Traveling Pixar Exhibit

A few months ago I had the pleasure of going to the traveling Pixar Exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. These types of exhibits are very hands on and interactive. While it may have been a little more technical than the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings traveling exhibits, as a film student take 3D and animation classes, it was awesome. Each station that was set up demonstrated some aspect of animation, whether it be lighting, hair, working in 3D space, etc. There were simplified versions of the programs we use such as Maya, Cinema 4D, After Effects and more, to help kids interact in similar ways as animators do, with their favorite Pixar characters. One example of these exhibits was a computer screen with various lighting options such as intensity, color, and more. When the options are changed, there was a small, physical scene that is affected by all these changes. The exhibit was awesome and felt like walking into a physical manifestation of my 3D animation class. I highly recommend the exhibit if it comes to a museum near you.
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Kurzgesagt

The brain likes to learn. Over the summer the company I worked at was responsible for recording a lot of TED talks. If there's one thing I learned from sorting through and watching these lectures it's that the best TED talks are quick, informational, and usually have an endearing personality attached to them. Recently I've stumbled across a YouTube channel that takes these same principles and combines them with sleek and beautifully animated graphics.

I found myself tearing through these videos not only because they were so interesting, but because each poignant snippet of scientific jargon was elegantly matched by equally beautiful images. It just goes to show how eager one really is to learn when the information is presented to them in an engaging way. 

I'd love to see how a video like this comes together but from what I've heard videos such as the one above require more over 200 hours of work so for now I'll settle for cutting up digital paper.

Using Science in Art

"Professor Fletcher's invention of the CellScope, which is a Nokia device with a microscope attachment, was the inspiration for a teeny-tiny film created by Sumo Science at Aardman. It stars a 9mm girl called Dot as she struggles through a microscopic world. All the minuscule detail was shot using CellScope technology and a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics."


This technology can be used for Medical Doctor's everywhere, but also gives a new opportunity for art. The Cellscope technology can take almost any smartphone and turn it into a portable high powered microscope. Super cool stuff!

Measuring the Universe

This is quite the interesting video. The Royal Observatory Greenwich put out this video last year, using motion graphics a bit of science to explain why we can measure the distance of things from us that are so far away, even if we can't physically measure them with, for example, and measuring tape.

The video reflects the narrator's commentary well, with simple, yet effective graphics used to accentuate the meaning behind each explanation.

Even with something as complex and mostly unknown as our universe, this editor found a way to make it all seem super simple and extremely understandable. And for that, he or she should be congratulated.

Electromagnetic Spectrum: Radio Waves

This video doesn’t really talk about any animation itself.  Rather, I find the animations in it (used to talk about radio waves) quite impressive.  Although they don’t blow the viewer away with their quality and whatnot, I can really appreciate all the time, effort, and work that went into making this video.  There are some very impressive graphics that use everything from particle generators, to various camera movements.  There are also graphics boards that are animated.  This video is put together very well and allows the viewer to understand what they are talking about.