Monday, April 25, 2011

Meindbender: The Pirate


The Pirate from river/Petra Monheim on Vimeo.

So I was watching Motionographer. Cartoon Network has created a new promo for the network using CGI. It centers on a pirate who has a pet parrot. However, instead of this parrot being a comrade to his owner, he is a pestering bird that is nothing but annoying and ends with the pirate chasing the bird around with a firing cannon. The story is cute and simple, but the animation is amazing. It looks similar to Wallace and Grommit with the claymation idea but the style is different. I really would love to know how they did it. I don’t know anything about CGI so I don’t know what kind of effects were used but I know I haven’t seen many things similar to this. It has this completely realistic style to it, and not the claymation, stop-motion look but this fluid movement with the look of clay. Also, the environment is realistic too. The water looks like actual water and all the props on the ship, the money, etc. are real objects that are interacting in this unreal world, however it doesn’t look out of place, it looks really well done. But then there are the small details that really make the animation look clean, they use a blur effect to give the space a depth-of-field, and there are small movements throughout that make it look more animated, like the bird’s eyes are constantly moving making him look like a crazy bird, but the eyes seem to be made of a glass-like substance that looks interesting sitting in a clay bird. Overall the animation is a 30 second, beautiful piece, good job Cartoon Network.
 

17 comments:

  1. The Pirate animation above was really funny. When I see the word CGI I always think about a show called Crime 360, which uses CGI visualizations. You go inside the investigation as theories and evidence are brought to life through CGI visualizations, state-of-the-art 3D laser scanning and 360-degree digital photography. In each episode, they follow a case from start to finish. From the moment detectives are called to the scene, viewers are part of the action, experiencing the crime scene from every angle, and the evidence at the microscopic level. As the case develops, and the theories change, the graphics evolve, culminating in a full-blown visualization of what really happened.

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  2. The clarity is amazing on this video! The lips on the pirate look so real are they really claymation? Or do they use real things like that of human lips and real water. It is very believable! Awesome post

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  3. Cute. I was surprised that it was a commercial.

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  4. That's awesome. Computers are really helping expand what people can create! I remember in middle school my cousin entered a film festival with a short claymation piece and it took him FOREVER to make. Now, though, you can do the same thing with a computer with far less effort. Hopefully this means art will only continue to get more interesting!

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  5. This was cute. the pirate looks like someone's mouth viewed upside down... kinda weird, but still interesting.

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  6. Wow, the overall quality of that animation is amazing. The clarity of textures, the staging of the lighting, the sharp movements...that's borderline Uncanny Valley right there.

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  7. I really like the character design for this ad. The choreography matches the look of the characters very well.

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  8. I loved that! The animation is amazing and almost flawless. I loved the expression of the pirate and the bird.

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  9. wow very cute, i wonder how long it took for this project to be completed though!

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  10. cgi is the future. entire movies can now be made on the computer almost without ever having to actually use a video camera.

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  11. This is a very cute clip and I would also love to know how they created the animation. The color of the overall video is very nice. I would love to see more of their promos.

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  12. CGI is really cool. I wanted to work for Pixar or Dreamworks before I found out that you needed to learn this kind of technical skill. Even though I'm sure the people who do it love their job.

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  13. Haha very cute video. I'll look out for it.

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  14. Sorry for the echo..but CUTE is the only word I can come up for this video!

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  15. Cute, I cant imaging how long it takes for most of these movies

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  16. This is completely over my head, but the creation of these characters makes me feel better about what is on television (only just slightly) for kids.

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