Is Bigger Always Better?: The Rise of the Indie Animation Feature

Erstwhile Animation Pimp Chris Robinson talks to Nina Paley and Bill Plympton about their new movies.

Two bad breakups, a blues song and the Indian epic Ramayana inspired Nina Paley to create Sita Sings the Blues. All Sita images © Nina Paley.

What's that? You want to know how I feel about the increase in animation features? Well, let me tell you just what I think.

Most of it stinks. These clods can't even make short films, so why are they on about features now? Me? I forgive them. So should you. They can't help themselves. They are the victims of a horrible disease that's infested their sponge-worthy carcasses. This blinding disease of the featuretwitus insinuates itself into the body (often through the penis opening or nasal passage) and saturates the sponge's noodle, convincing it that LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG is RIGHT. MUST MAKE LONG. Make 'em long and they will come (with money, praise, sunglasses and coke). Make' em short and they will yawn and forget.

Some are immune to this soul-sucking mind-twist; others are only partially affected. There have been some recently reported cases where some good has come from this viral bitch of a killer. Unconfirmed reports state that at least two (deux) mutants actually make 'em long AND make 'em good. These mutants, miraculously, think first, make second. It's a God damn miracle (who else's miracle could it be, praise ye all). Praise Wayne Gretzky for Persepolis, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly (puritan animators be damned for your perverse perfection puddyfutting).

Read More Article...

Maya 2008 Character Modeling and Animation: Motion Path Animation

In this last excerpt from Maya 2008 Character Modeling and Animation, author Tereza Flaxman explains how to animate an object on a path and edit the animation timing using motion path keys.

This month VFXWorld concludes its excerption of the Thomson Course Technology book Maya 2008 Character Modeling and Animation. In this series, VFXWorld readers have taken on the challenge of animating realistic and compelling characters using the latest version of Maya, the powerful 3D graphics and modeling software. Excerpts have shown beginning to intermediate animation students and enthusiasts how to create professional quality characters, explaining the full character animation process from pre-production to final full body and facial animation.

Motion path animation is a technique which allows you to animate an object moving along a curve. The curve controls the direction, position and rotation of the object. To create a path animation you first create a curve and then attach an object to it. This excerpt from Maya 2008 Character Modeling and Animation teaches you how to animate a simple object on a path and set motion path keys.

Read More Article...

City to get Rs 80-cr animation studio

BANGALORE: Film animation buffs will love nothing better than a hi-tech studio on home turf to avoid the high costs of journeying abroad.

Their dreams could come true if Bangalore-born Hollywood producer, writer, director Siva Selvaraj executes his plans. Selvaraj, a US resident for the past 20 years, plans to set up a Rs 80-crore animation studio here to help filmmakers get access to state-of-the-art technology.

Selvaraj, currently here for post-production work on a film shot in the US, Black Men Can Swim , said the studio is part of a larger effort to bridge Indian films with Hollywood.

"The shooting of Black Men Can Swim is over and I'm looking to complete post-production in India, either at Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai or Chennai. This is my effort to bring India and Hollywood together."

Read More Article...

GoAnimate puts powerful animation tools in your browser

GoAnimate is a browser-based animation studio. It lets you build multi-scene animated creations, complete with support for music, transitions, and user-uploaded page elements. I spent most of this morning playing around with it and the results are about on par with what you'd find on one of those animated greeting cards.

Like most video editing applications GoAnimate centers around a time line. Everything is drag and drop, so you can pick out characters, props, backgrounds and special effects and simple put them on the canvas where you see fit. Each "scene" can be edited to last as long as you want, and you can drag finished scenes around the time line to re-order them. Basically everything is set up to let you quickly clone and continue your work with minimal effort.

The short I made consisted of nine scenes and took about a half hour to make, however most of that was me learning how to use the tool. Part of the process is picking out ready made characters and customizing them which is fairly intuitive and similar to working on a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. As the author you can move objects up and down, and program in things like automated object movement and transitions.

Read More Article...