In the following space, I would enjoy presenting to you a collection of excellent short videos and animations that I have come across on the Internet. This collection is arbitrary and non-encompassing; as such, expect more posts of this sort to follow.

Doll Face
A slightly interesting and notable example of a simple conceptual 3D animation by Andy Huang. ( There is also an interesting interview with him about the creation of Doll Face ). Evidence of the importance of conceptual intention in the creation of meaning. Animation is heralded for its ability to convey in a compressed time-space a matching complexity of meaning to long-form narrative works, is it not? Download the Original, or watch the Youtube embed below.

Dog
Shown this 3D stop-motion animation short by Suzie Templeton a long time ago by my associate Brad Hutchinson, and I was blown away by the beauty and intensity of this animation, and would enjoy sharing that with you now. There are a couple other films by Templeton watchable on Youtube, including her new 30 minute epic Peter and the Wolf.

90 Degrees
Shown this animation by my friend Fred Blasdel, I was amazed and inspired by how polished and flawless the work of students could be. Created by students at the excellent Gobelins school of animation in France, this 3D generated short possesses a very interesting element of the synchresis of the sound-design reinforcing the visual aspect and enhancing the conveyance of the narrative / meaning. This walks the line between music video and experimental short film; a delicious line of intrigue. A higher definition quicktime version of this can be watched here.

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With the best of intentions, I would enjoy bringing to your intention the Wii Loop Machine. It is a program sketched in Max/MSP that uses bluetooth and a wireless Wii controller to sync, control, and manipulate loops in realtime. Check out the video on that page for a demonstration of its capabilities, and cogitate upon the advanced possibilities of human-machine interfacing brought about by some simple hacking of this controller intended for playing video games!

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These are two short videos that I created for Safe Harbor. The process that was used to create them is an interesting and likely somewhat unique one, so I thought I would write a bit of an explanation here. First, here are the videos for you to experience firsthand.

Suppress Control

All Cocks Plaster

These videos were created in Adobe After Effects 7.0 utilizing the Expressions, which are just a way to control keyframed parameters in After Effects with a script in Javascript. You can create little ‘expressions’ by using a collection of custom ‘variables’ based on elements of the after effects environment, such as timecode, layer values, etc. Often expressions are used as a way of linking values of parameters together, to make something animate in defined relationship with something else. However there are a myriad of creative possibilities for using expressions in After Effects. Here is what I did to bring about “Suppress Control”. (more…)

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For an epic comparison paper elucidating the similarities between some Paul Verhhoeven films, and the films of Gaspar Noe. That’s right, this will be written by me someday soon.

This paper will discuss in detail and provide evidence for my belief that these movies are societal critique achieved in a fashion brought about by the reflexiveness created by shocking violence and other factors of viewer subversion. In simpler words, these movies can be viewed in two different ways: as gratuitous entertainment and spectacle, or as a critique of what they portray. This attribute of portraying something and having it simultaniously read as a criqitique, without obvious cues, is a subtle effect, and one that depends greatly on the audience.

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Thorsten Fleisch is an experimental media artist from Germany, who has produced some very interesting work in the realm of animation, experimental imaging, and generative audio-visual / mathematical media. All of his work is compelling, some bordering on amazing and inspiring to myself. Gestalt was created by rendering still images of 4th dimensional Quaternion fractal structures unfolding into 3 dimensional space, and then altering the parameters of the fractal equation to create animation.

I also recommend that you visit the FleischArchive, and check out some of the really amazing old animation that is present there.

This discovery was facilitated by this post on Generator X, an amazing and informative compilative weblog and news website containing information relating to generative art, aesthetics, new media, and technology.

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