Archive for December, 2004

The Holiday Post

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

Hey everyone, I’m going to take a break for a couple weeks to do the holiday thing and spend time with some dear friends. Before I sign off, I’ll leave you with a few morsels to chew on between bites of fruit cake and sips of eggnog.

Merry Christmas from Sapone
Sapone wishes you a very Merry Christmas with this sweet little e-card. Oh, and make sure to check out the rest of his site. He’s got some great new stuff up.

The Eel
For something completely different, watch “The Eel,” a creepy-ass short film from Colonel Blimp director Dominic Hailstone.

(Thanks to Eric Epstein for the tip on this one.)

StartyParters for Hire
StartyParters is available for freelance. Nice work in his reel. Give him your money.

New Cream O’ the Crop Addition: Bubble & Squeak
Animator/Designer/Director Jason Koxvold brings us some stylish new work at bubble & squeak. Not sure how I missed this guy, but he kicks ass.

Another Massive Post

Thursday, December 16th, 2004

The Home-brewed iPod Ad
You’ve probably heard about it by now, but here’s the decidedly righteous home-brewed iPod ad created by designer and Apple enthusiast George Masters.

Wired posted an interesting article discussing possible implications of this ad. (Thanks to my buddy Ross for the tip on this one.)

Other organizations who’ve recently benefited from grassroots video ads are Converse (via Converse Gallery) and Creative Commons. Thanks to increasingly accessible and affordable technology, this trend will undoubtedly continue to grow in popularity.

The Awakening of Consciousness
This upcoming film looks promising. Make sure to check out the 2D and 3D sections for great concept art. According to the News section, the project is nearly complete, so check back soon.

The Work of Jaron Albertin
Thanks to a thread on Mograph, I recently discovered director/artist Jaron Albertin. You can find some choice selections of his work Soft Citizen site.

Make sure to check out the promo for Circlesquare. So simple, so haunting, so… well, cool.

Poules Quiès
Check out this wonderful animated short done entirely in Combustion. For more details from the craetor, see this CGTalk thread.

Over Time
From Partizan Lab comes “Over Time,” a beautiful animated short about a recently-deceased puppeteer and his very lively puppets. Open this page and click on “Over Time” to watch the film.

Edit: Partizan yanked it from their site. Try this page instead, courtesy of ‘boards magazine.

Big Post… Coming Soon

Wednesday, December 15th, 2004

Damn, I’m busy. I’ll make a big post soon, I swear. I’ve got lots of stuff stacked up that I want to share.

Stay tuned…

Exopolis Updates Their Reel

Monday, December 13th, 2004

Exopolis have updated their reel. Choice work. Great sense of space in a lot of the 3D work.

Here’s a direct link to the reel.

And I still like their site. Nice and smooth. Gotta run…!

Expression 3… for free!

Sunday, December 12th, 2004

Um… okay, this is just weird. At some point, Microsoft bought a groovy little vector-art app called Expression from software developer Creature House. And now (here’s comes the weird part) they’re giving it away… for free.

Pardon my French, but that really fucks with my whole worldview.

But hey, I’m not complaining. Hurry up and download it before Bill wakes up. Don’t be fooled by the “existing users” jargon; it’s there for the taking.

By the way, Expression is a great app. In fact, I prefer it over Illustrator for more illustrative tasks. (Ironic, no?)

Here’s a little sample of what it can do.

Blur Studio and Jayson Whitmore Present Some Very Unfortunate Work

Sunday, December 12th, 2004

With the able aid of Mr. Jayson Whitmore, Blur Studio recently completed some excellent promotional spots for the upcoming “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” (You can see some of the spots on Blur’s site, but I prefer to view those on Jayson’s, mainly because they’re next to the rest of his work, which is well worth a gander.)

Designed by Blur’s Norn Kittiaksorn and animated primarily by Jayson and Adam Swaab, the spots sport some excellent typography, lively camera moves and whimsical transitions.

(Make sure to check out Adam Swaab’s site for more choice work.)

Great job, everyone!

Renascent: Metal Gear Solid 3

Friday, December 10th, 2004

Renascent has recently posted an animated logo for Metal Gear Solid. Damn fine work, that.

The beginning of The Ends

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

There’s nice work at The Ends. I only wish there was more.

You know, watching the Napoleon Dynamite pieces (while mentally removing the obnoxious voiceovers), reminds me just how much I like that film.

“Don’t be jealous that I’ve been chatting online with babes… all day.”

Classic.

Homeostatic

Wednesday, December 8th, 2004

There’s something about artificial environments that really gets my motor running. I’m particularly fond of digital environments. The challenge of creating a sense of place on the screen is pretty damn tough, so when it’s done well, I savor it.

Check out the bedroom scene at http://homeostatic.net. Go full-screen if you can, and make sure your headphones are on.

Lovely, no?

Up the RESolution

Tuesday, December 7th, 2004

I’m a fan of RES magazine. This is no secret.

But a good thing can always be better, no? There’s always room for improvement, yes?

If you have some ideas about what RES can do to improve itself, send a letter to letters@res.com. The more focused and rational your ideas, the better chance RES will actually implement them, so try to refrain from suggestions like, “Free iPods for all subscribers!” or “Boobies!”

As a RES subscriber, I’m going to write a message to them myself. I’ll post it in the comments when I’m done. Cheers!