I'm posting this video as many of us are big fans of fight scenes. The movements in this clip are from an impressive young Shaolin master. As I watched this clip, my knees began to hurt...Ouch!
Check out his vertical movement as he completes the form. Well done.
Enjoy and Fire it Up.
In my animation classes this week, we couldn't get enough of the above Tron 2 trailer. As a person who remembers watching the original Tron in 1982 in the theatres, all I have to say is, "Its about time". With so many great movies embedded into my brain, the first Tron movie was pushed to the back of the line. I'm glad however, that its being resurrected, because the new look and feel is simply awesome...definately an upgrade. This is going be fun.
For those of us who weren't born before the movie's premiere (as most of my students are), Tron premiered in 1982 and starred Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner and David Warner and was about a computer hacker who somehow got trapped into the digital world of the computer. With a great story and impressive visual effects, its was the first movie to give us a view into what the world inside of a computer would look like. You could compare it to The Matrix (1999), both movies presented stunning visuals and ideas of what the abstract complex world inside the computer could be. As a 5th grader, watching it for the first time, I was carried away. The feeling was similar to the first time I saw Toy Story, Star Wars or the Matrix. I realized that I saw and experienced something completely new.
When Tron 2 Legacy premieres in 2010, its going to be interesting to see, not only a new visual interpretation of how a computer world would look like, but also, the aspects of our technology and computing in our current day and age. What are they going to put into the movie. So much has changed since 1982, prior to the premiere of the first movie, technology (at the time) seemed advanced, but in hindsight was limited to Commodore 64's, large servers, floppy disks, green and black monitor text, dot matrix printers, and the first video game arcades. In that time (since 1982), think about how things have changed: The Internet (for everyone) was developed, smaller PCs, websites, CD's, DVD's, email, Youtube, laptops, online gaming, xbox, Playstation I, II and III, iphones and let's not forget social networking sites (not necessarily in that order - but you get what I mean), the list goes on and on. Are these ideas going to be interpreted in the film?
So we'll be on the lookout for more clips of Tron 2. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer above, and for added interest, I've also included the Lightcycle clip from the first Tron and the original 1982 Tron Movie Trailer. Both are interesting to watch. For some of you who remember Tron in the movie theatres, I hope this brings back fond memories.
This piece shows what happens you put cel phones in microwave ovens - nothing more. Just watch and enjoy. Good job to whoever created this creepy piece of work.
Thanks to Curt and Mike for the link. Be well and fire it up.
- Randolf
One in a while, I'll browse through various video sites to check out the latest and greatest of demo reels. This one, by VJ Robson caught my eye initially because of the Wolverine image before it plays.
What a nice surprise. When I saw his reel, I was immediately impressed. He's got a good sense of design, color, layout and knows how to animate elements in a way that is engaging. He's got great timing and shows a lot of variety in his work. I think VJ has been around. The students in my classes are often very expert in drawing, painting and are very good at creating vector style graphics, but need to see more examples of how movement can make their pieces better. This demo reel is a great example of that and its a trait that comes with years of observation, practice and taking risks.
Hey VJ, well done. Thanks for inspiring us. If you happen to see this post, feel free to post a response and by all means, keep up the awesomeness!
Fire it up!
Randolf
Like many people, I too grew up to Michael Jackson's music, was enamored by his lifestyle and like many, am saddened to experience his loss. There really is nobody who can measure up to his singing, dancing, versatility and shear creativity. I think about all the times growing up I would watch his videos and listen to his music, everything had universal appeal and I found myself listening to him over and over again. He spanned many generations, but the Michael I am most fond of was the "Off the Wall" era, and right before that, the twenty year old Jackson 5's, sporting the big afros, heels and disco beats. That was an awesome time, and although its very sad to see him go, its been a joy exploring and revisiting all of the Jackson music again.
Today, we came across a virtual tour of Michael Jackson's famous arcade. Growing up, we always heard about it and its nice to be able to finally check it out. Exploring the arcade, for me, became an nostalgic look at many of the arcade structures I grew up with, like Karate Champ and the Terminator 2 pinball machine. See you if you can find these in his arcade.
While you are at it, see if you can also locate the following "old skool" items as well. A life size Boba Fett figure, Superman and Batman figure, the stand up Karate Champ arcade game, lifesize Spiderman, Lego Darth Vader, C3P0 and ET the Extra Terrestrial (Remember when Michael recorded a song and narrated the story for a ET children's book)?
The navigation to the arcade is at the bottom of the screen, but is a bit quirky. You'll notice that the camera moves on it its own and is a bit hard to control. Just use the arrows at the bottom of the screen and you'll be okay. Once you get used to it however, it's lots of fun.
Enjoy!
Click here to check it out.
The creative team responsible for animating the dancing babies for Evian have done it again. This time, these pretoddlers are on "Old School" roller skates. For those of you who remember these roller skating moves from way back when...you'll be impressed with with what you see.
Its entertaining watching these babies skating to the funky beat...Happy 4th of July and
Fire It Up!
We've been waiting a long time for this trailer. We're wondering however, why "Avatar" isn't in the title? From what we see here however, the look of the film looks great. The film looks like its going to be loaded with plenty of martial arts and tons of CG...(the Fire Nation in this clip looks pretty dart awesome)...just the way we like. The only thing this needs now, is a tight story and great character acting. Hopefully the director, Shyamalan, a story driven director, will pull through and make this one of his best films, I really like his work. Below is the trailer, and underneath that is an interview clip with the director M.Night.Shyamalan.
Here's a little documentary that we stumbled upon about the Transformers franchise. With the premiere of Transformers 2 fast approaching we thought a little history lesson would wet your appetite. For those of you who remember the very time the toys came out, you would have to agree that these were the greatest baby sitters, keeping all of us out of trouble, but also away from "the girls", which is okay, its just that some of us haven't grown out of the toys yet.
This documentary features its Japanese origins, the first Transformers toy commercial premiere, information about the different generations (Transformers Generation I and II), clips from the various animated series (Dinobots), and its transition into the 2007 live action piece. Its a nice little hit that's well worth checking out.
My favorite part of this clip, was seeing Soundwave. The cool "Walkman" style Decepticon who had the two cassette tapes that would launch and transform into a Buzzsaw and Ravage. I'll have to admit that I lost interest after the Dinobots, but in the film, we can see how the remnants of those types of ideas play a huge role in giving the robots variety.
Check out the film when it comes out.
See you at the concession stand.
Fire it up!
Dude, the ingame cinematics look like live action, great camera work, MOCAP, lighting and texturing. These guys could seriously come out with a movie, but these days, as all of you know, games make millions of dollars more than movies. Watch the trailer and prepare to be amazed.
When you are though with that, check out the gameplay. We have way better weapons use even ones created by Leonardo Da Vinci. This gameplay clip was taken from this year's E3 convention.
Fire it Up!
- Randolf
As animation and vfx nerds, you got to think about how this clip was put together.
This kid's got some mad skills.
Enjoy!
Team Fortress 2 is the sequel the successful online PC game created by the Valve Corporation. In my classes, we were hooked on watching the "Meet The..." animations that featured a character from the game. These animations run about a minute and a half and were extremely entertaining. Seriously, we wasted a good hour on finding these clips, but the time spent was well worth it...we'll call it "research". :-)
They feature great art direction, character animation, nice clean styling and execution. The nostalgic design themes also add to the storyline.
We are animation nerds, so I've placed all of the available animations on this page so you don't have to search, leaving room for the last characters...Pyro and Medic. Once they are posted, we shall post them on this page for future inspiration and reference, until then, enjoy these, beginning with my favorite...The Heavy.
"I have yet to meet anyone who can outsmart bullet." - the Heavy
So which guy do you like? - Enjoy!
This reel by Thaddeus is pretty complete. He shows clean, organized modeling of different styles ranging from cartoony to super realistic. His opening model, pictured above is simply insane, nice work, I think everybody's jaw drops when they see it, a fantastic way to open your reel. Good job!
Throughout the reel, Thadeus also shows his rigging skills, UI set up in Maya, and a nice feel for timing, pacing, design and layout. Nice work, if you come across this post Thaddeus, chime in below and let us know how you are doing, and end up.
You can visit Thaddues Maharaj's site here.
Enjoy and Fire it Up!
Randolf
Smashing Magazine is a resource for web designers and graphic designers who design on the web. It feautures hundreds of tutorials on CSS, HTML templates, resources on good design, links to well designed portfolios, that will inspire you and get you out of your creative rut.
The site is worth checking out, and I'm keeping it bookmarked on this blog so that I can refer to it in the future. For us animators and visual fx freaks who don't have that much design or web mileage, this is for you. I check the site often to stay updated as the web changes like water, you never know when your site will need a cool design upgrade.
Paul T., thanks for sharing, this resource is awesome.
Fire it up!
This piece came up in class this week and is all agree, that it is extremely exceptional. It was created for Saturn Technologies, a German electronics retailer and from what I had found was put together by a group called BLR (Big Lazy Robot) and Furia, a Barcelona based VFX firm. What's cool, is that it looks as though BLR found work on the Transformers Movie too, good job guys.
The piece is carried by a clever concept that is well executed. It has great lighting, texturing, slick animal animation and superb water dynamics (bubbles). The colors, mood and overall look and feel add to the intensity created through this unique concept of evolution where only the strong survive. When you get a chance, try to watch this in HQ, its worth it.
Hey Isaac, thanks for sharing and the heads up!
Fire it UP and Enjoy!
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