A Christmas Card from Terry Gilliam

The "American Python", master of absurd cut-out stop-motion, sends us his Christmas best wishes.

Indiana Jones: Stop Motion

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jeff Gurwood provides us with a shot-by-shot stop motion recreation of the opening scene. In some ways I still think of the original as a "perfect" movie.

Dr Breakfast!

Dr Breakfast from pizzaforeveryone on Vimeo.

Funny and surreal. When a man's soul goes on vacation, two deer take care of his catatonic body at home.

Faster than light-speed camera.

By combining multiple high-speed exposures with very short laser pulses, MIT has figured out how to image waves of photons as they travel across a scene. Absolute genius. I actually met Doc Edgerton (referenced in the video) when I was a teenager. He would be impressed.

If we are going to elect a puppet ANYWAY...

This makes at least as much sense as most of the candidates out there.

Quimby The Mouse

A strange little animation about a mouse and his, um, bride.

Susan Kare: Icon Wizard

Susan Kare was the graphic artist at Apple who designed all their early icons. This article by Steve Silberman gives us a window on the creation of some of the most iconic icons of our age.

"Road Runner" Cartoon: Fur of Flying

One of the new 3d CGI Road Runner shorts which I had not seen. Come on Warner Bros., these should be bundles with all your movies. (Unfortunately there are adds before and after, but nothing in life is free.)

Pixars Brave: Trailer

Looks Promising. I want to see this. They have worked on it a long time.

Ice Skating Dinosaur

Self explanatory and fun.

Fire at Skywalker Ranch!

There was a 3 alarm fire at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch yesterday. One of the alarms was Lucas's onsite fire brigade. They asked for Marin county to also respond. The fire is said to have started in a chimney at the main house. A spokesperson said it caused minimal damage. I had the opportunity to visit there once with a group from Decipher. It's a beautiful and amazing place, and it's fortunate the fire was contained quickly.

Is this a new Leonardo Da Vinci?

A group of Da Vinci experts have announced that this is a previously unrecognized painting.

"Salvator Mundi", is by Leonardo. There are many versions of this painting in circulation, all copies done by other artists, but careful examination of the under-painting has shown that this painter made radical changes in the positions of the fingers as he worked, suggesting this is the original.

In my opinion, It clearly uses Da Vinci's Stumato technique, meaning the face is without lines or borders, and appears to be slightly out-of-focus. The technique is very close to what was used in the Mona Lisa. The eyelids are handled in a very similar way, and it almost looks as though the two paintings were rendered under the same studio lighting. The folds of the wrinkles in the sleeves on both paintings look like they were done by the same hand. It feels right to me.

Tim Biskup: In Studio

Pop Artist Tim Biskup in his studio. I dig his sculptures and the quirky use of color in all his work.

Bambi vs Godzilla

The short classic by Marv Newland.

The Big Snit

1985 classic by the man who gave us "The Cat Came Back"

ParaNorman

Trailer for an upcoming 3d stop-motion film by the same team that made "Coraline". Remember the baby from "Labyrinth"? That was Tobby Froud. He's all grown-up now and working on this film.

Mickey Mouse-Haunted House (1929)

From back when Mickey Mouse cartoons were good. Before cute became more important than funny.

Haunted Mansion Animation!

My friend, Artist Chris Gallagher is at it again. This time with an animation he has done of Disney's Haunted Mansion, just in time for Halloween!

Karakuri: Clockwork Japanese Automatons

Matthew Allard shows us how it was done in the pre-electronic age. This Japanese tradition of automata has been around for 300+ years. A combination of subtle artistry and engineering.

Blockheads Revenge

John Carpenter hosts, a new version of "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Using the same lines from the classic special, "Funny or Die", twists it around into a live action teen slasher film trailer.

Fog Machine (On the Cheap!)

How to make an easy home-made fog machine on the cheap!

Spherical Flying Machine from Japan

Japan is building Star Wars-like seekers. I'd like one of these to play with.

"Heavenly Appeals" a short film by David Lisbe

After many millennia of being tortured in Hell, Raymond K. Hessle has finally earned a chance to appeal his sentence of Eternal Damnation. Upon arriving at the "appeals" gate of Heaven he is greeted by the angel who will preside over his case. As Raymond waits at the edge of paradise, he will finally have a chance to prove just how worthy he is.

The Secret To Creativity

(....And many other things as well.) Ira Glass explains some secret knowledge, which every creative person must learn.

Real Biped Robot Rides a Bicycle

The title says it all. The subtleties here really impress me.

Blizzcon 2011 - Diablo 3 Making of Black Soulstone Cinematics

Trailer and in-depth panel on the creation of this amazing work. This is some of the best art-direction and rendering I have seen in a good while. Thanks to Alex Lindsay for posting the link on Twitter.

I have embedded it here, but really recommend you see this in full HD on You Tube, here.

AICP Southwest 2011 Sponsor Reel

What an entertaining way to list sponsors, and what a pleasant short!

Oktapodi

This won a 2009 Oscar for Animated Short Film. Fun.

Origami Crane

Created by my friends at Analytical Mechanics Associates, from the NASA Advanced Concepts Lab. Animation developed to encourage Japan while they heal after the earthquake.

Are you a Right Brainer or a Left Brainer?

We are of course both, and what we know about the purpose and function of the divided brain has evolved. This animated RSA lecture helps catch us up. 

The Beatles : Rock Band Animated Trailer

(Yes, I know it's been out for years.)  This particular animated trailer is as exciting as any animated short I've seen in a while, so I thought I'd revisit it. See a short "making of" video below.

Beware The Gawper!

Video by "A Large Evil Corporation"

Quantum Levitation

I love to learn something new! To quote Feinman "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

Superman Classic

A Disney artist, Robb Pratt, made this short fan-film in his spare time. Decidedly more American looking than the anime inspired stuff being produced today. It feels like the old Fleischer cartoons, and yet very modern at the same time. I would pay to see a series with this look. Compare it the original from 1941.

Mysterious Mose

Share this Halloween puppet video with the kids! This is a real favorite of mine! Made in the 90's, it feels like an old Fleischer cartoon, back when they were at their 1930's their best. The band in particular is great. Made by Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Trapped in the Drive-Thru

Another great Weird Al Yankovic music video. An honest song about relationships and,...
 "No,.... What do YOU want for supper? " Animated by Dog Toons. It's a little long, but that's part of it's charm and it always cracks me up.

Serious Photoshop Magic plug-in

I can think of so many artistic and forensic uses for this. Believe me the security industry will be very interested. Think of all the blurry footage out there, of bank robberies and assassinations, etc.

This is like having a time machine, that allows you to go back to an event with your camera, and this time use a tripod! Thanks to Rob Burns for bringing this one to my attention!

Blik

Blik from Polder Animation on Vimeo.

I really like the style of this. The animator's here are great "actors." Having neither faces, or dialog, this almost plays like a silent film. It says so much more by saying less.

Tears,..in the rain.

As many of you know I'm a huge fan of 'Blade Runner". I found this great looping animated gif in an article found on Boing Boing.

Istanbul Not Constantinople

Get More: MTV Shows

A classic by "They Might Be Giants".

Big Buck Bunny

(c) copyright Blender Foundation | www.bigbuckbunny.org

Can you crowd source an animated short and have it be consistent, professional looking, and funny?

How about the software it's created with? The answer to both is yes! "Big Buck Bunny" was created with "Blender" a freeware application.

Don't Download This Song!

Weird Al Yankovic music video animated by the great Bill Plympton. Two great artists.

The Pictorial Arts Journal: 1.2 Long Live Frazetta

There is a nice tribute to Frank Frazetta to be found at the blog linked below.

The Pictorial Arts Journal: 1.2 Long Live Frazetta

What Light

A stop motion film by Sarah Wikens, using the sun and mirrors. Very original.

MATRIX: Everything Is A Remix

Excellent breakdown showing many of the influences that shaped the Matrix movies.

RIP Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has died. He changed the world. Think Different.

Pigeon: Impossible

A curious pigeon gets trapped inside his multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase. Walter Beckett, rookie secret agent must figure out what to do. The music may have a lot to do with it, but this one seems self-consciously influenced by the Incredibles.

End of File.

It does not happen often, still sometimes one thing or another happens and I lose power on my computer in the middle of painting.

Like tonight.

Oh, The file icon is still there, but when I try to open it I get an "unexpected end-of-file" message.

The art I worked so hard on, simply ceases to exist. As though it were one of the paintings I have worked on in my dreams. (Yes, there have been many of those as well.)

Alma

A scary little "Twilight Zone" sort of short film. Perfect for the month of October. Scary,... like a doll's eyes.

John K. Couch Gag.

Seen last night....John Kricfalusi, of "Ren and Stimpy" fame created this opening for the Simpson's in his extreme style. John K. believes in funny drawings and rarely sticks to a model sheet, if it gets in the way of being funny. He has influenced an entire generation of animators, and many of the best modern cartoons feature a very watered down reflection of his style. 

Meet Buck

Bad enough when your girlfriend's Daddy has a gun. Worse still when he's a game hunter, and you're the game. I really like the inventive style of this short. It's 3d, but every frame looks like a painting.

Grave Digger: Old School Art

This is a good one to start October with. A long time ago I used to design T-shirts. 

I used seven different screens to create this design. I had to draw each color screen, in gray pencil, as a negative, on a separate vellum overlay, then shoot 14 x 17 halftone photos of each, on a camera the size of a refrigerator. These giant transparent films were then chemically developed by hand in a darkroom, before being used to expose the emulsion on the actual polyester "silk" screens.

 It was a labor intensive, technically demanding skill, now made obsolete by computers.

Cat says NO! And NO! Means NO!

It would have to be very strange for me to post a cat video. Voice exactly like a human child. The video however appears to be from Russia, so shouldn't it be Nyet!?

Vincent

After starting out as an animator at Disney, Tim Burton got his first big break directing this stop-motion short. The Narrator is Vincent Price (of course). All the hallmarks of Burton's later work can be seen here. There are echos of it in "Beetle Juice", and of course "Nightmare before Christmas."

The Cat Came Back

If you have kids, make sure they see this cartoon at least once. A classic animated short by Cordell Barker.  And yes, the song will probably be stuck in your head for days! Richard Conde's "Mr Johnson" vocalizations remind me of Rowan Atkinson's "Mr. Bean."

Muppets Unplugged

A rare chance to see all the Muppet performers singing without their Muppets. They sang this medley of Jim Hensen's favorite songs at his memorial service in 1990. It's fascinating to put faces to the voices we know so well. It's also very touching to see these people honor the man who shaped all their careers.

Bon Appetit

Bon Appetit from Kilogramme on Vimeo. A little girl goes to great lengths to get her ice-cream back.

Ray Harryhausen

This is a compilation of every (?)  stop motion creature created by the great Ray Harryhausen.

Before computers and Jurassic Park, this is how it was done, one frame at a time by one guy, working mostly in his garage.

Jean-Luc

An funny animated cartoon short, using John Kricfalusi-like extremes. Probably NSFW, but just barely.

Teaching Poodles To Fly.

Raul's wild kingdom. This is a classic from Wierd Al Yankovic's "UHF". Nature's suction cups. LOL.

Slow-Motion Slinky

Sometimes physics contradicts our intuition. In slow motion the slinky appears to temporarily defy gravity. If you have ever tried to animate something springy, you'll know that getting it to look real takes a lot of forethought and some knowledge of how physics work.

Batman: Year One

It looks like the new animated feature film "Batman: Year  One" will be revisiting a look, closer to the earlier Bruce Timm work which made "Batman: The Animated Series" so great. (I could never get into the look of the WBs "The Batman") It seems like a good cast, with Bryan Cranston, Benjamin McKenzie, Eliza Dushku, and Katee Sackoff. It's based on the Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli comic, which I will now go and re-read.

Chicken Logo

WAY back in the 1980s, when I worked in-house at a screen-print company, I was asked to spend 2 hours creating a logo and mascot for a one-off t-shirt. Not my best work mind you, just one more task in a busy day. Since then it became the signage and mascot for Pollard's Chicken, a fairly successful chain of restaurants in the mid-Atlantic area. Moral,... do your best on even your quickest work, or it has a way of haunting you. Even more so, as each reproduction drifts off-model...

Facepalm

Something I whipped up to express what everyone seems to be feeling this morning.

The Great Cognito

Long before computers allowed us to morph everything, claymation animator Will Vinton was producing cool shorts like this one with painstaking frame by frame stop motion. Vinton and his studio would later go on to create the California Raisin commercials, and "The Noid" for Domino's Pizza.

He later created several TV specials, and contributed to Michael Jackson's "Captain EO" and "Moonwalker." Now-a-days this sort of short would be done with 3d software. Back in the 70's it was brute force animation with just clay and a camera, and a lot of patience.

Chuck Close

No computer art here, this guy is old-school all the way. To my mind Chuck Close is the greatest living portrait painter,...and he is face-blind. He has prosopagnosia, and literally can not recognize the 3d faces of people he knows well. He uses this to his advantage by systematically breaking down the details that make up the whole of each face. His style has ranged from hyper-photorealism, earlier in his career, to one where the close-up details are tiny, loose abstractions, but the whole looks very recognizable. To call his later work impressionistic would be an over simplification. A big motivation to adopt this later style was the "event", (a seizure) which left him mostly paralyzed from the neck down. He now uses a variety of contraptions, including a modified forklift to allow him to complete his huge canvases. If you get a chance to see his work in person, do.

John Belushi Skylab is falling

With the NASA satellite UARS about to crash to Earth, John Belushi reminds us that it's happened before. This is comedy from the 70's kids, long before there was a "The Daily Show." By the way, Kelly Freas, who we talked about last week, designed the original mission patch for Skylab featured here.

(Thanks to Mike Schley and David Johnson who bird-dogged this clip.)

Phil Trumbo

Also teaching at VCU, when I was a student, Phil Trumbo directed the animated sequences in the opening of Pee-Wee's playhouse. See his current reel below.

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo. A beautiful film showing a moment in time, slowed just short of "bullet time." An animated ballet, visual poetry.

"Boilerplate" Robot served with Teddy Roosevelt, saved Pancho Villa.

Boilerplate, a victorian era, 19th century robot, who fought with Teddy Roosevelt, and served in WWI. The concept trailer above is brilliant. There is also a book, comics, and a website. The trove of historical photos is a treat. Word is that J.J. Abrams is developing a movie about him. I believe I want to see that. 

An Angel

An old pen and ink Angel I did years ago. For all it's flaws I just always liked this one.

"The Dark Knight" - Anatomy of an Action Sequence

The Batmobile, aka the Tumbler.

In the Cut, Part I: Shots in the Dark (Knight) from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

An excellent break-down of the visual language and continuity of the big chase sequence in "The Dark Knight." This is the kind of stuff you learn in film school. Jim Emerson of the Chicago Sun Times 1st installment in a series of 3. I can't wait for the next one. 

Steve Segal Animation Reel

My favorite teacher at VCU was Steve Segal. This is his current animation reel. He taught animation and animation history. He later went on to work on movies like The Brave Little Toaster, several Pixar films, and even did work for Pee Wee's Playhouse. His early work in the 70s, on early computer generated animation and in stop motion was ground breaking. Along with Phil Trumbo he created the stop motion feature film Futropolis. You probably have not seen it,... but you have seen it's influence in a lot of the music videos of the 80s, and in Futurama. Here is an interview with Steve by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

Weird Al Yankovic... "Stop Forwarding that Crap to Me"

Yes I get the irony of my posting this.

Frank Kelly Freas

This video features a good look at some of the work of the late artist Frank Kelly Freas.

Signed copies of his two folio books sit on the shelf next to my desk in the studio.

I met him on several occasions in the late 70s and early 80s when I was just starting out as an illustrator, and he offered this pushy kid great encouragement, and a good number of painting tips.  I was first introduced when he had a retrospective at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk Va. An amazing talent and a really nice guy. The Dean of Science Fiction Illustrators. 

Awesome new video search site!

showmenonstop.com This great new site lets you search YouTube for videos, but then auto-plays them one after another full-size in your browser window. I'm using as a music video jukebox while I work. Right now I'm streaming Peter Gabriel videos. It's also feeding me some covers I'd never heard / seen. I can think of so many uses for this.

Nope...It's just Chuck Testa.

Hilarious deadpan amateur commercial. Not for the PETA-wise sensitives.

Alien Plants

Alien Plants from AciDiamond on Vimeo. A fascinating piece of special effects.

Piggidy Giggidy!

This toy by j*ryu shows what would happen if Kermit and Ms Piggy took things to their logical conclusion. See his Flicker Stream here. Get info about the "Brain Evolution" Jumping Brain Show here.

Who Shot First?

Long before "Clone Wars" we created this whole card game illustrated with 3d models. I like to think that our little experiment helped encourage Lucas that a TV series could be done in a CGI style.  I tend to believe Greedo reached first, but Han drew and shot faster, then Greedo pulled his trigger in the spasm of death.

Don't Shoot!

One of the quick illustrations I did for Decipher's "Wars" TCG. My favorite part is the distressed robot bartender in the background. My friend Chuck Kallenbach was kind enough to pose for this one.

Grand Moff Tarkin

My 3d illustration of Tarkin for Decipher Inc's "Jedi Knights TCG."

Agent Smith illustration

This is an illustration of Agent Smith I did, where he is drawn entirely with Matrix Kanji/Binary code.

Richie Havens Sings "Here Comes the Sun"

Very nice uncluttered, unfettered rendition.

Eye of the Storm

EYE OF THE STORM | Lovett from Lovett on Vimeo. I posted this one elsewhere a while ago, but it's worth revisiting.

Alien Owie

Shameless plug of a video my son and his friend made in 2005 one evening.

Birds with Arms

"Staring Out The Window" - Fulton Lights from Ninian Doff on Vimeo.

This song is from Fulton Lights EP "3 Songs" which is available here: itunes.com/​fultonlights/​3songs

Meet Evie

Evie is the animated avatar of a chatbot created by "Existor".

Talk to her at existor.com

Futurama as Anime

In the season finally tonight Futurama is re-envisioned as a Fleisher era cartoon, a video game, and as an anime series.

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

An oldie but goodie from "They Might Be Giants"

Nomads Draw: Wonder Woman

Check out Craig Harris's work at his blog, www.nomadsdraw.blogspot.com

Stop Motion Flintstone

Here's and excellent stop-motion short featuring Fred Flinstone bowling his best.

The Amazing work of Chris Gallagher

My good friend Chris Gallagher has been working on this Star Wars effects video as a side project for some time. Amazing stuff! Also stay for the trailer about his latest media project at the end. It's a first view of something a lot of people will be talking about soon.

Jonny Quest Stop Motion Masterpiece!

I've been following Roger Evan's progress on this project for about a year. He's finally completed it and it is amazing. You can also see his detailed behind the scenes "making-of" notes and videos on his website www.rogerevans.tv

Jonny Quest Opening Titles from Roger D. Evans on Vimeo.

Charles Schultz drawing Charlie Brown

Cool Sound Science!

A fascinating explanation of the science of sound and how we perceive it.

My New Website is Up!

My new website is finally up! You can view my portfolio and more at www.joeboulden.com

Speaking of Terri Gilliam...

Here is an educational video by the master himself! It's kind of long, but he demonstrates how he did all his cut-out animation for Monty Python. This is how we did it before Flash was invented kids.

Cyriak

Cyriak is an amazing animator. (Probably the illegitimate son of Terri Gilliam.)