A timely RE-post of a column I wrote for AWN way back in November of 2007. I am reposting it for several reasons. 1.) Since returning from the amazing and wonderful FMX conference in Stuttgart, my brains have felt like well-done scrambled eggs, and writing anything coherent has been an unsurmountable challenge. 2.) I think it was and still is an excellent and extremely necessary topic to address, and 3.) The very digital distraction that I am writing about, threatens to derail my own workflow almost every day, and I needed a reminder! 

The decision to be a professional artist is unlike any other.  There is no single well-trod path to success and, anyway, how is success measured when it comes to an art?  Is it a dollar amount?  Is an animator who worked on, say, “Up” more successful than one who worked on, say, “Waltz with Bashir” or “Triplets of Belleville” or the game “Fable II”?   Or perhaps you consider animation to be a craft more than an art?

 

 

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.

 

 

Pixar is living through a new golden age.  The string of hit films, the triumph of Up, the promise of the studio’s ambitious new projects, all fill the space with a glow.  I’ve visited Pixar before, and each time I’m aware that someday I’ll be telling people not yet born that, yes, I visited Pixar.

 

Learning 2D animation on your own is very doable. This first of a four part series on the tools of the trade looks at mark making in a digital world.

The ‘Elemental Magic –An Organic Approach to Visual Effects Animation’ workshop is not just a cute little tip of the hat to traditional animation principles.  This is vital stuff, that cannot be left behind, in the rush to embrace ‘cutting edge’ digital technology!

Elemental Magic brings the organic imaginative process back into the picture of the 'digital' revolution of visual effects.

“My name’s Zélie Bérubé, I’m 20 years old, and I’m currently going into my fourth and last year of animation at Sheridan College in Canada. This summer I’m interning at Auryn Inc., an animation studio in LA.”

 I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was the absolute most fun I had at E3 and since then there have been a truckload of new announcements about this title. Exclusive PS3 content, an awesome looking Collector's Edition and a nice surprise for fans of the Metal Gear Solid series. Click ahead to read more.

 

 

Chinese film industry observers expect that How to Train Your Dragon’s opening will kick IMAX movie viewing into high gear.  There are only 20 some IMAX theatres in the entire country of China.  A Chinese company announced recently that it will partner with IMAX to build 20 IMAX movie theatres in the next few years in China to meet the future demand.

From the advanced press reviews from China, and response from the first day of “How to Train Your Dragon” screening in China, the critics and audience absolutely LOVED this movie (remember in China it’s 15 hours ahead of our time here in California)!  My mom showed me the Chinese websites.  Critics and moviegoers alike raved about the amazing “true 3-D” effects in the Hiccup/Toothless flying scenes (many thought “Dragon” is as great as “Avatar” in 3-D visual effects, much better than other movies with 2D to 3D conversion).

 

 

How come that every cheapo 100-Dollar point-and-shoot digital still camera automatically records EXIF data (metadata) about lens size, F-Stop, etc., and I can put any autofocus lens on every 500-Dollar SLR camera out there, and it does the same, but the 20/50/180,000-Dollar (or the I'm-so-expensive-you-can-only-rent-me) digital film cameras don't have that?