A Little Film About... Thomas Burden

A Little Film About... Thomas Burden is an inventive and inspiring look into the method and little madness of the film's titular 3D illustrator. In three minutes, Burden takes us through a day in his creative life, exploring the humble origins of his subject matter and style ( 60-70's National Geographic meets Argyll Story Catalog), the temperament of his quiet village home of Chichester, his home-life, and the intentions and motivations behind his work.

His pieces capture a vibe of child-like abandon and Clokey-like aestheticism. Burden is a meticulous illustrator and an adventurous tinkerer, smashing shapes together to create oddball creatures and miniature worlds of wonder. Check out more of his awesome work at his personal website, and give the guys and gals at Handsome Frank a nod too for making such a gorgeously Wes Anderson-esque video.

ANOMALY is a Stirring Sci-Fi Re-imagining of Christian Nativity

Anomaly is the latest stunning collaboration between Directors Salomon Ligthelm & Dan DiFelice. Set amidst the starstruck euphoria and espionage-soaked paranoia of the 1960's, Anomaly draws from the same creative wellspring as the works of Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick.

Oliver Grier, a young astronaut on a mission to space; experiences the heartache and regret of a broken relationship. The film follows Oliver and his fiancé Haylee Lawson's journey, as they navigate love and disillusionment.  During Oliver's mission, a long awaited astronomical event begins to take place - an event, predicted decades prior by scientist Noel Fitz, an elderly man whose theories have subsequently been disregarded due to an unstable mental condition.

Anomaly has just pole-vaulted itself near the top of some of my favorite shorts this year. Definitely one of the most beautifully shot films I've seen this year (That CIA-redacted title sequence à la Gareth Edwards' Godzilla sold me immediately).

The film hasn't been out for more than a day and it's already managed to garner effusive praise (rightly so) and provoke lively debate, picking apart the film's cosmically-drenched symbolism. Is the Bayt Lahm comet the returning star of Bethlehem? Is Haylee's child the second coming? Visually extraordinary, thematically provocative, and deftly written and directed; Anomaly could not have been released on a more timely date.

Fractalicious

It should be a surprise to no-one that I love fractals. Intricately dense three-dimensional landscapes representative of complex mathematical patterns that permeate throughout all scales of the natural (and unnatural) world, from the grid-based construction of contemporary cities to the veins of a tree-leaf.

VFX artist Julius Horsthuis has just released a compilation of his fractal animations over the past year; combining over 20 clips amounting to just over an hour of footage into one 4-minute visual espresso shot of inspiration. He's also currently got an interactive 360-degree project called "Foreign Nature" coming out sometime next year for the Oculus Rift. Check out more of his work here. Great job Julius, see you in the new year!

'Wanderers' Is A Gorgeous Trip Through The Human Journey Into Space

Optimism for space exploration is in vogue again, and I couldn't be happier for it. From Christopher Nolan's blockbuster Interstellar to Tomek Bagiński's magnificent promotional short film Ambition, dozens of prominent film-makers and independent artists remain stubbornly entranced by the magnetic potential and majesty of outer-space.

Wanderers echoes these sentiments, transporting viewers on a captivating 4-minute tour throughout the hypothetical future of space colonization, all the while narrated by an inspiring spoken meditation on the human instinct to explore courtesy of the late-astrophysicist Carl Sagan. Check out the director's website and stunningly beautiful image gallery here.

No Two Stars Are Alike In "One Of A Kind"

One Of A Kind is a visually stunning, transcendental short about the existence of the world and it's many interesting characters and eras, as portrayed via an ever changing dinner party cast. Fantastically narrated by Jim Carter, we're made to realize that this animated short isn't about any one character, but about the concept of individuality that every human possesses, and how no two people/creatures are alike.

And holy crap, that establishing shot with those beautiful, expressionist environments made my jaw drop. This is one of those shorts that feels like a perfect blend of music, art and narrative- So much so that the creators made it look somewhat effortless. Kudos to the folks at Trunk Animation, including director Rok Predin, this is one of the best executed animated shorts I've seen in a long time.

Tokyo - The Peculiar Traveler

Ever play The Stanley Parable? The game benefited from having an amazing, narrative driven experience that gauged your willingness to go along with what you're told versus what you actually want, with surprising results. I get the feeling that filmmaker Alex Cornell had a chance to play the game, because his incredibly charming little travelogue about Tokyo has a very familiar feel to it. So much so that it will probably leave a smile on your face, and really make you want to impulsively drop everything and travel to Japan for a week or two of feeling wonderfully lost. Absolutely loved this.

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.

The Art Of Miles Johnston

(Via)

Miles Johnston is an up and coming UK digital illustrator who's made some truly remarkable strides as an amateur to professional artist over the course of 6 years, ie 20 years old. At his current age he's showing some remarkable talent, and already finds himself employed along side some of the world's best illustrators with companies like Applibot (Legends Of The Cryptids, Galaxy Saga) as well as being featured in ImagineFX multiple times.

If you're one of the artist readers and really need a kick in the butt to get to work, Johnston released a 6 year progress ZIP showing off his progress from year one till present, and it's a pretty damn amazing difference from year 1 till now (Get it over here). Check out more of his awesome illustration work after the break, and get back to practicing!

The Pixel Painter

It's never too old to go digital! The Pixel Painter is a wonderful look into the life of 97 year old Hal Lasko (Lovingly referred to as 'Grandpa'), who found a new way to express himself as an artist thanks to his grand son introducing him to the world of computers. Originally a typographer in the analog age, Hal was afflicted with a debilitating visual condition called Macular Degeneration that lead him to believe that his creative career was over, which turned out to not be the case.

Ever since being introduced to painting programs on computers, Lasko now spends about 10 hours a day pixel painting, executing pieces that resemble a mix of retro computer graphics and pointillism. An inspiring piece about how the journey of an artist never quite ends, and how technology has enabled people to keep on going in the face of adversity. This brought some much needed cheer to my day. Hal's family is currently selling prints of his work over on his website, as a means of raising funds to make his next birthday that much more special.

How To Train Your Robot

Created by students of the Platige Image (Paths Of Hate) and CD Projeckt Red (The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077) animation and VFX course, How To Train Your Robot is a tongue in cheek short about a trainer working with his 'Mahmut' boxing robot Real Steel style, except this short is about a few thousand times more entertaining than that godawful movie.

The exercise with the students mixed just about every discipline, with the goal of creating a cinematic quality CGI short. Storyboards, concept art, modeling, animation, shooting, directing compositing and VFX. Considering that the game and animation industry is rather small in Poland, it's awesome to see these companies do their part to stimulate new generation of creatives interested in this career path.

The Marmalade Identity

The creative/advertising collective known as Marmalade recently uploaded this absolutely mind blowing behind the scenes look at how their workshop style approach to visual development is pushing the medium to all new levels. In terms of the feel I got from these guys, I'd equate what they're doing for advertising to what the now defunct El Bulli accomplished in the food world with their molecular gastronomy. Using cutting edge equipment including SPIKE, their incredible robotic slow-mo shooting cameraman, Marmalade is able to capture footage in (impossible looking) trajectories so smooth it almost looks fake. Really inspiring to hear these pioneers explain what they're about.

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.

The Painterly Art Of Murayama

Dinner is served (Via)

Murayama blew my mind with his skills, especially when I learned that he was only 26. The Tokyo based freelance illustrator really caught my eye with his vibrant palettes and his odd style, which fluctuates between extremely painterly and somewhat cartoony, with an emphasis on anthropomorphic subject matter. The way he renders his pieces really reminded me of Akihiko Yoshida (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Series, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy), who kind of has a watercolor-y feel to his pieces.

Murayama has already worked on titles for Square Enix, Takara Tomy and other high profile companies on mainly unlocalized Japanese games. There's some really beautiful stuff going on with his work in terms of his rendering style and palettes, so be sure to check out more of his portfolio after the break!

Google's Self Driving Car Is Truly Incredible

I had heard of the Google self driving car prototypes that were supposedly in development, but I had no idea we'd see such an impressive field test so soon. We've come a long way. After about 200,000 miles worth of testing the vehicle, Google felt confident in conducting a test featuring the unlikeliest of candidates for 'driving,' a 95% blind man called Steve Mahan.

Using a preprogrammed route, the car safely, and smoothly drove Steve to Taco Bell and dry cleaners, using advanced sensors and a rapidly spinning camera (Situated on top) to rapidly map out the surrounding environment to ensure the passengers safety. It really cheered me up to see Mr. Mahan being given the opportunity that a blind man would probably never have otherwise, and the potential for such a program to improve people's lives. We're probably still years off from seeing a mass market version of such a scifi concept, but its inspiring to see the progress made since the program's debut in 2010.

Oh The Places You'll Go At Burning Man!

The only thing I realized after watching this dreamy retelling of Dr. Seuss' "Oh The Places You'll Go" with a Burning Man flavor is how badly I want to go to the festival. Its a really uplifting, playful video with a great message that I had forgotten about over the years.

Blind Kitty Gets A Second Chance

Sweet little Oskar the blind kitty has just been made so happy.  He has been given his first toys, including a little ball with a bell in it.  It really made me d'aww to watch this sweet little guy.  I was due for a good cry, anyway.  While you may also shed a few tears while watching this, at least be comforted in knowing they're happy tears. 

Address Is Approximate

A very creative stop motion short using Google maps street view as a major starting point. A toy escapes its grim reality as a neglected desk novelty by embarking on a cross country road trip to the Pacific via Google's service. Fantastic work by Tom Jenkins of Theoryfilms, who produced, animated, filmed, lit and edited the film.

Rosa: Bringing Life To A Shattered World

ROSA is a short animated film which has been garnering some pretty significant attention on the international film festival circuits. This ten minute animated short follows the exploits of a cyborg called ROSA, awakened in a post apocalyptic world to carry out her prime directive: Restoring life to a dead world. However, the heroine finds out that she's not the only entity at work in this world, and all hell breaks loose. The short had certain scenes and shots that brought back memories of Ghost In The Shell, and even some of the heavily choreographed cinematic fight scenes from Metal Gear Solid 4.

This project was incredibly impressive for the fact that it was supposedly only created by one person, Jesus Orellana over the course of one year with no budget. The success of this short film, which was officially completed on February 28, 2011 got the attention of Hollywood and according to his bio on his website, he's now at work on his first feature film. That's pretty damn inspiring.

I LOOK & MOVE

This lovely stop motion short was created by Constantine Konovalov in order to illustrate a simple, yet powerful idea. The short features a stop motion short from the perspective of someone looking down, and celebrates the ability to affect your environment rather than being affected by it. In a way its a tip of the hat to everyone who's been able to create or build something that left a mark on this realm. Check out the making of on Constantine's blog, Teeter-Tammer-Tam!

Keep Drawing By Studio Shelter

An awesome tribute by the South Korean studio known as Studio Shelter to all the artists out there struggling to get better...Just keep drawing guys. Each frame of this animation pretty much contains a unique character, selling the point that with time and persistence you'll only see improvement. This video could be applied to just about any skill, including blogging (ha).