The Art of Toy Story 3
by Charles Solomon
A new book in Pixar’s excellent ‘art of’ series is now availiable to order.
The Art of Toy Story 3
by Charles Solomon
A new book in Pixar’s excellent ‘art of’ series is now availiable to order.
After using RenderPal extensively in a project environment, I would like to recommend the software to fellow artists so you can try it for yourselves.
RenderPal is a Render Farm Management program by Shoran Software. Anyone rendering out image sequences will find it invaluable in their workflow. It has added speed and efficiency to my workflow by allowing the submission of scenes to a server to distribute the rendering workload between several CPU’s. (jobs submitted via the RenderPal Remote Controller and each machine accessed via Remote Desktop)
Basically the software connects multiple PC nodes or clients to a server machine allowing for distributed rendering, either on a single sliced image or a full animation sequence with multiple compositing layers. Several renderers can be used at any one time from the wide list of supported renderers available including Mental Ray, finalRender and V-Ray. This allows several artists to submit scenes through ‘Net Jobs’ to their chosen renderer without the restrictions of their software. RenderPal also allows for custom renderers.
The software is compatible with many leading 3D packages including Maya, Softimage, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, 3DSMax and is therefore ideal for companies with multiple software packages and renderers in their pipeline. RenderPal is not restricted to 3D as there is support for various compositing packages including After Effects, Shake and Nuke.
RenderPal’s Clean User Friendly Interface
Mini Render Farm Ideal For The Freelancer or Enthusiast
In a Professional Studio Environment Using 100′s of Render Nodes
Features
Click the Features Overview for a comprehensive list.
How To Receive The Software
Download The Software which initially allows you to use RenderPal in Trial mode and is limited to 30 days with 10 clients and 10 Net Jobs.
The Free Registered Version which never expires, just requires you to register via e-mail and includes 3 clients and a 10 Net Job Limit.
RenderPal is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.
Contact
Follow RenderPal on the new Shoran Software Blog and on Twitter
New London 2012 Olympic Mascot Animation
Mandeville and Wenlock In Their Anodised Chrome Steel Look
British Union Jack Flag Version of Mandeville and Wenlock
Design Sheet Detailing The Thinking Behind The Characters
Mandeville and Wenlock, the names of the 2 new Official London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Mascots are named after the Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games and after the village of Much Wenlock in Shropshire, the inspiration behind the modern Olympic Games.
Iris Agency in London were asked to come up with a new and exiting, modern mascot for the digital age. The characters they have created are aimed at children and are reminiscent of classic video game characters.
Warhorse and children’s author Michael Morpurgo was drafted in to create a series of stories for the animated characters. His vision sees them starting life as two drops of steel, which fall from the final girder of the Olympic stadium, forged in a factory in Bolton. The steel is then taken home by a retiring worker who makes the characters for his grandchildren. A rainbow brings them to life and they start to learn various moves and gestures by mimicking Olympic events.
At first I thought woah, what the? but they are kinda growing on me, although I almost expect them to get up and sing ‘I Will Survive’
A coincidence I am sure, but the colours are representative of the new coalition government between the Conservatives and the Lib-Dem’s!
Already, there are many spoof photoshopped images appearing on the web. Thankfully the characters are better than the dreadful Official London 2012 logo designed by the Wolff Olins Agengy
Discover the new Mascots on the official London 2012 Website
Follow Mandeville on Facebook and Twitter
Follow Wenlock on Facebook and Twitter
What do you think of the new character designs?
Avatar
Dir: James Cameron
Dreamworks new animated feature film How To Train Your Dragon is out in UK cinemas today and will be available to watch in IMAX 3-D
Watch The How To Train Your Dragon Trailer in full Quicktime HD 1080
Should be a great one as it is currently getting some fantastic reviews.
IMDB currently 8.3/10! Rotten Tomatoes currently 97%!
Behind-the-scenes of How To Train Your Dragon on Making of.com (above)
Animation Mentor graduate Mike Stern worked on the film.
You can Follow Him Here On Twitter
Wee Brian who was one of the three animators on Aardman’s The Deadline also worked as an Animator.
Interesting Production Videos collated on the CGsociety Forums.
Animation World Network interview with Directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, also includes interview with Head of Character Animation Simon Otto entitled DreamWorks Unleashes the Dragons
Art Of How To Train Your Dragon
by Tracey Miller-Zarneke
Art Of How To Train Your Dragon Example Page
Avatar Blu-ray
Dir: James Cameron
It has been confirmed today that Avatar will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on April 26th 2010. As yet there is no word of a release date for the 3-D version of the film which will probably be announced when 3-D technology becomes mainstream and more affordable in the home, so it could be a while yet.
Senior Animator Robert Kuczera has just sent me an e-mail asking if I would post a link to an interview with CG Heute entitled Robert Kuczera – Animieren Fur District 9 detailing the work he did on District 9 while at The Embassy in Vancouver. How could I refuse! The interview was originally written in German so the Google translation is a little ropey in places although it is easy to follow.
Robert’s extensive body of work, which can be seen on his website includes animation for adverts and films such as Comfort Creme and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban while working at various effects studios including The Mill and Framestore CFC. He is also known for his 9 minute short CGI film Dragon Slayer
WINNER: Logorama
Nominee: French Roast
Nominee: Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
Nominee: La dama y la muerte (The Lady and The Reaper)
Nominee: Wallace and Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death
It’s no surprise that Pixar’s UP won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, but there isn’t usually a great deal of fuss around the Best Animated Shorts. Here are the 4 nominees and overall winner. Although Logorama is very clever, after the initial novelty of seeing the world made out of corporate logos, the story doesn’t grab you as much as it could have and consequently the film could have been shorter. I thought A Matter of Loaf and Death should have won and there was unfortunately no sign of Alma which is one of the best short films of the year. It must have been overlooked by the voting panel and should have at least been given a nomination.
One of the better Done In 60 Seconds competition entries for the 2010 Empire Awards. The film cleverly replaces the alien prawns with clowns. Created in Ireland, the film has yet to be nominated, with other less deserving entries getting in to the top 20 shortlist. Vote now for the existing entries, although the District 9 entry will hopefully be entered from the Irish round of the competition. Voting closes on 12 March.
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