michael.cervieri.com » animation

Kids, Cameras and Playground Fights

Michael Cervieri — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:17:26 +0000

Via This American Life:

The camera really changed the way we behaved.

It still really disturbs me. We lost our humanity.

We let one of our classmates just get trampled on.

And they weren’t even real cameras.

Propagation Animation of the Honshu Tsunami

Michael Cervieri — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:30:15 +0000

Via NOAA Center for Tsunami Research:

Propagation of the March 11, 2011 Honshu tsunami was computed with the NOAA forecast method using MOST model with the tsunami source inferred from DART® data. From the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, located at NOAA PMEL in Seattle, WA

Another in a day of speechless.

Originally posted on the Future Journalism Project.

When Pixels Attack: 8-Bit in New York

Michael Cervieri — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:49:50 +0000

Lovely piece that brings us through a Space Invader, Tetris, Frogger, Pacman, Donkey Kong and other 8-bit favorites attack on New York.

Source: One More Production.

Big Bang Big Boom

Michael Cervieri — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:25:00 +0000

A new wall painted animation by Blu.

Described as “an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end.”

Doc Ellis’ LSD No Hitter

Michael Cervieri — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:24:08 +0000

From Wikipedia:

Ellis pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970. He would admit in 1984 to being under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game. Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his friend’s girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis said catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and center fielder Matty Alou. During the game, teammates (such as rookie Dave Cash) are reported to have commented to Ellis on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.

As Ellis recounted it:

“I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher’s) glove, but I didn’t hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn’t hit hard and never reached me.”

Watch Out Hollywood, Open Source is Here

Michael Cervieri — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:20:45 +0000

Price barriers have long prevented independent animators from creating films that can compete with the production values of Hollywood spectaculars by the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks. Software costs and the rendering farms needed to produce Shrek, Ratatouille and WALL-E simply run outside the budgets of small production houses.

But the Dutch Blender Foundation and its production arm, the Blender Institute, may be changing that.

Take a look at the video above. It’s the third Open Movie project the Institute’s released and in the past week it’s proved a hit with over 1.2 million views on YouTube.

This is impressive by any stretch but more so because the movie was created using Blender’s eponymous Open Source 3D rendering software.

The 15 minute movie is called Sintel and tells the story of a young female warrior who befriends a baby dragon while out to slay an evil one. The film was created by an international team the Foundation pulled together after sending out a 2009 public call for artists. Also important is Blender’s adherence to its Open Source ethos by using Open Source wherever and whenever possible.

As they wrote the on the Sintel Site during the film’s creation:

For the entire creation pipeline in the studio, we will only use free/open source software. For 3D graphics, compositing and video editing we’ll obviously use Blender. For imaging and drawing we expect to use GIMP and Inkscape a lot. Next to these, we’ll explore the very promising paint programs MyPaint and Krita. Render output will be in OpenEXR. Scripting will be done in Python. Studio database storage will most likely be in SVN. The workstations in the studio will be equipped with 64 bits Linux, distro and desktop environment is to be defined later. We intend to build our own render farm this time, for which a free software solution will be required as well.

The free and Open Source Blender software used to create Sintel is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. To think that they’re able to create films with the production values seen here after just a few years creating the software is amazing.

Hollywood should watch its back. With tools like this available, a whole new generation of animators will be able to compete on screens large and small in the upcoming years.

Sintel is licensed under the Creative Commons and is available for download from the film’s Web site.

About Watch Out Hollywood, Open Source is Here

This article originally appeared at my teaching site, TubesCodeContent.com.

Visualizing Peter and the Wolf

Michael Cervieri — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:30:41 +0000

Sunday’s visualization. Peter and the Wolf.

The Morning Distraction: Beatles Cartoons

Michael Cervieri — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:29:53 +0000

It’s amazing how sometimes you take a few minute break to watch a video and two hours later you re-emerge wondering where exactly you’ve been.

Such was my morning. Not even sure how I ended up here but came across the above Beatles cartoon of Penny Lane. It’s part of a collection from 1965 – 1967 that saw 37 half-hour shows produced for British television. Each segment of the show was named after the song it featured. For old school animation fans it’s well worth the time spent.

Supposedly, MTV ran the series in 1986-1987. Unfortunately, I grew up in the boonies and we didn’t have hi-tech gadgetry like cable television so I’m seeing it now for the first time.

Better late than never. This Taxman/Robin Hood one’s pretty fab too:

Enjoy.

Don’t Be Greedy

Michael Cervieri — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:37:51 +0000

While we all want a little more than we can chew, the lesson of the day: don’t be greedy. The magnificence above comes courtesy of Run Wrake.

Called Rabbit, the video was nominated for Best Short Animation at the BAFTA Awards, won Special Mention at the Cracow Film Festival and won the Tiger Award for Short Film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

For a nice profile on the who, what, where, when, how and why of all things Wrake, visit RES for a 2006 profile that neatly outlines the filmmaker’s musical muse and work with bands that range from Manu Chao to U2.

The Roshaman of Husbands and Wives

Michael Cervieri — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:24:57 +0000

From our favorite radio show comes this delightful animation about a husband, a wife and one Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.