August 31, 2015 : Incredible Futurama CGI Video
Prior to its original FOX cancellation, few shows were better than Futurama. Between the solid writing, great character development, and seamless interplay of 2D and 3D animation; I was definitely a fan. Plus, it made me forget how far The Simpsons had slipped in quality.
Anyway, I came across this awesome 3D Futurama video. It’s not very long, which makes me want more.
Needless to say… wow! I am not sure if this was just a pet project nor how long it took, but it is impressive (and then some). There is also a cool making-of video that is linked in the video’s description.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:34 am
Tags: FuturamaComment
August 18, 2015 : Toonami’s Intruder 2: Details Revealed
Early last year, Toonami announced a sequel to its 2000 miniseries, Intruder. Details were vague, only mentioning a release sometime in 2015. The amount of content for the new special was to be determined based off of the social media response (via #intruder2).
Since then, not much has been said about it. However, back in late May at MomoCon (Atlanta’s main fan convention), Toonami revealed more details… along with a sneak peek.
In addition to the cool preview, Toonami stated that Intruder 2 will premiere in October (although no specific date was set). It is expected to span approximately 5 weeks, and there will be 20-25 minutes of footage.
While the lack of specifics is a bit annoying (albeit not surprising), I am stoked about it. A follow up to the first miniseries is long overdue. Plus, anytime I get to see Spike Spiegel in action, it’s a good day.
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:40 pm
Tags: ToonamiComment
August 6, 2015 : Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ (And The Transitive Property)
Last night, I saw Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ – and I wasn’t the only one since the movie is killing it during it’s limited release in the theaters. In fact, I tried to see the 7pm show, but it was sold out. Instead, I had to wait around for the 8pm show, which also had a good sized crowd. The takeaway lesson from this is to buy tickets online… particularly for the Iron Giant super-limited-theatical-release.
As for Resurrection, it was solid. I liked it more than its predecessor, Battle Of Gods; However, ultimately it was still a DBZ movie, and I find that the franchise shines in episodic format because it is given adequate time to create the world and properly define the characters’ hierarchy of power.
In order for the movies to move the plot along (and keep things entertaining), the story has to employ ‘DBZ-math’ – which entails forgetting the Transitive Property. For example, Fighter A is stronger than Fighter B; and Fighter B is stronger than Fighter C. According to ‘DBZ-math’, Fighter C can easily go toe to toe with Fighter A.
Still, Resurrection was fun; and I don’t want to give away anything, so below is my spoiler-free, bullet-point takeaways:
- As expected, the action scenes were great, which was the reason I went to see the movie; and they did not disappoint.
- In addition to many backgrounds being done in 3D (often during fight scenes), a lot of the background characters were CGI. I don’t remember the latter being the case with Battle Of Gods.Â
- There were some truly funny moments in the movie. By this, I mean clever writing versus awkward, anime comedy (like Vegeta performing a dance).Â
- Several characters were not in the movie. Some of this was for the better, and some of it for worse. Â
- The writers need to work on subtle foreshadowing.
At the end of the day, Resurrection ‘F’ was worth it. I’m still not sure how the new series will turn out, but the movie does hint at the general direction it will take.
posted by Pi Visuals at 4:59 pm
Tags: DBZ , DragonballComment
July 29, 2015 : Software For Music Documentation: MuseScore
After completing a short, there are always a few after-the-fact items I need to tackle (in addition to getting a little R&R). One of the more time consuming things is documenting/ scoring the music I had written. For my guitar pieces, I tend to scribble down the general rhythm along with any lead parts IÂ feel are deserving.
This doesn’t take very long; but for pieces written/ recorded with my MIDI Keyboard, I do a more formal transcription. In the past, I have done these by hand… on a sheet of paper with a ruler and pen. It is pretty time intensive but worth the effort. However, this time around, I used a scorewriter – specifically, MuseScore. Below is a screenshot of the program.
Overall, I was very pleased with my experience using the program. Not only was it free, which is always a good thing, but it greatly sped the process up. Despite being open source, it was fairly easy to use and had a lot of capabilities to address the various types of compositions I wanted to document.
Plus, it resulted in neater output files. MuseScore is able to output to a PDF, which easily gave me an digital copy of my music. The only downside was that it did take a little time to figure out the basics of the program (along with its shortcut keys), but they had a solid online Help Doc to get me up to speed.
Needless to say, I definitely plan on doing future transcriptions digitally.
posted by Pi Visuals at 7:43 pm
Tags: MuseScore , PipelineComment
July 22, 2015 : Happy Pi Approximation Day!
Happy Pi Approximation Day! Say what you will about my love for today, but at least you can’t call it irrational (I did it!)…
This approximation for Pi dates back to Archimedes, the famed Greek scholar, who was able to hone in on Pi’s value even further from 22/7 – and all before decimal notation was used. It turns out, the dude was pretty smart.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:22 am
Tags: PiComment
July 20, 2015 : Taking Shape Trailer
I meant to post this last week, but here’s the trailer for Taking Shape:
I didn’t spend as much time as I’d like on it (which is often the case for me with trailers), but I’m still happy with how it came out.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:40 am
Tags: ShapesComment
July 11, 2015 : Alternate Taking Shape Sequence
Being nearly 15 minutes long, Taking Shape had a lot of dialogue it it. This required extensive audio recording, which meant sifting through the various takes. Often times, I am forced to choose between two good takes, leaving one unused.
For one scene, there was an audio take I chose not to use; however, I really liked it. As such, I decided to animate the sequence with it – even though it wouldn’t be used in the final project. Below is this unused sequence.
It was a tough decision not to use this take, but I felt it was the right one for the sake of the story. Even still, I like watching this sequence.
posted by Pi Visuals at 7:03 pm
Tags: ShapesComment
July 10, 2015 : The Iron Giant’s Special Re-Release
The Iron Giant, one of my favorite all-time movies (animated or non), is getting a special limited re-release this Fall. Below is the new poster for The Iron Giant: Signature Edition.
The re-release will be extremely limited. It will be in theaters on Wednesday, September 30th at 7:00PM (local time) and have an additional airing in select markets on Sunday, October 4th at 12:00PM (local time).
Not only is the movie remastered, but it will also include two new scenes that didn’t make the original cut (theatrically or on any of the DVD’s). Talk about icing on the cake.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:37 pm
Tags: The Iron GiantComment
July 6, 2015 : Taking Shape Soundtrack
As done with several of my previous projects, I put together an mp3 that plays all the music created for Taking Shape. This Soundtrack is embedded below. Give it a listen:
[audio:http://www.pivisuals.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ShapesSoundtrack.mp3|titles=Taking Shape Soundtrack]For the most part, it plays the songs in the order they appear in the short. Although, they are the full, unedited versions. With over 7 minutes of music, it is the most I’ve had to record for a single project.
This is also the first time I used Adobe Audition to mix music for a short; and while there is plenty more to learn with the software, I am feeling pretty comfortable with the ins and outs. I also appreciate its capabilities. Between the EQing and Compression abilities, I believe the quality of the recordings were significantly improved versus my previous pipeline.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:13 am
Tags: Pipeline , ShapesComment
June 30, 2015 : Taking Shape In The Can
Taking Shape, my latest short, is now complete. Final touch ups took place last week and has officially been minted ‘finished’. At the moment, I am not able to release it publicly (although if you send me a private request, I will be more than happy to point you to where it is located… assuming you ask nicely). In the meantime, below is a link to the Intro Animation for the project:
This clip was one of the last things done for the short. It was done after the rest of the animation for the project was finished (as well as its revisions). It was made entirely in After Effects – with some help from Photoshop.
Taking Shape clocked in at fourteen and a half minutes, making it one of the longer shorts I’ve done in recent years. I also employed a few new techniques during production, which I feel has improved the final result. I hope to make a few posts about these newly used methods over the next few weeks.
posted by Pi Visuals at 4:40 pm
Tags: ShapesComment