Spirits Dancing

Suzie Templeton’s animated short of Peter and the Wolf has, among other things, the most gorgeous and engaging Indian Runner duck. My pet ducks are Runners, and I just love them. Be warned, though, Peter’s one doesn’t make it…

The other three parts follow at YouTube. The film won an Academy Award in 2008 for Best Animated Short Film and is based on the 1936 composition of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. I found a little bit info about the puppets at Pollystaffle.

(Via Espaço das Marionet@s)

Tags: animation, duck, indian runner, peter and the wolf, puppetry, puppets, stop motion

Roald Dahl’s great story Fantastic Mr. Fox is being adapted for the big screen using stop-motion animation.  Some early glimpses of the puppets have been released, and the trailer will be out at the end of the month. (Update: here it is).  More details about the production at USA Today.  As usual I am anxious about how it will be interpreted!

Tags: animation, fantastic mr. fox, puppetry, puppets, roald dahl, stop motion

InFrame.tv has produced a great 5 minute documentary with Shaun Tan which offers an introductory glimpse at the work-in-progress on his short animated adaptation of  The Lost Thing. It includes little (unfinished) animation clips, and aspects of designing and directing the work. On his website Shaun also writes about his involvement and includes some interesting new sketches and models. I noted the film in 2005, so it is exciting that it is expected to be finished this August!

The film, by Passion Pictures, will be 15 minutes long, and uses CGI with 2D handpainted elements. I’m interested in the comments about achieving rich textures, as they are so much part of the illustrations, and CGI is often so disappointingly smooth and shiny.

I’m happy to see a new book, too: Tales from Outer Suburbia.

I worked on the puppets for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production of The Lost Thing a few years ago, so you will find numerous related previous posts here:

The Lost Thing
Shaun Tan

Also: The Lost Thing website

Tags: animation, film, shaun tan, the lost thing

Andrew Bird – Lull (daytrotter version): cool music, interesting shadow puppetry and animation.

(via Loobylu Tumbles)

Tags: andrew bird, animation, shadow puppetry, squid

For those of us with a love of pareidolia, a cool short film called The Lost Tribes of New York City by London Squared Productions.

(via Laughing Squid)

Tags: Add new tag, animation, film, pareidolia, puppetry, puppets

This woman is a computer generated animation by Image Metrics. Pretty amazing. Though I do wonder if being able to reproduce a real person like this is a good use of time and resources? The Times Online has more details. The makers say 90% of the work is in convincing people that the eyes are real, lending even more weight to what puppet makers and lovers know about the eyes being the window to the soul.

Previously: Uncanny Valley

Tags: animation, make, puppetry, puppets, uncanny valley

I had been ingnoring all the posts about Boston Dynamics developing state-of-the-art robotic quadruped, Big Dog, because I just get otherwise like that sometimes, but having just relented, it really is amazing. I hate to see such big defense involvement in it though, and to read it described as an army mule.

Update: Funny

Tags: big dog, robot, robotics

My friend Amy has made a couple of widgets for Obama supporters. If you are a supporter, why not add them to your sidebar or FaceBook page. (Details for embedding are here:Countdown; Pwned)

Tags: applications, facebook, obama, politics, pwned, widgets

Graham Base’s 1986 alphabet book Animalia has been turned into an CG-animated TV series which is premiering today at midday on the Ten network in Australia, and simultaneously on BBC1 and CBBC in the UK, PBS Kids in the US and CBC in Canada. There are 40 half-hour epidodes, and you can see a trailer here. It’s made in Australia, mostly at Photon VFX.

Remember how we scoured each drawing for the small boy hidden in the page? He has been developed into a main character, Alex, who along with a friend, Zoe, get conjured into the magical world of Animalia. It sounds promising – I just hope I remember to watch it!

Here are some links that interested me:

• animalia.tv : Website and trailer
• Digital Media World: Jami Levesque, CG Supervisor, Animalia Productions, will present a behind-the-scenes look at the Making of Animalia on Thursday 15 November at 11.15am at the Australian Effects & Animation Festival 2007 in Sydney.
• Animation Magazine: precise
• Animalia Animated and The Series that (almost) never was: longer articles in The Age
• At youtube: Graham Base talking about the series in two sections: 1, 2; and a glimpse of the character maquettes .

Tags: animalia, animation, books, graham base, maquettes, tv series, video

Amy reminded me of this today, my PMS monster, from October 1997, ten years ago. In the past in more ways than one! If I remember right, I did the drawings and Amy animated it. I didn’t know how to, or even how to put things online then.