The Arctic Circle - Graduation Film

The Arctic Circle is a really great example of a graduation film done with stop motion. The style is nice but what I really like are the captions in between the story. It not only helps to lead the story in a very stylistic way, but the choice of words seem appropriate to the context of the film. Great work! Made by Kevin Perry.







Via David Martinez

WiP

I've been working hard for the past week or so to complete a few animation exercises that will hopefully work well and sit in my next showreel. So far I have a Jump, Walk and Dance. I'm open to comments and constructive criticisms if anyone has a moment to help.

Click the pictures to watch the videos.

Jump

Walk

Dance

Don't worry, the acting stuff is on it's way! :)

Update (01/12/10):
My first run cycle also in the firing line for criticisms! :D

The Venus Project

I would like to sidetrack from animation for a minute to mention something more universally of interest. I've been looking for something like this for a while, and i'm sure it's not the only idea out there, but this one is growing fast; an alternative to the monetary system.

The Venus Project is an interesting basis to a new ideal world, but I think more time is needed for them to develop all the answers first before the masses begin to lean towards it as a reasonable direction to take. If you have ideas you should send them in as they may help. I would like to see this develop and grow more and become something everyone is certain will benefit all humans.

Jacques Fresco speaks well and makes a lot of good points, he understands people and behaviorism's very well, but there are times where I think "Is he serious?" "Does he know what he's getting into?" He definitely needs more backing and support with him rather than Roxanne who I don't think answers the questions as well; it seems like she is reciting prepared lines.

It's obvious he's an intelligent visionary, and being a visionary is great, but I think this project is very much in its infancy (even though the concept is decades old now). Anyway, it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

By the way the sound is horrible, but bare with it, it's really interesting.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2010

The official trailer for the SIGGRAPH Asia 2010 Computer Animation Festival (CAF). This year's conference is being held in Seoul, South Korea from December 15 to December 18, 2010. More information can be found at www.siggraph.org/asia2010.

Via Martin Sen

Aaron Hartline Interview

I love watching one-to-one interviews with the animators I admire and aspire to be. This is an interview with one of my favourites Aaron Hartline (check out his daily post-it artwork, they're so cool!) he's been an animator for Blue Sky and now works at Pixar. His story is so unique and inspiring for anyone like me who is trying to get into the animation industry and ultimately wants to be working in films. So check out this 6 part interview and enjoy!



Via Martin K

Mars Needs Moms - TRAILER

As you can tell right away, this is an American animation :-) Actually, it's a new movie from Disney and Robert Zemeckis' studio Image Movers Digital, so I think all of the animation is done with motion capture. But I personally like the style and the story looks really funny so it's definitely worth posting.

Via Spungella

Update: I've just read that Digital Image Movers are now shutting down. Bad times.

Aardman Podcast

There hasn't been a great deal of myself to talk about recently as i'm doing the same old heavy and demanding task of job hunting and building up my showreel with better content.

So to keep things from getting stale over here, I want to share with you a fantastic podcasts series from arguably the best animation studio in Britain; Aardman. If you haven't seen these before then catch up with the first series now before they begin the second series which is commencing next year.

Flip Festival 2010

Since I evacuated from University I have been applying myself to many areas of the UK that provide animators more opportunities, such as Bring Your Own Animation (BYOA) in London and Flip Festival in Birmingham (and sometimes Wolverhampton). The latter is where I went to last week and here's the lowdown...



There were two events at Flip Fest that I went to with my pal Kane. The first was a writing workshop run by Myles Mcleod called 'Writing an Animated Comedy'. This was a very stimulating and inspiring talk which began by covering the four types of laugh: Visceral, Recognition, Suprise and Bizzare. These were taken from the book Why Is That So Funny? by John Wright.

We then delved into the mystery of comedy characters. How would you describe them to your friends? Characters, such as: David Brent, Edmund Blackadder, Homer Simpson, Bernard Black.
And what do they have in common? They always solve the problem at the end (this is more to do with the 3 act structure) and more importantly, they are ALL losers (with permission to win)!
You can find almost all character archetypes in the Commedia dell' Arte. They are loosely based on animals.

Great advice from Myles was to always keep a small notebook on your person, to note down all the funny things you hear or think of, or things that irritate you. Because the truth is funny. And we are all flawed!

We then talked about the structure of gag. The Simpsons Evolution clip cleverly shows visually what tells the story. Pick something that makes you laugh and break it apart to find out why. It's a good exercise. Use the does it get better or worse exercise. And ended on Tarvuism by Robert Popper which is completely genius in my opinion!


Then we get on the road to Birmingham to attend Animating The West Midlands. There was some really great animation shown at the event, and also some bad ones. Then the Viral Kitchen group gave a quick Q&A before it hurriedly (like last year) as we ran out of time. Now began the drinking and networking.

I met up with Dave Cox, someone who i've been following on Twitter. Also there were Mark and Andy from the Character Shop.

So all in all it was a very good day and I enjoyed mixing with fellow animators. It would be even better if they could just call it Animating the Midlands, I don't really get the whole West Midlands thing... if East Midlands decided to start up would they be rivals??

Anyway, that was my second time at Flip, so until next year! Hopefully when I go back again i'll be in full time work or at least be working on a big paid project =).


Soundtrack: Johnny Clegg & Savuka - The Waiting

The Finished TARDIS

And so a couple of weeks ago I completed making the TARDIS, but forgot to update y'all. It is a low poly model in the event that it can be used for a game environment. Unwrapped UVs in maya and textured with Photoshop. It was a fun little project which i'm glad I did because I can use it for lots of little things now.