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I don't remember where I saw it for the first time, but this short was brought up at work and it's just really really good. Bernie, this one's for you. :)



And here a short making-of:



You can also go to happyproduct for more info and goodies.

Wallace & Gromit - The Right Trousers

Awesome link to the Wallace and Gromit photo shoot. Head over to Cartoon Brew for more info.

Parenting Objects

A fellow animator (thanks Anand!) mentioned a parenting script called "Parentmaster". I'm just going to paste what he wrote, since it says it all:

• For referenced models, if you go to the reference file, open the parentmaster script ( a tiny window will pop up in the top left corner of your workspace). Then click on the contoller of the model that you need and then right click on the first button in the parentmaster window, it will say 'create parent groups', click on that and you are done. Now in the actual animation scene you can easily parent and unparent, by selecting both the controller and the object, and clicking on the parent button in the script window

• The script creates an extra group on top of both the contoller and object and then parents them. In the outliner, if you select these extra groups, you can actually see a green key on the timeline, which is the parenting key. If you wanna shift the parenting in the timeline you will have to shift the keys for controller, object and these green keys too...otherwise weird stuff will happen.

Visit the link for video tutorials! Thanks Anand!

- pic source

Imagi as China's Pixar

Astroboy helps Imagi branch out to become China's Pixar

"We hired lots of our staff from the street. They were taxi drivers
and convenience store clerks," said Yan Chen, the lead CG supervisor,
who defected back to China after studying in the United States and
working for Dreamworks. "We trained them up here. The ones who were
talented took 10 days, but others took up to six months," he boasted.

"We have Asian work values. People actually care about their work and
it becomes a part of their life. Western workers go from nine to five."

Oh boy. Anybody doing crunch time from nine to five? Hello? Anybody? ... Strong words in this Telegraph.co.uk article, although some fact checking would have been good. Read on for more about Astroboy.

Disco Worms - New Trailer

Animation News

Sorry for the slow posting and lack of critiquing. We are STILL in full crunch time at work, but the end is near. :)

Here just a quick list of things I found that are pretty cool:


- "Skeleton Show" post on Michael Sporn's site. It's about a show called Animatus, held in Basel, Switzerland (a few hours away from my home town, woohoo!), by Hyungkoo Lee. Head over there for a lot more images.


- "French Roast" Production Blog. Cartoon Brew points to BIBO Films and their CG short French Roast by Fabrice O. Joubert.



- "No more wine!". Cool making of page for this render of Baby Davy. - found @ 3Dtotal

- "Pixar's Collective Genius". Interview with Ed Catmull, about risk taking, making mistakes and other issues.


- "Color in 101 Dalmations". Great post by Oswald Iten, it's huge and filled with awesome info.

- "Interview with Miyazaki Hayao by Robert Whiting". Always interesting to hear his thoughts.

- "Advice for Students 2008" by Mark Kennedy

Cube Dreams - by Kevin Geiger

All this hoopalah over the "Bolt" storyboard/CG image led me to Kevin Geiger's blog post "Will "The Glen Keane of CG" please stand up?" and a great post called "Cube Dreams". Here a snippet:

As a student, you should ask yourself: “Do I want to be a drone, or a trailblazer?” And as an institution of higher learning, you should examine yourself: “Do we want to turn out graduates who slot neatly into the job opening of existing production companies, or do we want to turn out graduates who revolutionize the industry, and knock those companies on their @sses?” What is the more inspiring goal? Which philosophy best serves our students (and ultimately our industry) in the long run?

Make sure to read the whole thing.

L'amie de Zoé

Cute little short, "L'amie de Zoé", via 3Dtotal

Darksiders - Cinematic

Cool "Darksiders" game cinematic, direct link to clip here, via 3Dtotal.

CG is ruining everything - the great debate

Want to get a taste of how the animation industry can be in love with animation, passionate, but also tough, defensive, snobby, biased and uninformed?

Head over to Cartoon Brew and make sure to read all the comments from novices and pros alike.

Faces

There's a great post @ swissmiss which points to a flickr collection of "faces". Would be funny to create a short around these guys.

World of Warcraft - Cinematic

Here's another sweet cinematic over @ wow-europe.com via 3Dtotal

Animation Mentor Summer 2008 Showcase

Head over to Bobby Beck's blog and check out the new Summer 2008 AM Showcase. And here's a good advice regarding rigs.

More cool Carlos Baena posts

I hope carlosbaena.com is on your daily visit plan. Head over there for very interesting posts about "Simplicity in Planning", "Attention to Detail" with this choice quote: "Attention to Detail is on those things that really takes time but that should be taken into account in every single shot we animate." I'm sure my students are sick of my detail rants but there you go, I'm not the only one! :)

There's a lot more as always so make sure you go and check it out.

Kurt Blir Grusom

Watch the trailer for ''Kurt Blir Grusom'', an animated short by Qvisten Animation - found @ 3Dtotal

Warhammer Online - Cinematic

Head over here and watch this "Warhammer Online - Age of Reckoning" cinematic. Lots of cool stuff in it.

Art of the Title

I don't remember where I found this (I had it open in one of my tabs for a while), but "Art of the Title" is a cool site examining the way titles are used in movies. Not purely animation per se, but still interesting in filmmaking terms and something to consider when you're developing your short film. More info @ artofthetitle.com

Anatomy of Cars

Found this funny post over @ Cartoon Brew, head over there for more info.

Work Sandwich

For those who emailed me their clips for critique, as always, I got them, but we are REALLY busy at work, so unfortunately I have to ask for your patience, sorry guys. I'll get to them as soon as I can.

It's crunch time!

Cheers
JD

Oktapodi

Drawn! points to the Gobelin's short "Oktapodi". The behind-the-scenes movie works, but right now the link to the movie is not. Might just be temporary. If anybody has another working link, please let us know in the comments section.

But look at those octopus drawings. Look at those expression! I so miss 2D animation... Nothing against 3D, but it still has a long way to go.