January 12, 2005

• Links

  Jeremyville’s SKETCHEL project! - the customised satchel show

  The Ninja Art Show @ Gallery Nucleus, Jan 22nd. “The ninja show is a group show composed of ninja-related and ninja-inspired artwork from graphic designers, motion designers, illustrators, animators, and a variety of other artists. Anyone who is dressed in Ninja attire will recieve 10% discount on store purchases.”

  www.audio1.org - Music downloads! (Note: the site can be a bit slow & buggy.) I’m not sure how this compares with iTunes which I have never used, but what’s cool here is that I am finding artists or albums that I can’t find on Amazon. Like -

  • Messer Chups (info)
  • Capsule-SF
  • Bossa Disney Nova (via chipple’s agenda)
  • and Stereo Total’s newest CD

  Galerie Grafiekvaria – art posters

  S.Britt illustrations (thanks, Lisa!)

  Gangland Restaurant (via sweetandsourstories)

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  Urban Vinyl/3D…

  URBAN VINYL FIGURES aren’t new. As any toy-freak would know, they have been around for years (starting with Hong Kong’s ‘Crazy Children’ series by Michael Lau… and now, the US “Art Toy” phenomenon spearheaded by people like Kidrobot & Strangeco). Interestingly, several Hollywood animation studios have now caught on to the concept and become enamored with the “Urban Vinyl” style (whatever this means, exactly) as the next hot thing in Animation.

  

  I discovered a while ago that Michael Lau’s characters already exist in animated form (above pic). Now, this hiphop video by French team, Shut Up & Dance Productions.

  
  The New Deal, © Baba 3000

  Even though The New Deal‘s design influences are glaringly obvious, what’s cool is the idea of a more contemporary, subcultural and music-inspired approach to animated storytelling which is something we’ve always been interested in and have been working on… Is this the future of 3D animation character design (and licensing)? Could it apply to 2D animation?

  

  Eddie’s sketches (via our scrap-blog)

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  Hensons

  On a related note, we visited the Henson studios this afternoon and received a quick tour of the very cool Creature Shop. (monsters, realistic props & animals, naked Miss Piggys etc.)

   
   The Original Home of the Muppets… and demons.

  We were also introduced to something called “HDPS“  - Henson’s proprietry software that enables LIVE rendering/in-camera animation of 3D characters. Apparently this is a huge improvement on the type of Motion Capture process that was used in The Polar Express. 

  An HDPS performer is capable of producing five minutes worth of CG performance in five minutes’ time. The very first publicly broadcast HDPS performance was produced in two hours.

  The HDPS is a breakthrough in the field of Motion Capture, where sensors record the body movement of a live performer, reflecting real world physics. HDPS can be combined with traditional MoCap to provide a complete live, full body CG character that can be interacted with and directed. (link)

  Seems to us that HDPS is closer to Live Action because the puppets/characters are *directed* in real time. Is this the future of CG animation? Fascinating stuff.

  P.S. People who work on the Henson’s lot can bring their dogs to work!!! How cool is this!

  • 10:48 pm
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