The Avengers hits US theatres today, surely set to obliterate box office metrics on its way to blockbuster gold, financial nirvana, accolades for the actors and kudos for the studio.  Millions of people will watch it and be thoroughly entertained.  A small group will watch it and be thoroughly underwhelmed.  An even smaller group still will watch it and bemoan the continued decline of everything – society at large, superhero genre filmmaking, democracy as we know it, the ozone layer. These people are always annoyed at something.  Their sentences often begin, “When I was a kid…” as if the world was any less a shithole when they were 10.  Not surprising, most are grandparents.

Engineers, scientists and other supposed great-thinkers don’t often make for interesting copy.  Centrifuges, remote sensors, pressure valves and biopsies don’t bring smiles to most people’s faces, unless of course, you’re my mom, who never met a biopsy she couldn’t fret over, going back to Marcus Welby, M.D. To those who don’t understand, like or appreciate scientific thought, even MacGyver is mundane and hopelessly highbrow.

Enter stage left the magnificent pair of stop-motion Brits, Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit, front and center in a new DVD release of their complete six-part BBC1 TV series, Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention.  This nifty series pairs the eternally bumbling but kind-hearted inventor Wallace, along with his trusted companion, always-in-the-nick-of-time dog Gromit, and a series of live action vignettes on engineers, scientists and designers whose contraptions are truly extraordinary.  Part Mythbusters, part National Geographic, the pairing is clever, with our animated duo introducing and wrapping in and around the live action segments.

 

Two hours of schmooze followed by over three hours of presentations by teams all vying for Best VFX Oscar gold, the annual VFX Bakeoff was a long but ultimately enjoyable evening. Always a gathering of industry legends, this year was no different – giants Rob Legato, Scott Farrar, Joe Letteri, Michael Fink, John Knoll and John Dykstra were just some of the presenters.  Though it’s possible to glean new insights into how a particular vfx shot was handled, the most entertaining part of the evening remains the occasional quip or funny anecdote shared by a presenter.  While the victuals at Kate Mantelini are always great (upscale mac n’ cheese + cold night = smile), each year it seems more and more people get squeezed into an impossibly narrow space.  While not great for locomotion or bathroom breaks, the sardine can confinement does make for interesting eavesdropping.  You don’t really catch entire conversations, nor complete context, but your ears do perk up if you catch something particularly funny, biting or just plain mean.  After all, this still is Hollywood.  And while it’s not quite Housewives of the Renderfarm, it’s still pretty amusing. 

 

 

By Nancy Phelps

Estonian animation director and educator Ulo Pikkov has accomplished a remarkable feat in producing a most readable book on animation theory.  For those who do not know about the technical side of animation Animasophy – Theoretical Writings On The Animated Film is a great place to start.  Readers who are already well versed in animation techniques will be reminded about what they already know but don’t always think about.

 

 

By Nancy Phelps

If you have ever watched an animated film and wondered “How did they do that?” then Tobias Wengert’s  ANIMATORS how did they do that? is the book for you.  Wengert has transcribed in print his conversations with twelve diverse members of the Stuttgart, Germany animation community who reveal the secret techniques behind the magical images they create.

 

 

I tried, I really did.  I watched every single commercial on this year’s Super Bowl telecast.  Unfortunately, I’m terribly spoiled by my DVR.  I think I’d give up Diet Coke before I’d give up my DVR.  Consequently, my tolerance of the sorry state of commercials is quite low.  So my assessment of this year’s crop of spots is not particularly kind. Nor coherent.  Nor relevant. I was not impressed.  There were, however, a few bright spots.

Routinely, while watching trailers at the local AMC 53-plex, or highly pixilated commercials on my supposed high-end HDTV, I’m alternately moved to yawn, cry, occasionally laugh, but mostly shake my head in disgust and mutter “We’re all going die…then go to hell.”  Today, Super Bowl Sunday, it appears yet again some evil cabal, clad in tattered rags, cackling in delight while dancing around a cauldron filled with bat wings and the limbs of corporate media buyers, has brewed up an especially foul potion, casting an evil spell over the creative community.  Agency Directors were surreptitiously replaced by humorless doppelgangers devoid of creative powers, sense of design or comedic skills.  The only way to survive this year’s game-day commercial-palooza was to gouge your eyes out with a Dorito.  Or crush your head under the wheel of a new enviro-friendly Chevy Cruze Eco. Or Snickers your way into a diabetic coma.

In no particular order, here are some random thoughts and lots of video clips.

 

Without good direction, you end up with drek.  Problems with sequence timing or the render pipeline can be solved with relative ease – problems of mismanagement are difficult to overcome and usually spell doom.  Animation directors aren’t directing animation, they’re directing a group of people who are working in arguably the most time consuming and exacting of creative mediums.  Copiously illustrated with relevant images, the book is well thought out and concise, never preachy or off target. David writes in an engaging style that captures your attention without smacking you over the head. Directing Animation at its heart strives to teach the reader how to keep an animation production crew happy, productive and on task. 

 

“Think of this book as a Disney History companion filling in some of those nooks and crannies that may only be mentioned in a brief sentence or two, if at all, in other Disney history books. These chapters truly are the forgotten but fascinating Disney stories.” With this line, Jim Korkis lays down the foundation for what his newest work, The Vault of Walt, is truly about. Through the compilation of the wide array of articles that he has written through the years, Korkis presents a work that provides his readers with little known histories and stories about Walt Disney and the empire that he created.

 

 

If you’re looking to spend a couple hours sitting back and having a good time, then get yourself to the theatre this weekend and go see Megamind, DreamWorks’ latest animated feature.  When I got to the press screening last Saturday, I was actually in a good mood for a change. It was my birthday, I’d eaten an In-N-Out double-double for lunch and for a few brief hours, I was mostly pleasant to be with.  I put on my 3-D glasses in search of some good old fashioned entertainment and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed.  The film looked great, the story resonated with me and kept my attention, the running gags were used wisely, not beaten to death, the 3-D done seamlessly and expertly without obvious gimmicks or flaws.