Nutritional Yeast
April 21, 2012
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March 5, 2012
The Man of a Thousand Voices
The excellent Comedy for Animators blog has posted a link to a great documentary on Mel Blanc hosted on Youtube. Check it out.
Visit the site to view an embedded video.
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Good Reads, Chapter I
I started reading fiction again in 2011 and a lot of it (for me at least). Can’t remember which series it was the broke the ice, The Hunger Games Trilogy or the Flavia De Luce series. So I’ll profile both to start with.
I’ve gotten into air rifles, plinking cans and looking up hunting related stuff so The Hunger Games fit nicely with those interests. As books provide the freedom to imagine what you think things looked like, I saw a very dark, oppressive world. Derelict places in China-Russia. Scenes from Tarkovsky, Fincher & Kusturica movies. This is probably what appealed to me the most about this series. A futuristic yet familiar world where the antagonist wasn’t a particular person but a
twisted dominant culture. Suffice it say, I don’t see much of what I imagined in the movie trailer.
I flew through the first book in one or two days. The other two books in just over a week. I found it easy to get past the romantic stuff and obviously applied a non-American lens to it. I could easily re-read them if I didn’t have anything else to go through.
I had read a review for the 3rd installment, A Red Herring without the Mustard, in The Globe & Mail and was intrigued. England, 1850; a plucky 11 year-old girl with a penchant for poisons deduces crimes committed in her unassuming village. Sign me up. I went looking for it one day at Book City and instead found the first one. Picked it up knowing that it was probably better to start with the first one. Like the The Hunger Games, I flew through it pretty quickly. The difference this time was that the way I pictured it was much brighter, not unlike a Ghibli film such as Kiki’s Delivery Service or Porco Rosso. It’s a series I desperately wish it
won’t be touched by an American studio (live-action or animation) and will instead be made in co-production between Canada, Spain & Japan (blending experience, talent & quirkiness, let you decide which is which).
The first and last are probably my favourites as they really remind me of something out of the golden era of cinema & fiction. The author repeats enough background information in the beginning of each book that if one were to skip ahead, you might miss out on a couple references but nothing nagging. ⊗
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November 16, 2011
Anders Nyquist
If I could meet and learn from just one architect I think it would be Anders Nyquist. The building that drew my interest in him was the Laggarberg School in Timrå, Sweden. It uses a form of HVAC that mimics a termite mound!?! Here’s a couple photos and diagrams to help explain:
The aim of the school is to teach kids about sustainable living and have them be active participants in the care & maintenance of the school. Amazing.
Sadly, there isn’t a lot of coverage of this building on the web and since he’s based in Sweden, it’s kinda hard to get a full appreciation of his work & philosophy. So it’s been very cool to discover posted talks given by him over the past couple months where he outlines those very things. The shortest and most accessible is a TEDx talk given in Bratislava. Whereas the other is from the World Congress on Zero Emissions Initiatives in Honolulu and clocks in at 2 hours.
Visit the site to view an embedded video.
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November 14, 2011
A Keane Eye
This is a pretty great talk for animators. Despite it’s length, the speakers are fairly succinct and there’s some great behind the scenes material presented.
The movie was definitely an eye-opener for me. At AM, my mentor Dimos really tried to pound it into my head that even though we were working with CG, the frames we create should be good drawings. It’s one of the 12 holy principles and it applies as much to CG as it does to traditional media. This movie finally made that thought click in my head. Hard part now is implementing it. Someday…
Relatedly, over at the Temple, Mark has reminded readers of the handouts he posted from Glen Keane on drawing for animation.
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November 12, 2011
RAW BARN
I shot in RAW exclusively today for the first time. Barn did the heavy lifting. Flickr set, go to.
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November 9, 2011
5 Fingers Funk
| Diello: | You seem to disapprove of me. |
|---|---|
| Colin: | You’re the most cold-blooded thief, traitor and criminal I’ve seen in a lifetime of looking at human trash. |
| Diello: | What a pity. I rather hoped I looked like a gentleman. |
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November 6, 2011
В ПУТИ
Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms–you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.
- Seneca
Wise words sho’nuff. The incomplete pile is driving me batty though. So I’ve created a new section to help me document & organize project ideas. Something that hopefully pushes the bastards forward & gets ‘em finished. Check it out.
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