I just discovered an awesome web series called “Black and White” by Jon Izen. It is very funny. The comedic timing on display is simply awesome. One of my personal favorites is Episode 13: The End of Friendship

Why aren’t more people doing this kind of thing?

Pixar released a new trailer for UP! and it is fantastic. The “Squirrel Moment” had my wife and I laughing so hard and apparently it is a re-occurring joke in the film.

The first trailer did little to get people excited for this movie. Apparently an old guy floating around in the sky wasn’t cutting it for some. Certainly, this trailer gets rid of any reservations that people may have concerning this film.

-Matt

CGSociety has a great article which describes the unique process the filmmakers under took to create the beautiful film Coraline. Perhaps one of the most interesting innovations was that the replacement heads for each character were created on a 3-D printer.

It is actually a very odd yet wonderful concept. A characters head is created in 3-D, on a computer. Only to then be turned into a physical form for the purpose of animation. It’s the complete opposite of how that process normally goes where clay maquettes are digitized to create 3-D computer models.

Laika had to print perhaps 70 tiny half faces at a time, building what they called “kits” for various expressions, kits that had to be produced with a rapid turnover. Throughout the production the artists were continually streamlining the models to give as much detail as needed while reducing the printing time to keep up with demand.

What a fascinating modern age we live in.

Now I would watch this show!

I think my students are having a bit to much fun working on this film…

Oh and please be sure to update your RSS feeds for this site, Feedburner went and changed them in the last couple of days, sorry.

Here is an awesome little piece about the dangers of coffee by the band Oldelaf & Monsieur D. Animation by Stephanie Marguerite and Emilie Tarascou.

Via: Cartoon Brew

In a recent blog post, Micheal Sporn talks about the decline of the dope sheet, and why everyone should absolutely use them as a tool to aid in animation.

With the advent of the computer, and as you mention programs such as Toon Boom (which employs its own version of an X-sheet,) studios presumably have reduced their dependence on such charts. Since I know how valuable these sheets are in relaying information, I’ve kept them up in my studio. The sound track is read on the prepared sheets. I don’t demand that anyone fills them out – certainly not when many animators today are developing their animation in the computer – but the sheet gives an excellent way to plan the scene, and the animators can take that information and use it as they like.

We will certainly be using Dope Sheets on our film as I too believe that they are a great help to the animator. And if your looking for a resource for Dope Sheets, I have used these in the past and find them quite nice.

-Matt

On this weeks show I am joined by Dave Rogers. (@deddoc) Dave is a freelance artist who is helping to create some of the more complex effects on the film. He joins me to discuss the merits of Wall-E and Kung-Fu Panda. Listen as I awkwardly fumble for the words to explain why I feel that Kung-Fu Panda is the superior film.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/rocketseason/AnnabellesBistroPodcast_ep11.mp3[/podcast]

Ambient Occlusion, Specular Pass, Final Gathering, Global Illumination.

If you understand any of these terms, you know the hell I am experiencing right now. I kid of course, but lighting and rendering can certainly be a tedious process and I have yet to land on a “right way” of doing it. Certainly I have yet to land on an exact method that works well for me.

Perhaps what makes my process a bit unique is that I start working on lighting and rendering my scenes as I am still texturing my objects. I find that much of the final look of an object depends on both its material attributes (texture maps, bump maps, specularity, reflectivity, etc) as well as how that object is lit, rendered, and composited into the final image. I find that I can save a lot of time by combining these two process together and dealing with both of them at the same time. Less guesswork, less re-working, more time for drinking. (still with me? Just checking.)

I have been working on developing the render work flow for Annabelle’s Bistro for the last few days. My original intent was to render the entire animation through Mental Ray with Color, Shadow, Specular, Occlusion, Reflection, and Depth Passes. However, time considerations require that I simplify the process significantly.

As of now I am considering rendering Specular and Occlusion Passes through Mental Ray and combining the Color, Shadow and Reflection Passes into a single pass and Rendering that using Maya’s software render engine.

Below are examples of each pass and the final image resulting from combining them together in After Effects. I think the final composite looks pretty darn good for a simple test.

Thanks goes to Dave for his helpful suggestions concerning this process. I am sure I will be bugging him for more help as the film progresses.

Hello all,

In this weeks installment of the Annabelle’s Bistro Podcast, the class gathers to discuss Coraline. What does this have to do with Annabelle’s Bistro? Absolutely nothing!

Enjoy!

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/rocketseason/AnnabellesBistroPodcast_ep10.mp3[/podcast]