Computer Animation Arts

Hellos! :D Joey here, reporting in for this week’s ‘Author in residence’ to bring to you some awesome stuff that I find interesting to share and or be of help towards your studies. To start things off, I thought I’d share this trailer from Tant de Forêts , a short film by French directors Burcu Sankur and Geoffrey Godet focusing on deforestation. Starting off as a simple and vibrant happy world, the world suddenly becomes dark and intriguing.  Tant de Forêts - trailer from Burcu & Geoffrey on Vimeo . The film is based on a poem by French writer Jacques Prévert. According to the directors: ‘Speaks of the irony of the fact that newspapers warn us about deforestation although they are made of paper themselves.’ Check out some of their concept art:

Well, actually 2 a day... First up, John Lewis' hybrid of 2D animation and miniature backgrounds [similar to When the Wind Blows (1986)] Secondly, Marks and Spencer's reference-laden live-action (I'm sure Phil could give a whole lecture on the various ways this is postmodern...)

An interesting feature of animation (of all kinds) is the control it gives the creator over "reality".  In particular, for the non-physical techniques (2D drawing, 3D CGI), the rules of the animated world are determined totally by the animator; this offers all kinds of opportunities for artists. Playing with Scale Once you start getting down to the small scale (say, under 5" tall), the world starts to behave differently; the interplay between viscosity and surface tension in water for example, or the ratio of surface area to volume. Water, in particular, is notorious in VFX circles for its refusal to scale - many otherwise excellent miniature shots are marred by over-sized water droplets (see Thunderbirds for many good examples). Conversely, films like Honey I shrunk the kids (1989), which use special effects to make the audience believe that the actors have been shrunk down, are unable to produce this effect.  Animated films, on the other hand, c...

The latest (and possibly last, following his announcement that he is retiring) Hayao Miyazaki film from Studio Ghibli, The Wind Rises is based on the real-life history of japan in the interwar years.  It also goes back to Miyazaki's lifelong love of aircraft, last really seen onscreen in Porco Rosso . Unfortunately, there's still no word on a UK release date, but based on past trends in could be anything from summer 2014 to 2016; so in the meantime just enjoy the beautiful animation and soundtrack of this trailer

Perhaps best known as the creator of the Dinotopia books, James Gurney is an American painter and illustrator in the fine-art tradition; he has also produced book covers, illustrations for National Geographic magazine, and postal stamps.  His work is characterised by highly realistic depictions of scenes that cannot be photographed, such as extinct creatures, historical events, and fictional subjects.  In addition, he has written several excellent books on illustration techniques and art theory - Imaginative Realism & Color and Light, both of which are in the college library. Imaginative Realism deals mainly with creating images from imagination, from basic perspective and colour theory to more advanced techniques such as maquette work, along with advice on collecting and using references in your work. Color and Light is more concerned with the theory of painting, whether from life or imagination.  It goes into detail on subjects such as atmospheric ...

義足のMoses from ががめ on Vimeo . For those of you who want to play "count the references", but don't know where to start looking, there's a hint hidden somewhere in that background :) And on a technical note, it's a lovely demonstration of the benefits of having a multi-plane background.

Hello everyone, Daniel Rolph here; I'm your author-in-residence this week.  For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the ex-3rd years who graduated this summer. My posts will probably have a higher science content than you might expect, but I'll do my best to make sure they're still interesting; on that note, on to the main feature! Following on from the success of their Driverless Vehicle competitions, DARPA (the American Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) have moved on to more "traditional" robotics, with their DARPA Robotics Challenge - the goal is to produce a "rescue robot" for use in disaster-rescue operations. Every robot entered into the competition has to be able to:- Drive a truck to the disaster area Cross rubble on its own Clear debris from a door and make its way inside Climb ladders Use a tool to smash through a concrete wall Close a valve near a leaking pipe Use a firehose to extinguish a fire The...

  Hello again, Wednesday now. I'll maintain the same format. Today, I'll be showing some work from another 3D artist I admire - Carlos Ortega Elizalde or 'Stroggtank' as he is known on the interwebs. In all honesty, I don't really have that many 3D artists whom I follow. Andrew Hickinbottom and Carlos are the two main guys. Mostly I'm more inspired and I enjoy 2D art a lot more. Which as a 3D artist makes a whole heap of sense, as what you produce often comes from 2D imagery.           I try to link each section together, so in this case; I recommend reading a great tutorial written by Carlos Ortega detailing the process of one of his pinups. Go here . I was struggling to think what Animation to suggest today. I don't know too many. Brain Divided was a great one though !   Tune wise, one of my favorite music producers recently released a new album.  Feed Me - Calamari Tue...