"The Game That Time Forgot" - A Thirteen Year Journey

Indie filmmaker and game developer Adam Butcher was awesome enough to put together a little retrospective on a title called Tobias and the Dark Sceptres, an indie title that consumed his life for 13 years. In The Game That Time Forgot, Adam Butcher does an in depth analysis of all the mistakes that snowballed a little game project into a mind blowing endeavor.

It's a trap that some fledgling developers fall into, consumed by the metaphorical albatross that prevents one from giving up even though there's no end in sight. Butcher created this video to coincide with the release of his game (Which actually is free to play), and to serve as a warning as to what not to do if you're venturing forth into the seemingly limitless realm of indie game development.

The fun thing is, I've even had the chance to see bigger gaming companies fall into this same trap..Unrealistic scope, overblown budgets, infinite reworks, missed deadlines. Wish I could share some stories from some of my latest stints with you guys.

The Long Game Of Success - Why Leonardo Da Vinci Was No Genius

Delve just delivered one of the best video essays I've probably seen in years in regards to the pursuit of success, and the distorted modern definition of it. This analysis of highly successful figures over the years, with an emphasis on Leonardo Da Vinci's tumultuous rise to fame actually answered a question I'd wondered about for a long time.

Over the last few decades it's become a well established norm propagated by the media that getting to a certain age without accomplishing everything is the end of the line. Even today I had a conversation in passing about someone saying that they couldn't believe they were turning 30, which really made me wonder how society had come to stigmatize aging as having a negative impact with one's own success.

This analysis did an amazing job pointing out how even history itself gleans on every successful persons 'long game,' a period of struggle lasting anywhere from 5-15 years before finally having a grand breakthrough. Everyone from Harrison Ford to Richard Branson shared this same trait, and in the grand scheme of things it seems like we've all forgotten about the fact that it takes a lot of struggle, and time to get successful. There are exceptions to this rule of course, but society seems to put a lot more stock in those few rather than the more common route.

The Long Game of Success really hit home with me, especially my lingering feelings after working in a Silicon Valley startup for a year prior to quitting. Everyone talked about their dreams of hitting it big overnight, getting bought out hastily by a large company, IPO's in record times..The pressure of seeing a few getting rich quick, and ultra young was a pervasive mentality that people embraced in that interesting bubble. Shaving off ten years of my life in an ultra stressful environment for a chance to cash in some stock options was cool and all, but I guess after watching this video I finally have an answer: I'm a believer in the long game.

To all our readers who are struggling, yet powering through the hard times- This really is a must watch. Check out part 2 after the break.

What's Inside A Black Hole?

London based production studio Beakus were commissioned to create a series of animated films that explore key concepts about our universe. While I have a fascination with the way our universe works, historically most presentations regarding these themes have lacked a visual aspect to keep me engaged.

The folks at Beakus did an awesome job exploring these concepts, incorporating some really fun animated imagery to keep viewers compelled, while offering some really awesome insight into age old questions. I finally know a play by play breakdown of what would happen to my body if I got sucked into a black hole (Awful doesn't even begin to describe it). Check out the other two shorts in the series: How big is the universe? and How do we know how old the sun is? after the break.

Font Men - An Interview With True Juggernauts Of Typography

In terms of a niche industry, typefaces are probably among one of the most niche fields to get into, and a fiercely competitive one at that. Font Men is an intimate look at two friends who delved into the field early and have dominated it for decades, amassing a client list that made my jaw drop. They also happened to own the domain for Typography.com, which served as their company homepage. Unfortunately the pair had a major falling out following the filming of this documentary following 25 years of business, and are currently embroiled in a massive 20 million dollar legal battle over the ownership of their company as we speak. It's too bad that money ultimately soured their entire relationship, they definitely did some amazing work together.

You may not have heard of Jonathan Hoefler or Tobias Frere-Jones but you've seen their work. Before their recent split they ran the most successful and well respected type design studio in the world, creating fonts used by everyone from the Wall Street Journal to the President of the United States.

Kinetic Hotwheels Installation - Metropolis II

Metropolis II is an insightful short film about a really cool installation by Chris Burden currently on display at the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Featuring at least a few thousand cars set in an infinite loop, the installation was created in order to capture the spirit of a metropolitan city bustling with traffic. Chris offers his insights into his goals behind the project to the folks at Supermarché, who put this project together.

Portrait Of A Kendama Samurai

A kendama is the Japanese equivalent of traditional skilll based ball and cup toys, in which the goal is and always has been the same: Catching one object with the other. This Matthew Ballard directed short goes into the portrait of Iijima Hiroki, a professional Kendama player who talks about how he brought his love of dancing and Kendama together to create an exciting new hybrid.

Iiji discusses his thoughts on the past, his craft and his attempts to redefine the future of freestyle Kendama, which fits the same fun sport niche as Hockern (Freestyle Stooling). Intimate and heartfelt, I loved this little portrait of someone small with some truly big ambitions.

A Profile Of Victo Ngai

Victo Ngai was one of our favorite NY based illustrators that we featured last year, captivating us with her rich editorial illustrations that combined various influences from her rich multicultural upbringing. In this interview by Like Knows Like, Victo shares some very interesting insight into her career and art so far. One of the most interesting points she shares regards the social stigma still present in China regarding people who make art their career, and her struggle with it. Very insightful. You can check out our 'art of' feature for Victo Ngai here.



Victo Ngai hails from Hong Kong and is a multiple award winning Illustrator, who lives and works in Manhattan, NY. You might have seen her stunning editorial work in magazines like The New Yorker. Recently, she also made it to the Forbes 30 Under 30!

Jeff Gabor's "Epic" Animation Reel

Animator Jeff Gabor just released this truly fascinating reel showcasing his process for cinematic animation on Blue Sky's 2013 feature, Epic in all it's different stages. I think it's awesome to get a behind the scenes glimpse as to how animators bring different scenes to life. In Gabor's world he plays the role of everyone and really gets into it to deliver the best performance possible. To some companies, it's just as important to see the process of the artist as the final product before hiring, keep that in mind.

On a side note, Blue Sky's Epic was a truly fascinating example of the type of damage that kneejerk media coverage can cause to a movie's reputation. When the movie came out and had a slow opening weekend, every single news outlet, movie forum and person I knew was quick to label it as a 'bomb,' dismissing it without even giving the movie a chance. After doing some research I learned it had actually grossed over $260 million worldwide on a budget of $93 million. After watching it it's actually not half bad, just a good case of misleading word of mouth and overshadowing by other features.

Joe Bowers - An Inside Look At The Animation Of "Tangled" And "Bolt"

This insightful video interview by Frame By Frame gives us a behind the scenes look into some of the animation work that veteran animator Joe Bowers created for Tangled and Bolt during his tenure at Disney. It's really cool to hear how he approached each scene, the challenges he faced and high level animation theory. A reocurring theme you might notice is how he always attempted to up the ante and get out of his comfort zone, which seems to be a common trait of any great artist.

Whether or not you're an animator, there's some truly great information and advice to be gleaned from this 20 minute interview. The most subtle animated movements, ones which we as an audience would typically gloss over are given new meaning with his in depth explanations. I'd been looking for an excuse to watch Bolt again, and this did the trick. Joe is currently working at Dreamworks, where he's putting the finishing touches on the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Overboard!

Ariel Chao's Overboard is one of the best representations of the types of experiences you'll probably have while employed in any creative industry. With a few years of experience under my belt in the rocky videogame industry, I think Overboard nails it on the head, hard. You'll run into studios run with a hands off approach, disorganized studios, studios run by divas, ego trippers and crooks, but every once in a while a studio will come around that knows how to run a tight ship and keep everyone relatively happy. It's not all peaches and cream, as they say.

An animated look into how the production side of animation works. How an animation studio runs portrayed through a ship analogy. We follow producers Jim and Jane as they navigate their way through the wonderfully chaotic world of animation.

PBS Offbook - Frame By Frame (The Art Of Stop Motion)

In the latest bite sized Offbook expose, they focus on the art of stop motion in it's many different incarnations, starting off from the origin of stop motion in the US and Europe (The histories vary) to its relevance in this day and age as a reemerging art form. The most interesting tidbit came in the form of stop motion animators fearing for their craft following the decision to embrace CGI with the ground breaking Jurassic Park, which was originally slated to be a stop motion movie (Early tests actually exist online).

While I think we can all attest to the fact that stop motion kind of faltered in cinema for quite a period with the advent of CGI, it's returned to prevalence thanks to how much it visually stands out in the overly saturated animated feature industry these days (Paranorman comes to mind). We really should thank studios like Aardman, which steadfastly stood by the medium that made them successful through the dark ages of stop motion. Having been running the blog for a few years now it really does seem like there's been a resurgence in indie animators and studios using the medium, as well as services like Vine encouraging users to experiment.

The Secret Story Of Toys

Anthony Lasedich created an incredibly fun, awesomely insightful behind the scenes look at the small group of folks fortunate enough to work as full time toy sculptors and prototypers. The Secret Story Of Toys offers us the perspectives of a few artists in that position, who are also in a state of disbelief as to how cool their job is, as well as a little look into the process that goes into creating a prototype sculpt before production. Just a look at the space that these guys work in, as well as how humble they all are is incredibly inspiring to say the least.

If you look carefully enough you'll also get a chance to see the early prototypes of the upcoming Spy and Engineer toys from Team Fortress 2 as well as some other cool toys. This playful mini-documentary just left me wanting more, and I honestly hope to see Anthony create more behind the scenes looks at these niche industries. Just prepare for some career path regret after watching these artists talk about how lucky they are to have such a fun, laid back job.

Emanuele Pavarotti's John Carter Animation Reel

Update: (Emanuele has been asked to password protect this reel, but the pw is barsoom)

Cinematic animator Emanuele Pavarotti just recently released a comprehensive set of insightful process breakdowns regarding his work on Disney's underrated adaptation of Edgar Burrough's 1895 scifi epic, John Carter (Of Mars), a film that I still believe failed thanks to the atrocious marketing behind it, including it's last minute name change to remove any semblances of scifi themes. This can be attributed in part to director Andrew Stanton's (Toy Story 3, Wall-E, Finding Nemo) getting the ability to dictate how the film would be advertised. So in a nutshell give the movie a chance, it's actually pretty solid and well acted, and the visuals are nothing to scoff at either.

Emanuele's work is such an example of the amount of effort poured into each and every shot, where he acted out, blocked out and refined in multiple passes with the input of the director and multiple departments. Since his work on that project and Clash Of The Titans, he's gone on to work at Blue Sky on projects including Rio 2, Epic and the fourth installment of Ice Age.

Our Son

Student animator Eric Ko created this trippy but cool animated short, entitled Our Son, which was selected for Cartoon Brew's Student Animation Festival.  Described as a transition for reckless irresponsibility to reality, the story was inspired by the childhood of Ko and his friend.  It's very stylized, and transitions from desaturated to very colorful. The whimsical feel fits the erratic, crazy nature of childhood, and then settles in a more neutral feel, i.e. adulthood.

What Makes A Hero?

You might not realize it, but just about every book, movie, videogames and even life carry the same narrative backbone of a protagonist and their journey, trials and tribulations. Matthew Winkler of TEDucation narrates this high level concept, called 'The Hero's Journey,' as dubbed by Joseph Campbell in his groundbreaking 1949 book, 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces.'

Make: Believe - Sculpting Toys With Scott Hensey

The awesome debut of the Make Believe series features a spotlight on Scott Hensey, a man whom you've probably never heard of by name, but has probably been part of your childhood at some point. As a toy sculptor, Scott got his start working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before it got big and has been doing it since (Over 30 years to count).

From action figures to cereal promo toys to McDonalds happy meal toys, it's fascinating to hear just how many classic toys this one man has contributed to (Star Wars, Pixar, Disney, Playmates, Tomy, Bandai, etc). The best part about it all is just how humble the man is and how much he loves his work for the fact that he puts smiles on kids faces. If you want to check out just how much work this man has put out, check out his company website over at Toysculpt.com. Loive it.

The Impact Of Previsualization In Hollywood By Hanoun Safi

This was one of the most insightful documentaries I've probably seen all year, with Hanoun Safi lifting the veil on the previsualization industry. Previsualization entails visualizing complex scenes ahead of time to answer questions for people like the directors (Does this shot work?) and investors (Is this scene worth a million dollars?). Previsualization is also a term used for any process that helps visualize any aspect of a videogame, movie or creative project and answer questions for the people involved about aspects like style, color, shots, sound and a plethora of other aspects.

This 25 minute doc goes into the aspects of previsualizing shots in the movie industry, and takes a look at just a few of the incredible tools these guys use to save most of all, money and second of all, time. Its a fascinating watch, with plenty of interviews from industry people explaining the purpose of what they do in the grand scheme of things. Prepare to learn a thing or two!

Amazing grace

This wonderful little slice of life minidoc delves into the life of Terry Beeman, an aspiring gymnast who found his calling in dance and choreography. I've never been sure about what to think of interpretative dance, but after seeing it from Beeman's perspective, its just another form of expression with the stage as his canvas. Its an insightful, well edited and intimate portrait of an artist practicing the craft he loves. Kudos to the directors, Alexis Wanneroy and Emilie Heckel for bringing proper light to this art form.

On The Shelf

For three art students (Kevin Njoo, Hannah Joe, and Sarah Wolfe), their senior project saw them interacting with other seniors. Senior citizens, that is. The student trio made their way over to their local senior center, and interviewed a few different people. Recording their conversation, they later put together an short animation based off their chat with two different gentlemen. Realizing the vast generational gap, especially where technology is concerned, they decided to give each gentleman their own old-school, well-used household appliance as a character. Though short, I loved the idea and concept behind it.

Portrait Of An Inventor: Ralph Baer

While the creators of Pong went on to be widely regarded by pop culture as the creators of the first smash hit videogame, a humble inventor by the name of Ralph Baer actually created the first home console in his home which predated Pong by a few years. This system, which came to be known as the Magnavox Odyssey went on to spawn countless imitators and played a big part in kickstarting the console craze of the 70's and 80's. This poignant mini documentary by David Friedman gives us a little insight as to what keeps Ralph going at the age of 95, as well as some of his innovations.