Thanks to the persuasion of Inna-Marie, I went to a Dr. Sketchy’s session at the new venue CIA (California Institute of Abnormalities). I learned a few things that night:
1) Drawing inside an environment that looked like a circus sideshow, complete with monkey paws, mummies, lasers, and animatronic monster heads is insanely fun,
2) That their bar makes an awesome hot chocolate,
3) And seeing a half-robot, half-woman on stage is magic.
I love her paintings, but when I saw this one, I really fell in love. If she sells this as a print, I’m jumping on it real quick. It’s called “I Love to Play.” Audrey Kawasaki’s Blog
Given that this is the 35th anniversary of Hello Kitty, I thought it would be nice to show some toy goodness by Dr. Romanelli, who created these anatomic cutaway figures of the cute cat. Check out the images from Collect3D.
Also, if you’re in the area, Royal/T is hosting the Three Apples Hello Kitty art show on October 23rd. (Did you know that Hello Kitty is three apples tall? The things you learn…)
Talented medical illustrator Julia Molnar created this animation of the how a pterosaur can take off flying from flat ground, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins doctoral student Michael Habib. Such a weird creature, but seeing the musculature and movement is fascinating. Take a look at the National Geographic Blog!
Of course someone has to conduct this research, right? I remember a journal article getting static MRI images, but this is the first time I’ve seen images complied into a video. Well, at if I ever have to draw a mid-sagittal section of two people having sex, I have good reference now. I love how the scientist got an IgNobel Prize for this.
Watch this first episode of Creature Cast, created by Casey Dunn, evolutionary biologist and his students at Brown University. They have a blog also called Creature Cast. In this episode, Sophia Tentori interviews Dr. Alison Sweeney about the iridescence in squid. Very fascinating, and the animations are super cute!
CreatureCast Episode 1 from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
I went to a free event at the Gnomon School called The Making of Up, a presentation by Gary Bruins, Effects Supervisor on the film. It was my first time at the Gnomon, so I was surprised that (1) It’s so close to where I live, and (2), there was free pizza and beer, and (3), it was the largest audience turnout the school has had for any event. Needless to say, it was pretty sweet.
Gary Bruins was a Computer Science major and thought he would go into special effects for live action movies (like ILM), but decided to work for Pixar when they offered him more responsibilities. He’s worked on Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille (he did that awesome scene where Remy falls into the water-filled sink!). He talked briefly about the art direction for Up, which was influenced by the art of Mary Blair and stop-motion animation (specifically the miniature physicality and tactile qualities).
The main challenges for the Special Effects team was the balloon canopy, clouds, and rope nets. The main challenge of the balloons were, not surprisingly, the sheer number of balloons (~50,000) as well as their movements in relation to one another. Thanks to their own customized version of Open Dynamics Engine, or ODE, (nicknamed “Ned”) in Maya, they were able to not only simulate the natural movement of the balloons, but also handle the overwhelming number, which ended up becoming 10,000 in total. The balloon strings were a little more complicated and needed to be simulated separately, taking 4x longer to render than the balloons. The clouds were made using volumetric particles – the TD on the job, Alexis Angelidis, would start with huge football field-sized spheres, and then do a fractal breakdown of them so they look more natural and billowy. Shaders and a 3D density map was used to scatter the light through the clouds. The rope nets (to capture the bird Kevin) were made using the same simulation for the balloons – a string of small spheres were made, like beads on a necklace, 3 of which became a rope, and then created knots. The simulation is more realistic than what was previously done (which was usually a cloth simulation) because there are actual holes in the net, so if a character pushes a limb through a hole, it will not effect the dynamics of the net. This method also made the cutting of rope more realistic as well, when you see Karl Fredicksen try to free Kevin by using a Swiss Army knife; the rope frays and splays into the individual threads. The FX team uses mostly Maya (~90%), Houdini, and Shake (for compositing).
Of course, during the Q&A, half the questions were some variation of “How do I get a job at Pixar?” and apparently he said there’s currently construction of a new building, so sometime in the future Pixar will probably have a hiring push to get bodies working in there. His brief tips on a special effects demo reel: (1) Show your best and most polished work, (2) Keep it to a few scenes – it’s better to have a few quality ones than some quality and mediocre ones, and (3) Show the work that you specifically want to do.
They also had a raffle for free Up posters and t-shirts, Gnomon DVDs, and the grand prize was one free class at the Gnomon School. Oh, I really wish I got that one 
But it was a great event, and I’m glad I went!
CG Illustrator Macoto Murayama creates ethereal and “cyborganic” images of flowers. The artist writes, “Generally, a plant is considered to be a being that has an organic form. However, that is just one of the aspects because along with their organic form, a plant possesses a contradictory element of geometric/mechanical structure. By highlighting the latter, the plant’s out-of-the-ordinary form is revealed, and in it, a different kind of attractiveness can be found.” Inorganic Flora
DeviantArt artist Ursulav created this beautiful illustration of a steampunk butterfly. Check out more of his work – he has more illustrations of other neat animals (the Warhamster 40K is my favorite).
Found via Boing Boing
The Fall/Winter 2009 Alexander McQueen collection has a Clockwork Orange, Victorian vibe to it. Looking at the shop section, they also of course have skulls, in the form of print t-shirts, scarves, and bags, which are always cool. Now if only I can afford one of those clutches…!
