I LAVA Pixar Shorts.

So you know how Pixar has those shorts to start off their films. So recently I was reintroduced to LAVA.(You know the short that started Inside Out.) You know, the one about the really cute song about the volcano that sings about how much he’d love to love someone someday! At first the animation style semi-realistic and it pans up to a very old weathered looking volcano. Each animal shown has it’s counterpart and the volcano man longs for this connection. He deserves someone to "lava" too! Anyways the story goes on and the short is very vibrant with color and just a beautiful short and I swear there won’t be a dry eye in the house!

UPDATE:
Unfortunately, and probably due to copyright issues, there is no full version of Lava That I can find online. However, I have found the full song in a lyric video that shows screen caps from the short film So feel free to take a listen.

So as I was thinking about what to post for this week's assignment, I came a cross an oscar winning animation short entitled "Rejected". This is a short that is about a series of rejected cartoon ideas, and the best part, it is all done with stick figure drawings! This was especially interesting to me because I have a very limited artistic capability when it comes to drawing. That is a fancy way of saying that I have pretty much no drawing ability. I can basically only draw stick figures. This animated short is pretty hilarious and pretty awesome seeing that it is only done with stick figures. I guess it goes to show that I still might be able to make it in this class. Enjoy!

Short is Sweet

Like many of my peers in the class who are still merely in awe of some of the larger and more ambitious projects we've seen as we scour the Internet for examples, references, and inspiration, I feel overwhelmed. Even a project as long as a minute still involves hours of work.

That's why I felt comforted when I found this blog post that showcases the results of a 5 second sandcastle building contest. Below are some of my favorites that highlight the fact that you don't need to create the next feature animation, especially when you're first starting out.

Sandcastle from Zublime on Vimeo.

 

There's An App For That from Mantas Bačiuška on Vimeo.

King For a Day - GSG 5 Second Project from Quin Barclay on Vimeo.

5 Second Project - Sandcastle from Sam Jones on Vimeo.


(VIA: GREYSCALE GORILLA)

More CG shorts

This is another one of those awesome "created entirely in CG" clips. I love the absence of any live footage and can't fathom how much work goes into stuff like this...not to mention render time for such complex stuff even on nice hardware! This one is definitely sci-fi themed but the shot that blows my mind is the reel to reel recorder. It just looks infallibly real, as if it were simply a well-lit live shot.
One thing I'd like to play with is depth of field, like in the shot that seems to be of a keyhole-looking object. Are there any good plugins that create nice, realistic depth of field blur like that? Also, this seems to be yet another really high-end film out of Spain.