Computer Animation Arts

Rhapsodie pour un Pot-au-feu - or Stewpot Rhapsody  - hails from the Gobelins School  and is an illustrative delight.  Lovely character design + great observation; it makes you yearn for a big raucous family and a slap-up meal!  Enjoy!

It's 1992 and I'm 17 years old and the teaser trailer for David Fincher's continuation of Twentieth Century Fox's Alien franchise has me busting my guts in almost painful anticipation...  I'm disappointed, of course.  Just about everyone is.  People hate this film.  People hate the fact that Fincher's  Alien 3  begins with the undignified deaths of beloved characters from James Cameron's triumphant Aliens (1986).   I don't.   I love this.   I think it's courageous and sissyphean and European.  People hate Sigourney Weaver with a shaven head.  I don't.  I think Ripley has never been more beautiful, more butch, more frail, more feminine, more Ripley   - and my longstanding teenage crush on Sigourney Weaver gets a little more complicated.   No, I'm disappointed by Alien 3 because the plot has a massive hole in it, because the film's inciting incident is a cheat, because they've tacked a film distin...

What follows are instructions for your crit presentations and reminders of what you need to present and submit.  Please use your network of creative partners to ensure that  everyone  has seen this information and understood it.  Any queries, please leave a comment and I'll clarify where necessary. A new CG animated adaptation of a classic story is in pre-production. In response to the source material allocated to you at the briefing, you have been commissioned to produce 3 fully-resolved concept paintings . Your concept paintings should be 16:9 and painted digitally. You are asked to produce a comprehensive blog archiving and annotating your creative development during the duration of the project You should use the blog to reflect critically upon your own creative practise and the wider cultural and thematic context of the project and engage collaboratively with your creative partners and peers. Important! Your blog must include: ...

In preparation for your Critical Perspective seminars, I'd like you to read the following readers available @ myUCA/Critical Perspectives/References :  M. Keith Booker's As Time Just Sits There and Frank Rose's The Art Of Immersion .  We'll be basing our discussions around paragraphs, examples and points of argument you've selected from these readers, so 'adopt an idea' and come prepared!

"F.W. Murnau's German silent classic The Last Laugh (Der Letze Mann) stars Emil Jannings as the doorman of a posh Berlin hotel. Fiercely proud of his job, Jannings comports himself like a general in his resplendent costume, and is treated like royalty by his friends and neighbors. The hotel's insensitive new manager, noting that Jannings seems winded after carrying several heavy pieces of luggage for a patron, decides that the old man is no longer up to his job. The manager demotes Jannings to men's washroom attendant, and the effect is disastrous on the man's prestige and self-esteem."  http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-last-laugh/1020137/synopsis Freidrich Wilhelm Murnau's 1924 German film Der Letzte Mann or The Last Laugh ushered in a new era of cinematic techniques which would greatly influence the way audiences engaged with cinema by turning the camera into a character within the film itself. In my last couple of posts about silent...

Last year at New Designers we had some superb zoetropes built to show off what animation is at it's core. There is a magic and charm about this very simple principle that once demonstrated becomes something rather incredible. This video uses the same idea, but on a Ferris Wheel to delighting effect. Peter Hudson's Charon from jason tongen on Vimeo . For more info on CG Arts own Zoetrope's check out our New Designer's Showcase from 2012.  http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/class-of-2012-new-designers-2012.html

Between 8am - 2pm on Wednesday 17th October, the main CG Arts Baseroom will be closed so that the good people from IT can update all computers and install tablet drivers etc.  The small room beside the Baseroom remains open for business... Meanwhile, following an unfortunate incident with a senior lecturer and a pot of paint.... ... a new carpet is being fitted in the new 'red' CGAA computer room on Wednesday & Thursday. Thanks for your patience, and it won't be long now until we have 3 CGAA rooms up and running!