The State of VFX: A Documentary

Here is a short documentary "Life After Pi," about 30 minutes long, about the story of Rhythm & Hues and the state of other VFX houses. Many VFX studios struggle to stay in business when the business model in the film industry for VFX work is so unsustainable. Tax subsidies in other countries and the payments being fixed bids are hindering the VFX studios.

CCTV Documentary

CCTV Documentary (Director's cut) from KORB on Vimeo.

I came across this video a couple of days ago, and it sparked yet another idea in my mind. I'm working on making my portfolio stand out through individual and personal projects. One of which i would love to do something similar as whats being demonstrated here. The animated movements flow effortlessly with the dancers. I find it to be extremely impressive, remarkably done, and just overall amazing. Check it out, this is definitely goals! 

Till next time, 

Krystal 

The Secret Life of the Burrowing Owl

Came across this video on Vimeo. I thought it was such a cool and unique way to do a short informational documentary, and keep in fresh and interesting. I loved the idea of animating animals over actual footage of their inhabitants. It also seems like a good way to shoot something like this on a low budget, since you don't have to try and hunt down this animal and wait for good action shots.

At the beginning, many of the animals didn't have shadows, which made them seem like they're on a different plane than the background, and the walking was a little robotic at times, but overall I felt this was done very well. The owl especially.

What's interesting to me is the amount of planning and visualizing shooting this real footage must have taken. To imagine exactly where the owl would be had to have been a tough situation, and to make sure you got all of the shots to animate over definitely took some time and precision. Kudos to whoever script supervised this...

6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park

I recently watched this documentary on Netflix and at first, I was a little skeptical about it since not too long ago a different documentary about the making of South Park was released. However, this documentary is a little different because it focuses on the making of the 15h season’s episode “Humancentipad”, a spin-off of the disturbing human centipede movie. The cameras go behind the scenes with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I’ve known before this documentary how the animation is usually made the night of the episode releasing, with cutouts and low-quality animation. However, they need to do this because they only have such a small amount of time since they write the episodes according to what happens in the news that day. This is not an easy task. The documentary shows how stressful this process is and how much dedication you need to do this. I have a lot more respect for South Park now, although I’ve always loved the show and their political commentary. 

Publicized in Newspaper

My recent post of the 2012 Muscular Dystrophy Video I produced has gotten national attention. This included as of recently, the media. My hometown newspaper did an article on the story behind me producing the videos because of my Mom, who has Muscular Dystrophy. The picture that is shown above is from the Reading Eagle Newspaper. Along with this, The Ithacan is also doing an article on me too. My goal was to get this story as far out as possible to help find a cure for Muscular Dystrophy. I believe I have mostly achieved this goal.

Documentary Featured Nationally

Every year I make a documentary for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. These videos are a donation from me because my mom has Muscular Dystrophy and I love to help out using my talent every year. I started my first one in 2006 and now I just released the latest one, which has got some national attention by the headquarters of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Let me know what you think! Share with your friends so we can help raise awareness. Thanks.

Waking Sleeping Beauty

I saw a trailer for a documentary called Waking Sleeping Beauty that centers on the history of Disney animation. The trailer shows how Disney animators went through a rough time but decided to make a comeback which resulted in some of Disney's greatest hits. The movie features well-known animators such as Walt Disney, John Lasseter, Tim Burton, and Jeffery Katzenberg. The website for the film has a lot of great archival photos and videos. It also has detailed biographies about some of the key animators from Disney's golden era.

I have been trying to see the movie for a while now but it hasn't had a wide release. It looks like an interesting insight into animation and the business behind it so if you get a chance to check it out, I definitely recommend you do!