Pixar is hiring and has an internship program. Application for the Summer 2016 Animation Internship is Sunday, March 1, 2016, and is the same for other Summer Internships like Art and Story. Don't wait too long if you are interested!
pixar.com/careers/Available-Internships
Merry X-Mas!
Another good use of Animation.
Posted by Bright Side on Friday, December 11, 2015
This Royal College of Arts graduation film by Lily Fang seems to make use of 3D printed mouth animation:
The Thing Under the Tree from Lily Fang on Vimeo.
Has done pretty well on the festival circuit since 2013. We should probably take a slightly different approach when using 3D printing for stop motion animation.
Next week at SVA: BLUE SKY STUDIOS Presents: THE MAKING OF PEANUTS. Its free but you have to register to secure a seat.
The call for the SIGGRAPH 2016 Student Volunteer Program is up. If you get in, I will count the hours worked towards your summer internship. But that is not an incentive you need really. It is an unique opportunity to rub shoulders with the major players in the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques!
The application deadline is 9 February 2016 - More Info…
Just in time for the Fall semester render frenzy, we got Backburner back up and running in the labs. Needed something to test it with, so this is what I farmed out.
Came accross this piece of CGI history: a pencil test for the(?) first scene where Disney used a 3D CGI background in an animated feature.
As you know, you can render soft shadows from a spotlight using shadow maps in stead of ray traced shadows. By increasing the filter size you can blur the shadow.
The downside to shadow maps is that they do not support transparency, as only a single depth value can be stored per pixel (the distance to the closest object). Here is a rendering with a single spotlight using shadow mapped shadows, rendered using Maya 2015 (Metal Ray version 3.12.1.18)
Image my surprise when in class last week, when explaining how shadow maps work, they seemed to support transparency. Here is the same scene rendered with the same settings in Maya 2016 (Mental Ray version 3.13.1.9):
It turns out that if you switch the shadow map format to Detailed Shadow Map you get the same result in Maya 2015. From the Mental Ray manual:
Mental ray also supports an advanced detail shadowmap algorithm that collects and stores more information about shadow-casting objects. It combines features of standard shadow maps and ray traced shadows. It will call shadow shaders if present, thus capturing even custom shadowing effects. Since shadow shaders return transparencies, detail shadowmaps do not store a single depth value, but a sequence of depth values together with the light transmission coefficients at each depth.
So you can have the best of both worlds! Well, it seems you currently cannot use regular shadow maps in Maya 2016, changing the shadow map type setting has no effect…
I have been talking about pTex in class but have not been able to show it. I have it working at home on my PC no problem but not have been able to get anything but a black render on my Mac. Here is a movie explaining the technique developed as Disney Animation.
The 24 hour animation contest this year was won by the Potty Squad group with a stop motion piece called "Caveman Channel"
In the discussion thread that flowed from this on the Hollywood ASIFA animation forum on who teaches Stop Motion (tuns out quite a few schools do and you do not need a lot of space) Nancy Beiman of Sheridan College posted a link to this nice student film:
The Arctic Circle from Kevin Parry on Vimeo.
Melting POP from Alexandre DUBOSC on Vimeo.
Found on Colossal via FB / Alain Chesnais
Even though I have serious reservation when it comes to the Khan Academy, if Pixar is supplying the content it cannot be too bad, can it?
This years showcase of the best student animations from the NYC metro area will premiere on Friday, September 25.
There will be two special theater show dates for a digitally remastered Iron Giant with two added scenes. One of the places this animation classic will be shown is Toms River
[via the ASIFA Hollywood Educators list]
Via a friend on Facebook I heard that "disney just opened up some apprentice positions!"
Recent graduates: take notice!
SIGGRAPH 2015 just launched the Vine Contest:
Create a Vine film highlighting what SIGGRAPH means, has meant, or will mean to you. Your 6-second film should be creative and embrace the constraints of Vine’s short format, looping and stop-motion capabilities.
An exciting new contest has been announced: create a trailer for SIGGRAPH 2015 - the winner gets a full conference pass!
Here's a chance to see companies in NYC present there work and mingle with them afterwards: the annual NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Industry Spotlight will be taking place this Monday Evening.
Played with nParticles a bit in an attempt to create frozen motion but created this sequence in the process:
I used a Motion Capture example that came with Maya years ago and made it emit particles.
Meanwhile I came across this trailer:
I posted an instruction video to explain the basics of Hypershade. Some may recognize it as a condensed version of a demo I gave in class last week. If you do, it means you were awake early: kudos to you!
This event could be an interesting: The First Annual Animation JAM!
This it the first installment so I have no idea what quality of work is expected / will be produced. The instructors will be from the organization, it is more intended as networking and community building opportunity than an a place to learn software.
NYC ACM SIGGRAPH is having another Bring Your Own Animation event on Monday, March 9, 2015 at Scallywags
Come show your stuff! More info…
Andrew Demirjian alerted me to the following:
"We're an art collective looking for a 3D artist for a couple of projects short-term, and with intention of establishing a long-term relationship for freelance work. Our practice revolves around the contemporary sublime, high-end work that takes glitchy post-internet aesthetics towards a Greek ideal / Hollywood finish."
Post on Rhizome.org
Rhizome is a respected digital arts organization so it surprises me a bit that the web link supplied does not work. The email address should
I just had as much trouble commenting as I heard some of you had. Turns out you need to accept third party cookies to comment, which is something I have turned off as I am no cookie monster. It may be turned off by default in Firefox. If you experience issues commenting, try temporarily turning on "Accept Third Party Cookies" in the privacy preferences
 |
| There are more metal patches on the legs and some metal work on the other arm as well as some other stitch work along the body, I just did not have the time to put them in. |
Via Mike Richison:
ART NOW, Monmouth Review, and Comm Works are sponsoring a trip to NYC to view an amazing play by ARTNOW visiting artist Jennifer Haley. the cost is only $10! If you just want to take a trip to the city that's ok too!
I created another instruction video. This one, though basic in its approach, introduces a more advanced feature in Maya: xGen.
Here is an experiment I did to test rendering xGen duplicated animated geometry. Rendering that turned out to be non-trivial so I need to create an instruction page for that.
xGen tutorial coming soon. And yes, I know they write it as XGen, I just like xGen better.
NYC ACM SIGGRAPH and NYIT will host a special presentation by Walt Disney Animation Studios on The Art of Character Design and Development for Big Hero 6 on Tuesday February 3! Details on the NYC ACM SIGGRAPH site
This story on the BBC contains some great footage to study as animator trying to figure out the physics of bouncing balls. Made out of water:
Laser-etched metal 'bounces' water
