Football Comedy

In the spirit of this weekend's Superbowl (Superbowl XLIII) and in the spirit of friendly competition, I thought I'd share this video. When I first watched it, I found myself giggling a lot, try watching this in a large group, the giggling gets worse. I know, I know, its not American football, its the European kind, you'll get your dose of the American football stuff all week long trust me. Here's to a great game this weekend.

If you are an animator or creative thinker, be sure to stick around for the commercials. If any good ones stick out, I'll highlight them here so we can learn from them. Hmm, that gave me an idea for my next post.

In the meantime, enjoy the clip above.

Randolf

"Pencil" : FREE Open Source Traditional 2D Animation Software

A colleague of mine came across "Pencil", an open source, traditional 2D animation software application that is free for you to download and use that was created by Pascal Naidon and Patrick Corrieri. I've played with it and I have to say its really nice.

Without reading the manual, I was able to draw and get something animated in a few minutes. As I tell all my students, with any new software that you are learning, after you learn the basics, create something fun for yourself so that you can remember what you've learned.

"Pencil" works well with the WACOM tablet, the drawing tools are simplified, filling shapes with color is easy, and as far as animating is concerned, its quite easy to set up keyframes and various layers for detail, and also has onion skinning. When I exported, I found that I could export the file into a quicktime movie of various sizes with ease, and it also exports files into swfs and image sequences. You are also able to import sound and movie files for reference. Not sure about compositing into other programs like After Effects or Combustion, if you try this, let us know how things go.

"Pencil" is definately worth exploring and will intoduce it to my Principles of Animaiton Class for use this quarter...after they learn how to use the lunchbox...mooo ha ha ha!

Hope this helps, good luck and have fun.

Randolf

Video Tutorial: How to Add "Embed" Video Code to an HMTL Image

Happy New Year Everyone....

I just created this as I know it will help most of you trying to place a video on to your HTML image...Lots of questions arise in class about how to insert the "embed" video code on to a static image in HTML. This tutorial shows you how to place an embed video code from sites like Youtube and Vimeo, and shows how to place the code on to an HTML image.

The tutorial covers how to slice an image in Photoshop, combine slices, generating an HTML page in Photoshop, and how to use an HTML editor like Dreamweaver, to insert the "embed" video code.

I hope it helps you out. You can check out the video tutorial by clicking the link below.

>> Adding Embed Video Code to an HTML image >>

Benefits of the Simple "Thank You" Note

This post highlights the importance of sending thank you notes to benefit your professional advancement. With the coming new year, many of us look back and take mental note of the many things we are thankful for.

For me, if you read the archives of this blog, you will learn that New Year's Day last year (2007), I broke my leg during a sledding accident. I was in crutches and rehab for over 6 months, and almost a year later, I am thankful that my leg has fully recovered and that I am walking without a limp. I am also thankful for completing my Masters Degree, and for the birth of my new baby boy born on Nov. 19. This was a crazy year, I am thankful that my family and I have made it through, and I'm thankful for all of you have lended your support and encouragement,

This type of feeling toward gratitude can be applied to your business correspondence and image as well. Whenever someone takes the time to interview you, have a business meeting with you, if someone sends you a thoughtful email about you and your work, or if someone does something nice for you...say thank you.

Believe it or not, I see people not saying thank you after a kind gesture. I guess I'm from the old school, but I consider it a sign of respect and consideration, where you bestow value on the person. Not saying thank you makes you appear rude and inconsiderate. The person who helped you didn't have to do something nice for you, but they did, at least say "thanks". In raising my kids, they know that I think highly of saying "Thank You" when appropriate, and if they don't say it someone's going to get into trouble.



In business, this is just as important, but if you want to take it step further, extend that gratitude by sending a simple "Thank You" note. Sure, a simple thank you email or thank you e-card is fine, these suffice and ecards are fun, but the "Thank You" note reigns supreme as the best choice. Use it judicially and in times when you want to make the most impact. Here are four excellent reasons why this works.

1. Classy: Sending a handwritten note, is a refined timeless and personal form of expression. In our new digital age, many people don't write personalized handwritten letters anymore. The fact that you took the time to do it makes you look good.
   
   
2. Nice Surprise: The recipient of the "Thank You" note, will probably get the note in a mail box, where the note will be discovered while sifting through a sea of bills or unwanted junk mail. The note will be a pleasant surprise especially if it follows a business meeting or job interview that went over well.
   
   
3. Spreading Love: There's not enough love going around in the world. Here's your chance to spread some around. Everyone wants to be loved, respected and valued.
   
   
4. Marketing: (This is the most interesting) Sending a "Thank You" note also gives you another opportunity to get in front of the person in charge of making the decision. In a competitive market where there are many talented people competing for the same jobs, you now have a second chance to make a nice sincere connection and impression a few days after the initial contact. Also, many people are not that quick to dispose of or recycle a nice card, so you actually get to hang out on the person's desk a few more days. That's cool.

As an exercise, I tell my students to imagine themselves interviewing for that dream job. The meeting goes well, you look sharp, you're alert, you seem to connect with the interviewer, you ask great questions and you give a slew of competent answers. Both parties leave thinking that the meeting was successful. There are other people who have had similar successful interviews before and after you but you have feeling that you will be one of the finalists. Now imagine this interviewer getting a thank you note from you thanking them for their time, and how it was a pleasure meeting with them. You now have just instilled personal value in that person reading the thank you note and you have also instilled value in yourself. Not only are you skilled and the perfect match for the job, but with the thank you note, you are perceived as thoughtful, polite, classy, stylish, sharp and that you will work well in a group. These are nice attributes associated with your name. Unlike your competitors, you have subconsciously been reconsidered a second time. Isn't it amazing what a single, simple, well written note can do?

So the next time you are up for an interview, a business meeting with clients, or if you just want to tell someone that you appreciate them, send a simple "Thank You" note. You"ll be doing yourself and the world a favor.

Not sure where to go....Here's one set that has a lot for a reasonable price. Hopefully the banner underneath will show more choices, but for now, this will do. Good luck.

"Western Spaghetti" by: PES

PES is an animation studio who has gotten a lot of attention. Time Magazine voted PES's short "Western Spaghetti" the #2 Viral Film of the Year, and has also been selected to be featured in Sundance 2009. If you have never seen the animation, its quite amazing.

The entire animation is stop motion, and as animators, if you have ever done any kind of stop motion animation, you will agree that it takes a considerable amount of patience and shot planning. The concept is clever, interesting and the visual treatment is engaging and surprising. I found myself sitting through the entire animation to see what comes next.

"Western Spaghetti" is unique because in many scenes breaks our perception of things. It forces us to look at things in new ways as it draws together our notions of functionality and shapes attributed to objects. A good example of this are the... candy corn stovetop flames?

Other objects that find movement in this animation are Post It Notes, Googly Eyes, foil, Pick Up Stix and Rubic's Cubes. What other objects can you find? For those of us who are more experienced, I'm sure you'll recognize a lot of the objects from your childhood.

Be sure to spend a few moments to check it out and support PES by visiting their sites below, I can see myself easily becoming a fan. The PES website is located here, and the official PES Youtube Channel can be found here.

Thanks for sharing Dr. Duncan. : - )

"A Gentleman's Duel" : By Blur Studio

A few years ago, Blur produced this animated short called "A Gentleman's Duel". Back then, my first impressions of the animation were that it was well crafted, it had great animated characters, story, backgrounds, layouts, and I also liked how it had an adult twist on the subject matter. The art direction and their soft treatment to the sets adds to the period, making a unique stylized animation. Seeing it again for the second, third and forth time, it still is awesome to watch.

Enjoy "A Gentleman's Duel" and when you get a chance, check out the Blur Studios site to be inspired.

Marek Denko: 3D Modeling Demo Reel

This is Marek Denko's demo reel from two + years ago, and by today's standard, it still holds up. As usual, he's got great lighting, texturing, particles, in some of his large city scenes a great handle on atmospheric perspective, and an over encompassing interesting and thoughtful presentation to his pieces. You'll like it a lot. Keep watching the demo reel until the end and you'll be able to see his mesh structure and breakdown. Great work Marek. If you read this message, let us know how you are doing.

Enjoy!

Police Dashboard Cam Captures Meteor

What do you think, is this thing real? Its unfortunate that the footage is very bad, but that's due in part to the lowrez nature of cameras that accompanies law enforcement cars. If this is a real meteor strike, it looks huge and it looks like it touched down before it burned up.

I am inclined to believe that its real because of the nature of the light and because (I think this is funny), it takes place in Edmonton. I think if it were done by a VFX artist, she would've picked LA or someplace more metropolitan. After all, it is more exciting, but then again, that's been done before. The idea that it was captured by police car cam adds to the overall believability. That's one lucky cop car to be in right place at the right time.

What do you think? Before you answer, here is some news footage and different camera angles to help corroborate the event. I haven't found any information about where this thing actually landed. Looks real to me.

Benefits of Using the WACOM Tablet

Many people ask me how and why I got started using the WACOM tablet as a design tool and as a creative person, I have to say that its essential and in this post, I'm going to tell you why.

First, its more intuitive than a mouse, the movement is natural, and (for me) it cured my carpal tunnel and various pains I experienced in my hands, which as a creative person, are invaluable. As of writing this post, I still don't have the numbness and pain.

Our hands are like "gold" right? Without them, how can we draw, paint or use the computer, or better yet, design to pay the bills (multiply this by the number of kids you have) and you realize how important your hands are. So, to save our hands, here's my pitch for using the WACOM tablet. It takes time to get used to, but its worth it.

When I graduated with my Graphic Design degree, I got a pretty good design job at a large corporation. We had the best machines, latest software and the best projects. It was a lot of fun and we produced a lot of cool design work. This was both good and bad.

Remember however, when we design on the computer, our hands click the mouse thousands of times a day. Imagine this happening, let's say for three years (this is what happened to me) and after three years of intense design work (and clicking the mouse), I began experiencing a numbing in my right pinky and ring finger. I didn't think anything at first, then the two fingers started to hurt.

I took a Photoshop workshop with the company and I shared with the instructor at the time my problem, and he recommended that I teach myself to use the mouse with my left hand. He said it takes about two weeks, that it was doable and most importantly, it diminishes the wear and tear that was happening to my right hand. So for next week, I literally sat on my right hand while I worked on using the mouse with my left hand. In few short days, I taught myself how to use the mouse with my left hand. This was cool because now I was able to surf the internet and brush my teeth at the same time with my right hand.

Then, (wouldn't you know it) after three years of designing and working in this way, I started experiencing the same numbness and pain in my left hand. Whoa! What the heck is going on here? This took me by surprise and grew concerned because I recognized the "pain". So, I switched back to using the mouse with my right hand.

It took about three months where my right hand began to experience the numbing sensation again. So now, both my hands were experiencing the numbing and slight pain in both pinky and ring fingers. This was bad.

At the company I worked at, they had WACOM tablets available to us for use because many artists used them to draw on the computer. I borrowed one and in only a few days learned how to use. I fell in love with it.

After using it for two days, the pain and numbness went away. The position you sit in when you use it is natural...Your simply holding a stylus which is just like a pencil or pen and instead of clicking (like you do on a mouse), you simply tap the stylus twice, and tap the keyboard to activate various hotkey functions with your other hand. Once I got this down (which took about a week), not only was I working faster, but I was able to be creative without having to worry about what was happening to my hands.

Once in a while, WACOM tablets go on sale at your nearest computer store. The one I use is this one: Wacom Bamboo. You don't need a big one, I have the 6x8 and it works fine. If you are a digital creative, you should invest in one, especially if your hands begin to experience numbing or pain. These days, the tablets have a place where you can clip your stylus so you don't lose it (finally), and also the tablets are now wireless.

I teach a digital painting class where students use the WACOM tablet for the first time. It takes a while to get used to, but once they get a handle on the hand eye coordination required to use it, they love it. The biggest thing I tell them, is that when they first learn to draw, they use a pencil and not a mouse. When you draw on the computer, using a WACOM tablet emulates this natural position, and therefore, can create better work.

I hope this helps you out, if you experienced something similar, let me know. I'd like to hear from you. One of these days, I'll have to get my hands on one of these cool Cintiqs featured below. Only a few of my students roll with them, as the price for them is still pretty steep, but it is sooooo very cool. I'll put this on my wishlist for Santa :-) - Keep drawing and have fun!






R.

"60 fps": Is Officially Entered in Aniboom's 2008 Animation Competition

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

Hey Ya'll! Randolf Dimalanta here... "60 fps", the animation I completed in the Summer of 2008 to complete my MFA in Computer Animation degree has just been entered in Aniboom's 2008 Animation Competition. Many people contributed to its completion and had been in the works for over 9 months.

On Aniboom, the winner of the competition is decided by popularity, and so the more people view it, the better it will do in the competition. Thanks to all of you who have supported the animation. You are awesome!

If you have never checked out the Aniboom site, its actually quite nice. Its one of the very few places online that features cool animations from independent creators like us. They have great competitions and best of all, they have industry leading judges that review the work being submitted.

The part I like best (separate from any competition), is that the animations are viewed by people who LOVE animations...our people. Its a cool animation community and its all good. So check it out here and if you have a cool animation, be sure to enter it in their competitions before the deadline, you may win your stake of $50,000. These days, the money probably will go to gas cards.

Fire it Up!

R.

Video CoPilot : Visual FX Video Tutorials

If you are an animation / game art / visual effects artist / student, you need to check this site now. You won't regret it. I can't say enough about it. You need to check it to get better.

Videocopilot.net is a visual effects website that uses video tutorials to help people learn Adobe After Effects. The tutorials are hosted by VFX artist Andrew Kramer who works professionally in the industry. The video tutorials are fast, clear, informative and surprisingly entertaining.

As an animation instructor, After Effects should be one of the weapons in your creative arsenal, as its linked to what we do on a regular basis (by this, I mean how your work is presented). More importantly, the way our typography is used to present our demo reels is sometimes just as important as the animation work itself. After Effects is definitely one of the best at animating text in interesting ways, and since we are judged on this, we have to get better at it. As animation students, we don't get enough After Effects time.

So, be sure you check out the Videocopilots.net site, browse their tutorials and help them out by purchasing their DVD's for reference, especially if you have never been in After Effects before, I'll guarantee you'll learn a thing or two just by browsing their site. Some advice for you....once you watch a tutorial, see if you can make something that you would think is totally fun, and that will be used for your demo reel. I'll bet that this will be one of the "standout" pieces in your portfolio.

Hey Andrew Kramer, keep up the great work and thanks for putting up such helpful information.

"Get Out and Vote Ya'll" : Frankenstein for President 2008

In the "spirit" of this election year (and Halloween), I thought it would be appropriate to put these two clips up. They're pretty funny. So let your voice be heard, get out and vote! Go Frankenstein!

I remember when Jibjab first came out, their first animations poked fun at the Bush and Kerry elections. They were so entertaining and its nice to see them back and stronger than ever in this year's political races. The short little animation below features Barack Obama, John McCain and Sarah Palin as zombies. What more could you ask for? Whatever are we gonna do when this election ends - I'm sure they'll be another person to make fun of? . . .

Have fun, enjoy and remember to get out and vote!

Barack Obama and Joch McCain : Awesome Dance Battle

We watch this clip in my classes over and over again. There a lot of funny things about it: Barack's expressions are great, and his body type matches what we in the media. Funnier, is John McCain's expressions when he moves his head, and that move he does when he's on the floor (kinda scary).

I'm not sure about the Sarah Palin clip at the end though. Looks like they rushed that part, her head is too small for her neck and body, the clip makes her look like that small headed character from Beetlejuice.


Overall, the clip is entertaining, the breakdancers are awesome, and from a visual effects standpoint, its not a bad composite either. Thanks for making this guys. Well done!

Typography Survival Kit

Typography is essential to an animation student's ability to graduate. How an artist handles his type says a lot about his basic design sense, sensitivity to detail, decision making and clarity of presentation. When an animation student graduates from our school, they are evaluated during a final portfolio/demo reel presentation by a panel of instructors and a select panel of professionals working in the industry. They are judged on about five criteria, and one of them is typography....literally 20 percent of the final score lies in their ability to use typography throughout their presentation. Its a nice test but it catches people off guard, thus the reason for this post. Its meant to help you out.

The hard part, is that animation students only take one or two typography classes while in school and it takes practice and time to really see the nuances of what makes for effective typography. So, they have to play catch up to the designers who work on it on a regular basis, and thus develop a loathing of the craft. Many animation students also find it boring.

Just know that typography can be fun. Take a look at some of the examples on this post. In my classes, I equate typography to "food" where the information presented by the typography is used to educate, help and nurture people.

I intend to write more about the subject for those of you who find the subject overwhelming and boring and will post these lectures on this blog as they are created. I know it'll help people out, and I know I can refer to it in the portfolio classes I teach.

I am an animator, but before this, I was a graphic designer for a few large corporations. It was here that I developed my type skills...and I got real good at it.

Yes I developed fonts, created layouts and websites for large corporations. It was a lot of fun, but nothing beats the feeling you get when you use those design and typography skills in a way that helps you market your OWN work to help you get that job you want, and in most cases this can be a simple business card, or more importantly, a website.

I've seen some recruiters and employers during these review sessions praise a potential graduate for how well their website is designed, in essence, they can tell a lot about a design/animation candidate by how well their site is put together and a large part of it is in their handling of type, which says a lot about their sense of design.

When I teach typography to animation students we talk about the feeling a particular type face represents. We also talk about effective type combinations (contrast), negative space and most importantly, visual hierarchy, which means that to any effective design, a designer must lead the eye by establishing a single focal point, followed by a second and a third.

When I mention this to my classes, they are blown away and surprised primarily because they find that a concept that is so effective and important to also be very simple. I'll write more about this in a later time.

In the meantime, enjoy the VFS kinetic typography presentation that accompanies this post. You will find a treasure trove of information regarding typography in just a few minutes that some of us take years to realize.

As an animator, does it mean that our work is relegated to just animating characters. Nope. It also includes effective animation of typography and design elements. Anyone ever see the opening and closing sequences for your favorite TV shows? Its everywhere

I hope this quick animation helps you. When I saw it, I thought about my students who yearn to improve their design and typography skills, and thought I'd post it for future reference enjoy.

R.

Are These Nuts Moving? - An Optical Illusion

As visual effects people, animators, painters and artists, we are very keen with what the eyes see, sometimes our eyes will do things naturally that are just, well....plain weird. 

Check out this static image, would anyone care to articulate what's happening here? Does it look like its moving? 

Its too early in the day, and I haven't had anything to drink to elicit anything to move (I don't think). The image is moving right now as I create this post. Would you consider this animation?

Don't stare at it too long though, you might get sick, try showing it to the person next to you, I'll guarantee you'll start up an interesting conversation as some people I have found can see any movement whatsoever.

Thanks Mark, for the image!