You can now download a clip from ACCELERATED EARTH, taken from
Stephen X. Arthur's latest National Film Board of Canada film series.
The clip is from FILM #1, the break-up of the supercontinent Pangea
and the birth of the Atlantic ocean, from about 230 million to 160
million years ago, at a time-lapse speed of seven million years per
second of screen time. The film clip was directed by Stephen X.
Arthur, produced by George Johnson, modelled, animated and composited
by Jacque Choi, with camera by Stephen X. Arthur. The film is made
with 3D Studio MAX 3 -- a "brute force" method with extremely large
mesh, massive animated bump map, and large free-form deformation
modifier. Separate render passes were used for land, sea and
volcanoes. Render time for each animation preview was about 20 hours.
When animating the scene, it took five minutes just to move to a new
frame.



You can discover more of Stephen's work in the AWN's Animation Showcase.