Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
This video, Transformers, is a good example of how far computer animation had advanced in the two short years between The Mind’s Eye videos (1990) and this compilation.
Whatever your thinking on Michael Jackson, he was a major talent. When this video debuted in 1990 I was blown away. Detailed and complex backgrounds, mixed animation styles, catchy tune. Directed by Jim Blashfield it won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1990.
In 2001 Animusic, founded by Wayne Lytle, released it’s first compilation DVD. This was a refinement of the work we saw in More Bells and Whistles. What Mr Lytle had done was flip animation on it’s head by creating computer models then using music input (MIDI) to control them. Basically, he made the instruments and the music played them.
More Bells and Whistles from the early computer animation video Imaginaria. Created in 1990, the animation was one of Wayne Lytle‘s first CG music videos. Look familiar?
Part two, Panspermia, is based on a 5th century BC Greek idea that life exists throughout the universe and is spread by meteors, comets, asteroids, and the like. (not to be confused with exogenesis which says life on earth was transferred from somewhere else and could care less whether there’s life elsewhere. geocentric snobbery.)
Well, I spent the week lovingly working on a post only to realize it shouldn’t be posted. So… no ‘long post’ this cycle. Have a few in the works so hopefully I’ll have something next week.
So as not to leave you hanging, however, I offer up a documentary on Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody. I was a teenager when A Night At The Opera was released but can probably still lip sync many of the parts of BR… Incredible album and incredible band.
Very simple animation by Eleanor Stewart to go with an excellent tune.
Hoedown from the Rodeo ballet by Aaron Copeland (1942)
The Emerson, Lake, and Palmer version is the one I grew up with, however..
The Temple is the final installment in The Mind’s Eye and it’s the part of the tape I would wear out every time. Between the bleeding-edge animation (for 1990) and the (well-synchronized and most excellent) soundtrack, this track marks when I believed that 3D computer animation had finally matured past a nerdly diversion and into a mainstream entertainment medium.
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 a minute-twenty looks to be from just before this video.
I’ve collected the links to the videos from Beyond the Mind’s Eye and will begin posting them next week.
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The Ruffled Crow 