Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
From The Electric Light Orchestra.
ELO was pretty popular when I was in junior high and high school. I liked them okay, but I was more a Rush and Aerosmith kinda guy, so I only heard a few tracks on the radio – and the radio overplayed the hell out of ’em. (I’m looking at you Don’t Bring Me Down)
Now days, Jeff Lynne (guitarist) has reformed the band as Jeff Lynn’s ELO and is currently on tour with Dhani Harrison, son of the late George Harrison. If you check out the Concert For George you’ll see some excellent music from Jeff Lynne and Dhani (who is a spitting image of his father) who show up in the band along the way.
A few years gone by, and a song they didn’t play once an hour, lets me get some enjoyment out of this track. Well, that and some well done and fun animation.
When you’re famous sometimes just doing your job can be tough.
The Grim Reaper, trying to harvest the soul of an aging star named Sean, is interrupted by a mysterious sorcerer…
By the students at ArtFX Ecole d’animation.
Beautiful and sensuous describe this animation by students from Cogswell College in San Jose, CA. Based on the love story between the Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati.
An android awakens in a failing robotics facility. As his own power fades he is driven by his re-assembling memories.
Created by Daryl Seah, Ge Jian Han Benny, Jasmin Tan, Keith Tsang, and Shaun Phoa at Far Kill Productions
The Temple is the last track of The Mind’s Eye, a series of short 3D, computer animated films released in 1990 on VHS videotape. (yeah, almost 30 years ago) It loosely told the tale of Earth, from creation onward. I was completely enthralled with this video and wore out this section of tape a few times.
This track, the whole tape really, marks when I truly came to believe that 3D computer animation had finally matured past a nerdy diversion and into a mainstream entertainment medium. The animation was bleeding-edge for 1990, and the soundtrack was synced well and pretty good all on it’s own.
Sure you still needed top-of-the-line hardware, and probably had to write half your own software, and motion was still rather stiff, and hair?, never mind about hair. But it was getting easier, and cheaper, and more artists were flocking to the medium. The boundaries of worlds were being pushed rather than simply trying to replicate reality. To me, this was the official opening of a new frontier.
There were 3 more collections in The Mind’s Eye series, one released every two years until 1996; Beyond the Mind’s Eye, The Gate to the Mind’s Eye, and Odyssey Into the Mind’s Eye
(You may recognize the surroundings and birds from the second installment, Civilization Rising, (or 03 per the video itself) as the animation between about the 50 second mark to about 1’20” looks to be from just before this video.)
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The Ruffled Crow 