The best part is when John Lasseter asks the kid if it knows about E tickets, which haven’t been used at Disneyland in thirty years:
A close second is watching Lasseter get whipped around by a tractor:
Watch John Lasseter Talk To A Perky Kid
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Author Archives: Amid Amidi
“Up In The Sky” By Antoine Robert And Arnaud Janvier
“Up In the Sky,” a cheerful pastel-colored translucent fantasy for the Swiss group 77 Bombay Street, was directed by Antoine Robert and Arnaud Janvier. They made the video at Paris-based Cube Creative. See the animatic and pre-production art on Arnaud’s blog.
“Wildebeest” By Bird Box
Double Felix T-Shirt
Science and silent animation finally come together in this T-shirt design by Ryder Doty currently up for votes at Threadless.
(via Super Punch)
“The Croods” Print By Chris Sanders
A few thousand copies of this Croods print drawn by Chris Sanders and painted by Arthur Fong were handed out at Comic-Con last week. The charm and vitality of Sanders’ sinuous line artwork will inevitably be lost in the transition to CGI so enjoy this little taste of what the film could have been. (Click on the image for a bigger version.)
(via The Croods blog)
Using Kinect Point Clouds To Animate Figures
Brazilian artist Jomário Murta used multiple Microsoft Kinects to generate a sequence of point clouds (a set of points in 3D space) as reference for creating animation. The process is akin to motion capture, but not the same:
This is something like animating over the videos. Just like we usually do as reference for timing and more complex movements. The difference is that I can animate three-dimensionally “inside” the video; the advantage instead of mocap is that the animation process is more free, where I can easily exaggerate the movements and play a lot with the poses without compromising my style of animation.
Murta admits that he is still in a research phase and hasn’t figured out any practical applications for the technique, but that’s to be expected of any exploration of a new technology. The results are promising thus far, and it’ll be interesting to see how he and others build on the process.
Pixar Is Making “Finding Nemo 2″
Pixar is developing Finding Nemo 2, according to a report on Deadline Hollywood. Andrew Stanton is on board to direct. Stanton, who has experienced success with his animated films including the original Finding Nemo, had a less-than-stellar live-action debut with John Carter, which resulted in a $200 million write-down for the Disney Company earlier this year.
Anima Mundi 2012 Festival Opening By Guilherme Marcondes
Short but sweet festival opening directed by Guilherme Marcondes for this year’s Anima Mundi Festival, currently taking place in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The animation was directed by Luciana Eguti and Paulo Muppet at Birdo.
CREDITS
Directed by Guilherme Marcondes
Animation: Paulo Muppet, Pedro Eboli, Rafael Gallardo
Animation Assistant: Fernando Finamore
Compositing: Guilherme Marcondes, Antonio Linhares, Paulo Muppet
Production Assistant: Flávia Luz
Music: Anvil FX
Sound Engineer: Carlos Lima
Animation Dominates The U. S. Box Office
Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth installment in Blue Sky’s prehistoric series, opened last weekend int the top spot with an estimated $46 million. The opening weekend was modest compared to other CG films in 2012, but that was to be expected since the series is a bigger hit overseas than domestically. The last entry in the Ice Age series–Dawn of the Dinosaurs–earned $886.6 million around the world. To put that into perspective, that’s more than any Pixar film except for Toy Story 3. The new Continental Drift has already banked $339 million around the globe in addition to its U. S. total.
Besides Ice Age, there were three other animated films in the U. S. top ten (or two more, for those who don’t think of Ted as animated). Seth MacFarlane’s part-animated, part-live-action Ted took third place with an estimated $22.1M in its third weekend for a total of $159M. Pixar’s Brave followed in fourth place with $10.7M and a four-week total of $195.6M DreamWorks’ Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted took tenth place in its 6th weekend with an estimated $3.5M and a total of $203.7M.
“All Consuming Love (Man In A Cat)” By Louis Hudson
There are some films that one simply can’t imagine being made in any medium besides animation. Louis Hudson‘s delightfully twisted All Consuming Love (Man In A Cat) is one such film. The short has been playing the festival circuit for the past year, and was finally posted online yesterday. To learn more about it, read this interview with Louis Hudson.
(Thanks, Barbara Benas)
The Chuck Jones Centennial Is A Perfect Time To Make $$$
What says “Chuck Jones centennial celebration” better than this kitschy painting of Bugs and Daffy riding motorcycles? According to the Chuck Jones Gallery, the artist Mike Kungl has created something of a masterpiece: “With his sleek styling, geometric patterns and luxurious color palette, he is able to evoke the sophistication of the Art Deco era and at the same time add a contemporary look to the beloved cartoon characters brought to such magical life by Chuck Jones.” The gallery is selling the limited edition piece for $600. Pay an extra $300 to have an artist “hand-embellish” the piece. For an extra $500, they’ll complete the deal and have one of their gallery employees whiz on Chuck’s grave.
A Look Inside The Korean Studio That Made “Legend of Korra”
The Korean studio responsible for the animation production of The Legend of Korra is Studio Mir. The young studio was launched by Jae Myung Yoo, who was an animation director on Avatar: The Last Airbender. The studio’s other recent projects include season four of The Boondocks and an animated sequence in the recent live-action film Think Like a Man. Historically, Korean service studios have been content to remain anonymous, but Studio MIR represents the new young breed of foreign animation studios that make an effort to connect with the public and interact with fans. They have an active Facebook fan page, and offer glimpses inside their studio, such as in the video above. MIR has plenty of reason to be proud of their work on Korra since they also did some of the show’s pre-production work, in addition to the animation production.
They’re also posting small samples of pencil animation, like this Korra scene by key animation director Jung Hye Young…
and this piece by key animation director In Seung Choi…
“Venus” By Tor Fruergaard (NSFW)
Tor Fruergaard‘s graduation film Venus is billed as an “erotic comedy,” but it’s a surprisingly sweet and sensitive portrayal of a couple resorting to extreme measures to reignite the spark in their relationship. Created at the National Film School of Denmark in 2010, Venus won the animation prize at Slamdance last January, and has screened in numerous festivals including Annecy.
“I, Pet Goat II” By Heliofant
I, Pet Goat II was directed by Louis Lefebvre at the Montreal area studio Heliofant. The sophisticated production design stirs mo-cap and keyframe animation into a mesmerizing Surrealist soup that is hard to stop looking at. Conversely, the film’s occult and spiritual symbolism–cataloged in excruciating detail on the company’s website–is almost embarrassing, like peering into the mind of a precocious high schooler who thinks he understands the world. If you can make it past that, there’s plenty to enjoy. Heliofant’s toolset consisted of Maya, Vray, FumeFX, and RealFlow.
(Thanks, Luke Buxton)
“D. A. D. Digital Amusement Device” By Mark Osberg
Funny well-timed animation and a cute concept in D. A. D. Digital Amusement Device by Brisbane, Australia-based Mark Osberg. He created the film in Flash and After Effects over 3 months.
