Flip Flappers is the most visually interesting anime of the new season, as well as being more than a little surreal. It compares favorably with Gurren-Lagann, FLCL (pronounced Fooly Cooly), and Paprika, at least so far. We will have to see if the story can grow as amazing as the visuals, like the other three I mentioned did. There are only three episodes posted so far, so if you like the first one you can binge your way through it in just over an hour.
The Stargate Project created a life size replica of a Stargate in the park of Musée royal de Mariemont in Belgium. This is for an exhibit about the roll of Egyptian Gods in Geek Culture that will be running through November 20th, covering everything from the Stargate TV show and Movies to Comic Books. The first video is about the production of the Stargate, using milling, laser cutting, and 3D printing. The second video is of one that is much smaller and easier to 3D print and assemble, using the plans from Thingiverse, if you wanted to make your own.
The art rock band PASSEPIED just posted a new track this week called Hyper Realist, the first displayed here, and as always it is just as much about the visuals as it is about the music. I had to also include TOKINOWA, their ending theme to the anime Rin-Ne, a story about shepherding lost souls to their next reincarnation written by Rumiko Takahashi herself. To finish the set off, Nagasugita Haru, another music/visual tour de force from about 8 weeks ago.
Want to convert something into Bronze? The Lost-Wax Technique really does date back to the Bronze Age, or as close as makes no difference from my perspective. This great little animation from Renana Aldor & Kobi Vogman was made for the Hadrian Exhibition at the Israel Museum, and it gives you the entire process step by step. Of course, there are some details you will have to learn with research or by trial and error, but everything you need to get started is included. I like it as much for the excellent use of simple animation techniques to create the educational presentation (2D animation and stop motion photography, both tools first developed in the 1880s) as for the information contained within it. Whether you are looking to cast bronze or create educational videos, this is worth watching.
Hadrian / Bronze Casting Using The Lost-Wax Technique from Renana Aldor & Kobi Vogman on Vimeo.
Imagine an animated feature film where each frame was painted by Vincent van Gogh; that is the concept behind Loving Vincent. So far just over 100 artists world wide have made the production team, and even if all they end up producing is the trailer they will have created something interesting. This is from Breakthru Films, the Polish film studio that created the award winning Peter And The Wolf a few years back.
The animation was created by Janis Skulme for the music video of Olga Korsak’s Behind Closed Doors, and filmed at the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The paintings and statues were brought to life using Crazy Talk 7 and an array of painting, video editing, and compositing software. To give you an idea of what’s involved in a project like this I have included his Video Effects Showreel 2014, which includes a number of instances of the original footage, and the steps they went through on their way to the final product. The fact that the song and performance are so powerful go a long way to making this a memorable video.
Olga Korsak – "Behind closed doors" from Janis Skulme on Vimeo.