Blow Your Mind Animation

I shall say from the onset - so that no one gets the wrong idea - I did not find this video, it found me. By that, I mean that Mike sent me a link. And I was so blown away that I knew I just had to post it.


ShapeShifter from Charlex on Vimeo.

I haven't been doing 3D animation long enough to really even call myself a novice, but I think I can call myself an expert on watching animations since I have been doing that for nearly 30 years. And this is one of the most amazing 3D shorts I have come across.

Don't get me wrong, I really, really like all of the other 3D animations that I've referenced in my blog, but this one is flat-out stunning! Who needs the virtual 3D world that seems to be all the rage now, when there are people out there making the world break apart and put itself back together in 3D animation?

The world of 3D

I'm certainly overdue for a new post, and since my creative work life got overrun by a project, I haven't even had time to contemplate what's been inspiring to me. However, I still have adjustments to make to the video we have been working on, and for which I created some 3D and 2D composite graphics that weren't as effective as we'd like them to be. So, my world has been Maya and After Effects lately. Noting that, it is fitting that the video I found today was created in Maya. What's more is that I couldn't help but think "this is what I think transformational and disruptive technology could look like". And that is one of the subjects of our video that has been a struggle for me to grasp. I still don't know what it means for the University's Mizzou Advantage mission, but it sure looks disruptive to me.

Anyway, this stunning video is called Artificial Paradise, Inc. and here it is:


ARTIFICIAL PARADISE,INC. from Jp Frenay on Vimeo.

My work in Maya pales in comparison, but when I think about the fact that I don't use the program 40+ hours a week (most of the time) and I've only been using it for about two years, my animations are perhaps up to par with where I'm at in my huge learning curve.

Just to give an example, here was my first Maya animation created in 2008 as a way to introduce the University's Saturday Morning Science. (They did not end up using it because it did not feature their logo. I adjusted it later and added the logo, but it was not what they wanted. They decided their flat static logo was exactly what they wanted. Oh well, at least I was happy with what I created in a week's time.)

Successful 3D

Today has been a frustrating day working in Maya. We just weren't getting along, as evident by the fact that every time I went to render an image she would crash. It took me about 20X before I wizened up to the fact that I should save after every single change I make. I am sure it was my own lack of knowledge that created the monster that is the constant crashing mechanism. Unfortunately I don't know how to find the bug that I created to keep her from crashing.

There are those however who have made beautiful 3D motion graphics. Here are some favorites that I've come across over time:


I found this artist via the Forget the Film, Watch the Title Sequence site, which I may have mentioned before, but it's worth mentioning again. And I can't figure out how to embed the file without downloading it and uploading again, so you'll have to click on the link to watch the TedXEdges title sequence by Filipe Carvalho.


by Madyeti47  


ARK from grzegorz jonkajtys on Vimeo.

"Save Our Planet" is a very short but cool 30 sec video created in Maya, but it won't let me embed the video, so it's another you'll have to click to see.

Abstraction in Maya 2011

So the other day I came across this really interesting 3D image on deviantArt

"Tactual" by xxtjxx

And I was once again looking at the image today, thinking "how would I do that in Maya?" when I noticed that this artist was inspired by another artist. So, I went to look at Jason-C's work, where I found more beautiful 3D images such as:

"Mandala" by Jason-C

This image, as noted by it's artist, took over 255 hours to render. I didn't see that before I started my own version. Anyway, so our tech guys finally got Maya 2011 to install on my work computer and I got in there to see how much had changed between the 2008 version and this one. What better way than to play with an idea of how I could create something similar. Maya crashed on my first version before I saved it, so in the last 25 minutes of work I created this:

 

It's not so bad when you consider the 180 layers + 3 lights in only 25 minutes with a total render time of about 1 second. With some tweaks - adding an environment, turning on raytracing (so it will show reflections), and adding more lights, etc - it could look pretty cool, and perhaps might make an awesome background for something. And amazingly enough, it took no script writing, which is very similar to programming and I don't really do that so well.

And of course the next question is... how could I make this in true 3D out of hand-dyed fabric?!