Back in 2005, animator Shane Acker released his student project entitled 9. Famous director Tim Burton saw the film and was impressed by its artistic vision. He went on to produce a feature-length adaptation with the same name 9, and Acker directed the film. Check out the trailer here.

The original short film took four and a half years, on and off, to create. Acker used Maya for the modeling and animation, Photoshop for the textures, After Effects for compositing, and Premiere for editing. Most of it was rendered at 720×540 pixels on a three-computer dual-processor render farm.

It is easy to see why the short film caught the attention of such a high profile director. Shane did so well to produce such a dark and desperate setting for the rag dolls to live in. The pace of the film does well to gradually reveal to the audience the peril of the devastated war-torn city, crawling with animal-like robots. In the end it takes some bravery and a cunning plan to lure the beast to its death, and rescue the souls of his eight companions.

A nice celebration of visual effects stretching the last century. Probably should have included the Matrix for its development of ‘bullet-time’ camera effects, and Lord of the Rings, for its mixing of miniature sets, matte painting and motion graphics compositing. The inclusion of Benjamin Button was spot on to indicate the current state of the visual effects industry. Will Avatar be added soon?

Produced by Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks, this short animation takes the audience on a journey through mankind’s discoveries and his theory of life and existence. Luke’s illustrations are both detailed but abstract, and Owen’s soundtrack couples perfectly with the look and feel of the piece.

A short animation loosely based on the scientific recording of life’s great species. And how this has given us clues that piece together, for us to discover the secrets of the evolution and diversity of life on Earth

Back in 2003 a new style of music started to flourish in the East End of London. It came off the back of the UK Garage scene and was pioneered by the artist Wiley. Six years on and it has grown and evolved into a widely accepted music genre, entitled Grime, and Wiley, now dubbed ‘The Godfather of Grime’, has enjoyed mainstream success. Look out for a young Kano (02:22), and a very very very young Tinchy Stryder (03:04).

This is the Gold exhibition that will be installed at Tent Digital, 24-27th September 2009, at the Truman Brewery, London, UK. It is a real time render of video captured by an infra-red camera and output in 1080p HD using OpenGL.

“Gold” is an interactive installation which explores our obsession with super-stardom, and the extravagance that accompanies it. Through a ‘magic mirror’, revel in a world of excess where you are the super-star. Shower in glittery gold, experience almost omnipotent powers as you materialize, morph and dematerialize into pure sparkling gold dust. Immortalize yourself as a shimmering golden statue, before you collapse and disintegrate into the wind.

Check out some still shots here.