Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
A classic by Led Zeppelin. This remastered recording is from the Complete BBS Sessions.
This is more image processing rather than animation, but whatever, it’s Led Zeppelin and your argument is invalid.
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.
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.)
A peppy little retelling the Little Red Riding Hood tale from the viewpoint of a psychopathic Red. The phrase “gleefully violent” has been used to describe this music video by (The Real) Tuesday Weld.
You might remember Clerkenwell from the last (The Real) Tuesday Weld music video I posted, Bathtime in Clerkenwell. Well, apparently this video is also set in Clerkenwell as Mr Wolf drowns his sorrows at The Clerkenwell Arms at about the 4’10” mark. I like consistency like that.
Animation by George Fort and Monica Smith.
I love me some Goldfish. We have a bit of a collection of their music videos going on here at the crow’s nest. Bopping, fun dance tunes, and a chance to peer into the wild world of Goldfish. Nothing better.
Animated by Matt Torode at Tincup Studios.
The tune is a hypnotic electronic down-beat cruiser by Lorn, aka Marcos Ortega.
The year 2100. In an effort to combat overpopulation, the postmortem social network “Anvil” is released.
The video carries a certain elegance in the flow of it. Possibly from the way that, using only three colors, the scenes are filled and complex and easily morph through the story.
Animation by Antoine Caëcke and Hélène Jeudy.
I’m an old-school metal-head and grew up on Sabbath, Zepp, Rush, and the like, and this tune is right there. That it is an adult satire of a children’s tale by a band that can laugh at itself turns it up to 11.
Rocketh on, verily.
Take one homicidal cat given side-scroller game inspirations, add an atmosphere of smoky electro-swing, and this is what you get.
Song by Cazzette.
As with The Royal Nightmare, there is a lot going on in Alex Budovskiy’s animations – and there’s always a curveball about to be thrown. Inspire it with a driving, swingy-bop tune by (The Real) Tuesday Weld and you’ve got a multi-award winner. Literally. That it is sung by cuckoos is just icing on the cake.
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The Ruffled Crow 