Codehunters, it was made by Stateless Films:



The other is a Kit-Kat short film. I call it a short film because it seems longer then your avrage commercial.

http://motionographermedia.com/akama/akama_kk.mov

Thanks to Sudhir for bringing it to my attention. Anyone know who made it? Anyone know where I can get a Kit-Kat laced with hallucinogens? I guess that's how they make Kit-Kats in Europe, it's probably the only way they remain competitive.

New Mechanical sculptures/pupets from François Delarozière and Pierre Oreficee

The artists who put on the puppet show in London: "The Sultan’s Elephant" have done it again. But this time they've creased an installation of gigantic mechanical animals in the Machines de l'Ile Nantes in Nantes France. I don't know if you'd call them puppets or machines, what ever they are they're certainly cool looking. In any case check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzyWja6vg3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuSoZKjPpGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ylXR-iY8I

You can find more pictures here:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/01/machine-animals-of-nantes.html

Take a look, it's truly amazing work.

The Death Of HD players

The only thing that strikes me as untrue is that it depicts HD as the Nazis. I'm one of those people who believe if you buy something, you own that thing. So if I buy a Blue-Ray player and some movies, I shod own them. Sony doesn't agree with this. The way they set up their Blue-Ray players is if Sony decides that they don't like how your using it, they can destroy or change it. They do this by sending software, through the web or inside the latest movie release that will scramble or change the software on your player. Before you write this off as some sort of conspiracy theory, Sony has a history of doing this. It's more then just an anti pirating technique. Sony could also decide that you've owned that Blue-Ray player for too long and destroy it so you have to buy a new one. Or they re-release a new Blue Ray disc of Harry Potter and they decide you need to upgrade, even if you don't like having Jar Jar added to the movie. They can do this and they have a history of doing things just like it. &#*$ nazis.

Nazis who I'm going to buy a Blue Ray player from anyway (I love my gigantic plasma TV.) But Nazis none the less!





Can you Nazis release Iron Giant on blue ray please.

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven

Check out this amazing short film: "Even Pigeons Go To Heaven." The story, characters, animation everything is really well done. Check it out:

http://www.samueltourneux.com/PAGE1/page1.html