radarboy

BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Groundbreaking computer animator Richard “Dr” Baily was a leader in particle based computer animations. He worked on movies such as Tron, Superman Returns, Blade and The Matrix, but he is probably best known for the beautiful animations for the movie Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris.

Bailey referred to what he did as “Sculpting with Light”, rather than animation, something that really resonated with me.

Bailey produced over 60,000 frames of atmospheric planet animation using his own particle system – called SPORE – developed in C++. You can see a few of the planet animations here in the trailer:

Of SPORE Bailey, commented: “[It's] a system that’s sort of a continuum between order and chaos. Some images reside firmly in the world of order, with the particles animated in a fairly straightforward way. Other images that look really twitchy and electric reside in the world of chaos.

Ultimately, the goal was to build a living system that will breed and evolve designs and animations that I would never have dreamed of, and could not produce by any other means.”

Bailey died in 2006. See more of his work at http://www.imagesavant.com

Norman McLaren, was a genius animator and film maker best known for his groundbreaking and minimalist work for the National Film Board of Canada in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. One of the most important names in the history of animation McLaren was a also the godfather of music visualization. He won an Oscar in 1953 for his bizarre short film Neighbours. But here we pay homage to some of his more abstract work, most made without the use of a camera.

Norman McLaren Dots (1940):

Norman McLaren – Boogie Doodle:

Norman McLaren Le Merle (The Blackbird):

And finally, here’s a cool film about McLaren’s working method of drawing sound and played on the Moviola, with the great title of Pen Point Percussion:

The Coraline opening sequence is just awesome:

Here’s a bit on miniature knitting:

Blu whose work has now become landmarks in Berlin, and a number of other cities, dishes up another piece of architectural animation loveliness in colloboration with David Ellis. Check it.

And here’s a making of the Berlin piece in Kreuzberg:

More at Motionographer and David Wilson.
View Quicktime.