MoMA | Tim Burton

Here's a great little spot for the Tim Burton retrospective coming up at MOMA. Created & Produced by Mackinnon & Saunders (the best puppet makers in the world). Sadly I have no plans to be in NY over the next 6 months so I'll miss out. But hopefully it'll find its way to the UK.



"This major career retrospective on Tim Burton (American, b. 1958), consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics."

the white stuff...

I was digging about trying to find some old files for an interactive pilot I directed and co-produced and stumbled across these old British Milk marketing advert from the 90's.





The animation and design team used them as a basis for the style and technique ffor the pilot (which I'll share that with you at a later date).

There were a couple more as part of the campaign, but these two stand out as the best.

The Beatles: Rockband (short film / trailer)

Not sure how this passed me by. Thanks to Thinking Animation blog for posting and apologies to those who've seen it already.



From what I've seen of The Beatles: Rockband game, this short bears little resemblance to the in game characters. Personally, I think if the fab four and the rest of the game looked like this I'd be straight down the shops.

Onwards

Another twitter "thanks to" for this one.
Illustrator James Jarvis and Shynola director Richard Kenworthy have collaborated on a lovely new film for Nike.

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

The film is Jarvis's first. To get the accurate running action, Kenworthy filmed Jarvis (a very keen runner) on a treadmill, then recreated his movements (it's not motion capture).

Art (and animation is art) is very much a personal thing. Some people will love it, some won't. Now, I found myself looking at the still image for this short wondering whether I could actually be bothered to watch it. I've always found (and this is my personal thing) this sort of animation style a bit dull and tedious. But I'm really glad I clicked play. If this isn't mocap (as I'm lead to believe) then it is delightfully observed. The music and the break up in pace (like opening the gate) make the whole film flow wonderfully, and at times I forgot I was watching animation.
Thanks Muttpop.

Tip: Deleting keyframes

This post comes thanks to an #animtip posted by Justin Henton recently on twitter. He suggested assigning a button on your Maya shelf for deleting keys from your timeline. Great tip, I find myself having to delete keys (mainly mistakes) all the time! So why not make it a hotkey instead? Works for me.

Now after a little bit of trial and error, I've assigned my "delete key" to Alt+z with the command:

• timeSliderClearKey;

Assigning hotkeys has always a little bit hit and miss for me. I find myself constantly changing my mind of what key to assign to what command. For me Alt+z just made sense (with Ctrl+z being undo).

Thanks Justin for the inspiration.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear

One of the great things about working in a studio surrounded by some great talent is that you'll constantly get all sorts of cool videos drop into your email inbox. Like this..



... I'm particularly fond of the "collapsing knight".

at home with Harryhausen...

Sorry, bit of a hefty post this (only because there's nearly half an hour of video). But it's not very often you get the chance to watch two legendary filmmakers sat around at table chatting about work and the industry.







I'm privileged to have met both of these guys and fortunate enough to have worked for one.