Cake Wrecks

I love eating cake. It's even better when a culinary artist designs a cake, and it looks as great as it tastes.

Unfortunately, for every perfect, well-designed cake, there is a shadowy bastard-cake that nobody wants to eat.


Cake Wrecks is a blog that highlights these imperfections and gives them the Project Runway treatment. What's sad is that these are professionally-made cakes. Someone out there unknowingly (or otherwise) PAID good money to have these made! For weddings! For baby showers! For birthdays! For shame!

(Image taken from Maniac World)

Jib Jab

I know some of us may have heard of Jib Jab before, but I am writing about the site because I need to somehow shoehorn their new animation into today, because I couldn't wait till Monday to show it off!



I love the animation! Especially when Obama is galavanting through the forest. Also, if you have followed the election, it's a lot of fun to spot the surrogate cameos. They have come a long way since they first became famous for their animation, "This Land" which poked fun at both John Kerry and George W. Bush during the 2004 elections.

If you pay attention to news, politics, pop culture, then their songs, animation and humor will surely delight you. Also! You can go to their site and paste your own pictures into some of their animations, since it is flash.

The site is here

And if you just want to watch them on Youtube, their channel is here

totoro forest project

boo urban sprawl! save sayama forest!

remember what happened in pom poko? yup. apparently, there are plans to tear down the forest that was the inspiration behind hayao miyazaki's totoro. you know, the weird but cute cuddly monster that has its own facebook group -- "i want to sleep on totoro's tummy" -- of which i am a proud member. (check out the singing totoro in the tree on the banner of the site; super cute.) this is an international effort to raise money and save this forest.

the website features heaps and heaps of gorgeous art donated from animators, comic book artists, and illustrators all over the globe. the themes deal with the beauty of nature and magical childhood things -- a response to how totoro inspires them. not to mention, pixar is a big sponsor of this project. they will be holding the auction at their studio in september this year. what i'd give to be invited! luckily, a selection of the artwork will be shown in the cartoon art museum in san francisco in the following months, which i will be around for! ooh, excitement!

it's amazing how big miyazaki's influence is on the art and animation world. i just really appreciate how from his films to this project, he's always reminding us to take care of our environment.

http://totoroforestproject.org

philip glass for sesame street

i can't believe i watched this as a kid. i remember seeing it and being a little creeped out by the song, but at the same time it was kinda mesmerizing. now, with a thorough graphic design education, i have such a greater appreciation for this! i was actually being fed something pretty complex in terms of graphic systems, color, and music. it's really quite wonderful. i don't know how much influence philip glass had in the visuals or if he had any say at all on what it was supposed to be, but i think it's really cool how sesame street managed to expose kids to artsy conceptual things like philip glass and design principles without them really knowing.

totally rad, i say.

"House of Cards" - Radiohead

Here's something for the smart (and savvy SIGGRAPH!) crowd.



Radiohead just released a new music video for their song "House of Cards." Unlike most music videos, this was not shot with a camera, nor animated, nor mographed. Instead, the whole video was shot and made made with LASERS. And cold, hard MATHCODESMARTS. In fact, it's a lot like a scanner that effects studios use when scanning maquette models (i.e., Weta), except the output looks like a Winamp visualization.

From the Washington Post article:

It's definitely not your average video considering that there were no cameras or lights used: it's all data. The video uses real time 3D recording, utilizing structured light and laser-enhanced scanners. Google is hosting the interactive video application at code.google.com and providing an iGoogle gadget for the video and application.

Definitely go to the Google site. Not only can you download the source code to make your own visualizations, but you can also check out the "Making Of..." video and see how they actually did it.

http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

60s dance parties

there is something special about this amateur video that impresses me, but i can't quite put my finger on it. i love the shaky party-cam thing in high contrast black and white.. it makes it look and feel 60s authentic. not to mention that it is recorded on 8mm. i just think it's pretty sweet, simple, and fun to watch. kinda wish i had friends who did this.

if you want to see a 60s dance party master, watch cassavetes' faces. all his shots are fricking killer. regardless, anyone who loves film needs to watch faces. gorgeous gorgeous film.



how can i not mention godard when talking about 60s dance sequences. i can only think of one real dance party scene that he's filmed (briefly in masculin feminin), but he's more known for choreographed stuff. one of my absolute favorites is of anna karina dancing around in a pool hall in vivre sa vie.



wow. i'm a nerd.

MUTO

Creative stop-motion graffiti animation. I would hate to be the public works department responsible for cleanup.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Dear Beautiful

Oh, the power of traditional 2D animation!

Dear Beautiful (by Roland Becerra) is an animated short film about lotion-gulping zombies and a man's failed marriage. While I could go into further analysis of the story and all such metaphors, I want to point out that the art and animation at times is eerily realistic. At times, I feel as if I'm looking at a photo or live-action shot, only to have something move in stop-motion speeds and tell me that I'd been fooled. The lighting is what pulls it off. Not to mention that the faces are incredibly well-drawn.

Oh yeah, the story's kinda scary too. And it's being made into a movie. Oh, and here's the trailer. But I highly encourage you to watch the short film as well.


Trailer for Dear Beautiful from Quiet Earth on Vimeo.

I learned a new word today.

While reading the Boston Metro today, I came across this word:

cal·li·pyg·i·an (kăl'ə-pĭj'ē-ən) pronunciation also cal·li·py·gous (-pī'gəs) adj.

Having beautifully proportioned buttocks.

[From Greek kallipugos : kalli-, beautiful (from kallos, beauty) + pugē, buttocks.]

[Answers.com]



sharkbutt.

photo: crackled baby

photo: he never called

tunes: mkf

i have my reservations about posting my songs. but why not? i realize it might be a little weird to listen to my songs like i would any other band i fancied – almost as if i were being conceited. it used to be an issue when i wasn't used to hearing my voice, but i'd listen to it objectively, try to improve the sound, and i eventually got comfortable with it. i actually quite like it now.

about song writing, i really like to keep it simple. it's super hard to write lyrics for me when i'm not inspired by anything. i had a dry spell for about 1.5 years, which is a really long time. also, they tend to coincide with some frustration with my love life, hahah – so they're all pretty much true stories! the words start out sad, or just the theme in general, but the melody is characteristically happy and "cute." i find that the two emotions merge successfully together in my songs and i like to think that that is what makes it so catchy to people. for instruments, i like to use whatever is around me.. nothing too fancy, and that also adds a humble, d.i.y. feel. i've slapped my belly on one of the recordings as percussion. thankfully, 10 years of piano has helped me a lot in song making. oh! and music tech 1! hahah

someone was really excited about my songs and asked me about my process, as if he could learn something from me.. and i really don't have a real process like i do for designing something. honestly, it starts off with something that comes from above and from within, as horribly cheesy as it sounds. but i think that's what makes it art.

again, my intention was not to toot my own horn, if it actually came across as that. feel free to let me know! haha. i just thought i'd emphasize that one last time.

listen
http://www.myspace.com/mkf

blog amendments

the first week of this blog is over, and we've come to realize a few things about our little schedule that makes it somewhat difficult to post. so, we've made a couple of changes to the sched. check it out:

sunday sketches (formerly storyboard sunday)
post anything drawn, traditional or digital
monday motion
tuesday tunes (formerly toupee tuesday)
share what you're listening to currently or post about some rad cover art or show poster you found.
wednesday website
thursday thoughts (formerly thumbnail thursday)
rant about art/design/animation -- what you love, what you hate.
friday fotos
saturday smart


we'll see how it turns out this week!
thanks for reading :D it's a learning experience for everyone hooray

Wall-E

OK, honestly. You didn't think I'd let another Motion/Movie/Mograph Monday slip by without posting about Wall-E, did you?

Fear not, I won't give away the story, but since I will be talking about the end credits, so I'm bound to piss someone off with spoilers. SO STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE SPOILED.

The ending credits of the movie show humans rebuilding their civilization after realizing they've been lazy, fat, and out of touch with life for 700 years. What I found most entertaining about these end credits was how Pixar chose to present this epilogue. It showed the re-evolution of mankind through the evolution of art: cave drawings, hieroglyphics, Greco-Roman art, Impressionist paintings, finally culminating in glorious 8-bit pixel art (thus laying the foundations for 3D art). Too bad I don't have a YouTube link to post. If you really are reading this, you've either already seen it (so I don't need to repost the ending), or ignored my spoiler warning altogether (in which case you should be watching the movie anyway!).

I also came across this article about the movie in general, and thought it was a really well-written analysis.

"Wall-E" contends that real life is hard, real life is struggle, and that we live most meaningfully not by avoiding pain and struggle, but by engaging it creatively, and sharing that struggle in community.

Also in hindsight, I'm kinda upset now that I didn't pick up any Wall-E promo postcards from last year's Comic Con.