The band Passepied has a lead singer who is also a graphics artist, and she has brought some pretty interesting animation styles to her videos. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum, as anyone who has ever sat through the credits at the end of a feature length animation knows. There can be upwards of a few thousand animators, each working on their specialty for the small slice of the total project their production house got. Music Videos are much shorter than feature films, and take much less in the way of resources. This makes them the perfect environment to give you a sense of perspective into the process, since the size of a music video is about the same as the size of a given project slice for a feature film. Take a look at the Music Video Yes/No, and then watch the behind-the-scenes video for it, and see if it doesn’t bring the effort involved into focus.
A documentary about Studio Ghibli, and more specifically Miyazaki himself, is coming out called Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. The article the folks at Otaku USA did on it was really quite interesting, and I am now looking forward to seeing it, as soon as they release a version in English, or at least with English subtitles.
OK, maybe just the teaser-trailer, but Big Hero 6 does look like a fun ride. The 3D modeling/animation software the boy is playing with to create his robot looks like the kind of interface the animators used to make the movie, which makes sense. You use what you know to create, after all, and today’s animator certainly knows 3D modelling software. This has to have one of the first uses of 3D Printing I have seen in a cartoon, but that should happen more often now that the technology has gotten cheap enough that ordinary hobbyists can afford them for casual use. I should mention the Big Hero 6 Game, and the fact that there are Anime tropes embedded all over this feature, putting it solidly in the J-Pop Culture category. I find that kind of interesting for a Disney project; perhaps they are missing the recently retired Miyazaki. Then again, the film is based on the Marvel Graphic Novel of the same name, which takes place in Japan and is itself a non-stop tribute to Otaku culture and sensibilities. The premise is the Giri (a secret consortium of government and private sector interests) decides it needs its own set of superheroes, and sets out to create them. A 13 year old super genius they try to recruit wants nothing to do with them, until his mother is kidnapped by Everwraith, the spiritual remains of everyone killed in the 1945 nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, acting as a kind of group poltergeist.
As far as I know is the first Marvel property to get the full Disney Animation treatment. I don’t count Motion Comics as full animation, no matter how many of the same tricks are used in Anime to make the productions less expensive to create. I am looking forward to this one, which should be in theaters on November 7th.
I have no clue what made them call themselves Bump of Chicken, but their music is fun. These tracks also feature Hatsune Miku, a virtual idol and computer-generated diva.
Katsuhiro Otomo’s Manga for Akira was impressive, and when they rolled out the Akira Anime it totally changed the way the world viewed Anime in general and Japanese Science Fiction in particular. Several years ago some folks in Hollywood bought the rights to turn it into a live action movie, but so far haven’t done so. Now the fans over at The Akira Project have made their own crowd funded live action trailer, and it looks amazing. If the official Hollywood version ever gets made, I hope it looks half this good. Thanks to the folks at Japanator for the heads-up on this one.
This week we have the latest rebooting of Godzilla, or Gojira if you prefer. The world’s most famous monster is pitted against evil creatures who threaten our very existence. Which was traditionally Gamera, Friend of All Children’s job, if you think about it. Those two were always my favorite Kaiju, so I will be in the theaters to check out this latest incarnation.