THE BIG WIN DIRECTED BY MARC CRASTE

Oh...my...god. I just cant even form sentences as to how extremely good this little animation is. I’ve only JUST found it now and watched it for the first time. I think that’s what happens when you don’t go to the cinema or watch the TV, because this must have been a cinema advert...and dear lord, it must have been incredible to see on the big screen. I’ve just this minute watched it about five times in a row.

You have to write about these things when you see them. I’m always very sceptical when it comes to CG, because I make a big thing of it looking so perfect...I don't have a problem here because the characters are extreamly stylised, and that's where I feel all animation belongs...the whole "lets go for photo realism" has never worked in animation. This piece really looks beautiful and has made full use of the raytracing...this is what its all about. The team has pushed forward on the technical side so that it is on par with the artistic side, a very powerful thing and i think i feel that as a animator myself, I've never come close to being able to make what I want.

The ideas in here are wonderful, the entire concept is first rate and the part where the character turns a mouth from being a unhappy smile to a happy smile on that cousin itt style character was very funny...it is genius.

The song used was excellent, this to me, pushes it forward to be a five star piece...this and the wonderful humour in it...and the fact that its a technical marvel too.

STANELY KUBRICK'S BOXES

Saw the premiere of this on More4 as part of the Kubrick season and absolutely loved it...except the bits where they decided to put a photograph into each frame (that’s 25 frames in a second, so imagine that playing for sometimes what seemed like over five seconds) (this really hurts your head and I hate it) (they also did it with Event Horizon)...but apart from that I was sitting there with a massive grin on my face. At last we get a decent documentary that’s fresh and interesting.

Jon Ronson has done a great job with this.



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VOCMAG

I was just going through old files here looking at my old sites and how I use to have my portfolio….and came across a CV of mine that had VOCMAG on it...they very nicely once featured me on their site...and possibly it may be a real magazine?...I really don’t know, I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this, and way back when it happened they sent me a email saying that it would be nice if I would put a link to their site on my site. I did do that, but eventually I did away with having links on my site.

Their site seems to have changed a little bit, but I always thought it was a awesome website full of extremely good work...I was of course, very honoured to be on there ...and, at the time with these things, you get very excited about it...eventually though, you just forget completely about it ever happening and revert back to your “my work is crap” state.

But...what does happen, is, that you are reminded by it somehow at some point as you go through old things...and it is a nice feeling, you also look at how you once had your portfolio site. I really did have it drastically different back then. Hmmm.

Here's a link to their site though >> [click here]



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FUMITO UEDA'S NEW GAME FOR PS3

This was a while back now, but a good friend of mine directed me to a still from Fumito Ueda's New Game. I'm a big huge fan of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and strongly believe them to be two of the best computer games ever made.

So this got me excited, kept meaning to post about this one.