It's no secret I love animation and the mind of the animators that, "boldly go where no man has gone before", or what ever Capt. Kirk uttered. Well here is another one my friend Jenn's brother Craig just sent over (Craig has the enviable joy of seeing this stuff a lot in his job at Pixar). This one is from the mind and scribbling of animator Alan Becker - a battle of digitally galactic proportions - click on the image above to see the action.

Perspectives

Here is another wonderful animation to share. Very different from the Kudan animation I posted a couple months ago. The below work is a captivating perspective on the idea of a book, and words, and an interpretation of moving through a space. The light throughout is wonderfully created - worth watching multiple times.



Discovering this piece comes on the heels of a couple hours scrutinizing the quality of light and reflective surfaces in the latest Pixar film UP. They have become masters down in Emeryville at bring life to two-dimensions through reflective surfaces and indirect lighting. If I were currently teaching photography and/or film-making I would spend half the class immersing students in great animation, both variety and depth.

Stepping out of the monocular rut

The Ernst Haas quote I posted a few days ago, "I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.", popped up again today when a friend sent a link to this short film "Kudan". It's a nine minute animated voyage through a different world. Voyages should be like that - journeys, perambulations in lands unfamiliar. I guess that's why I have always been passionate about exploring nature - a different world full of surprise that always awaits. Nature inevitably forces me to step out of my monocular rut. Other artists and art forms can do that as well, and I'm always delighted when I find an artist or work, in any medium, that pricks my perspective.

A quote I use in the early moments of a live presentation I do called, Wanderings on a Wild Planet, reads, "Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." I am unapologetically selfishness about those take my breath away moments every day - I'm addicted. Yes, a life on Earth junkie. I can't imagine a more amazing place than this, Earth. Every several hours light spills upon it, magically, miraculously turning everything about me into something new and full of discovery - how frigg'n cool is that! Then, so our eyes don't become dulled, impassive to the magic, the light fades and goes out; left are but the faintest fireflies twinkling in the dimensionless firmament, reminders that the light will return.

Photography is very tricky - it's about seeing, with two eyes, a richly influenced multi-dimensional world, framing it, refining it through a single viewfinder and lens (using just one eye), then creating an image to be viewed once again in multi-dimensions. When done exceptionally well, truly an heroic feat! Mostly we are awash with thoughtless, poorly executed, mountains of mediocrity - which does dull our eyes and makes us impassive to the magic. So it vital to voyage through a different world, to prick our perspective.

The film below, Kudan, is wonderful because it is not what I would have imagined - until now there were no people-headed cows or word tubes in my world. There are fractal clouds, but not imagined in the same way. So, today, Kudan, became part of a Friday afternoon's wonderful voyage.