Mittwoch, 30. November 2011

Impossible is nothing

Stumbled upon this here today while browsing youtube for new animation dialogues... and remembered how motivational it was as i first saw it on tv...



All these legends together... and its true...

impossible is nothing!

Montag, 28. November 2011

Oh those gobelins show offs...

If i could go back and choose a school to go to... i would go to gobelins. Even before calarts or AAU... Almost every piece ive seen coming from their students is awesome...

Like this short...
I love the mood so much...

The Night We Were Kings from Cube Creative on Vimeo.

Freitag, 25. November 2011

My favourite parts - 7 - How to train your Dragon

Wait what?! Yes i decided to write about other awesome film moments because there is more out there than just Pixar! :-) so my favourite non-Pixar movie is definitely HttyD.
To me this was the first time that Dreamworks catched up with Pixar in terms of story and animation. (Kung Fu Panda was close... but not quiet as awesome)
A very cool soundtrack and very cool characters did the rest. Also there are some amazing visuals like the one in the beginning when hickup walks up to his house with the blond teacher guy (sorry dont remember the name) the whole picture looks more like a painting than a scene from a movie... same for the scene in the end when stoic walks over to toothless who is lying on the ground... again... a painting not a scene from a movie... beautiful!
My first highlight, animation wise, for this film is the one that is cool for everyone... toothless... His character and also his moves specially in those sequences when the two get to know each other is just awesome... The combination of all the animals the animators have studied works so nicely together and some of the character stuff is simply hilarious.
And the scene when hickup holds up his hand and toothless puts his nose in the hand... that one is soooo beautifully subtile... no words needed...
Thats when the movie took a huge leap and didnt feel like animation anymore but like a big film.


The next thing that amazed me is Stoic. They really gave him so much depth... such a huge character... but how he holds hiccup there when he thanks toothless... thats another goosebump moment... and his character arc over the movie is definitely as big as hiccups. Maybe im so amazed by him because he reminded me of my own father. Its just so cool to feel that inside he loves his son but he is very insecure about how to deal with him because he doesnt understand why hiccup is doing all that stuff that seems unimportant or weird to him.
His beard is amazing!
And i love gerard butlers voice! :-)

Very beautiful movie!

Donnerstag, 24. November 2011

My favourite parts - 6 - Nemo

Stanton at its best...
He is an amazing storyteller, and nemo is such a complete film, you just have to love it.
The sondtrack is probably my favourite out of all Pixar films... and its filled with lots and lots of details.
Ive just recently bought the art of finding nemo and all the amazing drawings... specially simon varelas stuff is just stunning!
Its also one of the few movies that has a very good german version. Wich is also something pixar manages to do quiet well overall.

The part that stands out to me in particular for this movie is this here:

finally Nemo and Marlin are reunited.
But the very special thing about it was to see doug sweatland talk about it on the pixar story.
There you see how deep he thinks into the shot, the subtext, what every gesture means.
Doug is a genious anyways and this part shows how every animator should think...
I feel it brought my own work on a completely new level when i really started to think about the character, the subtext and really tried to figure out what every gesture will mean. That was one of these moments when it somehow clicked for me...

Geesh i love animation! :-)

Dienstag, 22. November 2011

My favourite parts - 5 - Wall-E

Were getting to one of my all time favourites...
I just love the characters so much... i love the setting, the story... everything... the only thing i was a bit disappointed about was that the movie is a bit split into these two parts... its just some kind of bump more in the visual style that disappointed me because i was so amazed by that post human world... the axiom is much more cartoony... but anyways... the story is beautiful and as i mentioned... wall-e is my favourite pixar character of all time!
You have to know how to animate first to be able to give him that robotic moves but still give him sooooo much character...
The part that stood out to me the most... is probably the one that stood out to everyone the most...

beautiful...

:-) so full of detail... i love how the cockroach is walking up and down... looking at them... then going again... like in a hospital... so perfect... then... 2:29... how eve holds him in the moment she gives up hope...
and then the kiss...
 ok first... i have never ever experienced something that was quiet as this moment at a theatre than on this movie... no one dared to breathe... dead silence... and then comes his questioning "evaa?" (im having goose bumps again) its just perfect...
And again... its not just the whole scene but how deep they go here... not all the new parts made him whole again... its that little kiss from eva... the love she feels when she kisses him goodbye... thats what truly revives him... awesome also because they established the strength of her kiss and the influence on him in the space/dance sequence where it overloads his system and lets it crash... but now that much energy/love was needed to revive his soul... awww... so beautiful...

btw... go to carlos baenas website to see what he did here... the broken wall-e is just awesome... 

:-) i love writing about animation... :-)

Freitag, 18. November 2011

My favourite parts - 4 - Up

In preparation for this post i watched the intro sequence again and... well... watch it yourself first...

I really had to wipe a tear away... BEAUTIFUL! Amazing! And what a build up for a movie in the first 10minutes... oh i love it so much... thank god its friday... so i can watch it again this weekend...
This sequence makes me feel sooooo unworthy of even dreaming of working at pixar someday...

This film proves another thing... well actually pixar proved this much longer ago but this here is special i think...
It proves that they make films with such a depth that its definitely not just for kids anymore... the beautiful thing is that there is something for everyone... kids will love it because all the fun stuff like speaking dogs... a funny bird etc, but there is so much going on, on deeper levels that appeals to grown ups... im saying it again... pixar films are plain and simple... pieces of beautiful art.

But... im getting off topic (again).

The first thing that made me laugh out loud from excitement about the amazing animation is at 0:59 when carl places his hand on the arm of the chair and ellie grabs it... this moment... (oh my god im having goose bumps just by thinking of it again!) its so subtile... like its the most natural thing for them... perfect...

The whole sequence of course could be a short film in itself and is a masterpiece in every aspect (not just animation)

Next thing...

again... carls animation is just beautiful... how he rubs his eyes... how he gets up etc.
And there is that shot when he comes down the stairs in the "elevator"... (wich is storytelling wise also very very amazing... he got that elevator... and later in the film he is doing all this physical stuff... that elevater really shows how much he had forgotten to live...) in that shot, there are so many subtile moves... nothing forced, basically just overlap from the elevators movement... i just love that subtile stuff! :-)

There are lots of other things thats are very outstanding to me (as always) for example the scene when muntz kidnaps kevin and sets the house on fire... carl goes to extinguish the fire and russel accuses him not to care about kevin... the way carl turns around in his reaction... the lighting... that huge emotion in his face... thats another very very unique and incredibly strong moment.

I could go on and on again... but ill leave it for now :-)

My favourite parts - 3 - Incredibles

To me visually this wasnt the most appealing pixar film, and in times where i didnt know anything about movie making or animation... i actually wasnt that impressed by it when i first saw it. But as i started studying animation, and watched it again... i realized how amazing this film is... the visual style (specially of the environment) still isnt that appealing to me, but the animation is just another milestone in animation history. I recently just watched it with the animators commentaries wich just opened another level of excitement about the film.
It has an amazing story and every character develops in its own special way... its just amazing how everything is worked out perfectly. And of course there is the world famous edna mode... wich just rocks the house! And knowing that brad bird did her voice just increases my admiration for him.
He is actually the only reason why i will go and watch ghost protocol... :-)

But to come back to my favourite parts in the film...
For this one its actually just two little parts that just show pixars greatness... i like elastigirl/helen a lot... she is so confident, but vulnerable on the other hand... and that elastic stuff must be awesome to animate... but apart from all the funky stuff they did with her, there are a few moments where they showed her "powers" in a more subtile way.

Timecode 2:29 and 2:50


Specially at 2:29 there is no awesome stretch going on, but her main pose is just perfect... and amazingly beautiful. Her SL leg is bent in that amazing arc wich as i mentioned shows her flexibility without showing it off because in that moment she has to act subtile so she doesnt get seen... thats the way to keep a character like her consistent.
Same at 2:50... ok there is much more S&S going on, but its so fast that its almost not visible... and the way she squishes when she lands is just pure animation awesomeness :-) again... you dont have to turn her into a parachute to jump down from the ceiling... she doesnt need that here... its just perfect (hehe i gotta search the dictionary, i guess im using a lot of superlatives over and over again) :-)

Thats it for Incredibles... to me this film is a real phenomenon... everytime i watch it, i see something new that amazes me... well this happens with every pixar film, but incredibles hits me off the chair everytime i see it.

Donnerstag, 17. November 2011

My favourite parts - 2 - Toy Story 3

Ok... I wasnt a huge fan of the toy story franchise... even though i remember how eager i was to see the first one all those years ago... but it was not until i saw TS3 that i really got amazed by it.
All the characters are so incredibly beautyful animated, and integrated into an amazing and much more complex story than i had expected... and with so much attention to detail and nice additions to the animation that was already established in the first two films.
Apart from all that, there were two things in this film that just cracked me up and really showed that animation (not just since TS3) has grown up.
The first scene i was amazed by is of course the reactor scene...
(dont get distracted by the title... it just cuts out earlier... but the actual footage im talking about is the same)



Beautiful... Pixar proves that there are no words needed (like the f.ex. cheesy stuff in Harry Potter 7.2) to show the moment when someone realizes he is going to die... the characters just look into each others eyes, hold hands and go into their end together... This moment is incredibly strong! Everything weve seen in all three movies comes up again...
accompanied by an amazing soundtrack this scene to me is movie history...

I also admire how they cut everything together... the chain starts and ends with the two leaders of the gang... the first who grabs someones hand is buzz... and the last one is woody... the one who always kept fighting the longest and always had to fight the hardest comes crawling back, ready to fight on... but this time his friends just look at him and tell him... let it be... this time he has to accept that there is no way out... and like a true leader... he sits in front of all others, his arms spread out protecting them till death... beautiful...
Hehe and then they of course get saved in a way only pixar can do it :-)
Love it :-)

The second thing that made me go overboard at the theatre was... of course... the world famous spanish buzz... I loved it so much that i felt bound to do a little hommage to carlos baena as i came on stage to get my AM diploma in summer 2010... (i wouldnt have done it if carlos himself wouldnt have been on stage of course) :-)





I cant point out anything that appeals to me in particular because these are the most complete piece of animation ive ever seen.
To me the special thing while watching it was, by knowing who did it (i know there are some credits to give to other animators who have worked on those pieces too... check out carlos' website to see which stuff he did), i could almost feel how much fun and joy carlos must have felt while animating it and how much of his heart and soul are conserved in it...
I guess its already pretty obvious and will become more clear when i move on, that carlos is one of my biggest idols... not just because his work is just breathtaking but also because he is such a natural and amazing person...

Again, there is much more stuff in this movie thats simply stunning but these two things stood out the most for me.

Hehe... i really have to go home... recalling all those moments makes me want to work on my own stuff :-)

My Favourite parts - 1 - Ratatouille

Ok starting off here...
In this movie there are so many amazing parts that its really hard to say what stands out in particular.
But to me the whole skinner character is the highlight...
For example in this sequence here (sorry no sound but maybe its even better like that):

Its amazing how much detail is in the animation... i love how he grabs and pulls linguini at sec 14, then we only see his hat at sec 31 but thats all we need to see... his hat bumping around and everyone can imagine whats going on... he is so into his own rant that he misses that the "bad juju" guy is getting the soup.
And then my idol carlos baena comes into play :-) sec 51... need i say anything more? Its just pure facial animation awesomeness... sec 56... What a pose... 1:00 that detail how he pushes himself up on his tiptoes... so he can see through the window (wich is so nice working together with the following shot) thats just... aaaaah... stuff like that is what makes animation great... its not just puppets moving... its art...
The next part of the sequence is also really amazing because it reveals another part of skinners bad character and how very insecure he is on the inside... how he points at linguini in a its not my fault matter at 1:18... and then straightens himself up... suddenly not as pompuous and superior as before... tiny steps... a straight walk and a face wich just shows how dead scared he is inside but tries to act as calm as possible... great great great stuff!

There is another scene when skinner reads the letter from linguinis mother... I couldnt find the clip online (and maybe its even better like that... so people will actually buy the dvd) but im sure if youve seen the movie you know what scene im talking about.
We had a lecture about this whole sequence at Animation Mentor... and it just cracks me up again every time im watching it... its just amazing to see exactly whats going on in skinners mind just by seeing his eyes dart around and his frown getting bigger. Great great stuff...

Ratatouille is one of my favourite Pixar films ever... I simply love it... It looks beautiful, the animation is of course over the top... but also the story... i love the story... Brad Bird is a genious!

Thanks... next film might follow soon :-)

I got inspired...

Yesterday the new Brave Trailer came out...
At first i didnt want to see it because ive become very careful with watching trailers since despicable me... just because i dont want the first 20min of the movie spoiled by the trailer...
But after the whole office talking about it and mails going back and forth i just had to watch it... and ended up forgetting everything around me and going through it frame by frame...
And after that the day couldnt end fast enough so i could go home and implement some of the stuff ive seen into my own work.
There is one thing i noticed in it wich just cracked me up... they hid a small but AWESOME hommage to Beauty and the Beast in it... (or at least i think it is one) :-)
Know what im talking about?



















I love stuff like that...
And because the trailer inspired  me so much, im gonna post some of my favourite moments from pixar films in the next few days... just to add a little nerdyness to this blog :-)

until then...
To infinity... and beyoooooond! :-)

Donnerstag, 10. November 2011

I was hoping for this... rebuttal for the dark knight chase sequence

http://josephkahn.blogspot.com/2011/09/analyzing-action.html

Someone puts that chase sequence from the dark knight in a better light.
Another incredible learning experience just by readingit.
Unfortunately he gets a bit rude from time to time... but what ever... its a nice rebuttal to the original also very negative video.