Oct 04

Johnny Byrell – ''Night and Day'' (1960)

Johnny Byrell badly lip-syncs his cover of “Night and Day” on the Australian version of “Bandstand”. Strangely I kinda like this version. This was in fact a b-side of a 45rpm single. A kinescope recording.

Oct 04

When skeletons attack

Posted in: Animation

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Here’s a new piece I wrote for Cartoon Brew on Double Negative’s visual effects for the skeleton attack sequence in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Oct 04

Come for VIEW, stay for the workshops

Posted in: Animation

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One of the big drawcards of VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy is its workshops. These include masterclasses from big Hollywood directors, animators and visual effects artists and from specialized training bodies and industry players.

The workshops take place between 24 October and 28 October at VIEW.

Check out the list below and find out more here.

The DNA of Disney Character Design, Byron Howard, Director, ZOOTOPIA – This workshop will explore the appeal and design for animation.

Pitching Storyboards, Conrad Vernon, Director, SAUSAGE PARTY – Learn how to create and pitch a storyboard.

Visual Imaging in the Electronic Age, Donald Greenberg, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics Cornell University – In this short workshop, three or four topics from the Visual Imaging course will be presented to illustrate the very strong relationships existing between art and science.

Storytelling with Light, Sharon Calahan, Pixar, Director of Photography, THE GOOD DINOSAUR – A look at how to create beautiful and memorable images to enhance storytelling.

Scrutinizing the Writing Process & Lifestyle: 7 Hacks To Avoid Becoming A Hack, Marc Haimes, Screenplay Writer, KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS – His workshop will introduce some of his favorite strategies for living a life that gives you the best chance at producing high level material.

Storyboarding in Feature Animation, David Feiss, Director, OPEN SEASON: SCARED SILLY – David explains the critical role of story boarding in animation in this hands-on workshop.

An Introduction to Environments Work, Audrey Ferrara, Environment Supervisor, The Jungle Book, MPC – When it comes to environment work, there is not one specific way to approach it, but many. In this workshop, we will focus on making one shot, using different techniques and explore the different results.

Animation Posing and Composition, Troy Saliba, Animation Supervisor, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, Sony Pictures Imageworks – This workshop focusses on the graphic principals of animation posing. Applying traditional shot planning techniques to CG animation and VFX. Using line of action, negative space, and staging to guid the eye of the audience.

Directing the Visual Story, Chris Perry, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, Hampshire College – Students in this workshop will explore the process of translating a script into a sequence of independent shots.

Pitch Perfect your Game, Josh Holmes, Franchise Creative Director, 343 Industries (Halo) – Get ready to pitch. What are the considerations for pitching an idea? This interactive workshop focuses on the process of developing a pitch for a game property. Participants will be challenged to take their game idea from initial concept to compelling pitch, presenting to the group.

UE4 Virtual Movie Production with Sequencer, Luis Cataldi, Education Evangelist, Epic Games – During this presentation, participants will learn about the new Unreal Engine cinematic Sequencer tool suite.

Intro to Unreal Engine 4 – Building a VR game from scratch, Sjoerd DeJong, Education Evangelist, Epic Games – During this workshop, Sjoerd De Jong, Unreal Engine Evangelist, will build a VR game from scratch working with freely available Unreal Engine assets.

Procedural Techniques using Houdini, Deborah Fowler, Professor of Visual Effects Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) – Students in this workshop will be introduced to common procedural techniques, node-based workflow for visual effects, and a brief overview of SideFX’s Houdini and how it can be used to empower the artist.

Photographic “synecdoche” Master class and Photographic “Haiku” Master class, Michael Rubin, Fine art photographer, Director, The Rubin Collection – Rubin is offering a 2-hour workshop for photographers on the exploration of synecdoche. This workshop is open to novices and advanced photographers, as long as you have a camera or Smartphone with you. Most of the session will be a photowalk with Rubin. There will be special emphasis on photographic humor and juxtapositions.

3D Animation Taster, Alex Williams, Head of Animation, Escape Studios – This one-day taster course gives students an introduction to the art of 3D Animation, and giving a sense of what it’s like to work as a professional animator.

Flour + Salt = Animation, Lucia Modesto – Learn the principles of ANIMATION using flour and salt with Lucia Modesto who was Character Technical Director Supervisor for eighteen years at PDI and DreamWorks Animation.

Introduction to digital filmmaking and Visual Effects, Brittany Dukes, Screenwriter, Audio Tech, Media Production, Full Sail University – From the process of screenwriting, to pre-production, to shooting, and post production, young filmmakers will be given a sound foundation to build.

Portfolio review, J.C. Cornwell, Artist Manager, Sony Pictures Animation – JC Cornwell will offer live portfolio reviews and a recruitment session!

How to develop and publish your Virtual Reality game, Luca Deriu, Instructor, Founder, PlaySys – Using as an example the latest Virtual Reality 3D puzzle game qb, developed by PlaySys and published by Oculus in June 2016, Luca Deriu will sum up the experience of a videogame developer that has experimented with different game engines, rendering techniques and platforms.

More on VIEW’s workshops at this link.

Oct 04

New CBeebies preschool series ‘Tolibob’ to be launched at MIPCOM by CAKE

Posted in: Animation

CAKE has been appointed to distribute a brand new preschool series Tolibob. Produced by Beakus in association with Cloth Cat, for CBeebies in UK and ABC in Australia, Tolibob will launch at MIPCOM with CAKE selling worldwide rights excluding Japan.

The 52 x 5’ series follows a group of young creative creatures called the “Tolibobs”. Tib, Lalloo and Bobble live in a big forest and have fun playing, exploring and solving everyday problems. In each episode, they work together combining shapes, colours and patterns to create a new character, who joins in with the Tolibobs’ fun, while a friendly narrator encourages them to think for themselves.

Beakus, director-producer, Steve Smith said, “Tolibob is a show with creative play and imagination at its heart. Full of fun, humour, and some surreal moments that we know pre-school children will love, Tolibob is our first original invention and we can’t wait to share it with the world!”

A bright, unique, fun series aimed at two to five year olds, Tolibob is inventive and interactive, inspiring creative play in younger children, who will marvel at the funny and curious characters coming to life, whilst older children will see how simple shapes can be used to create characters and stories.

Tolibob was created and developed by BAFTA and British Animation award-winning director-producer Steve Smith and published book author and illustrator Leigh Hodgkinson. CAKE, CCO and managing director, Ed Galton said, “Tolibob is a fun unique concept that shows children how to create characters using shapes, patterns and their imagination. With a terrific award-winning team behind it, we are sure it will be warmly received at MIPCOM.”

Tolibobimage

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Oct 04

Disney reveals teaser trailer of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’

Posted in: Animation

Captain Jack Sparrow is back! Not really, as we don’t see any trace of Johnny Depp in the teaser trailer. The dark sinister world of the pirates engross you with creepy characters and their filthy characteristics.

If ‘Death’ has to be revealed, the intensity of the inevitable event has to be grave and intimidating. And that’s what Walt Disney Pictures is trying to do with its first teaser trailer of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Captain Salazar played by Javier Bardem wants to relay a message to Captain Jack Sparrow- “Tell him death comes straight for him”.

Disney aims to set a chilling tone for the film by portraying Captain Salazar in the forefront (with his hair swaying subtly). The ghostly pirate crew from Curse of the Black Pearl advances on the ship to kill whoever comes in their way apart from the ship’s lone survivor.

The fifth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise brings along preconceived notions and expectations with it. This anticipation is justified as the franchise began with blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, Dead Man’s Chest in 2006, followed by At World’s End in 2007 and the fourth film On Stranger Tides in 2011. All the installments have performed well both at the box office and the big screen garnering positive reviews from the critics.

Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg from a script by Jeff Nathanson, with Jerry Bruckheimer as the producer, the film is produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Dead Men Tell No Tales features a cast including Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa, Kevin McNally as Joshamee Gibbs and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner.

The film will release on 26 May, 2017.

The post Disney reveals teaser trailer of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Oct 04

MS Thru a Child’s Eyes

Posted in: Animation

Kim Ball, Ogilvy’s global director of communications, has been living with MS (multiple sclerosis) throughout her thirteen years in the agency network’s office in Paris. Ogilvy Paris has worked with Kim and her daughter Sienna to create MS Thru a Child’s Eyes a short film in which Sienna talks about what its like to have a mother with MS. The mother and daughter are shown on the pavements of Paris, Kim in her wheelchair and Sienna on a skateboard, with Sienna’s reflective voiceover providing insights into their life together.

Rocky Mountain MS Center

Kim writes: “On Saturday, September 10, I was humbled to be the key note speaker at the Rocky Mountain MS Center and to share my daughter’s story of “MS Thru a Child’s Eyes” at the organization’s annual gala of 550+ caring individuals behind the Center’s determination to improve the lives of those with MS and their families through Care, Education and Research. MS is a daily challenge (to have and to live with) but when you know that communities like the Rocky Mountain MS Center, friends and family are behind you all the way, you can’t help but feel inspired by the love…every single day.”

The Rocky Mountain MS Center is receiving donations, for care, support, education, and research for people living with MS and their families, at thankyouforcaring.org

MS Thru a Child’s Eyes Credits

MS Thru a Child’s Eyes was created at Ogilvy Paris by executive creative director Susan Westre, copywriter/director Nick Bakshi and editor Erin Bowser.

Oct 04