Marvellous Disney

Amazing statistic: There are more than 5,000 Marvel characters.

Mind Mapping & Idea Generating Software

Mind mapping software won’t actually start breeding ideas for your essays on its own, but it will certainly help you to organise and structure your thoughts, and many other useful things besides.

(Please click this image to enlarge it)

FreeMind is very highly thought of, because of its ease of use, and its ability to deal with many types of information input. Give it a go! It’s Free!

Here’s the FreeMind wiki, and there’s a good explanatory video to download here. Here’s the all important download link. Because it’s written in Java, it will run on Apple, Linux and Windows. (Check that download link for details).

Ideal essay writing tool.

If you prefer to share your mind maps with a group online, have a look at the web based MindMeister.

Get brainstorming!

AWN TV Puff Piece for The Princess & The Frog

John Lasseter, Andreas Deja, Bruce Smith and others discuss the resilience of 2D hand drawn animation in Disney’s forthcoming release, The Princess & The Frog.

An ecstatic Disney 2D animator.

Here’s a link to what AWN TV calls a “featurette” on its website.

The Beatles Rock Band Game Cinematic

Passion Pictures has released a fine looking cinematic for Beatles Rock Band game on their website.

The 4 moptops dancing on the Liverpool skyline

Client: Harmonix/MTV and Apple Corps
Writer/Director: Pete Candeland
The full cast is displayed in an overlay next to the clip, here.

25,000 Visitors

And still counting....

Some time last night, the twenty five thousandth visitor dropped by.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

This man thinks that schools discourage creativity...

It’s worth taking 19 minutes 24 seconds out of your busy lives and watching this video from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) in which educationalist Ken Robinson argues that in the future, your future, creativity is going to be more important than academic attainment in education. He’s funny, too.
Here’s the link to his talk. Please take a moment to post your reactions to his ideas in the comment box, too.

Concept Art From Pixar’s “Up”

Only a couple of days after its release, Lou Romano has posted nearly 60 visual development paintings and models from Pixar’s latest release: “Up”.
Here’s the link to the blog post, and here’s his IMDB profile.
In the header image (top of this page) you can see part of a colour script of 120 storyboard mood panels from the film. Link to big image.

Brush Up Your Typing Skillls

Make your fingers more productive.

If you feel that your typing skills need a bit of practice (and I know mine are absolute crop), have a look at this highly commended typing tutor called: “TypingWeb”. If you register with TypingWeb, the site will record and measure your improvement each visit. Here’s the link.
Ready? fff jjj fff jjj fff ffj jjf ffj etc., etc…

Video Game Desktop Wallpapers

Eating too many mushrooms, perhaps.

Mikaël Aguirre, known as *Orioto on Deviant Art has reinterpreted some well known video game images and made them into desktop wallpapers.

Kid Icarus

Download links:
Link 1, and for some really old skool game desktops, Link 2

Live Action Reference for Facial Expressions

Amelie and that bloke off the telly

Audrey Tautou (Amelie) and Mackenzie Crook (Gareth Keenan)

Sometimes it helps to have a variety of facial expressions to study when you’re looking for that “just right” pose. There’s a website (of course!) called Leave Me The White that contains thousands of sequential stills from feature films and television series, which might help if you don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer number of pictures. There’s also a really useful interactive facial muscle emulator at Artnatomy

Jane Horrocks as Bubbles in Ab Fab

The wonderfully elastic face Jane Horrocks, looking a bit gobsmacked in Absolutely Fabulous
Interestingly, she is now the voice of Fairy Mary in Tinker Bell

If You Can Type, You Can Make Movies

According to xtranormal.com, you can make a 3D movie in minutes. But it will look like this:

Awesomeness in 3 dimensions

It’s a simple 4 step process to make a 3D movie. No more tweaking hyper graphs! Forget those horrid MEL scripts! Throw away those pesky Blend shapes!
Here’s how it’s done: 1. Pick your scene. 2, Type a script. 3. Add actions and sounds. 4. Publish and share!

Move over, Pixar!

So, what are you waiting for? Start movie making today! Yay!!!

How to Make Things Stop

Getting things moving in CG is challenging enough, but how do you bring it all to a halt?

Just watch things stop in the next CG animation you see, and you’ll know it’s not right.

This might help you get started. It’s by the bloke who wrote Picasa (he was later snapped up by Google).

xkcd – Students

The awful moment when it dawns on you...

Click here to see the whole strip.
xkcd rules.

Ponyo On A Cliff – Coming Soon

The image above is a screengrab from the trailer for Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film: Ponyo On A Cliff. The true release date for the UK still seems to be under discussion….
Meanwhile, have a look at this recent trailer for the French market, where the release date is the first week of April. Keep up with Ghibli Studio news here.

Animation Weekly Newsletter

This is a comprehensive text format overview of the world animation scene that’s published once a week and read by thousands of subscribers.
Grab it here!
animation_flash_newsletter_vol13_issue50

You’ll find the newsletter at Animation World Network’s site : http//www.awn.com. There is a sister publication for people working in the VFX industry, called VFX Newswire. Both publications edited by Dan Sarto.