Posted on January 18, 2012 |
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Filed under Animation, Friends
After many years, my friend Maciek finally finished his short film “Yummy”.
Maciek and I started Animation Mentor together in Cassidy Curtis’ first class and after some struggles and set back, he eventually fulfilled his dream to became an animator in Feature Animation. I just hope he gets interviewed one day so he can explain how tenacious one needs to be to succeed. Ah and he could probably talk about his current workflow compared to when he started 😉
He recently revamped his blog, check it out http://www.maciekgliwa.com/
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/35064505[/vimeo]
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Posted on January 17, 2012 |
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Filed under Animation, Education
Pixar’s story artist Enrico Cassarosa wrote a nice series of article where we follow him for a day, during the production of his short film “La Luna”.
One thing that surprised me was to see Mudbox being used at Pixar. I thought they were still using that stylus and digital arm we have seen in the past but it looks like they have now fully embraced digital modeling and chosen a tool that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. No Zbrush nonsense here. I wonder if they also use 3d coat or Topogun.
The series of articles starts from the following post and you can access the next ones by clicking on the link above the posts to the right, “9am off to work” being next.
A day in the production of La Luna
While we are at it, you can also have a look at that nice 30 minutes interview with Enrico
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olxTcA18lXo#![/youtube]
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Posted on January 16, 2012 |
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Filed under Animation, Education
Doing some research for my shortfilm, I went through the first twenty of the 49 Wile E Coyote and Road Runner short films and it saddens me to say….. I didn’t break one laugh.
The worst is that those were all directed by animation legend Chuck Jones, a man that is wildly accepted as one of the funniest men in the animation industry.
Despite the great Carl Stalling soundtrack, gorgeous stylized Maurice Noble backgrounds, the crazy animation, brush work and comedic timing, nothing helped. I might have smiled few times to how Chuck Jones played with our expectation on the final gag but I didn’t find anything worthy of a laugh.
The Wile E. Coyote series came out at the end of the 1950s and was probably really funny at that time but I feel that the humor didn’t age well.
Would this be due to the fact that, he … invented it all? So many variations have been seen for the past 50 years that maybe we have now become desensitized to the original material?
If you want to do the same test you are in luck, Youtube user CoyoteAndRoadRunner uploaded pretty much all the shortfilms, by chronological order, to his channel .
While watching the shorts, one thing struck me…. For some reasons, Youtube kept suggesting the viewing of a series of candid/hidden camera gags and I eventually did.
Man, I didn’t expect what would follow.
After only watching one video, I was in stitches.
“Just for Laughs Gags” is an hilarious Canadian secret camera show using all the comedic elements of cartoony pantomime. The gags are beautifully set up, staged and acted by a cast of very likable characters. Even with the inevitable “background laughs” muted, it is impossible to resist laughing hysterically.
For comparison, here is a selection of Chuck Jones directed “Wile E. Coyote” short films followed by “Just for laughs gags”. See what you respond the most to. Maybe you will differ from me but if not, we need to rethink what constitutes comedy in animation.
Coyote and RoadRunner – Gee Whiz-z-z-z (05.05.1956)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_xJmvk9utA[/youtube]
Coyote and RoadRunner – Chariots of Fur (21.12.1994)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0nrLIcdOdE[/youtube]
Infinite Ice Cream
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsGplFM6Ue4[/youtube]
Honking At Hookers
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEos0ej9CEY[/youtube]
Worker Stuck In Ceiling
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdlaZQyVxxM[/youtube]
Mall metal detector
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pPusCToyY[/youtube]
Stretcher In Water Prank
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX6SLDCIJzA[/youtube]
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