3 excellent animated shorts I watched in the last month that left a lasting impression.
Stand Up - Creepy rotoscoped creepiness. Nothing says "cant tear your eyes away" like a bad standup comedian flailing away into the blackest parts of their being (Michael Richards anyone?). Thanks for the headup CartoonBrew.
Salesman Pete - Fun action, memorable visual setups and editing. A Vimeo spotlight feature.
How Wings are Attached to the Backs of Angels - Another creepsy short. Rube Goldberg Machines meet otherworldly (even other to the otherworld of this story) Ghost story. Highlighted in the Myclone Blog.
Intent on giving Eddie Haskell thebiz
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Graphic: A Risky Business by D.L. Watson
Im really digging the live action actors on the MovieStorm sets as well as the twotone color. Yea, the lipsync decision is distracting at first but kudos for the varying route. Color me impressed.
"Graphic: A Risky Business" from D.L. Watson on Vimeo.
"Graphic: A Risky Business" from D.L. Watson on Vimeo.
Friday, September 24, 2010
YOU ARE THERE!!! - Archive.org
Been poking around archive.org a good bit lately, specifically in the 78 cylinder archive. Some pretty excellent stuff there if you like your blues/country/jazz authentic and alive. Some of my faves include Big Bill Broonzy's Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Home (what should be sad is in fact pretty fun), Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Words (haunting), LeadBelly's Where did you Sleep Last Night (haunting again), Charlie Poole's Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, Dock Boggs' Country Blues (feels like your sitting around a campfire at a sqatters camp), Trio Matamoros' Yo 'Ta Cansa (check out that shift there at the end) and Im So Glad from Skip James.
Anywho, I stumbled upon this CBS radio re-enactment of the third day of The Battle of Gettysburg complete with multiple radio correspondents. Bizarre interviews with soldiers in the field (especially the creepy confederate who sounds like a jailhouse rapist around 9:40), field reports from the middle of the battle and the excellent booming, echoey, dissafected voice shouting YOU ARE THERE like the horsemen of the Apocalypse are upon us. Surreal. I have openly mocked war re-enactments in the past but this one is worth a listen just for the strangeness of it all. Also kind of weird how they never really talk about all the dead (50,000 lives lost).
As an added plus you can follow along on Wikipedia. Strange fact about the only civilian death being a stray bullet striking a woman making bread in her kitchen. A bad time and place to make bread I suppose.
Anywho, I stumbled upon this CBS radio re-enactment of the third day of The Battle of Gettysburg complete with multiple radio correspondents. Bizarre interviews with soldiers in the field (especially the creepy confederate who sounds like a jailhouse rapist around 9:40), field reports from the middle of the battle and the excellent booming, echoey, dissafected voice shouting YOU ARE THERE like the horsemen of the Apocalypse are upon us. Surreal. I have openly mocked war re-enactments in the past but this one is worth a listen just for the strangeness of it all. Also kind of weird how they never really talk about all the dead (50,000 lives lost).
As an added plus you can follow along on Wikipedia. Strange fact about the only civilian death being a stray bullet striking a woman making bread in her kitchen. A bad time and place to make bread I suppose.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Sketchup Bonus Materials
With Google sketchup models being easily accessible to both Iclone and MovieStorm, sketchup is a good tool to have in your anymation movie-making belt. Ive been playing around with sketchup for a little while now and while I'm no expert I can do most of the things I need to do. Still, after a year and a half of putzing about, I only today downloaded the bonus materials pack. Doh! This little pack greatly increases the number of textures you can paint your model with. Definitely worth the download.
Just download the materials library link and change the folder in the installation process to the Sketchup 7 folder. Easy Peasy.
Thanks to the Dr. Nemesis Blog for the link.
Just download the materials library link and change the folder in the installation process to the Sketchup 7 folder. Easy Peasy.
Thanks to the Dr. Nemesis Blog for the link.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monsters of the Atomic Age!
A man finds fame in a monster suit. Fame fades. World explodes.
Starring
thebiz as Dave/Growth-O!
6HeadedMonster as Steve-O!
Madison as Little Girl
JohnnyEx as Angry Dad
Nahton as The Boss
Wolf as Alan Hale/Giant Robot monkey
Norrie as Quinn/King Buzzo
GoofParade as The Mayor
Dulci as Dulci@Dusk
Act3Scene24 as Felix Award Presenter
Sisch as Marie Heim
MrsBiz as Red Leather
Jase180 as JetPackBoy
Music by Precog and Kevin Macleod
Full credits in film.
Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the flick.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A crutch is a tool after all...
Watched KibishiPaul's The Comeback last night. On TMU he has provided an interesting and involved description of the scenario/story involving generation of clowns and the protagonist being a very bad performer who wants to take off the makeup. However, the flick itself contains no dialog and could be easily broken down to a simple little horror story (though not a bad one, pretty fun I thought) that has none of this back story. It made me wonder if the description served to enhance the movie by adding context and secondary info or if the movie failed to explain the plot and uses the description as a crutch.
With online videos, the description is closely tied to the movie and I always read it before viewing a flick so here I tend to feel it can be used as a tool. No, the story line doesn't need to be fully expounded upon but perhaps some small verbal clues can be used to aid the visual story or is this cheating so to speak? Tag lines are used in most cinema poster promotions while expository info is often used in trailers. With online videos the description is sitting right there next to the little screen so why not use it? Or perhaps all this is pretty obvious. Thoughts?
With online videos, the description is closely tied to the movie and I always read it before viewing a flick so here I tend to feel it can be used as a tool. No, the story line doesn't need to be fully expounded upon but perhaps some small verbal clues can be used to aid the visual story or is this cheating so to speak? Tag lines are used in most cinema poster promotions while expository info is often used in trailers. With online videos the description is sitting right there next to the little screen so why not use it? Or perhaps all this is pretty obvious. Thoughts?
Friday, August 6, 2010
Video Game Makings
Continuing on the subject of Video Games, Edge Magazine has a very cool weekly feature on the "Making of.." various games both current and classic. The articles run the gauntlet (hehe) from design to tech specs and a good bit of history. Some of my favorites so far include:
Little Computer People (Thanks for the heads up Overman!) - A Sim before the Sims ('85) for the Commodore64
Tapper - Hard to believe making video games was as simple as they make it sound here. And who doesnt love a beer themed game.
Gauntlet - The multiplayer co-op Granddaddy
Repton - Never heard of it but an interesting story as its creator was 15 and lasted 2 years before leaving the game business behind to enter college.
Worth a look at thelist to see if one of your favorites is there as well.
Little Computer People (Thanks for the heads up Overman!) - A Sim before the Sims ('85) for the Commodore64
Tapper - Hard to believe making video games was as simple as they make it sound here. And who doesnt love a beer themed game.
Gauntlet - The multiplayer co-op Granddaddy
Repton - Never heard of it but an interesting story as its creator was 15 and lasted 2 years before leaving the game business behind to enter college.
Worth a look at thelist to see if one of your favorites is there as well.
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