Inspiration for today: Carlo Vinci.

After you read his biography on the link above, you must (got it? MUST) read this article that explains why "Golden Age" animators were so brilliant, using Carlo Vinci as example.

I even kept a copy of it on my laptop to make sure I can read this over and over again in order to never forget the lesson. =)

My list of favorites now have a very cool blog from a guy who is making an invaluable thing for people who love animation:

He digitally reconstructs classic animation backgrounds from their DVDs. The result is great and it's very good for study and reference.

You definitely must add it to your favorites ! =)

Some days ago I talked about the new Horton Hears a Who trailer, from the folks at Bluesky. I think I wasn't fair enough with this one, which deserves a post for it alone.

After watching it a lot of times, I've decided to write about an aspect of it that was a pleasure to notice: their awesome composition.

Yes, the animation is stupendous, the assimetric modeling is beautiful and the more cartoony (or less photoreal) render are other things that make this film a strong candidate to be the best animation of 2008. But the reason I want to talk about their great scene compositions is because it's a less obvious thing, harder to achieve and - still - extremely important to make a film stand from the crowd.

Those guys really thought about the film as a whole, not a bunch of parts assembled. Keith Lango wrote about it in 2006, which is a strongly recommended reading.

It is possible to make extreme flexible rigs, uber detailed modelings, lightings that could make Caravaggio smile and execute wonderful animations. Putting all those things in a scene is pretty harder to do, and Bluesky has made it. Take a look at some screenshots I took:

The blurred background is made in a way that guides the audience's eyes to the main subject: the flower in which the speck lands. The visual hierarchy respects the rule of thirds, making a stong composition. I've highlighted in red the path suggested by the background and the yellow lines mark the thirds.

Here, the door guides our eyes to the main subject, and there are no distracting information. Notice that the bookshelf is inclined like an arrow to show us where to look.

Both the buildings and the parapet guide our attention to the mayor, who walks to the left "third".

The tree branches here are carefully positioned to not compete with the little blue rodent, making a frame around him. Horton, the main character here, gains attention not only by his size, but also for his position on the imaginary grid.

This is one of my favorites: look at how his hand is on the main point of interest and how the formulas drawn on the blackboard make a spiral to guide us to it.

Another cool use of the thirds. The top of the table occupies the whole bottom third, the scientist picks the right third. They make a frame to the mayor, while the blackboard perspective guides the look.

How could one not see the melted snowman? The houses and the water make the frame, each children stand on a vertical third and the stairs are there to make sure we don't look elsewhere. =)

Finally, a scene where Horton is not on a third, but the background creates a clear frame where everything works smoothly.

It may be just a trailer, but we can also learn a lot from it. =)

Well... it seems that 2008 will be a great year. =)

Take a look at the new Wall-E trailer.

Well... my vacations are now over.

My little project isn't, though. =/

Fortunately I've managed to do a lot of things on it. I think I could end up with something cool, but now I'll have to slow down the production because of my job.

I'm trying to apply on it some aspects I want to study: animate acting and weight, create layout and backgrounds and develop a reasonable plot. It's important to notice that - besides Blender - I'm using Audacity, Gimp and Inkscape a lot. I'll be giving you some updates soon. =)

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Found a great commercial, made by the great director Sylvain Chomet, from the classic "Les Triplettes de Belleville". I don't know how old is this commercial, but I had found it last week. =)

I'm really looking forward to his next production (The Illusionist), which will be out on 2009.

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The new Horton Hears a Who trailer, from the awesome guys at Bluesky, is fantastic. I had already liked a lot their teaser, but this one makes sure that we'll have at least one great movie next year. =)

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Well... basically it's all for today. Now that my vacations are over I'll be updating this blog more often.