animation

Pixar President Catmull: Technology makes better art

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Ed Catmull, president of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, said at the D10 conference today that technology can lead to better art.

He was quick to say, "Technology is not a goal. It really is to make a great movie."

But the point he was making is that adapting new tools forces artists to rethink everything about their work; that getting people out of their comfort zones leads to better art.

Referring to the first animated film, "Bertie the Dinosaur," he says, "Years later, we don'… Read more

Create entertaining animations on iOS

A few days ago, CNET photographer Josh Miller was going around the office making Cinemagrams. I had seen the app before on the iTunes App Store most-popular lists, but had assumed it was simply a version of Instagram for video. When Josh showed me how the app worked, I was really impressed.

After seeing what Cinemagram could do (more about that below), I started wondering about other animation apps in the App Store and came upon several that were impressive for different reasons, but popular for the interesting animations you could make with your iPhone.

This week's collection of apps is all about making short animations. The first makes stop-motion animations by taking several photos of a moving object. The second makes short videos into animated GIFs you can add to text messages. The third is Cinemagram, an app that lets you make photo and video hybrids that are simple and fascinating.… Read more

Prize-winning films give glimpse of next-gen animators

The California Institute of the Arts just north of Los Angeles has produced a whole lot of top animators (Pixar and Disney chief creative officer and "Toy Story" director John Lasseter being but one of them). And why not? The school, after all, was founded by Walt Disney himself.

CalArts' School of Film/Video features two animation programs, "experimental" and "character," and earlier this month the Character Animation program showed off work by its BFA students, at the 2012 CalArts Character Animation Producers' Show. We thought we'd share two of the shorts that won prizes at the event, to give you a sneak peek at some of the talent that may well be creating the animated features of the future at Pixar and other studios.… Read more

Meet Qumarion, an animation supermodel

Getting the hang of 3D animation would probably overwhelm most folks, but the foot-tall Qumarion mannequin could radically simplify the process of creating realistic movement in 3D computer-generated models.

The 67,800 yen ($850) Qumarion, set to debut in Japan in a few months, features a robust array of sensors to assist with creating realistic 3D animation. Developed by Japan's University of Tsukuba and University of Electro-communications, Qumarion can pose, flex, sit, stand, or assume nearly any other position imaginable. … Read more

Bring your background to life

My Living Desktop is an enhancement for your Mac that lets you show a moving video loop as your desktop background (or screensaver) and it's gotten a lot of new features in recent updates.

Once the program is installed on your Mac, you can choose from 28 high-definition video scenes (six scenes in the trial) to either play as a screensaver or as a moving background while you work. The app comes with audio as well so you can immerse yourself into the widely varied living environments from snowy scenes to calming beach views. If you want more variety … Read more

The Dark Knight Rises goes Lego

Fans of the modern Batman series are eagerly awaiting the next installment of the Dark Knight franchise, due in theaters this summer. To help them pass the time until the movie's release, Lego aficionado ParanickFilmz created a reimagined trailer, along with help from a few associates who handled the mouth animation and CGI effects. … Read more

Angry Birds, the cartoon series, due this fall

The story of Angry Birds is coming to a little screen and big screen near you.

The wildly popular game is being turned into an animated series expected to debut this fall, game developer Rovio said at the MIPTV conference in Cannes, France.

"We're going to roll out a weekly animation series later this year of shortform content," Rovio's head of animation, Nick Dorra, said, according to a Guardian account. The 52 episodes will each last about three minutes and be available on a variety of devices.

Dorra also confirmed that an Angry Birds movie is … Read more

Google artists create a real-time 'Wind Map'

Two technology artists who head Google's "Big Picture" visualization research group debuted a new project this week that shows a time-lapse animation of wind speeds across the U.S.

"An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us--energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future," the artists wrote in a post yesterday. "This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US right now."

The black map, simply named "Wind Map," displays white streaks that show varying wind speeds … Read more

NASA video visualizes a 'Perpetual Ocean'

NASA has released a computer visualization project called "Perpetual Ocean" that presents a data-created time lapse of the Earth's ocean and sea surface currents over a two-year period.

The animation (see below) shows the globe slowly spinning as white swirls curl and move in the water around landmasses. It looks as if Vincent van Gogh had painted into the oceans -- from the Gulf of Mexico to the Indian Ocean to the Black Sea.

Using NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's computational model called Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean Phase II ( ECCO2), scientists simulated … Read more