DreamWorks first personal art publication, Moonshine, was conceived as an opportunity to highlight the breath of artistic development talent at Dreamworks. This short documentary gives you a sneak peek into the personal works from the artists.

This documentary refreshingly shows that just because we work with computers all day, that doesn’t mean we only work with computers to create art.

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It’ll also get a song stuck in your head, so watch out!

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It’s a long and time honored tradition of the Visual Effects industry that has brought us such gems as the Dono reel and Ian Pfaff’s mother fucking demo reel to name a few. They’re funny, self aware, and extremely rare. Why? Because it’s actually really hard for a good artist to do intentionally bad work.

But then there are the just plain bad demo reels. Unintentionally funny, usually comp’d in After Effects, and typically feature badly followed Andrew Kramer tutorials but are passing it off as their own work. They piss you off for a minute, but then you just give up and accept it for what it is. Awesomely bad.

So today I submit to you one of these. A reel to keep in your back pocket for the next time someone comes up to you ranting about how “All VFX work is going to end up in India!”

Steel your mind…for the 11 minute VFX opus of…Martin Gamal.

Some fun things to watch out for…

1. The accidental boner shot.
2. The amazing “before and after” sequence.
3. And the recycled slow-mo T-Rex cameos. Remember…he can’t see you if you move at a stuttering 9fps.

Note to the reader: If, after watching the above video, you still have questions about what you’re NOT supposed to do when cutting together that all important first reel, just email me. Because as much as I enjoy laughing at horrible videos like these, I enjoy even more seeing artists do good work!

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This 3-D Typography experiment that the interface designers at BERG in London came up with is absolutely beautiful. I particularly like the pixelated style of the text, even though it’s getting a little over used. It just makes it feel like the sci-fi flicks I loved watching growing up in the 1980′s. Adding to it’s appeal is the simple technique that’s used to create the, as I’ll refer to it from now on, “magic transparent floaty text”.

The formula goes a little something like this. iPad + 3D to 2D image slices + persistance of vision = magic transparent floaty text. A simple movie, slice by slice frame by frame, is played on the screen of the iPad in front of a camera with it’s shutter open. And the result is a brand new take on the whole light writing phenomenon of the past year. But that’s only the first part of the process. They then repeat those steps over and over again until they get close to 3,000 frames which then makes up a shot in the video you’ll see below.

It’s total manual work too. Just a guy, holding an iPad, and moving it in front of the camera. But I wonder what type of effects could be achieved if you combine this with a high tech motion control rig. Or dare I say it…stereo cameras. Gasp!

Think about that as you watch the video below. Some really cool stuff.

P.S. On a site centric note, if anyone of my readers are in fact STILL reading this blog that is, I’m currently in the long stop and go process of redesigning this site. Once I finally sit down and just bang it out, this blog shall live again in a shiny new form. So if you are still reading this, one…thank you. And two, your patience will be rewarded.

Stay tuned!

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LINK: New York Times – What’s Up, Doc? New Looneys

Meanwhile, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote are going back to work in movie theaters in a series of 3-D shorts. The first of these shorts — Warner has approved three, and three more are in development — will play ahead of the movie “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” which arrives in theaters July 30.

And the fan response over at Cartoon Brew is pretty awesome too. Fans really seem to be getting excited for the CG shorts! Here are some of my favorite comments…

Rafa says:

The road runner shot looks amazing!
the bugs & daffy, not so much…

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lampshade says:

auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh

hey, the CGI shot doesn’t look so bad though

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Fooksie says:

I agree, Rafa. Wile E Coyote looks fantastic.

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erlab says:

I was seriously SCARED of Daffy’s welcoming expression! Now that I know Bugs WILL look like that, I will just have to live with it or ignore the show.

CN is still running the original cartoons in the morning right?

That CG Road Runner series has potential to be really good.

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A.J. says:

The cgi coyote looks pretty nifty!
But Bugs is having a serious tude problem…and his feet and face..wtf?

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Taber Dunipace says:

Why is Daffey made of thistles? I hope that Coyote shot is going to be as good as it looks now!

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coyote says:

“The short will be in theatres? That’s great! The shorts were made in India? That’s really unfortunate.”

Don’t worry, the shorts aren’t being made in India. They’re being done by Reel FX in Dallas.

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tgentry says:

I guess I’m just restating what many others have already said, but the genericized, Flash-happy Bugs and Daffy make me incredibly sad. It’s odd that the 3D coyote looks much more organic and cartoon-like than the more trendy and souless look of Bugs and Daffy. Looking forward to the updated Roadrunners.

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mrscriblam says:

i like the coyote cgi shot

looks almost like stop-motion, which is a style i think would work very well for that sketch

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vfx says:

The real fun will be when everyone gets to frame-by-frame through the CG animation to see just how spot on it is to the classic stuff.

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The comments just go on and on. So I’ll let you thumb through them at your own pace.

But I will end with this. To all the fans who love the original Wile E Coyote and Road Runner shorts, the CG shorts will not disappoint. I dare say, you’re going to love them! I’m so proud to be a part of this project, as is every other single person on the team. And we’re putting in the hard work and long hours to do justice to what Chuck Jones brought to life all those years ago.

This is most certainly not all folks Just you wait.

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You’ve probably never heard of Houston native Steve Johnson, but I know you’ve heard of his work. Predator, The Abyss, Ghostbusters, Spider-Man 2, Where the Wild Things Are, and so on and so on. The point is that he’s had a very long and successful career in practical make-up fx. Now he’s nearing retirement but instead of writing his memoirs or shopping for a comfy rocking chair, he’s decided to start up a new channel on YouTube to share with the world a ton of never before seen behind the scenes footage of the films he worked the last 30+ years on. The coolest thing though is that he’s also bringing back the artists responsible for the work his shop did on those films to talk about it themselves!

I’m so glad to see such a seasoned and talented artist pulling back the curtain, and I want all of you who read this blog to go to his channel and subscribe to his videos. Let’s keep this ball of transparency rolling and hopefully encourage more of the greats to follow in Steve’s footsteps!

LINK: Steve Johnson (IMDB)

LINK: Steve Johnson FX (YouTube)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Take a behind the scenes look at some of your favorite movies with the people who actually MADE them! Hosted by Hollywood special effects legend Steve Johnson, the effects artist behind Ghostbusters, Big Trouble in Little China, The Abyss, Blade II, Species, Spiderman II, Where the Wild Things Are, and hundreds more!

All the footage you see here was shot in Steve’s own studio, with his cameras, his crew and on his dime.

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For those of you who couldn’t make it to this years Siggraph Computer Animation Festival, I’ve got some good news for you. Lucas Martell’s animated film, “Pigeon: Impossible”, has finally been released for all to see on YouTube!

It’s a really charming short, expertly done, and is honestly just as good as anything Pixar has to offer. Big words I know, but watch the video below and I think you’ll agree. Especially when you get to the credits and realize only a handful of artists we responsible for creating it! Also, if you haven’t already, check out his video podcast series he did awhile back too. He takes you step by step from story development, to animation, to rendering, to final edit. I’ve featured it on this blog before, but I’ve relinked it below the featured video just in case you all want to check it out again! Just like “Pigeon: Impossible”, it’s a really high quality series and I think we can all learn a lot from it.

Great work Lucas! I really loved it.

LINK: Pigeon: Impossible

The Short

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The Vlog

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

LINK: Paul Debevec animates a photo-real digital face

At TEDxUSC, computer graphics trailblazer Paul Debevec explains the scene-stealing technology behind Digital Emily, a digitally constructed human face so realistic it stands up to multiple takes.

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But besides the awesome narration, the concept they came up with for taking you through each branch of the evolutionary tree was really nicely thought out. They kept the elements simple, with the lines branching over and over. But just like a great musical score they evolved those elements in unexpected and really interesting ways. I especially loved the transition from water to land. Very beautiful stuff.

Check out the video and link below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

LINK: Tree of Life

The Tree of Life video was shown as part of ‘Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life’, which was broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday 1 February 2009. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the programme was part of the BBC’s Darwin season. You can buy a DVD of the programme at the BBC Shop.

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