Urbance: Directed By: Joel Dos Reis Viegas

Had to post this one. Really nice work. Nice music, style, flare, hip and visual rhythm. Urbance is created by Steambot Studios. Roland, thanks for the heads up! Fire It Up! Randolf

"The Gate" by: Matt Westrup

This little short by Matt Westrup is quite exceptional. If it were me, I probably would "suggest" the appearance of the first creature in the street - leaving it up to the viewer's imagination would be better. The appearance of the larger second creature later in the film, in the office building, freaked all of us out, that image in the doorway was quite disturbing. Overall, nice modeling, texturing and lighting as seen in the high tech medical equipment, and outstanding execution in the storytelling. Thanks for sharing Ryan. Fire It Up!

Canadian Pipeline Association by: Embassy VFX

I often have my visual effects and animation students animate a piece that educates. For something as complex as the growth of Canada its nice, simple and clean. It features a clever concept, good camera work and uses depth maps to make the models look small. Nice work.

My Top 10 Superbowl Commercials for 2013

Top 10 Super Bowl Commercials 2013 Three years running....Here are my top ten Super Bowl commercials for 2013. Like previous years, my criteria is as follows: It must have animation or visual effects of some kind, its gotta be memorable and extra points if its got the “dry humor” factor - just make us laugh. Surprisingly, there are no Coke or Budweiser ads that made the list. Let’s start with our honorable mentions, one has no CG in it, but it sure is funny.

 Honorable Mention VW “Get In / Get Happy”


PSY / Wonderful Pistachios


Soda Stream

 Okay - now that I got you warmed up. Let’s begin the countdown...

 10. Kia “Space Babies”


 9. Kia Forte “Hotbots”


 8. Fiat “Sister” - Formerly Skechers "Go"


 7. M&M’s “Love Ballad”

 6. Mercedes Benz “Soul”


 5. Blackberry “Can’t Do”


 4. Milk
 

 3. Beck’s “Saphire” - This one was simply nice to look at. I also appreciate the mashup with the Blackstreet song.

 2. Hyundai “Gather Your Team”


 1. Oreo “Whisper Fight”.
(Whispering) Thanks for visiting. See you next year. Husssshhhhh.

"Paperman": Animated Short

If you watched "Wreck It Ralph" in theatres, you are familiar with the "Paperman" animation that played before the film. Nice for the guys at Disney to post it online so all of us can enjoy it. I also included a featurette below that describes the look and feel of the movie. Its nice to see CG getting a facelift. The sets and characters look as if they are done by hand, the textures and linework are quite detailed creating a new look and feel and the story is charming. Well done.

VFX Highlight Reel by Main Road|Post

The creature animations and breakdowns are fun to look at especially the shots involving the massive tentacled robot. Really nice. You can visit their site below: http://mrpost.ru/

Motion Graphics Demo Reel: Tony Zagoraios

Nice work by artist Tony Zagoraios. Pay attention to his detail, timing and his use of typography. The reel is textural and nice to look at too. Enjoy and Fire It Up! Randolf

"R'ha": Short Film by Kaleb Lechowski

A superb short film by Kaleb Lechowski. There are lots of things in this short he is doing extremely well, his lighting and command over materials in the interrogation room. Way to go Kaleb! Fire it Up!

"Battleship" Fluids & Particles by ILM

A featurette detailing how ILM created the large fluid/particle effects surrounding the massive alien ships in the middle of the ocean. Not too many people liked this movie, I liked it a lot - quite entertaining. Be sure you check it out.

Architectual PreViz: AllCGStudio

Some really nice work from the guys at AllCGStudio. Their level of detail in their presentation is outstanding - their lighting setup makes their models appear as if they already exist in the world. Learn more by visiting their site below: http://www.allcgstudio.com/

Man of Steel: Trailer 2

Something to look forward to...an all-star cast and a dark different take on what we are used to seeing - I love how the trailer continues to build. Looks quite epic. The soundtrack reminds me of Gladiator. Fire it Up!

Peregrine Falcon CG FX & Breakdown: By Fido

Some amazing visual effects work of a falcon by Fido, coming from Scandanavia. In this reel, you'll see exceptional examples of modeling, animation, rigging, lighting, and texturing coming together to compose a beautiful piece. You can learn more about Fido by visiting their website below. http://www.fido.se/ Fire It Up!

Game of Thrones: CGU VFX Breakdowns

Simple but effective use of CGI to create the over 350 visual effect shots of season 1. Many of the landscape shots are similar to what we create in class, but I especially like the variety of "kill shots". Another fun assignment is on the horizon. Stay posted. Fire it up!

Gustav Hoegen: 2012 Animatronic Showreel

All we can say is Wow! One thing to consider, are some of the benefits of using animatronics vs. cg. What do you think? Here, we agreed that an animatronic character, if done well, would be a better costar for an actor. The actor has the ability to react in a realistic fashion to a character that he sees right in front of him because the character has volume, one can make eye contact therefore creating a better connection. There are ways around this, but its usually up to the vision of the director to make sure that the connection is believable. In CG, the character is added in post, sometimes the reaction of an actor is not as believable. We wonder however, if it's cost and time effective, other than that we believe this work to be top notch. Nice job Gustav. Keep firing it up!

Art of Data: IBM Behind the Scenes

In this presentation, we see how code is used to create imagery that is not only beautiful and unique, but useful. Imagine seeing a heartbeat in a way that is unconventional, but dimensional in a way that is steps above a standard 2D EKG. Everything is driven by numbers and so presentations of this kind can only enhance our understanding complex mathematical concepts by giving all of us new ways to relate to the information. Enjoy! Fire it up!