The Ruffled Crow

Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things

Tag Archives: Computer animation

Structure – Sun Control Species

Frankie Rulez!!! – San Charoenchai

Going Green – Thiago S. Aranha

A Gentleman’s Duel – Blur Studios

The Early Sheets – The Lost Levels

Beyond the Mind’s Eye – Voyage Home

The last installment in the Beyond the Mind’s Eye series.

Next series up would be the Odyssey Into the Mind’s Eye, and we will get to it eventually, but not just yet. There’s a lot of excellent animation out there now and I’m getting a bit of a backlog of great stuff in the draft queue that needs to be posted.

Computer Animation Firsts

The following are two incredibly important computer animations; the first 3D rendered animation from 1972, and the first fractal generated animation from ca 1979.

In 1972 Ed Catmull (founder of Pixar) and his colleagues created the world’s first 3D rendered movie, an animated version of Ed’s left hand. This is the film that they produced. It includes some “making of” footage (around 1:30) and some other early experiments. Read more at nerdplusart.com/?p=1106.

The first fractal animation. Vol Libre

I made this film in 1979-80 to accompany a SIGGRAPH paper on how to synthesize fractal geometry with a computer. It is the world’s first fractal movie. It utilizes 8-10 different fractal generating algorithms. I used an antialiased version of this software to create the fractal planet in the Genesis Sequence of Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. These frames were computed on a VAX-11/780 at about 20-40 minutes each

via

Beyond the Mind’s Eye – Theatre of Magic

Beyond the Mind’s Eye – The Pyramid

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Such is the power of books.

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. … [A]ward winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals.

Rich and warm animation telling a layered and engaging tale.

Nominated for the 2012 Oscar in the Best Animated Short category and the winner of numerous (13 so far) awards. From Moonbot Studios.

[UPDATE: It won!]