How meta: “Designed as a possible title sequence for a fictitious documentary,” writes film student Jurjen Versteeg, “this film shows a history of the title sequence in a nutshell.” Fullscreen viewing recommended.

The sequence includes all the names of title designers who had a revolutionary impact on the history and evolution of the title sequence. The names of the title designers all refer to specific characteristics of the revolutionary titles that they designed. This film refers to elements such as the cut and shifted characters of Saul Bass’ Psycho title, the colored circles of Maurice Binder’s design for Dr. No and the contemporary designs of Kyle Cooper and Danny Yount.

[Via]

I found this beautifully animated piece from The Animation Workshop wittier & more engaging than I’d expected:

[Via]

Master digital illustrator Bert Monroy will be speaking this Thursday at the San Francisco Photoshop User Group (presentation starting at 7pm). He’ll be enlightening us with great photo editing, compositing and painting tips he picked up while working on his colossal, 750,000-layer Times Square project (see previous).  Please see the meeting page for directions, RSVP info, etc.

Bert has also announced a series of one-day seminars, “The Making of Times Square: Live,” taking place this fall. He plans to cover the creation & use of brushes, use of Photoshop’s 3D tools, creating realistic hair, and more. I’ve really enjoyed Bert’s presentations at Photoshop World and elsewhere, so I’m sure these will be great sessions as well.

I’ve gone back and forth on whether to post this one. Even cartoon violence, when paired with children, can be very disturbing. On the other hand, having passed countless childhood hours with friends pretend-shooting each other, I think there’s something interesting in this video’s take on how kids make sense of the images they encounter. I leave the decision of whether to watch up to you.

[Via Steve Guilhamet]

All I know is, “This video is a tribute to the best movie in the world: Terminator 2, which turns 20 on July 3.” That, and I still wish I were made of liquid metal.

[Via]

Dig this exuberant throwback animation from illustrator Kevin Dart & animator Stephane Coedel. It’s the little didn’t-have-to-do-that touches (reflections, rippling heat behind a jet exhaust, etc.) that nail it for me. Fullscreen viewing recommended.

[Via]

Chris Hosmer makes amazing illustrations, including murals, using humble electrical tape. Check out his site, and if nothing else, this short clip of him in action:
[Via]

Having a real love of both the absurd & illustration, this stuff is right up my alley:

• @Peanutweeter combines Peanuts cartoons with tweets. [Via]
• The Nietzsche Family Circus “pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote.” (I used to inject little Nietzsche bits into my designs–e.g. a non-sequitur pull quote in my résumé’s cover letter. I figured it would turn off most employers but help me find My People. And it did.) [Via]
• TechCrunch Comments as New Yorker Cartoons is, well, what you’d think–and funny.

• Paper craft:
  • Alex Queral carves phone books as if they were blocks of wood, fashioning unique portraits out of them.
  • Bronia Sawyer colors, folds and rolls the pages of books to create beautiful bird illustrations (sculptures?).
• Creatures:
  • Excuse me, ma’am, there seems to be a monkey on your face.
  • Horse/face.
• Signage:
  • Could you communicate a public safety message in 2 seconds, with 2KB of RAM? The Barbarian Group did. “Slow Down (don’t make skeletons).”
  • This is not a good sign. Ba-dum, tssch.

How incredibly cool:

The resulting booklet is comprised of a cover, two inner pages, a letterpressed band (with instructions and a tear-off RSVP postcard), and a flexdisc on a screwpost. The recipient bends the second page of the booklet back to create a tented “arm.” With the needle placed, they then carefully spin the flexidisc at 45 RPM (ish) to hear the song. The sewing needle travels the length of the song and produces the sound.

Check out the designers’ blog for more info & photos. [Via]

The “Vector Paparazzi” app I blogged on Sunday drew an extremely strong response, and now it’s arrived for real: VectorScribe is available in two flavors, Designer (£39+VAT (roughly $65/€45)) which features path manipulation & measurement tools, and Studio (£69+VAT ($119/€79)) which adds smart shapes & dynamic corners. Here’s a slightly updated version of the earlier video:

The site features a large number of training videos, and VectorTuts has posted a detailed tutorial on creating a vector motorcycle using the VectorScribe tools.

I’ve only just started playing with the tools, but I think that the dynamic corners features alone will be a godsend. If you give it a try, I’d like to hear your thoughts.

I know very little about it (nothing beyond what this video shows, in fact), but the Vector Paparazzi plug-in promises to give Illustrator a number of features I’ve wanted for years–most notably smart shapes (e.g. live rounded rectangles with on-screen control handles):

We’re all creatures of habit, and too few people use the powerful, efficient Appearance panel in Illustrator. If you don’t use it, or haven’t looked at it since CS4 (when it went from “meh” to really fulfilling its promise), check out tomorrow’s “Ask a Pro” session with Rufus Deuchler (12-1pm Pacific time):

Learn about what Rufus defines the “coolest feature” in Adobe Illustrator: the Appearance panel. The Appearance panel gives you full control over the appearance of paths, objects, texts, and much more, and lets you easily repurpose appearances you create by saving Graphic Styles.

Here’s the Adobe Connect room address, and you can RSVP here.

Beautiful, affecting work from Clément Beauvais:

[Via]

As children talked about their favorite creatures, Songeun Lara Lee drew their descriptions frame by frame. It’s totally charming, and now I want to rip off the idea with our kids.

[Via]

The incongruously cheery, blooping version of “Mad World” takes it somewhere special.

[Via]

Adam Nilsson’s spray-cans-plus-bike contraption draws rainbows 20 feet wide. Shine on, you crazy diamond.

[Via]

Deeply nested mayhem from illustrator Wolfgang Matzl:

Our 3-year-old Finn found the video oddly captivating, asking to watch it again & again. (What dreams might he now have?) [Via]

I can’t really tell you what’s going on here, but who cares when the animation is so nicely textured?

[Via]

MIT Media Lab’s new visual identity, writes Creativity Online,

is based on an algorithm that produces a unique logo for each person, including faculty, staff and students. Each person can claim and own an individual shape, based on the three geometric shapes in the design used, and can use it on their business card and personal website. They can also create animations for any video content the Lab produces, using custom software.

[Via]

I love craftsmanship like this:

The game is available on the App Store for $0.99. [Via]

• I like Gerard Saint’s 80’s-style vinyl covers for modern albums. In a similar vein, check out Stereo Stack, “A collection of amusingly enthusiastic banners promoting stereo technology.” [Via]
• Saturday afternoon with the kids napping can be pretty snailtastic, as captured in “The days of laziness.” [Via]
• With “Infographics in context,” Peter Orntoft makes charts & graphs of the things they describe. [Via]
• Autoblog readers got frisky with Photoshop to make some crazy backwards cars.

• The CBC’s logo got rendered in fried baloney. So, there’s that, then.