The Avengers clan gets a Winnie the Pooh redesign in Charles Paul Wilson’s excellent set of commission / cover artwork. See more of his work here.
March 15, 2012
Winnie The Pooh Avengers
The Avengers clan gets a Winnie the Pooh redesign in Charles Paul Wilson’s excellent set of commission / cover artwork. See more of his work here.
March 14, 2012
The Works of René Laloux
Animation Director René Laloux passed away 8 years ago today, at the age of 74.
Best known for his 1973 classic "Fantastic Planet", based on the book "Oms En Serie" by novelist Stefan Wul. It’s set on a planet occupied by two races: the Draags and the Oms, the Oms (humans) are descendants of people from Earth, the Draags are gigantic, blue-skinned, red-eyed humanoids with
enormous life-spans. They treat the Oms either as pests to be exterminated like rats, or as amusing household pets.
Fantastic Planet was the winner of the Grand Prix award at the 1973 Cannes film festival, It's definitely not animation for kids – the subject matter is pretty morbid. The tone is set in the chilling opening sequence, where an Om woman runs in terror… and is knocked down by a giant blue hand. The picture pulls back, and we discover that a group of Draag children are amusing themselves by toying with this helpless creature.
There are lots of familiar story elements in the film, hints of David and Goliath and Gulliver’s Travels come to mind. But it’s the designs by Roland Topor that make it so memorable and visually disturbing. All manner of surreal creatures move against a landscape that is littered with weird organic shapes; it’s like watching a cross between Terry Gilliam’s animations for Monty Python and the surreal paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Grotesque yet graceful, it’s a hallucinatory vision quite unlike anything you’ve ever see.
René Laloux initially went to art school to study painting. After some time working in advertising, he got a job in a psychiatric institution where he began experimenting in animation with the interns. It is at the psychiatric institution that he made 1960's Monkey's Teeth (Les Dents du Singe), in collaboration with Paul Grimault's studio, and using a script written by the Cour Cheverny's interns.
It was 13 years later that he released Fantastic Planet to film festivals and in select theaters through out Europe.
His last feature film Gandahar (Light Years) made in 1988, is about the prince of the planet Gandahar, who is sent to the future in order to avenge an attack on his home world. He discovers metallic humanoids with a paralysing ray who send the bodies of those they capture through a portal. Later these individuals return, also encased in metal. Airelle serves as the love interest for Sylvain. He meets "The Deformed," a group of mutants who Sylvain at first mistakes for the enemy. The cause of this terror is traced to the giant brain Metamorphis, although Metamorphis is puzzled about how he could be the cause. The metal humanoids are coming back in time from the future, so Metamorphis offers to place Sylvain in stasis until that time. Sylvain awakens in 1,000 years as planned, and destroys the old, weakened, and now insane, Metamorphis.
As you can see, the plot for Gandahar is somewhat scattered and convoluted.
But as far as grand production design and animation quality is concerned, "Time Masters" (1982) remains his most ambitious and visually captivating. Designed by Jean Giraud (Moebius) and adapted from Stefan Wul's novel. It never reached the same success as Fantastic Planet, but it's my favorite of all Laloux's films.
The Plot: A little boy named Piel, is left marooned on the planet Perdide after both his parents have been killed by giant hornet-like aliens. Thankfully an emergency transmitter provides him with instantaneous communication with Jaffar, an old friend of his father. Jaffar convinces the current passengers on his ship, an exiled prince and princess, that a rescue mission must be undertaken. Its a long way to Perdide though, so Jaffar first picks up an old technician who knows that planet. Together with two telepathic aliens they start their mission to save Piel.It's a fascinating piece of french animated sci-fi, that is well recommended for lovers of the genre and a must-see for all Moebius fans.
If you are unfamiliar with Laloux's films, I recommend to start with this one, then follow up with Fantastic Planet for a real head trip, they are surreal (like all his films) to say the least. He obviously had a love of sci-fi, and will always have a strong world-wide cult following. Proof of this is the many popular tributes, screenings and presentations made in his honor still today. One of which was at the 2010 Los Angeles Animation Festival, where the group JESUS MAKES THE SHOTGUN SOUND made a live performance of the film soundtrack to FANTASTIC PLANET - see it here.
March 13, 2012
March 12, 2012
The Scale of the Universe - Interactive
What does the universe look like on small scales? On large scales? Humanity is discovering that the universe is a very different place on every proportion that has been explored. For example, so far as we know, every tiny proton is exactly the same, but every huge galaxy is different. On more familiar scales, a small glass table top to a human is a vast plane of strange smoothness to a dust mite -- possibly speckled with cell boulders. Not all scale lengths are well explored -- what happens to the smallest mist droplets you sneeze, for example, is a topic of active research -- and possibly useful to know to help stop the spread of disease. The above interactive flash animation, a modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten, is a new window to many of the known scales of our universe. By moving the scroll bar across the bottom, you can explore a diversity of sizes, while clicking on different items will bring up descriptive information.
Flash Animation Credit & Copyright: Cary & Michael Huang
Invitation to Animators: TED-Ed Launches on YouTube
TED-Ed's mission is to capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world. We do this by pairing extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of curiosity-igniting videos. A new site, which will launch in early April 2012, will feature these new TED-Ed Originals as well as some powerful new learning tools.
For those who can't wait that long, we're pleased to announce the official launch of TED-Ed's YouTube channel featuring all of our new videos. Also, we are happy to extend an open invitation for the nomination of educators and animators and the suggestion of lesson ideas.
Caravan Palace - Rock It For Me
Art and Animation Directors: Guillaume Cassuto, Ugo Gattoni, Jeremy Pires
Original Concept Art: Ugo Gattoni
Editing: Guillaume Cassuto, Jeremy Pires
Storyboard: Guillaume Cassuto, Jeremy Pires
Layout: Ugo Gattoni
Production Coordinator: Guillaume Cassuto
Design / Background Design: Ugo Gattoni
Additional Character Design: Jonathan Djob Nkondo
2D Animation: Jeremy Pires
Additional 2D Animation: Raphael Chabassol, Vic Chhun, William Laborie
FX Animation: Matt Timms
CG Supervision: Guillaume Cassuto
Rigging: Francois Pons
CG Animation: Lucas Vigroux
Additional CG Animation:Yann Benedi
Lighting/Rendering: Guillaume Cassuto
Compositing: Guillaume Cassuto - Elliott Kajdan
Additional Compositing: Philippe Valette
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