Computer Animation Arts

"Star Wars Concept Trailer" by The DAVE School graduating class of August & October 2017 This film trailer was made by a group of graduating students from the DAVE school in Florida. It uses live action and 3D to recreate Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art for 'The Star Wars' (based off of an early draft script written by George Lucas in the early 1970's). Watch and enjoy....and make sure to WATCH THE END CREDITS. "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... we might have seen a version of Star Wars that featured a Han Solo with green skin and gills, Stormtroopers with lightsabers, and a female heroine named Luka Starkiller. Many of these anomalies can be seen in concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie's early illustrations of the Star Wars universe. While looking back at these early paintings we can't help but wonder what Star Wars would have been like had it remained loyal to the concept art and early drafts of the script. The DAVE School gradua...

"The Race to the Bottom: What's the Story Behind Bad CGI?" by Bessie Yuill. 2020 In the wake of a string of visual effects disasters, such as ‘Cats’, ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘Dolittle’, Bessie Yuill investigates the highly skilled, over-worked life of a VFX artist. - Some (very short) extracts are included below but I recommend you read the full article - link here. "Cats was one of the most talked-about disasters of 2019 – especially in terms of its visual effects. Tom Hooper’s movie musical was rushed into cinemas with dubiously attached tails, Judi Dench’s visible wedding ring, and unsettling “digital fur technology”. Critics across the globe rushed to point out the errors, which only made the film feel more like a bizarre collective hallucination." "As for what he ( Joe Pavlo, Chair of the Animation and VFX Union branch at BECTU) thinks is behind sloppy CGI and bad working conditions (see below), he says that visual effects are “kind of late ...

This is particularly unsettling...

I don't know what all of these are, but here the mundane and the uncanny combine to unnerving effect...   Daily Animations from April2017 from Ondrej Zunka on Vimeo .

VFX Games - The Art of Compositing from Roy Peker on Vimeo .

Admit it - it's all about Baby Groot...

Enjoy! (And hang around for the credits 'wig' scene too). M.A.M.O.N. - Latinos VS. Donald Trump from Aparato on Vimeo .

It's still probably too early to be cracking out the Christmas content on the CAA blog...

"A father possum reads his kids a story that’s an alphabet of the most dangerous animal of all – HUMANS! Inspired by the Edward Gorey classic, this black-comedy for kids and parents alike is a hilarious and brutal alphabet of death and mayhem exacted upon animals by ignorant humans. 30 CGI animals were meticulously crafted and killed by a team of 44 students at Media Design School." Accidents, Blunders and Calamities from Media Design School on Vimeo .

A selection of all the latest animation and VFX blockbusters on their way to a multiplex near you...

A number of our final year students are exploring the issues arising from gamers, immersion in hyperreal worlds - and alienation. This short prophetic-feeling film is a chilling 'what if?'. Welcome to the future?

A wonderfully creepy, hypnotic and menacing music video for De Staat 's Witch Doctor track - and a handy 'making of' too! Making Of