tangled art

It's no secret 'round these parts that I adored "Tangled," so this massive post of production art (from the blog of Disney vizdev artist Scott Watanabe) was a treat, pure and simple.  I especially love the bookstore images!

some more movie love

On Friday night I caught How to Train Your Dragon at the local cinema.  In a word: fantastic.  When it comes to animation, I tend to be sort of a Pixar fangirl and haven't been terribly impressed with Dreamwork films in the past.  They totally make up for ANY past disappointment with this film.

It's not fall-down-laughing funny, though it does have its moments.  No, the strength of this film lies in the story, the cast, and the design.  The story is poignant, but not overly cutesy.  I LOVED the thought and detail which clearly went into the Viking homes, which were rich with authentic carved designs.  And yes, Vikings probably did not speak with Scottish accents, but it's a cartoon and for whatever reason it worked.  Jay Baruchel as Hiccup is perfect.

See this movie.  In 3-D, if you can.  It works extremely well in the flying scenes.  I'm tempted to go back and see it IMAX for just that reason.

alma

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

My little brother, home from school, just took my laptop from me, typed a bit, then handed it back to me with this up on screen.  I love the music, the animation, and oh that gorgeous art nouveau styles.  But man, I hate dolls.

trichrome

Trichrome Blue from Lois van Baarle on Vimeo.

I've been a fan of Lois van Baarle's work for ages, ever since I stumbled across her on deviantART.  This is her graduation animation project for the Utrecht School of the Arts, and it's wonderful.  Drawn! describes it as "a hypnotic underwater Through the Looking Glass odyssey presented as a strange, futuristic commercial."  There are evidently two other Trichrome episodes in the works, as well.  Check out the site to discover which Trichrome color is right for you!  I am, unsurprisingly, yellow.

he's coming, he's coming, he's coming

In honor of President's Day (government holiday = no work for Kelly, woo!), here is maybe the greatest and most terrible youtube gem. It will change you life. Edit: Oh yeah, I should probably have mentioned that this is pretty spectacularly NSFW. Heh heh...(sorry!)


ps: the cupcakes were a delicious success and are officially the first recipe added to my super-awesome recipe book. Score!

oktopodi

I've been sitting on this video a few days, trying to decide if I wanted to post another adorable thing found on Fabulist, but after it passed the does-my-mom-find-it-funny test with flying colors, I decided I couldn't not share it with the world. So here you go, a tale of the often rough road of octopi in love from French animation school Gobelins.

coraline sneak peek

If you hadn't noticed his blog on my links list to the left, then it might come as a surprise to you that I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan. Over the years, he's done more and more movie work, from penning the English translation for "Princess Mononoke" to writing the screenplay for last year's "Beowulf", but it's only very recently that his own published work has been showing up on the silver screen. Last year we had "Stardust", and in February 2009 we'll get "Coraline".

"Coraline" is something pretty incredible on its own, as it's Henry Selick's (of "Nightmare Before Christmas" fame) first feature length film in 15 years (since "James and the Giant Peach"). And lucky us, Rotten Tomatoes is showing exclusive videos from the set plus clips of Coraline all week long. Here's the first one, featuring interviews with Neil, Henry Selick, Ian McShane (anyone a Deadwood or, uh, Lovejoy fan?), and John Hodgeman (the PC in the "Get a Mac" commercials, plus his book? Hilarious).

Alright, that's all I'm going to say on the matter. Found this out via Neil's ever informative blog.

sweet, sweet animation

I imagine that being an animator would try my patience (what little of it I have) to no end, so I'm always incredibly impressed with animation. Here are a couple of really sweet pieces I've come across lately.



This is a video for a song by Belgian band Fixkes. Found at Fabulist, my new favourite blog.



Next is An Eye for Annai, the story of a one-eyed fellow looking to make a pair. Lovin' the recorder music. Found at Cute Overload.

interactive internet

Amidst talk of art theft, I thought it might be nice to reiterate the good, unique things provided by the internet. In these cases, it is specifically the opportunities offered by Flash. While flash is a type of animation, it also has the potential to be interactive. More and more, we see interactive art pieces in modern museums (Carsten Höller's slides at the Tate Modern are a good example--a beautiful installation and fun), and through the internet, artists can bring such pieces directly to you!

Would you like a few examples? Okay!

Jackson Pollock- it may look like an empty page, but move your mouse around a bit and see what it's got to offer! Want to change the color? Simply click your mouse once. By Miltos Manetas (he's got others, too).

Bembo's Zoo- this site takes a good ole alphabet book by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich and brings it to life! Click on any letter (I recommend "C," that was my favourite), and take a look!

NFCTD- I warn you, this last one by artist Caleb Johnston is a bit trippy. It's also a puzzle. You'll be given an image which is essentially an amalgamation of images from 19th century books periodicals. In order to progress to the next image, and the next, you'll need to click on various places on the screen, sometimes once, sometimes several times. Each click will change the image a bit. It's quite fun!

Know of any other pieces like these? Let me know!