Yeah, I know how I have delayed this, but now there is an easier way to get directly into my blog:

http://blog.virgiliovasconcelos.com

Easier to remember and to save in your bookmarks. =)

Another change is for who speaks portuguese: following a suggestion of my friend Gustavo, I have set up a better way to define the default site language.

I programmed a routine to check the browser language. If your browser language is Portuguese, so be it. If it isn't, English comes by default.

This last feature shouldn't change anything for you guys around the globe. If it does, please let me know ok? =)

And what does a kid with a big sandwich have to do with all this?

Well... nothing! =)

If you're in a desperate need for high quality HDR images for a commercial work, I think it's worth a look at HDRI-locations.com.

This is run by the known artist Thomas Suurland, who offers some good free resources on his personal site. By the quality of his personal works, I believe his HDR maps may be on the same level.

I don't have any affiliation with him or his image-selling website. I just think that's cool to have an artist-driven resource for other artists who need to make commercial works.

That's a great new animation made on the best UPA style: At Your Service.

Created by Michael Jantze (cartoonist and former art director at ILM), this is the first episode of a series. The main character is Mr. Lux, who is only happy when he delivers five-star service to his hotel guests.

I'm already waiting for the next episodes! =)

CGSociety has a cool interview with "Dr." Andrew Gordon, animator at Pixar e one of the Spline Doctors.

This interview was made while he was in Australia giving some animation workshops.

Cool read. =)

Some days ago I saw a very cool post on Cartoon Brew. Amid Amidi is currently writing a book about the Pixar shorts and decided to share some of the things he discovered.

One of those things is a making of the first Pixar short ever (even before Pixar got its name): The Adventures of Andre and Wally-B. It's from 1984, animated by no more no less than John Lasseter.

While looking almost amateurish by todays standards, we have to look at it and remember its historical context. It was a revolution for the way people looked at computer based animation. Until that release, very few believed that it could be possible to make 'traditional' character animation with a computer.

Another cool things are the commercials Pixar produced during early nineties. The last two of them I had already seen but not the first ones. It is actually pretty hard to find the Pixar commercials on YouTube, because of all the 'trash' on the result set: those animations that, only because they're 3D, the responsible for the upload just writes 'Pixar' on the title or tags, like this one.

And now a break for the commercials: