Sunday, September 07, 2008

TED Talk: The Web and TV, a Sibling Rivalry

Peter Hirshberg gives a history lesson on the parallel development of computers and TV over the past 50 years.

A parallel conference to TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is the EG (Entertainment Gathering) conference, whose goal is “making information entertaining & entertainment informative.” This talk from last year’s EG gives a history lesson on the development of both television and computers, which are of roughly the same age. Although it gets bogged down at times (you could skip ahead from the 5 minute mark to 11 minutes, unless early computers gets your geek up), it does contain numerous interesting nuggets, such as the interview with tweeners where they explain why thing think television is “optional” in their lives, parallels between the tech and messianic movements, how TV was supposed to kill radio, how crayons were used to create a proprietary media platform, Microsoft’s initial pooh-poohing of the information superhighway, and other amusing anecdotes as well as important lessons in the different business models between the web and television.

(While blogging on a web site about media creation, I can’t help but note technically that they failed to removed the interlacing from the video reference materials, and that the audio equalization is fatiguing to listen to. Plus not all technologists understand pacing in entertainment. Fortunately, the medium isn’t the entire message.)

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Friday, September 05, 2008

The Art of the Opening Title

A wonderful website dedicated to commentary on opening title design.

One of our favorite motion graphics design jobs is creating the opening title sequence for movies and television shows (a few of the projects we’ve worked on can be seen here). Title design is a place where typography and animation meet to both convey a story and set a mood.

I’ve recently stumbled across a lovely web site called Art of the Title. Every week, the writers dissect an opening title sequence with still frames and a large (typically 800x336) QuickTime movie of the title, plus the ability for visitors to leave comments and carry on the discussion. It does not contain just recent titles; they will often reach back a few years or even decades to show off a design that particularly resonated with them in either a good or bad way. There is also a well-organized index down the left side of the dozens of titles they reviewed in the past.

By the way, in the next couple of weeks we’ll be adding an article to our CMG Keyframes blog on type resources (including links to numerous type foundries), plus writing an article for Artbeats.com with common typesetting tips and errors - so stay tuned! 

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

09-23-08 = CS4?

Adobe’s teasing us…

Users on Adobe mailing lists have been getting a tease: “September 23, 2008, is a big day at Adobe. Join us at 9 A.M. Eastern and Pacific time for a special online event. Register today.” If you follow the link, you’re taken to a form that invites you to “Be one of the first to see Adobe Creative Suite 4 in a special web broadcast on 23rd of September, 2008” with choices for time slots aimed at Europe, North America, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India.

It should be noted that at least the email I received had Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Illustrator icons as part of the header, so I’m not ready to say that every Adobe app is going to be part of that webcast (and why are they restricting a virtual event to pre-registration? I guess not to crash the servers...and for marketing tracking, of course), but it’s nice to see more information on CS4 finally starting to seep out. Also note that Adobe Labs already has public betas for Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Soundbooth, in case you missed them.

Rest assured that this is something that is of extreme interest to those of us on PVC, and we’ll certainly be writing about what we know as soon as we can (speaking of teases)…

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Sunday, August 31, 2008

TED Talk: The Power and Beauty of Organic Design

Ross Lovegrove shares his passion for designing objects inspired by the simplicity and complexity of nature.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I’ve been going through their online archive of talks for my own amusement and education, and sharing with you ones I found to be particularly interesting and relevant.

This week I’d like to share a talk by “Captain Organic” Ross Lovegrove of Studio X in Notting Hill, England. He is the celebrated designer of objects such as the iMac, Ty Nant water bottle, and Go chair. Ross is a proponent of what he calls “fat free” design that draws inspiration from natural forms - not just organic blobs in the name of nature, but shapes, processes, and sensibilities derived from the inner logic of natural objects. Although this talk is focused primarily on industrial design, those who are designing logos, 3D objects, or who just want to be inspired about someone deeply passionate about his field should enjoy it.

This talk is part of TED’s series Design Like You Give A Damn. Some who commented on the talk found Ross to be impractical at best and arrogant at worst; I found his laser-like focus on his ideals to be energizing.

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Migrating After Effects Between Macs

It’s not just a matter of copying files from one computer to another…

With the recent announcement by Adobe that After Effects CS4 will not run on PowerPC-based Macs, some users are thinking about upgrading their hardware. With new hardware comes the question about how to get all of your software moved over. In the old days, you might consider just dragging folders from one drive to another. Sadly, that often doesn’t work anymore.

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Spotlight: Fox Sports HD

Flowing ribbons in 3D space tie together this sports ID.

For our next project spotlight, we’re going to look at a Fox Sports HD promo animated by Joost Korngold of Renascent. This spot fuses organic movement with the high-impact 3D Fox Sports is known for. Joost, as well as Fox Sports Creative Directors Josh Nichols and Mark Denyer-Simmons plus Senior Vice President and Creative Director Robert Gottlieb, were kind enough to spend some time answering questions and revealing how this spot unfolded.

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Sunday, August 24, 2008

TED Talk: Using Biology to Make Better Animation

Torsten Reil talks about how the study of biology can help make natural-looking animated people.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I’ve been going through their online archive of talks for my own amusement and education, and sharing with you ones I found to be particularly interesting.

This week I’d like to share a talk by Torsten Reil, originally of Oxford University and now of NaturalMotion. He and his team started from the point of view that most animation in computer games that were based on motion capture or manual keyframing were too simplistic, repetitive, and predictable. So rather than try to guess ahead of time what actions would be needed, and creating or capturing those actions, they went about simulating a human nervous system, wired it up to control a skeleton and muscles, and then gave it artificial intelligence. They used a form of simulated genetic evolution and mutation to teach it how to at first walk, and then react to external forces (such as being tripped or shoved). This system is now being used not only in computer games such as Grand Theft Auto IV, but also in movies for virtual stuntmen - or perhaps most famously, in battle sequences in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

This movie from TED - originally recorded five years ago - was the first public demonstration of the technology. Watching how their creations learned and then reacted was initially humorous, then breathtaking, and then actually somewhat disturbing; I highly recommend watching it (if you’re impatient, start around the 3 minute mark or so).

If you want to see where the technology is now, visit the NaturalMotion to learn more about their endorphin Dynamic Motion Synthesis simulator which can bake animations, and their euphoria real-time AI engine, including a good demo movie the gives you an overview of the technology.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Adobe MAX, motion 08 Awards Shows

Opportunities to show off your work.

There are a few awards show coming up that we wanted to let you know about:

Adobe 2008 MAX Awards

The Adobe MAX Awards recognizes the best uses of Adobe software for creating engaging experiences. Normally, the MAX show is the domain of web content creators, but lately it’s been expanding out to include more video and motion graphics. In keeping with that, this is the first year that there is a category for digital video projects The top three finalists will be invited to show their projects at MAX 2008 in San Francisco Nov 16-19. The winner receives free MAX registration. Award submissions are due September 5. Click here for more information.

motionfest and motionawards
Call for Entries

These two awards show are connected with the motion 08 conference (which we both will be speaking at). The first is for animation (including Flash, stop motion, 3D, etc. flavors); the second is more for motion graphics artists:

motionfest is a juried competition honoring the best in animation worldwide. Specifically, motionfest recognizes the best animations created for the purpose of entertainment: animated shorts and full-length features. Finalists will be notified by September 12, 2008. Winners of motionfest08 will be announced as part of our opening day animation events, Sunday, October 12, 2008. The deadline to enter is September 8, 2008. Click here for more information.

The motionawards celebrate creative excellence in motion graphics, animation, and vfx, honoring the most current, breakthrough work. All worked entered must be the result of paid creative services and media placement, with the exceptions of public service work, projects for the arts, self-promotion, and student. Finalists will be notified by September 12, 2008. Winners of the 2008 motionawards will be announced Monday, October 13, 2008 at the motionawards party - part of motion08. The deadline to enter is September 8, 2008. Click here for more information.

Save on registration. save $300 on early-bird registration and an additional $200 by using promo code 08stashMO - courtesy of stash. To register, click here.

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