Kagemono: Shadow Folk

This animated short by Sabrina Cotugno, a 4th year animation student at Calarts centers around a little fox called Beopup (No relation to Beowulf) who runs into some rather unpleasant shadow eating creatures during its daily hunt for food. Really loved the watercolor aesthetics and appealing designs, especially the ridiculously exaggerated, poofy tail of Beopup. She also has a really cool gallery on Deviantart, so check her work out!

The Paper Art Of Tougui

Lumber jack #1 (Via)

Tougui is an established French papercraft master/illustrator who really blew my mind with his incredibly elaborate creations. Using the same angular style with simplified details (A pretty common trend for last decade or so in Western cartoons) that was made popular by retro Hanna Barbera cartoons, he's created a ton of paper art with a ton of personality. Tougui opened my eyes to an entire subgenre of artists dedicated to highly collectible papercraft, which sure beats shelling out a ton of money for designer vinyls.

Check out a few more of his papercraft pieces after the break. And you can even download a small handful of these to make yourself at home on his website.

Apocalypse Pizza

Post apocalyptic pizza, anyone? This fantastically fun animated pilot for a feature film developed by Andres Fernandez at French studio JeSuisBienContent (I'm Glad) narrates the story of a team nonchalantly tearing through hordes of zombies to deliver some pizzas to a group of survivors at the Eiffel Tower. The Justin Bieber track truly took this short to 11. If we had the money, lets say we'd be the first in line to pick this pilot up for development.

Dive

In simple terms, this is just about a woman who decides to end her engagement to her fiance, and take off. After taking a quick break, she realizes that's not what she wants after all, and gets back to him before he realizes what has happened. But there's a universal theme here about regret, and deciding to reverse a previous decision. It's something everyone has dealt with at one time or another, and not even just with relationships, but also education, career, family, etc. On of the most common pieces of advice doled out is to take a break before making a big decision, rather than making it impulsively. Timing is everything, and the woman in the short was ultimately lucky that she was able to reverse her decision before it became final, i.e. her boyfriend woke up.

PROMETHEUS : Hype Levels Critical In New Trailer

If you are a regular visitor here at AwesomeRobo, by now you probably know just how badly we want this damn movie to be released. This new trailer for Ridley Scott newest entry to the Alien saga gives us the regular dose of hype, plus some few precious seconds of new footage, delving a little deeper on the plot of the movie and the relations between some of the crew members of Prometheus. Enjoy!

The Cover Art 'Swatch Grid' Reimaginings Of David Marsh

Dark Side Of The Vector (Via)

Music is something that is truly universal and like any other medium can truly push the envelope creatively, especially when you take something that already exists and create something new. These re-imagined covers, designed by David Marsh (a British graphic designer) are pantone-constructed series of classic album covers consisting of swatch grids developed through Adobe Illustrator.

According to the artist, the purpose of the series was to explore and develop. The idea came from Marsh's love of design and print, and trying to get a satisfaction from a complete image. His artwork ranges from his passion for music to paintings that inspire both him and the world. Check out a selection of my favourites after the break, and be sure to check his whole gallery on his website!

Avengers Assemble: A Superhero In Every Aisle

Product Placement Suit Mach IV (Via)

I found it kind of amusing when I ran into this promo advertising piece commissioned by Target titled 'A Superhero In Every Aisle,' because in a way it unapologetically represents what most blockbuster movies are about these days: Merchandise, product placement and advertising tie ins to generate the most profit possible. The line of concept pieces feature iconic aspects of each of the heroes (Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor) recreated with existing merchandise and Target products.

Kudos to the advertising team for executing the idea in a really cool manner, and I look forward to seeing Robert Downey Jr. hocking Avengers edition Dr. Pepper soon (We've sold out). Check out more images from the set after the break!

Woodkid: Run Boy Run Teaser

This is a pretty exciting development...Remember that absolutely amazing track we posted a few months ago from Woodkid called 'Iron?' It caused a massive stir with its epic orchestral feel and striking visuals. It looks like Woodkid is going to follow up Iron with an equally epic, narrative track using the same type of visual themes and feel. We also noted in the past post that Iron was directed by Yoann Lemoine, who is also a songwriter and singer for Woodkid. After seeing this teaser, there are no doubts in my mind that he's directing this as well. The Run Boy Run EP and official music video will be out on May 21st, so stay tuned.

Honeymoon

The story is simple: An astronaut leaves for a mission in space, and his bored stay-at-home wife has to occupy her time. But then she get's really creative, and decides to fashion herself a suit to go meet her man up in space. It's cute and bordering on mushy, but a bright and fun animated short all the same; perfect for a lazy Sunday morning.

Go Right

A fun little animation about the retro gaming staple of heading right, symbolic of progress and reaching an end goal. The short shows the trial and tribulations of countless platforming heroes, presented in a way that feels rather intimate. I don't know why but I just found it inspiring, with its simple message of persistence. You'll find the princess in the castle someday.

M3CH : Mecha Combat In The Palm Of Your Hand

(Via)

Props to Small Impact Games for M3CH, an upcoming game that is truly pushing the potential of iOS games way past what I thought was even imaginable. Harnessing the power of the Unreal 3 engine, Small Impact wants to bring a solid, and deep mech combat sim to your iPhone or iPad, and the current concept art and early alpha footage looks amazing already. Its been cool to see a few games pop up (Hawken comes to mind) that promise to give a much needed breath of life to the stagnant mech combat genre.

The team has put up a small fundraiser on Indiegogo to help push development along, so if you'd like to contribute in seeing this project come to fruition, send some funds their way! Check out some alpha footage showing off the visual fidelity, and a ton more mecha eye candy after the break! Cheers.

Frosted Chocolate Mouse (NSFW)

Donato Sansone's 'Topo Glassato Al Cioccolato' is a wonderful feast of  nightmarish visuals taking place in a world devoid of rhyme or reason. If you haven't had your dose of surreal and terrifying imagery, featuring the likes of human Rubik's cubes, hummingbird filled bodies and other disturbing scenarios, this will provide that fix. The sketchy quality of the animation adds to the bad trip quality of this short, but the score by Enrico Ascoli truly did elevate the creepiness of this hand drawn spectacle to 11.

Star Fox Redux

Youtube user Rickonami has had Super Nintendo's groundbreaking Star Fox on his mind for over 19 years now, finally releasing a high resolution tribute to the classic game. From the iconic opening sequence, featuring the invasion of Corneria by Andross to a run through of the first few levels, everything was painstakingly recreated for a 2012 audience in this labor of love. Check out the original opening from the SNES after the break!

Krispy Kreme - The Baddest

Sometimes a YouTube video comes around thats so goddamn amazing, it instantly becomes a classic. YouTube artist Krispy Kreme brings us one of those videos with The Baddest. Since my discovery of the genius that is Krispy Kreme, I've rewatched this video at least 10 times. The level of lyricism is incredible and each listen gives me something new to chew on. With lines like "I'll light your fart on fire with my rhymes", it's going to be really hard to top this song.

The Future Trailer : Taking It A Little Too Far?

Let me get this straight: A hipster couple decides to adopt a cat, and in doing so, fall into some sort of life crisis? The trailer in itself is a 2:31 journey of absolute head scratching madness. After watching it a few times over, my face was still stuck in a permanent state of part "Not sure if serious..." squinting and cringe. Indie and alternative films have so much liberty to do so many things, yet in this case, it appears to have gone so horribly wrong. This is some truly 'Omg, look how cute and weird and quirky I am,' material that feels like its trying to channel Wes Anderson, but in all the wrong ways. For some reason this really reminded me (in spirit) of the cringe inducing interpretative performance called Interior Semiotics. 

The Art of Eric Pfieffer

The Bee Keeper (Via)

I've been quietly watching Eric Pfieffer's work for a few weeks now,  and I felt it was wrong not to share. Pfieffer has a very distinct style similar to one of my favorite comic book artists, Rafael Albuquerque; using distinct lineart that adds subtle abstraction to what otherwise would be a normal looking piece.

Eric's awesome incorporation of blacks and whites in each illustration is absolutely f*cking awesome, setting the tone for every entry. Luckily, the heavy comic book inspiration isn't being put to waste, as Pfieffer prepares his first comic, Kid Havoc, for a late 2012 release. I'm pretty excited to see what it's like.

Hit the jump for 6 more pieces and head over to his website here.

AwesomeRobo: Podcast #9!

It's been an incredibly busy time for us here at AwesomeRobo, with a new project looming on the horizon that has the chance to take this blog to an all new level. If you've been following us on Facebook or Twitter, you've probably heard mentions of the AwesomeRobo tshirt project called the 'Up And Coming' line, featuring the work of many talented artists we've featured on our blog. We're pretty damn excited, as its been in development for close to 8 months now. In just a few short weeks we'll have an AwesomeRobo store stocked with some cool designs by Dan Hipp and Corey Lewis aka Rrreyy, with more to come in the next few months!

So! In this short podcast for this week, we discuss some details about the project including passing on a Kickstarter approach, discuss a few movies like Cabin In The Woods and its spiritual cousin, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil, the leaked and incredible Valve Handbook, James Cameron and asteroid mining, revisiting APB from the now defunct Realtime Worlds and a few other choice topics. If we seem out of it, or outright delirious its been an exhausting period for everyone involved with all these deadlines looming..So bear with us! Cheers, and enjoy the Podcast.

X- ray Funnies: Gaming Devices Scanned

(Via)

X-ray Funnies is a Flickr group dedicated to the scanning of game consoles and peripherals. The initiative, like almost every awesome thing in this world, was conceived as an attempt as the mind behind the project, Reinji put it: 'To combine my work ( xray technician) with one of my hobbies, gaming.'

The collection of images is quite impressive, ranging from early Atari consoles up to state of the art gaming machines, but even more impressive is the possibility of looking through them, getting a glimpse of the complex circuitry and elaborate electronic relations behind even the most simple of gaming controllers. After the break, check out some of the innards of the gaming industries most iconic pieces of hardware! Enjoy.

In Bed With Invader

If you ever have a chance to go to Paris and wander the different districts, you'll probably run into one of Invader's mosaic tributes to Space Invaders, plastered in strategic locations. During my trip around different regions in France, the amount of sightings turned into a game after a while, and I ended up finding 9 of his 'Invasions' over the course of a week in 3 seperate cities I visited. Since 1998, the artist has left his mark in over 52 cities worldwide using mosaics as his medium thanks to their square, pixel like qualities.

This awesome 15 minute video follows Invader during the installation of some of his pieces around France late last year. Invader's tools of the trade? Industrial strength adhesive, a ladder and an armada of pre-prepared mosaic aliens.

Deconstructed By Smithe

Maintenance (Via)

Smithe is a Mexican street artist and illustrator who recently switched gears to focus on a new theme, deconstruction. My first encounter with his work was during the Austin music festival called SXSW, in the form of a promotional poster (After the break) for a show at a famous local bar. All his recent pieces feature faces deconstructed, showing off odd and crude innner workings, aesthetically reminiscent of retro scifi pulp comics. Smithe has also had the chance to dabble in sculpture and massive scale street art, with a time lapse of his 'Brick and Meat' piece available for you to check out after the break, along with more work from this set. Enjoy.

The Fourth Dimension

After watching this trailer a couple of times (this one requires a minimum of two consecutive viewings), there were two things that stood out to me. The first being how unbelievably trippy and out-there it is (duh), and the second was my observation of Val Kilmer's strange career direction. But I really do love a good weird film, so I researched a bit more. The Fourth Dimension is a series of 3 short films, each with a different director (one American, one Russian, and one Polish). Each were given a list of specific instructions; each action/item had to be utilized, and the directors had to figure out how to do so. Without giving much more away, let's just say that as an enthusiastic "weird" movie-goer, I think I may have to put this on my go-see list.

THE ART OF D-132

(Via)

Nivanh Chanthara is a Canadian artist who goes by the moniker of Duster 132 in art circles. Nivanh has worked for Marvel comics as an artist for the Iron Man animated series, and really intrigued me due to the fact that he brought street art into his repertoire of illustration and conceptual art. Looking through his work, it looks like he has a healthy habit of leaving behind the computer screen to paste his work on walls around Quebec.

I think its a really cool concept to turn his digital creations into tangible ones with a lasting physical presence, a way of adding a lasting impression to his work. Check out a sampling of his work after the break!

Mondo Presents "The Avengers" Collection

Captain America by Phantom City Creative (Via)

Mondo, the collectible art boutique arm of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, have created some amazing movie posters in the past. Considering my love of comics and my position as comics editor on the site, I just had to show off these amazing pieces. The company announced a while ago that they would be releasing a series of seven posters honoring "Marvel's The Avengers," (which will be released for UK viewers tomorrow) but I waited on posting about it until all seven designs had been released. Now all seven of the posters have been revealed by Marvel.com, and it's one sight to behold.

As with each print Mondo has done, the series will be available for purchase online. Black Widow was sold on April 19 and Hawkeye went on sale on the 20th, and sold out within minutes of release. Hulk and Captain America will be on sale on the 26th, whilst Thor and both Iron Man posters will be available on the 27th. Follow the Mondo news twitter for details on the additional prints in the series and exact sale times. For the rest of us who will never go online in time to own one, you can check out (and envy) the rest of the collection after the break.

The Futuristic Landscapes Of Kanehira

(Via)

K. Kanehira absolutely blew me away with his incredibly epic, intricately detailed landscapes of a futuristic world, in which buildings and odd shapes stack atop each other to reach for the heavens. All of his works start off as incredibly detailed line drawings, before being painted over on in Photoshop. The Osaka based artist set out to create warped versions of the world around him, pushing visual elements in architecture to the extreme to come up with some truly striking compositions. Check out more of his work after the break!

The Retro Bobby

Bobby Argen opened up a store in Copenhagen that could combine his different passions, giving haircuts and selling and collecting retro toys/videogames. So if you've ever fantasized about getting a high score on Rad Racer while getting a hair cut to win a 20% discount, this place is your dream come true. The concept just brought a smile to my face, because all this guy set out to do is immerse himself and his customers in feel good, warm and fuzzy nostalgia, which he succeeded at. I'd also like to give him a +1 for his awesome hairstyle.

Punks Jump Up feat Dave 1/Chromeo : Mr Overtime

This awesome music video, featuring some truly psychedelic and colorful cut out style animation directed by Maxime Bruneel and produced by ChezEddy. The track features the fine lyrics of Dave1's Chromeo,   featuring some interesting parallels with some parts of the Sting song called 'Send Your Love,' which I'm guessing is the product of some clever sampling. Nonetheless, its an all around fantastic trip into the colorful world of Punks Jump Up.

The Lady of Names

Upon first glance, you might think this is a dated, mediocre stop animation film. You'd be sort of right that it's dated, because it took a total of 15 years to make. If you're looking for absolute dedication and a labor of love, then look no further than Adam Ciolfi's The Lady of Names. The idea, along with writer Michael Stokes, came about in 1995, and by 1997, they were ready to secure funding. Trouble was, no one had enough faith in the film (or the unknown director) to want to contribute.

Undeterred, Ciolfi decided to continue production on the film... Essentially alone. From 1997 to 2011, he would work on the film for several hours before leaving for his full time job, and then continued production all day on the weekend. Like all personal projects, it's a little bit easier to see the flaws. This trailer didn't strike me because it looked absolutely amazing (though for a one-man job, it's pretty damn good!), but because of the hard work and dedication (some might say obsession) that one man had. For us here at Awesome-Robo, and the goals we're trying to accomplish, it's a source of inspiration.

Check out the second trailer after the break!

Escape By Kenny Mosher

This surreal portrait series stole the show at NAB (A digital media industry event) back in April, specifically under the RED camera user category. Pat McInnis' score really added a ton of atmosphere to this already moody piece, featuring Mosher's lens discovering subjects frozen in an odd state of suspended animation.

The Art OF Rob Laro

Olaf The Insurmountable (Via)

I discovered Rob Laro back when I was playing Team Fortress 2 fanatically, mainly thanks to some of the items he created for the games bustling marketplace. His works ranged from the Tank Buster series to item sets commissioned by Sega and Eidos for Shogun and Deus Ex: Human Revolution as incentives for buying the Steam versions.

Upon tracking it back to his blog, I really fell in love with his simple, colorful style. Laro is a UK based artist who's a jack of all trades, dabbling in concept art, illustration, 3D and programming. His style emphasizes bold proportions and colorful palettes that are easy on the eye. He's definitely admirable thanks to the fact that he's got a knack for doing a lot more with a lot less, focusing on the most defining features of his characters and environments rather than getting bogged down with fine detail and rendering. Check out more of his work after the break!

Bottom of the 9th Animated Comic Looks Awesome

I think the idea has been thrown around for years, 'Wouldn't it be cool if comic books were animated?' This concept has resulted in a variety of different attempts, mainly resulting in comic books being turned into crudely animated 'motion comic books' with sound effects and music. However, it wasn't quite the same as having a comic book in your hand and being able to flip through the pages.

Ryan Wood's new attempt will be bringing his futuristic baseball drama to the iPad, with some truly beautiful, fluid animation and a fully fleshed out story ranging over multiple apps in the years to come. And you know what? The prologue comic will cost a mere 99 cents, so if you're an owner of an Apple tablet be sure to support his efforts. You can find out more info about the upcoming comic on his website, Bottom Of The Ninth.

Give Three-Piece A Chance

This is the type of thing I'd expect to see from a flash mob group like Improv Anywhere, but this rather tongue in cheek protest had a definite significance to it. The group, clad in some truly awesome looking multi piece suits set out to protest the opening of an Abercrombie and Fitch on Savile Row, a street best known for housing some truly talented custom tailors, a trade that the group believes is under threat.

I can definitely appreciate people trying to preserve an iconic street from being overrun by purveyors of overpriced crap, especially with their classy approach to protesting. Another interesting fact is that the actual building that A&C is planning to move into is the famous No.3 Savile Row, home of Apple Records. If you know a thing or two about the Beatles, they gave their final performance on the rooftop of that building back in 1969. Lets hope that these guys can win (As they put it) their 'war on vulgarity.'

RoboGal's Weekly Cute Mixtape

Hamming it up for the camera. (Via)

A very happy Nowhere-Near-Friday to you, readers! With spring in full bloom, chances are that allergies are as well. What does that mean? People full of sneezes, sniffles, and weird facial contortions. In other words, faces full of derp. So today, you get a list of canine derp. Enjoy!

More after the break!

Mikko Vos: Wake Up

Mikko Vos' Wake Up is a perfect elixir for Monday, offering a solid double shot of mechanical, groovy dark beats accompanied with peaceful visuals to get you back into full on work mode. The Amsterdam based artist has a ton more work for you to peruse on his Soundcloud, so get on it!

Sub Wars

In this slick short by Sean Soong, an old man finds himself fantasizing about how he feels when nobody on the subway offers their seat for him to sit in. Sith powers, light sabers and copious amounts of over the top violence ensue. Sean Soong wanted to showcase the lack of respect towards elders with a younger Chinese generation, although I'm guessing this message might apply to anyone at this point.

Mega64: Skyward Sword

The Mega64 crew returns with a new skit which masterfully captures the downside to videogame motion controls in public, using Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword as the prime example. No matter how hard you try, you're going to look like an idiot to everyone else, if the controls are even responsive. I'll stick to classic controllers, thank you very much.

Art Of Tom Scholes

Guild Wars 2 cave (Via)

I've always loved Tom Schole's environment work. Ever since I discovered his work back in the early days of Conceptart.org and the Guild Wars series, I've found myself studying his work, his color palettes for his peices and rendering technique. There's something really dreamy and flowy about his paintings, which has to do with the fact that most of his pieces set out to capture a certain mood, rather than specific details.

Within the concept art world you'll often find multiple categories of artists, with approaches that range from painterly to technical and detailed. Tom definitely falls on the more painterly side of the spectrum, which is not a bad thing at all, considering the style of past projects he's worked on like Guild Wars 2. After a stint at Disney, Arenanet and 343 Studios, Tom is off doing his freelance thing again. More of his work after the break!

The Valve Employee Handbook: A Must Read

(Via)

Having had the chance to be friends with a few people who developed a game called Narbacular Drop, the student game that went on to become that obscure series called Portal, I've been no stranger to hearing stories about what an awesome company Valve is. Within the gaming community as a whole, its rare to see people speaking negatively about the company, due to their very pro-consumer, avant garde approach to making games and experimenting with new models for older games (Team Fortress 2 free to play comes to mind).

I have no idea how this handbook ended up online, but what I learned via this 56 page pamphlet for new employees solidified why most people consider Valve one of the best gaming companies to work at, period. Just like their approach to gaming, the way they run the company is unorthodox at best, empowering their employees to reach their maximum potential. From stressing the fact that working too much overtime is the result of a failure in planning, to giving employees the freedom to work on any projects that they believe they'd be best at, this handbook should be a bible of sorts for most new gaming companies. If there's one thing that's definitely wrong with the game industry right now, its that there is no clear cut system or standard as to how to run them. This typically ends up resulting in creative, and often disastrous approaches to management, resulting in horror stories and scandals that often pop up on gaming blogs.

Take some time and read through the PDF, as it is nothing short of a fascinating and intimate read detailing their fascinating approach to keeping employees happy and putting out fantastic games.

Kickball!

Kickball! is the sweet and simple story of making friends in unexpected places. The art style, especially the bright colors, are perfect for a nice and chill Sunday. Animation student Dana Terrace only had 2 months from start to finish to make this, and she did a pretty damn fine job. She did an exceptional job of portraying the character's expressions. The overall feel of the short is a bit like Fantastic Mr. Fox, an Awesome-Robo favorite.

THE ART OF UNOMORALEZ (NSFW)

(Via)

Unomoralez is a pixel artist based out of Moscow with strong horror themes that mix various aesthetic influences, being predominantly based off of Asian horror story monsters with a sprinkling of mythological Indian characters mashed together.

There's something very twisted and enticing about Moralez's work and I think that a good part of it has to do with the format he uses, which relies heavily on a look that takes me back to very crude illustration software for PC's, with limited color palettes (If any) and a very gritty look. His themes range between macabre childhood memories, creepy animations for fictional old school games, and situations filled with freudian monsters, with characters depicted in bizarre, plain out terrifying situations most of the time. As usual, after the break a sample of Moralez' grimoire of strange worlds and monsters. Be warned though, some material is NSFW.

Body Mechanics

This absolutely badass series of vignettes was a collaboration between the music of Grayson Matthews, the masterful Break Dancing moves of Benzo and the direction of The Public Assembly, headed up by Sammy Rawal and DP Sean.

The main purpose of this slick short was to add visuals to a dance track that sampled distorted car noises, manipulating the moves of Benzo via editing into a series of robotic, industrial loops. As Grayson put it himself, 'Body Mechanics speaks to the creative potential in a collaborative process when it's truly unimpeded.'

Vintage Exotic Pets

(Via)

When walking out and about with your dog, they can sometimes be a bit of a conversation piece, "Oh, a husky, how beautiful! I had one growing up, blah blah blah..." Apparently during the late 19th century/early 20th, before strict animal/common sense laws were put in place, that wasn't enough for some well off pet owners and celebs (or pet "parent", if you're one of those people). Why settle with a simple canine companion or cat, when you could prance around with an undomesticatable cheetah, monkey, or in one mind-boggling example, a snake? Because f*ck norms, that's why.

Check out some more examples of retro exotic pets after the break!

The Shins: The Rifle's Spiral

The Shins newest music video from their 4th Album, 'Port Of Morrows' channels the best of early Tim Burton era stop motion with its macabre interpretation of the songs abstract lyrics. The video was directed by Jamie Caliri, who mentioned he was inspired by Martin Scorsese's recent film, 'Hugo' and the works of Edward Gorey, renown for his ominous and dark illustrated books.

The most interesting part about this new music video is that it premiered exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS video marketplace a few days ago, predating the official Youtube release by at least 2-3 days. Pretty incredible to see such a major group opt for a release on a relatively unused video platform. Nonetheless, the music video turned out beautifully. Check out the making of below!

5th Ave Frogger: Real Time Frogger Is Pretty Impressive

One of the most famous arcade games of all time, Frogger, is 30 years old and what better way to celebrate than to make a real life version? 5th Avenue, known as one of the busiest streets in the world, has now become home to one sweet homage to the original game.

Tyler DeAngelo set out to create 5th Ave Frogger, a game similar to the 80’s classic; dodging cars and vehicles to get to the other side of the street to score points. The twist is that the game reflects real time traffic happening on the street. Through some amazing programming and a crapload of sensors, offering a completely new experience depending on the events happening in the real world. You can visit the official site for more information and behind the scenes footage as to the making of this machine.

Réflexion By Yoshimichi Tamura

I didn't hear about Yoshimichi Tamura until this wonderful little short came out, but after taking a gander at his IMDb I noticed that this animator was definitely a seasoned veteran, with close to two decades of Disney experience under his belt. Starting off his career at the French sector of Disney animation studios with 1992's Goof Troop, he's has had the chance to contribute to close to a dozen Disney projects, with 2009's The Princess And The Frog being his last notable project with the studio. Along the way he's also animated for several Dreamworks and independent features, in both hand drawn and 3D animated mediums.

Mr. Tamura recently debuted his excellent personal short called Reflexion, exploring the theme of how women are overly concerned with the way they look, playing up a girls mirror as her worst enemy. This short was beautifully (more like masterfully) animated and also sported a fantastically executed oil-painterly look, showcasing the culmination of decades of practice. Really inspiring.

Art Of Totoro : Not The Ghibli Kind

The Pub. Click for fullsize. (Via)

I think that even the developers of the Professor Layton series were surprised when their puzzle centric Layton Series took off in the US and Europe. The game offered a very different approach to their gameplay, requiring players to take on and solve increasingly complex puzzles in order to progress, mixed with a very appealing art style that had a strong European flair to it. The combination was a winning one, spawning a variety of sequels, movies and even knockoffs (Konami's Dr. Lautrec comes to mind).

The work of Totoro, an anonymous 30 year old female Japanese artist really baffled me at first, because I couldn't place whether or not this was unseen art for a past Layton game, a future one, or just really well made fanart. And after a little research, I couldn't confirm excatly where this artists work fell due to the artists decision to withhold any personal information on her site. Nonetheless, I found her work to be so well done that it might as well have been official art for one of the Layton installments, nailing the core visual style and expanding on the Layton world. Check out more of her tribute pieces after the break, with a few personal pieces sprinkled in!

Major Lazer : Get Free Feat. Amber

Its been too long since we've featured Major Lazer, and this music video is a wonderfully downtempo departure from the past releases that the collaborative used to put out. If you don't know much about the history of Major Lazer, the project was born as a collaborative effort between two DJ/producers, Diplo and Switch after meeting while working with M.I.A.. Unfortunately, it turns out Switch left the project late last year due to creative differences, and whether or not this track reflects the new direction of Major Lazer along with the recent (And equally awesome) Original Don, it really isn't a bad change at all in my opinion. After all that killing and war, even the Major needs to chill out and reflect a little.

Vintage Heroes By Marvellini

Lady Gundam(Via)

The Marvellini Foto, a Milan based art workshop created by two brothers have been causing a buzz in Italy with their vintage portrait/mashup series known as 'Marvellini.' The name comes from the fact that the portraits originally started off as parodies of Marvel characters, as well as being a play on the Italian word 'Meraviglia,' which translates to 'marvelous.' The final series ended up incorporating anime(as you probably concluded already) and DC characters as well, so check out more from the series after the break!

Stupidity at 2500 FPS

If you've been following us for a while, you probably know that here at Awesome Robo! we're huge fans of slomo and insanely expensive cameras. As a Jackass fan, the third installment particularly caught my attention because it messed around with the insanely expensive Phantom flex cameras, especially made to capture high speed footage . So what happens when someone takes a camera that can capture at 2500 frames per second and film mundane objects like fish bowls, lawnmowers, firecrackers and more wreaking havoc on their environment? This super slow footage motion highlight reel from the Danish TV show "Dumt & Farligt" will make you want to sell everything you own for the opportunity to mess around with one of these bad boys.

Art OF Fatgugu

Click for fullsize (Via)

Fatgugu is a Chinese concept artist that caught my eye with some of his truly awesome environmental pieces. Sometime you run into pieces that kind of baffle you, and leave you wondering as to how the artist could pull them off, but after checking out his blog he thankfully showcased some of his process, which incorporates 3D tools. Its not uncommon for concept artists to use 3D to block out environmental forms and nail their perspective, like the giant citadel above. In his case, he used Google Sketchup, which is a fantastic, free modeling tool that offers an extensive library of user made models.

Just a few years ago this process would have been somewhat out of the realm of possibility due to programs like 3dsMax and Maya costing thousands of dollars, so its been cool to see these new processes evolve. I've gathered a few more images from his portfolio after the break, so check them out! And if you'd like to see some of his process, head over to his blog!

The Art Of Film And TV Design

I think this minidoc did a fantastic job of giving a behind the scenes look at the importance of proper title and opening credit design, interviewing the minds behind some of the best examples to come out of that highly specialized field in recent years. A good title sequence has the tremendous responsibility of setting up the viewer for things to come, ideally encapsulating the core of the movie or TV show in a minute or less. I can definitely appreciate the Off Book mini documentary series for taking a look at fields and subjects that are rarely in the spotlight, with this installment being no exception. If you've ever watched Mad Men, you'll appreciate the opening that much more after watching this.

Donald Duck - A Dogma Film

Icelandic comedy group Mid-Island put together an awesome faux trailer parodying dogma, or Dogme 95, style films made popular by directors such as Lar von Trier and Thomas Vinterburg. Donald Duck lives in Duckburg, where life is harsh and full of strife. He has to take care of his three nephews, put up with his horrible girlfriend Daisy, and face his abusive uncle Scrooge. Then there are matters regarding certain "business" transactions with Goofy that he has to resolve, lest he want to deal with the Beagle Boys. It's a fun video all around, but I especially enjoyed the comedic money-shot at 1:52.

Paul Scheer Introduces Breaking [bad] Gifs

 

Alright, let's get straight to the point, if you haven't taken the time to sit down and watch Breaking Bad you're missing out on one of the best dramas to ever hit television. It's one of the most engaging pieces of television I've watched, and waiting for the final season is almost unbearable. Thankfully, Paul Scheer is here to save the day with some comic relief with Breaking GIFs, a website dedicated to nothing but Breaking Bad GIFs. They make absolutely NO sense, but that's okay because they're god damn hilarious. I'm not really sure what Paul Scheer has to do with anything, but I don't care because it's f*cking Paul Scheer, and I love me some f*cking Paul Scheer.

 

Hit the jump for 9 more wtf-inducing GIFs, and check out BreakingGIFs.com for more updates!

Scifi Roundup : Asternauts And Cats In Space

Its been a good week for scifi related goodness, so I decided to group these two videos into a roundup due to their humorous angle. First of all, Cats In Space created by Dastoli Digital..A mostly visual showcase of cats exploring the feline (Ha) frontier. The short goes off the well known notion that cats make everything better, which is also true in this case.



Above we have the trailer Asternauts, an upcoming film which was the product of a successful crowdsourcing effort on Kickstarter back in August of last year. The Austin based Movie Brats seem to have translated their take on a redneck scifi plot pretty successfully, with two brothers (Early and Joel) finding themselves having to fend off armageddon in their own back yard! Check out the official website to see if a screening will be coming to a theater near you.

Love & Theft

Film Bilder's Love & Theft is a little hard to explain, but if I could sum it up in one word, I'd simply call it a journey. Based off of an abstract quote by Bob Dylan about eternity, the ever transforming short is a trip through pop culture, shapes, patterns, colors and sound in a seven minute trip full of highs and lows. An enjoyable one at that.

The Adorable Art of Geneva Hodgson

Mwah, the image that makes any drab day good again (Via)

We just recently came across the work of the San Francisco based cartoonist/illustrator Geneva Hodgson, and fell in love with her adorable yet simple illustrations and comics. Some of her work is reminiscent of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, it should come as no surprise to see the show and it's characters pop-up now and then throughout her tumblr. I also caught quite a few notes of Ren & Stimpy and a good amount of Disney, and even a few 80's anime hints here and there. Her overall children's book style is simple, yet so full of life and personality.

More after the break, of course!

THE ART OF AKIHIKO YOSHIDA

Final Fantasy IV

Akihiko Yoshida has been a major player in the concept art and art direction field for some of the most notable RPG's to come out of Japan in the last decade or two. Yoshida's vision has shaped incredible games such as Vagrant Story, Ogre Tactics and of course, the latest installments of the Final Fantasy franchise, including Tactics. We also covered his absolutely looking game called Bravely Default: Flying Fairy recently.

Yoshida's work bears some resemblance to that of Yoshitaka Amano, even though the latter has a less stylized and more abstract gouache style of illustrating whereas Yoshida's feel is more along the line of watercolor. They both achieve some really cool compositions with areas of simplicity while at the same time rendering select areas in an incredibly detailed and intricate fashion, putting them both on the same artistic line in my book. After the break, a small selection of works displaying the amazing talent and dedication Mr. Yoshida puts in his work. Enjoy!

Featuring Michael Jordan! Oh wait..

I have to say that I never thought that having a celebrity name could be this sad and funny at the same time. Anyways, think twice before naming your child after a sports icon, as it'll probably end up haunting him for the rest of his miserable life.

Happy Birthday David: The New Prometheus Viral

The pieces begin to fall into place. Happy Birthday David is the latest viral for Weyland Industries, the fictional company in Ridley Scott's upcoming Prometheus. Not only do we get subtle hints at what may be coming in the story, we get our look at Michael Fassbender in action as David, an advanced 8th generation android who is a member of the Prometheus crew.

Prometheus takes place 30 years before Alien and on a first glance, David seems less developed emotionally and nearly child like compared to Ash and Bishop, the emotionless androids in the original Alien films. Perhaps certain events in Prometheus will explain why the later models were somewhat neutered in some sense? As a fan of a series these types of videos provide a fantastic back drop for what to expect from Ridley's return to the series. Prometheus is scheduled for US release on June 8th, 2012 through 20th Century Fox.

Dishonored

Bethesda and Arkane Studios just released this new trailer for their upcoming original IP called Dishonored, a game which seems to mix elements of Assassins Creed and Bioshock in a dystopian setting. The fact that the trailer opens up looking rather generic fantasy before throwing in some scifi/steampunk elements is a nice touch.

Whether or not this game ends up being a third or first person shooter game, I think its nice to see these guys back on the map, considering that they haven't developed a full game since Dark Messiah Of Might and Magic back in 2006, which in my opinion was ahead of its time for its physics and combat system. It might be too much to ask to see some actual gameplay in these overly cinematic debut trailers, but we're pretty excited to discover more about this world soon.

10 Dress The Part Posters By Moxy Creative

Keeping that suit blood free. American Psycho (Via)

These posters by Moxy Creative came out a while back, but I'd love to bring them up again because they're on sale again. This series of ten posters was created to illustrate the most distinguishing aspects of iconic movies from a fashion or clothing aspect, as they are one of the components that makes characters memorable and recognizable.

With the exception of the Usual Suspects (A little too abstract) poster, I think these posters did an amazing job capturing the most notable elements of each of the characters from these classic movies. Check out the rest of them after the break!

Check It Out With Dr. Steve Brule: Animals

As played out as the entire Tim and Eric premise is, I've always been a fan of their Steve Brule segment, featuring John C. Reilly's hopelessly clueless journalistic alter ego. Taking that premise and mixing it with subcultures like furries? Well now that's evolving the concept. Enjoy the horrific awkwardness!

RoboGal's Weekly Cute Mixtape

SUNNFLOWWWERS. (Via)

A Happy Tuesday to you all! While you continue to drag your a** through work or school, don't forget your mental break of the day. They're cute, they're fluffy, and they need YOU. View them, and be in awe of their 'aww'. (Please forgive my horrible jokes...)

More after the break!

Warrior X Converse : A Brand New Collab

Converse has yet again released a colorful new team up music video, this time executed in a Scott Pilgrim-esque style, featuring Mark Foster ( from Foster the people) A-Trak and New Zealand pop talent Kimbra. As of now this release marks the 3rd installment of the Converse branding/ musical project that has featured artists like Santogold, Julian Casablancas and last but not least, the Gorillaz.

This time around the premise revolves around an underground Lucha Libre fight club, involving the kidnapping and stylized beatdowns of the protagonists. You really can't go wrong with anything involving over the top Mexican wrestling, because that's been awesome in our book from day one. Love it.

Turntable Rider

This is absolutely badass. As a collaboration between the interactive artist known as Toshiyuki Sagai, DJ Baku, and a pro BMX'er known as 'Rider Kotaro,' the group set out to combine two performance arts into a seamless experience. By attaching a fader and several motion sensitive devices on the bike, the rider is able to interact with a beat by doing specific tricks that correlate to different turntable functions. Check out the awesome making of after the break!

Slugabed: 'Sex'

Slugabed recently released this awesome retro music video for SEX, the uncategorisable but ultimately uplifiting psychedelic dance track . The music video features the miraculous powers of the Turbo Juicer 4000, presented by Slugabed himself in a fun stop motion style. Considering that he's only 22, its undeniable that Slugabed has some incredible potential. The track is from the upcoming Time Team album, coming out on May 7. Preorder this goodness on Ninjatune.

The Art Of Khang Le

Potato (Via)

Its good to see that the art director for Hawken, Khang Le still has time to post his more personal work online. As a concept artist, he's been a huge source of inspiration for many concept artists of this generation, contributing to a book which many have come to consider as a bible for how to go through the process for concepting: The Skillful Huntsman during his time at Art Center.  I've been a huge fan of his work since the days of the now defunct Project Offset, which also generated a huge amount of hype before abruptly getting the axe from Intel in 2010.

Armed with a ton of hindsight, I'm pretty confident that Adhesive games' Hawken will see the light of day and showcase Khang Le's fantastic talents at building visually distinct worlds. Check out more of Khang's work after the break!

LOL: The Butchering Of A Foreign Classic

It is only on a rare, rare occasion that we here at Awesome-Robo have the primal urge to stop a movie trailer less than 20 seconds in. Armed with the knowledge that this was a Miley Cyrus movie with a title based on internet-speak, I knew ahead of time what I was getting myself into. Nonetheless, I gave it a go. Not since the Twilight trailers have I been more annoyed or have rolled my eyes so incredibly hard; I'm surprised I didn't sever my optic nerve.

Apparently, this stupidly angsty teen flick is based off a much better, intelligent 2008 French film of the same name (see trailer below). While it seems the very basic storyline is similar (That's a stretch) to the American remake, that's where the similarities end. The original film was a poignant, bittersweet, sarcastic affair dealing with a girl coming of age in France with some definite adult themes. Whereas this movie takes the concept, strips it of personality and even throws in a Twlight actress for gods sake. Films about shallow teen 'problems' can be difficult to pull off as is, but can at least be redeemed if there is either some quality humor, and/or attempts are made to not be overly PC just because the main characters are teens ('But... but... What about the children?!').

Don't get me wrong. Silly, lighthearted comedic teen films can be fun. But if you're going to go the angsty, 'OMG, life is so haaaaard lets go to Paris' route, make it actually f*cking hard. We're not interested in, 'Boo, this guy I like is with another girl! Oh, I know: Let me change my Facebook status every two seconds to let everyone I know every minor piece of drama that goes on in my shallow life.' Is it similar, if not identical to how teens can act in real life? You bet your ass! Does an entire goddamn movie need to be made about it? Hell no.

Art Of Future Central

District 9 inspired (Via)

While looking through Future Central's work (aka Mizunoshin-ya), his pieces brought back a certain type of aesthetic that kept bringing me back to Megaman over and over again. His bright color schemes, overly chunky shapes and simplified humans inhabiting his designs reminded me of the good old days of playing some of the Megaman X installments. Well after a little research, turns out that Mizunoshin actually did contribute to Capcom's series at some point, with a piece on his blog being straight out of the Rockman R20 art book that the studio released a while back.

I'm not sure where Mizu currently works, but I really enjoyed looking through his work. He's definitely a man of many trades, delving into animation, illustration, concept and industrial design. So if you're looking for a mech fix, you're in luck! Check out more of his work after the break!

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

We originally posted about this Studio Ghibli/Level 5 Games collaboration last fall, hopeful to see a US release at some point. Looks like our wishes have been answered, as it was just recently reported that Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch will be released in the US this winter, and in Europe next year. The game, which differs slightly in art style and story development from it's DS counterpart, will be about a boy named Oliver who goes on a quest to become a master magician in order to free his dead mother from a parallel world known as 'Ni no Kuni.' Given Studio Ghibli's excellent track record of amazing art style, we can't wait for this release. 

Mega64: Indie Man Returns

With the state of gaming in absolute disarray, who can we rely on to save us from the ravages of main stream studios? Only the defender of the world’s independent games, Indie Man! In his adventures, Indie Man intends to sabotage the major game studios… but will he succeed? Is it possible that he just may have met his match this time?

Holi By Variable

Holi is a Hindu festival held in mainly Indic countries, also referred to as the 'Festival of Colors,' which is a celebration of a new season, good harvests and fertile land. People celebrate this even by throwing colorful scented powders, perfumes and other bright materials at each other. The vibrant nature of the festival symbolizes the departure of winter and the colors typically associated with the season.

Variable and the post production house The Mill collaborated to capture the essence of this festival using a borrowed Phantom Flex. The folks at Variable left a small note as to why they created this, stating that, 'The fast paced lifestyles of our generation result in many not taking the necessary step back to soak in the existing world around us. Our goal with this film is to help viewers further appreciate and take notice of the beauty in life & culture that lies within our world.'

The Art Of Xaxa : Dofus, Wakfu and Beyond!

Wakfu! (Via)

I haven't had a chance to play either Dofus or Wakfu just yet, but in an artistic sense the games left a really great impression. The turn based MMO series (Think Final Fantasy tactics online) first caught my attention during a trip to Paris, where I witnessed a ton of colorful promo work plastered around the city for Ankama's flagship title. While its not well known here in the US, the game has attracted over 11 milliion players worldwide. Fast forward a few years later and I had the chance to meet the Ankama folks at PAX, and noticed that they were selling art books for their heavily stylized series which I picked up. Despite there being a stable of artists working on the title, it appears that an artist called Xavier Houssein (Aka XAXA) was the main man behind the distinct style of the game.

His style could be best described as a very successful hybrid, mixing elements of bande dessinee, anime and a few other styles mixed with extremely vibrant, harmonious color palettes that just pop off the page. Xavier's characters are always fluidly drawn and animated in their poses, capturing their essence in a fun manner. The result is nothing short of pleasing to the eye, especially on a cloudy day. Ankama's franchise has celebrated a great deal of success worldwide, spinning off into TV shows, comic books and even an upcoming 2013 movie adaptation. Check out some more of Xavier's awesome work after the break, with a mild heads up for some risque images (He sure loves his females).

Rumbleseat - The Sadies

Mike Roberts wrote and directed this gritty animated short about a man who finds himself taken on a ride with four ghouls. He goes on a journey through different moments in his life, and comes to the conclusion that must make peace with his past. With music done by Canadian indie rock/alternative country band The Sadies, the short won a 2012 Juno Aware for Best Video of the Year. I absolutely loved the art style, especially the textures. If you want to give them extra support, give them a like over on Facebook!

Whistleless

In need for a light, fun Friday animated short? Whistleless is a breezy, colorful, adorable short where a little bird flies around town, meeting a variety of animals and people. Problem is, he can't whistle. Sounding like only the start of a boiling tea kettle, it seems like everywhere he goes, everyone can whistle properly except for him. But fear not! This sweet story is one of perseverance! Happy Friday!

Simian Mobile Disco : Seraphim

Aoife McArdl directed the latest Simian Mobile Disco music video, simply dubbed, 'A panorama of obsessive behavior.' And it absolutely delivers, showcasing a whole cast of characters engaged in increasingly bizarre obsessive compulsive rituals.

As to why Simian Mobile Disco chose to go this route for their upcoming album called 'Unpatterns,' they recently explained it on Youtube: 'We've been inspired by ideas of repeated loops and patterns breaking down and decaying over time. The process of making electronic-music lends itself to obsessive-compulsive tendencies.' I definitely think its a cool direction, so keep your eyes out for the new album drop on the 28th of May.

The Art Of Sage: Guardians And Protectors

Together Forever (Via)

I really love finding galleries with strong reoccurring themes, because in a way its a reflection of concepts important to the artist who created them. Sage, an anonymous Japanese artist who goes by that nickname falls into that camp. Going through his entire portfolio, I found it really interesting that nearly all of his work shared the same thematic element spread over various time periods: Sentient guardians watching over a typically female subject.

If you were to delve deeper, the fact that this theme is so prevalent might be related to some significant event that might have affected the artist at some point, or just personal taste for a theme they find fascinating. If you think about it, many games have used this contrasting effect to create some truly memorable characters, like the Big Daddy/Little Sister relationship in Bioshock. Whether or not Sage intended anything personal with his work, I really like the fact that his work evoked that type of thought. You can check out more pieces from his 'Guardian' themed set after the break. What's your take on it?

The Stereographic Art Of Dain Fagerholm

Let's face it, 3D is still a goddamn gimmick. It looks cool and brings in a few extra bucks to studios, but it doesn't quite bring the next level of entertainment that some industry leaders have claimed. With that being said; I still have nothing wrong with 3D, it looks cool, and to be honest that's all that really matters, especially when the visuals are as entertaining as the work of Dain Fagerholm. Dain manages to capture a solemn yet friendly feeling to each of his works, very similar to the monsters created by Maurice Sendak. The Sterescopic addition to each of his works actually enhances the overall experience, giving life to what would normally be a relatively static piece. Now I just need to purchase something to display a moving rendition of each work. That won't be expensive or anything.

Check the jump for more of Dain's work and check out his blog here.