The animation with a .... je ne sais quoi!
Despite a very bland name the movie is a must see. Reluctantly I went to the screening at Annecy this summer and was blown away. Cinemagination‘s “Max and Co” is a funny stop motion feature made in Switzerland which I recommend you to see.
There is a finally a trailer online so run!
Just a quick post to inform everyone that I just accepted a job offer from Rare limited, in Twycross, 120 miles north of London. I will be finally be paid to give life to funny characters on the screen.
Rare www.rareware.com is the house that gave birth to the best game on earth “Donkey Kong Country” but also the excellent “Viva Pinata”.
I will be starting on monday and I must admit that I am really thrilled! I will be joining AM students Peer Lemmers and Richie Prado so I should feel like home.
I have heard that the guys in the concept art department work on Cintiq so they d better keep their door closed! 😉
Since I first saw some animation test and renderings of this feature, I fell in love with it. The story takes place at the begining of the 20th century in Paris, at the time of the Moulin Rouge and the universal exhibition.
The movie is directed by Eric Bergeron “Bibo”, ex Dreamworks director on “The Road to Eldorado” and “Shark Tales”. I wasn’t moved much by the story on Shark Tales but I really liked the work done by the concept artists and the designs. “Eldorado” is also one of my favourite 2d cartoons.
The production is said to be starting in Septembre in Nice (France).
Here are some pics found on internet. Unfortunately that s all you can see. The trailer shown at Annecy will not be shown to the public unfortunately.
The website for the movie seems to be down at the moment but you can always have a look at Bibo films website
here is a list of blogs from people involved in its production, gorgeous work:
ex Gobelin Aurelien Predal
Related post:
Monstre a Paris short clip
I have decided to start a new pantomime shot in order to replace the class 2 and 3 assignments that were on my showreel. KISS being far from my school of thought, the idea is to combine a heavy push exercise with a little story.
Here is the synopsis. Stewie decides to force his way in a parking space until he realises that it was the worse idea he has ever had 😉
This is a spliney kind of blocking for the first part. There should be plenty more little details in the next pass. 5:40am time to sleep.
As a follow up to my last post, here is an attempt at understanding timing by comparing animation timing to musical timing.
From the age of 7 to 15, I received an intense classical music training which allowed me to tell if a score was being played at 60, 120 or 180 bpm without much difficulty.
I am much older now but I realised that if I were able to do the same thing again, I would have a serious advantage compared to other animators. I am not one to keep stuff for myself so let me share with you a little secret. This might be a bit tedious to read but bear with me, this should be an invaluable little trick.
When you start learning music, the very first thing you have to get used to is to hit, one beat, two beats, three beats and four beats per second. “Sounds great but how can this help me Mister Fancy pants?”
Well the first thing you need to do is to train yourself to count one second. One easy way would be to look at at a clock and say “one thousand” everytime the big hand hits a second. After a while this will become a second nature.
Now, to divide that second in smaller chunks I have an other trick. You use a hand gesture going, up and down for 2 beats, down, right and up/left for 3 beats, and down, left, right, up/left for 4 beats.
In bpm (Beats per minutes) this translates to 60 bpm for 1 beat per second, 120 bpm for 2 beats per second, 180 for 3 beats per seconds and 240 for 4 beats per seconds. How can we relate this to animation?
Simple. At 24 fps:
– one beat per second is one beat every 24 frames
– two beats per second is one beat every 12 frames (divide 24 by 2)
– three beats per second is one beat every 8 frames (divide 24 by 3)
– four beats per second is one beat every 6 frames (divide 24 by 4)
Here is a summary that you might want to print next to your computer screen.
With a bit of practice, just like Richard Williams, you will be able to go to the nearest park and see motion in animation beats. Go out, get some fresh air and experiement.
Have fun, hopefully this will help you too.
Here is the trailer for CalArt Producer show, featuring Glen Keane, James Baxter… They saw the future!
My friend Sebastien Lasserre just finished a funny stop motion music video clip. Have a look this is pretty cool, plenty of nice details.
Ok this is old news but I hadn’t been checking Studio AKA’s website for quite a while and catching up with their latest work today I found “Computer Love”, a series of online adds from Studio Soi to promote instant messaging software ComBOTS.
Check them here (new link from Studio AKA website)
This is an animation based on a story that ran in the Russian newspapers few years ago.
Potapych the story of a domesticated drunken bear
Nice story, some nice little animation details and a great rendering.
Refreshing and entertaining
Pixar Senior Animator Victor Navone talks about Splinophilia this week on his blog.
More often animators find themselves working against the Graph editor instead of working with it. Victor talks about how he handles it and believe me, the guy knows what he is talking about. We had a 4 hours lecture with him few weeks back and I was amazed to see how easily he navigates through the “spaghetti box” and pretty much animates in the graph editor.
