OT, but too good not to share:
“O-pen pit bar-be-cue sauce!!”
[YouTube]
“Faceshift studio is a facial motion capture software solution which revolutionizes facial animation, making it possible at every desk,” says the company, recently acquired by Apple. I have no idea what they’ll put the people or technology towards, but given that Apple also owns PrimeSense, the folks who created the brains behind the Kinect motion-sensing system, it’s fun to speculate.
[YouTube]
Okay, yes, my inner cynic says that for-profit art schools churn out more “professional photographers” in a year than such jobs exist in the whole country, and that million-view videos online generally pay their creators just a couple of grand at best. Still, there’s more value in a visual education than just getting a job, and I like the spirit of this narrative (as would Max Fischer):
[YouTube] [Via Justin Oliver]
If “creepy-catchy” were a genre, this season’s titles would set the benchmark. Bubbly Iris DeMent vocals (lyrics) complement elegantly minimal Photoshoppery. (And for comparison, check out the radically different season 1 titles.)
[YouTube]
I… I have no words for this. Having had their one-of-a-kind album purchased for $2M by the hated (and quite possibly felonious) Pharma Bro, Wu-Tang clan may be plotting a “heist or caper” to reclaim it:
Perhaps the zaniest detail to be revealed was an alleged clause in the contract that allows members of Wu-Tang Clan and/or Bill Murray to steal the album back from its owner.
“Take dead aim on the rich boys…”
Wow. [YouTube]
I’ve been seeing 3D sketching tools for more than 10 years, and though they’ve yet to take the world by storm, perhaps the iPad Pro + Pencil will help uMake (<—great domain name, btw) shake things up. Here’s a taste of how it works:
[YouTube]
Judging from what I see in the next room, Nacks ages 7-40something agree: Tinybop’s The Monsters is a super fun way to build & animate crazy creatures:
[Vimeo]
Having loved everything from Tauntauns to the ED-209, I’ve long known Phil Tippett’s name, but until seeing this frank documentary, I knew little about the man himself. It’s an enlightening tour through both film history (from the cantina scene in Star Wars to the CGI revolution & beyond) and the story of a passionate, often suffering artist. Enjoy.
Bonus: Adam Savage visited with Phil about using photogrammetry & 3D printing in order to recreate the Millennium Falcon’s holochess board:
And—what the heck, it’s Christmas!—here’s Dennis Muren talking about how they created the Rancor monster. I remember Stu Maschwitz telling me about how the scene didn’t really work until the animators added a big chunk of spittle to the creature’s mouth. Its swinging really sold the animal’s scale.
[YouTube]
I think you’d really enjoy spending seven minutes in an animated, typographical world with George Saunders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQae42N1WWM
The film offers a direct look at the process by which he is able to take a single mundane sentence and infuse it with the distinct blend of depth, compassion, and outright magic that are the trademarks of his most powerful work.
Got vertigo? Hate dicey adventures? Dislike fresh perspectives on NYC? Then you’ll likely want to avoid this story of urban exploration from the NYT:
[Vimeo]