Posts Tagged animation
The Known Universe
Posted by Shareef in animation, documentary on December 25th, 2009
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
Amazing, but terrifying at the same time.
Pigeon: Impossible
Since being uploaded in early November, Lucas Martell’s animation short Pigeon: Impossible has gone viral. But what most people don’t know is that he has been vlogging his progress for over a year on his YouTube channel, and has quite a large following.
The winning formula for this shortfilm is the pigeon character. The modeling, texturing and animating for the rest of the objects in the sequence are very professional and well thought-out, but the mischievous pigeon’s movements are believable and comical, the success of which is down to Lucas’ study of real pigeons, as shown in one of his podcasts.
A rookie secret agent is faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.
Panic Attack
What starts off looking like a student’s film project quickly turns into a full on, in-your-face graphics fest, that builds gradually more amazing over the five minutes. What is particularly clever is its ability to tell a story without any dialogue, with what essentially is a series of cut scenes of action.
The choice of shots is what gives a sense of order to the unfolding events – the boy at the start who feels the footsteps for the first time (00:20) – the tourist with her camera filming the invasion as it happens (01:32) – the news reporter standing less than 100m away from the action (01:45).
The guerrilla-style shaky-cam puts the audience right in the thick of the chaos, as if they are experiencing it in real-time. There is no coverage of rescuers, army generals or Government officials, but the arrival of fighter jets who engage with the enemy towards the end suggests that the world is watching and trying to stage a counter-attack.
Avatar Extended Trailer
The new extended trailer has been released for James Cameron’s Avatar, and this time there is more information on the plot and the characters. It seems that the humans are trying to mine a valuable mineral from the land of the indigenous race, and they have genetically engineered creatures that they can control remotely to infiltrate the local population. While doing so, a soldier starts to question his orders as he learns more about the culture of the aliens, and how it is being destroyed.
Guerre Naïve
The lighting effects achieved are amazing and works wonders in setting the mood in this French animation. The characters are computer-generated but have a clay-like look, which coupled with the style of animation produces a stop-motion feel to the film. Each character and their costume looks authentic and their movements are mapped in a realistic way. The relationship between the main character and his tiger hat is comical and becomes the backbone to the story. A great short film.
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