Jan
18
2012
A few NEW trailers for publications, with the actual published art brought to life through digital animation. Some are more elaborately done and some are more simple.
BONE: Quest for the Spark BOOK 2 Video
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 Movie Intro (fan made) – with art by Dave Peterson.
“a Monster Calls” – animation by Eric Guémise. Illustrations by Jim Kay.
Zero the Hero book trailer
Bande annonce Pablo – Max Jacobs T1
Jan
12
2012
Last week I taught two classes at the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA. The above video is the final result of the one day stop-motion class which we call “Stop and Go”.
Nov
26
2011
I have written in the past in my Motion Comic Magic posts where I talk about re-purposing artwork from comics and books into animation, but today’s post is about re-purposing architecture with animation using video/architectural mapping. Basically a high-tech technique in which video is seamlessly projected on unusual surfaces to wrap it in animation and visuals.They have been using this technique in the last decade years for planetariums and for theme park shows like this one at Disneyland in Anaheim CA…
Even some home holiday light shows are using this technique since it allows you to do a lot more then just flashing a string of lights on and off. So…
Last night I headed into San Francisco not to shop, but to experience all the holiday decorations, spirit and displays. By chance I saw a sign for a new holiday show: Illuminique at Westfield Mall a.k.a San Francisco Center. The mall was open late for Black Friday and so I headed up to the top floor to check it out.
When I arrived at 9:10 pm there was Christmas music playing and a ‘screen saver’ of video outlined the architecture of the historical Emporium dome that was re-built after the 1908 earthquake from the previous 1896 one. There were a few variations of visuals that changed every few songs.
The schedule for Illuminique is 6pm to 8:30pm (running on the half hour), but I guessed that since the mall was open late they would just keep running the show as well. So I walked around a bit then found a nice chair to sit in and waited to see what would happen at 9:30pm.
Sure enough the 4 min show started as I expected. The show transforms the dome into a whimsical mechanical music box with the architectural elements open and close like a coo coo clock. The animation was done with CGI 3D images.
when projected CGI animation transforms the historic dome into a whimsical mechanical musicbox.
Some of my photos had the flash on and so the actual show will look a bit darker and richer.
Pretty neat stuff and a great way for them to re-purpose the classic space in a new way. It might not be worth a special trip just for this holiday show, but there are museums (Cartoon Art Museum, Moma, MoAD, Jewish Contemporary, CA history society), Yerba Buena Gardens, shopping and restaurants all right off the BART line to make the day special and meaningful along with this unique show.
The show was created by: obscuradigital.com
Nov
19
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
For today’s Motion Comic Magic post I just wanted to share a few nice trailers for comic books from France/Belgium and Germany. I am still surprised that the major US companies don’t create more trailers for their books.
The first one is a Franco-Belgian BD comic trailer that features a story of three comic artists and their trip to America. Jijé is the creator of Spirou et Fantasio and Jerry Spring, Morris is the creator of Lucky Luke, and André Franquin is the creator of the comics Gaston and Marsupilami.
Gringos Locos (editions Dupuis)
The journey of Franco-Belgian artists Jijé, Morris and Franquin throughout the United States and Mexico.
Concerned about the advance of communism in Europe, artist Jijé decided to leave the Old World with his family. Franquin and Morris decided to follow him, with them all arrived in New York in 1948. Having acquired a Hudson Ford, they travel the U.S. from east coast to west coast, hoping to get hired by Disney Studios. Not a chance, at a time when Disney has laid off more than he was hiring. Seeing his tourist visa expired, Jijé decided to move several months to Mexico with his family and is soon joined by Franquin and Morris.
After the success of “Groom verdigris,” the duo of Yann and Schwartz addresses the picaresque adventures of three monuments of the Franco-Belgian comics.
The next two trailers are from the Berlin based company Stenarts who are a studio that creates art for all sorts of projects including comics. Where the first trailer for Vol 1 below features art from the comic the second trailer looks as it’s art has been created specificly for it. Both of the trailers are especially nice with the second being really impressive.
Ria: Lightclan Chronicles (by Stenarts)
And lastly we head back to Franco-Belgian BD comics this one featuring the classic comic cowboy character Lucky Luke as a kid. That’s right, it’s Kid Luck which should not be confused with Alexis Fajardo’s comic Kid Beowulf (which I do production work on BTW) though I would love to think they stole the idea for him. The creator of Lucky Luke is Morris is who is a character in the trailer for Gringo Loco above.
The trailer does a nice job of animating the characters from the comic art with quite a bit of cleaver movement.
Nov
02
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
To me Motion Comics and Motion Illustration is about taking material that was not designed for animation and bringing it to life with modern multimedia technology. In my previous posts here for Motion Comic Magic I have looked at how illustrations and artwork can be animated for music videos, motion comics, trailers for books, and to simulate what never existed. In fact I first talked about the idea of recreating what had never been built thorough motion-art and motion comics in my post a while back….re-creating the ‘Western River Expedition’ ride. That example used concept art, photos of models and other elements that Disney had in their archive, but it was mostly a slide show.
Recently I discovered the work of animator David Witt (quasi-interestingparaphernaliainc.blogspot.com) has done it one better with actually animating the characters in the Concept Art itself. It also brings up an interesting idea of how using multi-media could be pre-visulized how an robotic figure for a dark ride could move in the real world.
So here are some animations of Marc Davis’ concept art for the Western River Expedition ride that was never built at Walt Disney World…
Western River Expedition: Last Roundup from David Witt on Vimeo.
Western River Expedition: Horse on the Roof from David Witt on Vimeo.
Western River Expedition: Saloon Singer from David Witt on Vimeo.
David also just release a video that features the art and audio from the Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion. You can read more about it on his blog HERE.
To see all of David’s videos, visit his VIMEO profile.
Oct
31
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
For those who are new to my Motion Comic Magic posts, I am very interested in how art/comics can be re-purposed into animation and multimedia.
I just saw this awesome video (via Monster Brains blog) from Jason Willis that re-purposes a a spooky record from 1973 with the cover art of Eerie magazine.
The Cast of Eerie Publications perform the Johnson-Smith Novelty Company “Horror Record”
A parallel universe alliance between Eerie Publications and the 1973 Johnson-Smith Novelty Company “Horror Record.”
Aug
11
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
I just saw this great music video by Jascha Hoffman for the song “Some Hungry Guy” in which artwork from Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay. The strips are from the turn of the century and are in the public domain. The animation is by Benjamin Ahr Harrison.
It’s nice to see someone re-purposing such classic material with love and respect, especially since McCay had such a profound effect on Comics and Animations. The art was used from comicstriplibrary.org.
Check it out…
Aug
09
2011
When I was at the San Diego Comic-Con 2011 (July 20-23) I got a few sketches to add to my collection that were drawn in a cool blank picture book I got at Artist and Craftsman Supply. Some I got from the booth of certain artists and some I bought during the Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-A-Thon. All are very cool.
The art is by Chris Giarrusso, creator of the all-ages comics G-Man. The comic is really fun and a good read.
The art is by Dan Goodsell creator of Mr. Toast. I got the sketch when I bought a small book of the Mr. Toast characters as superheros. (BUY IT HERE)
The art is by Chris Houghton the artist on a great new all-ages comic series about Reed Gunther and his best friend and steed Sterling the Bear. I got the first three issues of the comic and have read and re-read and keep enjoying them.
The art is by T.Cypress who is the creator of Rodd Racer, a new graphic novel. I love Toby’s style which I feel inspired by with my own work with brush and ink. This drawing is marker, dry brush, splattered ink, and charcoal. It was really great to watch him create it.
- www.tobycypress.daportfolio.com
The art is by Scott Shaw who is just super-dupper-awesome. He has done everything from storyboards and animation to comic books. See more of her work on this post on the Sketch-A-Thon.
The art is by Jamaica Dyer who is a talented bay area artist. See more of her work on this post on the Sketch-A-Thon.
The art is by Travis Hanson the creator of the web-comic “the Bean” which you can buy from his website or even better, help out with a current Kickstarter fundraiser. The comic is really a great read for all-ages.
The art is by Kostas Kiriakakis is just amazing. I saw his first sketch during the Sketch-A-Thon and knew I wanted one. I had to quickly figure out what I wanted him to draw and so I had him draw Samurai from the Superfriends cartoon series. He has work in the new issue of the comic anthology Flight.
AND as a bonus, here is a cool drawing of Sabrina the Teen Witch last weekend at the Cartoon Art Museum’s Archie Family Fun Day. The exhibit that it celebrates is really good and here is a review.
The art is by Rich Koslowski who did free sketches to everyone who came to the event which was really really cool. He is a very versatile artist, so go check out his work at the URL below.
