animated

For every macho, giant-size tribute to Gundam out there, there's going to be a more froufrou version coming along. Ying for the yang. So while the guys will probably be gagging over this girly, bejeweled Gundam (in pink, no less), it actually looks quite fetching with its bedazzled flowery legs and armor. With love from China, of course, since no Japanese worth his anime salt would discredit this cult war robot on its 30th anniversary.

(Source: Crave Asia via Lifedoor Blog)

Wakamatsu Park in Kobe, Japan, will soon play host to the latest member of a robot army. A life-size Tetsujin (aka Gigantor) robot, 60 feet tall and weighing nearly 50 tons, will be on permanent display starting in October. Tetsujin joins a life-size Gundam, built in Odaiba.

According to the AnimeNewsNetwork, "The Kobe Tetsujin Project's statue is intended as a symbol of the city's revival after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It is being built in Nagata Ward, the city's hardest hit neighborhood which has since been rebuilt and revitalized. The statue also celebrates the life of one of Kobe's most well-known native sons, as Yokoyama not only created the Tetsujin 28 manga and anime, but also Giant Robo and Sally the Witch." … Read more

Claws unsheathed. If you remember the Hello Kitty ROBO back when the pink feline celebrated her 30th anniversary, it looks like there may be a cat fight in the works. Doraemon, the cat-like robot from the 24th century, is about to get its own birthday bot for 30 years of TV anime. Bandai Japan's will unleash a 6.3-inch-tall robot called, drumroll... "My Doraemon."

Here's where the one-upmanship comes in. While ROBO sports a rather fixed stare and is mostly stationary, Doraemon employs e-paper eyes capable of expressing up to 10 different emotions. It also has … Read more

What's even cooler-looking than a full-size Gundam towering over Tokyo? A full-size Gundam towering over Tokyo at sunset, its light- and mist-emitting 59-foot frame shadowed by a stunning sky.

We first mentioned this mecha monument last week. Bandai built it in Tokyo's Odaiba Shiokaze park to mark the 30th anniversary of the highly successful Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, which kicked off as a Japanese television series and went on to spawn numerous spinoffs, including movies, novels, comics, and video game adventures.

The giant RX-78 Gundam replica with the moveable head will officially be unveiled on July 11 and … Read more

If you want to consider a difficult computational problem, try thinking of the algorithms required to animate more than 10,000 helium balloons, each with its own string, but each also interdependent on the rest, which are collectively hoisting aloft a small house.

That was the challenge the production team at Pixar faced when it set out to begin work on "Up," its tenth feature film, five years in the works, which hits theaters on Friday.

There was absolutely no way the team was going to hand-animate the balloons. Not with their numbers in five-figures, and especially not … Read more

Cats may be really funny at times, but when all you want to do is get a good night's rest, some stray specimens can be downright annoying with all the noise they make. In such situations, the Mega-Sonic ScatterCat Pest Repeller could be your solution.

This battery-operated "gun" actually fires an invisible high-frequency sound that's inaudible to humans but scares the felines--and other creatures--away. It even has a laser sight so you know you've pointed it at the right target. It can target animals more than 65 feet away.

Such products aren't new, but … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--For Paul Kavanagh, the animation supervisor on the new "Star Trek" movie, one technical element of the film was particularly challenging.

During live-action filming, director J.J. Abrams had done something unusual: In a bid to incorporate a shaky, handheld effect, Abrams would frequently sit behind the camera and literally tap on the back of it with his fingers. But "Star Trek" is jam-packed with computer graphics, and for Kavanagh, it was imperative to find a way to replicate the effect of that finger tapping, even in the purely digital sequences. Not to do so, … Read more

Admit it. Go on, admit it. You always wanted an ice sculpture centerpiece. I know I have. I'm not ashamed to admit it. An ice sculpture may be cheesy or fancy depending on your perspective (not to mention the sculpture), but there is no denying there is something just kind of neat about watching an ice sculpture slowly melt before your eyes. With little or no work, you can now have your very own ice sculpture (over and over again).

These Ice Sculpture Molds, available in Penguin or Angelfish, may not be the high art ice sculpture you would … Read more