I like the choice of Spider-Man: Homecoming as the title for the new movie, since this will be the first film featuring Peter Parker since they got the rights to the character back in the MCU stable. And looking at the trailer we are in for a fun ride when it hits the big screen on July 7th, 2017.
This is the week we finally get Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie I have been waiting for all year. There is also supposedly the 2014 Fantasy called The Garden that my be finally coming to some theaters, but I didn’t see enough evidence of that to make me very confident. Not that it really matters to me, since I will be at the Star Wars film.
As Christmas gets ever closer you would expect there to be quality new releases, and there are. Suicide Squad was a very pleasant surprise after all the dark DC movies, which I am pretty sure was a direct result of how much fun (and how much money it made) Marvel’s Deadpool generated. Trying to jump on that bandwagon was the best thing any DC movie director ever did, and the results were the first DC movie since the 80s I wanted to watch a second time. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children lived up to the book very well, and I can only hope they go ahead and turn all of the books in that franchise into movies. Morgan is a different story, leaning a bit too close to horror for my tastes.
In Anime, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Heart Throb is season two of this story, and everyone’s relationships continue to undergo changes; not least of which is chuunibyou-plagued Satone, who keeps showing up in the most unexpected places and times. Will her delusions shatter the delicate relationship the other three are forming? In Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace, the Complete Series, a serial killer dispenses justice while the police and investigators race to shut him down, before the copy cat killers take out everyone left standing. The artwork and animation are somewhere between gorgeous and grotesque, the music is interesting, and the plot line is keeping me guessing. If you are a fan of murder mysteries the odds are good you will like this one. This time around we also get One Piece: Season 8 Voyage 5 with episodes 505 through 516, and The Legend of the Legendary Heroes: The Complete Series in a S.A.V.E. edition.
New music from One OK Rock is always worth celebrating, and there are a few recent tracks to enjoy. The first is Taking Off, posted on November 30th, a nice acoustic track from a Studio Jam Session which has Taka sporting a new look. The track after that is the full official version of the song, followed by Bedroom Warefare. These are from their new album Ambitions, their tour to support the new release began 4 weeks ago, the album becomes digitally available worldwide on January 13th, and yes, that means on iTunes, Amazon, and the other usual outlets.
I just watched Moana, and out of it’s short list of animation riggers, a name caught my eye: Kate Kirby-OConnell. One of the hardest jobs on an animation project is to take a 3D Character Model and Rig it, meaning give it a bone structure you can embed inside its flesh and use to animate every aspect of that character. Yes, that bone structure does exactly the same thing as the bones in a human body, giving it a structure for the action to take place on. Emotions and actions being obvious expressions of that process, props and costumes less so but still tied tightly to the rigging. Think about it; if the character moves, but the characters clothing or coffee cup doesn’t, just how believable would that be? Kate created a number of examples of her skill set while in school, as every animator does, and the first one amounts to her Demo Reel, showing off what she can do. I think the others show both that plus her inspiration or perhaps motivation. I loved Moana and the earlier Disney works Kate was involved with, it is nice to learn something about the creators of world-class animations like this.
Kate Kirby-O'Connell Rigging Reel – Summer 2013 from Kate Kirby-OConnell on Vimeo.
Project Faces from Kate Kirby-OConnell on Vimeo.
Jack of All Shapes from Kate Kirby-OConnell on Vimeo.
Building T.rex from Kate Kirby-OConnell on Vimeo.
The second trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 makes me realize just how much I want to see this movie. It should be a serious hoot!