Oh, and I decided against posting my copy drawings. I didn't seem aesthetically right as I started piecing them together. Instead I'm back at hashing out my own originals again. More on that later.
My life is still deeply rooted in art, although I can't claim to be nearly as "professional" as I want. Whilst on my break, I did have the chance to hit sigGRAPH 2011, which took place in Vancouver this year. This would be my third year attending, now, and my first experience in Vancouver.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much down time outside of the week of the convention itself to really consume all that the beautiful counrty had to over. I am a huge nature freak, so I did spend every other morning or evening trekking the seawall-- the first evening making it around the entire perimeter across sunset beach -- it seemed to be about 9 miles or so.
Of the conference itself, I did have a chance to catch some entertaining entries in computer animation festival. I can't really explain exactly why these pieces warmed me so much and I'm wishing that I could find them online to link up and view again to really sum up my feelings for them. I will continue to look and if I do happen to find them, I will post the links. For now, I can direct you to there studio sources for additional information on the creators.
Firstly, the animated shorts: I didn't get the chance to see all of the animated shorts, sadly, but of the half hour I was there, I have to say my favorite was:
TIME TAKEN: 2 Months
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: France
DIRECTED BY: Ludovic Habas + 7 Others
WEBSITE: http://habasdesign.sup.fr/
OVERVIEW: Basically involves a legoworld with lego people that exist within an antigravity rubix-type planet where the main character, despite all the rotational shifts of both time and place, continues to forge ahead wherever he is left to try to live a normal life.
Of the Electronic Theatre, I had a list of favorites. My top picks, which I wasn't alone in selecting them as favorites, were naturally among the chosen award winners. The were obvious stand outs and easily selected along their competitors. These included:
SIGGARPH AWARD: JURY
TIME TAKEN: 2 Years (10 Minutes)
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: Poland
DIRECTED BY: Damian Nenow
WEBSITE: http://www.pathsofhate.com/en/
OVERVIEW: Two jet fighters in the froths of unrequitted fury seek to eliminate one another despite all surrounding emotions and consequently encounter the darkened afterlife of their fate. A highly stylized animation, comparable to the likes of Heavy Metal magazines.
SIGGARPH AWARD: BEST IN SHOW
TIME TAKEN: Still Researching
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
WEBSITE: http://www.moonbotstudios.com/
OVERVIEW: A man, enamored in his books, enters a world in which his books enamor him. Upon his maturing passions, they release him off into his former life to blossom with the knowledge and dreams he has acquired and welcome another in another young visionary to culture.
CLINK HERE FOR IMAGES OF THE PIECE
I will post the video when it is made available online. For now, here is another short(Tomer's first), A WONDERFUL NATURE, that will allow he to visualize both his humor and his style:
SIGGARPH AWARD: STUDENT PROJECT PRIZE (Flamingo Pride)
TIME TAKEN: 6 Minutes Long
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: Germany
DIRECTED BY: Tomer Eshed
WEBSITE: http://talking-animals.com/
OVERVIEW: A straight flamingo amidst a party of a flock of gay flamingos ventures off to find another party of various birds, one which he falls for and becomes determined to win over. After they all ridicule him for making a pass at her, he experiences a traumatic event that changes his perspective and frees him into trying a completely random approach on her.
My other favorites, which did not win any awards, but still stuck out while sitting through the viewing were all very unique in their own way:
CLINK HERE FOR IMAGES OF THE PIECE
Unfortunately, this was another short that I couldn't find. And, again, if I do find it, I will update this post. However, one of the lighters, Alex Stockwell, has a demo reel with some work of he did on Mutantland:
TIME TAKEN / LENGTH: 4 Minutes Long
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: Phil Tippett
WEBSITE: http://www.tippett.com
OVERVIEW: A world of mutant creatures fight the battles of survival of the fittest in a seemingly post-apocalyptic environment in order to survive.
This isn't the actual short, but an insightful hybrid of a documentary on it:
TIME TAKEN / LENGTH: 7 Minutes
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: Tyler Carter
WEBSITE: http://tycarter.blogspot.com/
OVERVIEW: While a little boy sleeps with a book by his side, the Dreamgiver sneaks in to cast the boy his dream for the night. In mishap of nightly incantation, however, the Dreamgiver accidently causes the boy to have a nightmare that evolves from the book weherein the Dreamgiver must now rescue him.
JOURNEY INTO ORION NEBULA
I liked this one because of its finessed narrartive and its visual beauty. I felt it was the one of the most interesting because for its value of non-fiction and my undying curiosity of the unknown. So, for that fact, I go deeper into my afterthoughts...
They were very successful is capturing the depth achieved for the degree of scale that they were reacreating. I also read an article in 3D World on the creation to BBC's "Wonders of the Universe" series, and found myself wondering if the same techniques were used in approaching the design in order to maintain accurate realism.
But apparently, I'm very wrong-- It IS marked as 'Hubble'. Although, both documentaries seem equally beautiful.
On the visual art end, according to 3D World's article on Wonders of the Universe, studio BDH entsilled the help of a father and son team, The Parks, who use various fluids magnified under a petri dish to mimic stylized and highly resolution fluid-like effects that are quite popular within the film industry. The process itself is called 'micophotography', but the Parks have customized their work to make it a trademark of their name. And the detail of the organics captured within "Wonders of the Universe" is quite apparent. It really reminds me of what I saw in "Journey into Nebula" and I am very surprised that the Parks were not involved...
Ah, research. Sigh. But still good to know of them--- the Parks' work is phenominal!
Anyways, here is the link to the son, Chris Parks' credentials, which include work seen in the movie "The Fountain" directed by one of my favorite directors Darren Aronosky. And here is a link to one of BBC's WOTU excerpts (with some awesome ambience to alter your emotions and brainwash your current mood) ;)
OK.
Back to the Focus, the look of Hubble's piece, like mentioned in BBC's article on WOTU, "could" have acheived with 2.5D setup, high usage of maya fluids, render layers, and final gather, and then topped with heavy after effects compositing (With WOTU I read the plugin CCSphere was involved with the Parks' inkspots and massive duration adjustments were used with TimeWarp).
I don't know for sure how this piece was down in respect to WOTU. I am now reading that this piece was made from actual footage of IMAX cameras that were taken into space on the spcae shuttle for Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missions in both 1993and 2009. 2009 carried the 3D IMAX Camera, which contained a mile of filmwhich can record up to 8 minutes 30 seconds of footage.
My ending note on this one, "Journey into Orion Nebula" was fascinating, and definitely a favorite (however it was done):
TIME TAKEN / LENGTH: 4:34 Minutes
COUNTY OF ORIGIN: United States
DIRECTED BY: No significant credits that I've found yet-- Credit is giving to a "collaboration of research astronomers, computer programmers, and visualization artists"
WEBSITE: http://www.spacetelescope.org/
OVERVIEW: A relaxing visual walkthrough of the history of the Orion Nebula constellation and the creation of its planets and stars.
Among these, I would definitely point out some others, but on the length of this entry and time I want to invest into my next post on what I've personally been up to-- I would limit my choices and plant my high-fives into the palms of the teams listed above. Overall, though, sigGRAPH 2011 Computer Animation Festival, left me with an unchanged opinion from the last three years I've attended, will always be well worth an attender's time.
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