Toolfarm Inspirations: April 2008

The Wishing Well by Rod Maxwell - Behind the Scenes

4/30/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Wishing Well is a short experimental one-man film by artist and actor Rod Maxwell. He shot the entire film by himself in his livingroom in a small 4'x4' homemade greenscreen. He did EVERYTHING including the script, directing acting, makeup, prosthetics, efffects. The video below is a trailer for the film and a 'Behind the scenes' video. The film has one several awards, too.... just check out the bottom of his website! It's really damn impressive. I was impressed.

Thanks to Diannah Morgan for posting it to the AE List.

Labels: 3D, Documentary, Film Short, Movie Trailer

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

4/29/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Check out Sita Sings the Blues, a feature length animated film completely done by a single animator in her home. I was reading about this at Wired.com, who describe the film as " two parallel stories: the ancient Hindu epic the Ramayana and the breakup of Paley's 21st-century marriage. It does so through four distinct styles of animation, a 'greek chorus' of Indonesian shadow puppets and wildly imaginative musical interludes that use authentic 1920s blues recordings to link narratives 3,000 years apart." Intrigued?

It was mostly animated in Flash but some was scanned and animated in After Effects. Read the Interview with Nina Paley at Wired.com.

Labels: 2D, Film

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Madonna Barbie Animation by Rowena True

4/29/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Based on Madonna's ever changing look in the 80s, filmmaker/painter Rowena True uses stop motion, an old TV and Madonna videos to create a piece of art/fun. I'd love to see this a bit longer with the Madonna of the past 20 years also. Definitely need some 90s cone boobs and slicked back pony tail... wouldn't that be hilarious on a Barbie!? Okay, maybe it's just me.

Labels: Bizarre, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

MGMT - Time To Pretend

4/29/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I was first turned on to MGMT and the song Time to Pretend on The Sixty One, my favorite time sucker.

Wow, I've never seen a video with such crappy keys, outside of community television, but somehow this video is freakin' amazing. It totally reminds me of those LSD like tv shows on community television too. It was directed by Ray Tintori who in an interview for Dazed Digital said "We wanted to portray a sort of post-apocalyptic utopia where the world had caved in on itself but the kids were all right and too resilient to give up hope."

I love the part where Andrew, the singer, is riding the kitten, who is named John Voight, by the way.

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Best of BBTV animations

4/28/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Watch and enjoy:

Labels: 2D, 3D, Character Animation

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Star Wars Computer Animation

4/26/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This was posted by Pete Kirn at Create Digital Motion. This kind of stuff fascinates me. Enjoy.

Labels: Documentary, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Lux by Richard Lainhart

4/26/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This was posted to the AE List by Eugene Pak. Richard's description "An abstract HD film animated in After Effects. The soundtrack, 'The Beautiful Blue Sky', is a realtime electronic synthesizer improvisation for Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum." It's purdy.

LUX from Richard Lainhart on Vimeo.

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Bucktown USA Rubik's Cube Animation

4/25/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

By Dan Parker Moore. I don't know much about the video, but it's really cool.

Labels: 2D

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

BoxWrench.net Interactive Video

4/25/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I really don't have a clue of what they're talking about (I'm just a delicate girl :) but the interactivity in this video is pretty cool. Click on the menu items and those big arrows.

Thanks for the Twitter, Alex Lindsay.

Labels: 3D, Interactive

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Architecture in Helsinki - Like it or Not

4/22/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I like it! Is it true that this everything in this video was really stitched and shot stop motion? I can't imagine the work that went into that.

Be sure to watch it full screen.

Architecture in Helsinki - Like It Or Not from helsinkids on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Buckethead - Spokes for the Wheel of Torment

4/22/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I saw the video on Xeni Jardin's Twitter. This is such a strange video. Strange, but captivating. From YouTube: "It was directed by Syd Garon and Eric Henry featuring additional artwork by Frankenseuss. It is based on the works of Hieronymus Bosch, namely 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' triptych, 'The Last Judgement' triptych, the 'Paradise and Hell' triptych and 'The Temptation of St Anthony' triptych." Sort of hoity toity for metal :-)

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Culmination of Consumptionism by Natsuki Kato

4/22/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

In honor of Earth Day, I bring you The Culmination of Consumptionism. Natsuki Kato is my former student and created this clever animation about plastic bags. I did bring my own bag to the grocery store this morning, as well as my own mug to snatch a free cup of coffee (no foam!).

Okay, back to the video... The V.O is by AJ Hamilton. Music: Lucas Schurkamp. Natsuki says "I got this idea from what my little sister Jenelle told me in a grocery store: 'I won't take any plastic bags so that I can save polar bears.' I am excited to see how far the message of the green organization at a high school in Bay City will go. My friend, A.J. did such a great job with the voice over by adding his humor based on a lot of info that I gave from my research."

Check out Natsuki's other work at her web site.

Labels: Documentary, Film Short, Student Work

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Gotye - Hearts a Mess

4/21/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I run a music site called MaxBumps.net, and one of our contributors, AnnieB, posted an article about Gotye in her AnnieB's Detour column. This is some gorgeous compositing and 3D work by animator and director extraordinaire Brendan Cook of PictureDRIFT.

Check out Gotye's site for other videos, and here's a higher-res QT version ofHearts a Mess.

Labels: 3D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

BBC 4 Medieval Trailer

4/09/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Directed by James Price/ Strange Beast for BBC 4's upcoming series on Medieval Britain. Layers, layers, so many layers! The music, by the way, is Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" using all medieval instruments.

Thanx to Dru for passing this one along!

Labels: 2D, Television

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The Knife: "We Share Our Mother's Health" by Motomichi

4/07/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Motomichi's recent work for the Swedish band "The Knife". Motomichi has a signature style- clean, Flash-based animations in black, white and red (note- often graphic in nature/may be disturbing to some viewers).

Motomichi's work also includes live video/animation mixing along with print, installation and design work. Check out his portfolio at: motomichi.com.

Labels: 2D, Flash, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Animator vs. Animator by Alan Becker

4/01/2008 • Permalink • 2 Comments •

Oh, what fun.

Labels: Flash

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Björk's "Wanderlust" Music Video Released

4/01/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

After nine months of hard work, Björk's new video, "Wanderlust" was released to the public on March 31st... and is no less than spectacular. The 3-D version of the video will be released as a DVD single package on April 14, complete with 3-D glasses. You can view the high quality version (highly recommended, as the more compressed version doesn't do it justice!) at www.encyclopediapictura.com.