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.
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!
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.
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.netis 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.
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? . . .
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 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.
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.
Here is a collection of animated logos from back in the day. See how many you can recognize as most of them are from the 80's. We watched these in my beginning 3D Animation class to introduce our next assignment, and so I had the students pay attention to how they animate simple shapes, lights, glows and composition. Back in the day, these were all actually very good considering the tools they had.
After we watch the old logos, we watch new ones, and good examples are the ones produced by EA Games as seen below.
Barack's appeal to younger voters like myself is apparent, and I definitely enjoy seeing the direction of some of his ads. This one in particular is a billboard seen in the game Burnout Paradise by EA that is unexpected and surprising. I just think its cool and creative that his ad/virtual billboard somehow made it into the background design. In a fast game, it might be best to place the ad on a long stretch of road where a player can see the ad, and not on a dangerous turn. Nice move EA and the Obama Campaign for trying something new, very smart.
Hi Guys - I ran into this today while checking the latest news on MSNBC.com of all places. The first Gears of War game I thought was excellent, it had great visuals as well as unique creative ways of handling weapons. Gears of War 2 looks even better. The environments and creatures look massive and majestic, and I have to say that the taking enemies and using them as "human shields" thing is pretty cool...nice touch.
Conrad's demo reel is a good example of using transitions effectively. The concept of the "Demo Reel Parody" is simply genius Conrad, thanks for posting, and even though its comical, for those of us who are just starting, you could learn a lot simply by looking at his examples, all of them are well executed.
The in-game cinematics in this game look really good, and are reminiscent of the movie "The Patriot"... remember that movie? The commercial is engaging, put together well, entertaining and informative (imagine that). You'll actually get a short history lesson here...in any case, its worth checking out, especially if you are big on real time strategy games.
For those those of you working in the game cinematics class, take notes. This one's a good one.
Here is the final animation. Thanks to everyone who made this project a success. I wish all of you continued health and prosperity. I'm going to rest a bit, and after resting, will work on a new animation soon (perhaps "The Final Task" sequel).
Hey Guys - A new animated car commercial for the Citroen C4 has just come out and is now playing in the UK. As always, the studio that created the clip is sharp in terms of handling the overall compositing of the robot with the environment, storytelling and presentation. As expected, we have some pretty slick movement and dance moves, see if you can pick out the theme/genre.
For those of you who worked on the commercial, good job. Keep 'em coming, we like dancing robots! Wish this was longer. You can view the original Citroen car commercials here.
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