A Sweet Story illustration by Francois-Marc Baillet
As you heard last week, we’re working on an enhanced ebook for kids called A Sweet Story. Francois-Marc Baillet’s beautiful illustrations are complete, the final copy by Jono Howard is locked in, and now we’re in the production stage where we are taking the illustrations and text and animating them. To do this, we’ve been working closely with Kris&Brake to essentially cut the 2D illustrated story into pieces in order to create character animations inside an interactive 3D book for the iPad.
We’ve come across some challenges, which we’d like to share – because they reflect on the current limitations of publishing code as well as solutions, that we’re on the forefront of creating.
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Written by Global Mechanic, August 09th, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Filed under: 3D, animation, behind the scenes, making of, mobile & apps, technology | Tags: A Sweet Story, App, character design, ebooks, Francois-Marc Baillet, GMM production updates, Jono Howard, kids, Kris&Brake
We’re in full fledged production mode here with Impromptu, Global Mechanic Media’s latest co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.
We’ve been working hard at rigging characters for the 3D short film, and as animators doing what animators do best, the team is still animating! Here are a couple of videos we shot over the last few days that offer a glimpse into our creative process. Read more
Written by Global Mechanic, June 12th, 2012 | No Comments »
Filed under: 3D, animation, art & design, behind the scenes, film, Impromptu, motion capture, technology | Tags: Bruce Alcock, Chez Battista, GMM production updates, lightwave, Michael Mann, NFB
It seems that it was only yesterday that Kelly started working on lining up the camera angles for our latest (3D) short film, Impromptu. Have a look at the process here.
The making of the film's 'physical space'
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Last week, I watched The Avengers in theatres and really enjoyed myself. The movie did a great job at suspending reality for those who hadn’t read the comics before (i.e. me) and the casting was superb (Tom Hiddleston as Loki was a winner). Read more
Jimmy Rigger + XBox Kinect come together. (That's Philip, one of our animators, moving the smiling Mr. Jimmy)
We recently got a sweet 47″ 3D (flicker-free!) TV in our office, along with an XBox Kinect and a Playstation 3.But it’s not all for just fun and games. Sure, we went through some melee training and fought some gladiators in Medieval Moves, but it’s all part of the artistic process (really!)
You see, we’re about to start production for Impromptu, a 3D short that Global Mechanic is co-producing with the NFB. We posted some preliminary character sketches a while ago – stay tuned for more next week- to give you a sneak peek at what the movie is going to look like (you’ll notice Matisse and Javier Mariscal are a huge inspiration).
It’s funny though, ever since 3D made its way into our office on a more physical level, I’ve been noticing all kinds of cool 3D-related stuff being discussed in the interwebs. For example, data visualization project by designer Odaibe lets you visualize drum beats in 3D (on a related note, we’ve also seen paint droplets dance to music). Sensor Based Display Environment may also take Smartphones to a new level (maybe even the iPhone 5!), with possibilities of motion control.
We’re really excited to be taking on a 3D project and aligning this technique to our creative vision.
Pretty neat world we live in, I’d say.
Tidbit: The 3D TV is also really unlike the theatre experience- you’re looking into a window with a 3D plane on the other side, rather than having seemingly random objects and people’s noses poke out at you from the screen. It’s a much more interesting experience.
Written by Global Mechanic, January 20th, 2012 | No Comments »
Filed under: 3D, behind the scenes, film, Impromptu, mobile & apps, motion capture, technology | Tags: GMM production updates, NFB, product review