Next up was a workshop by Brown Bag where they described their experiences using the animation toolset ‘Toon Boom Studio‘ to create a new children’s tv series ‘Wobbly Land‘. It seems to have a steep learning curve, particularly if you are used to Flash (no tweening!) but they had great technical support from Toon Boom’s creators, including 2 weeks of training. TB also created custom effects plugins for Brown Bag, that helped give the show it’s unique (and very non-generic vector animation) look.

The last workshop I attended was ‘Machinima FilmMaking’ (the art of making movies inside video game engines) by Friedrich Kirschner, the developer of Movie Sandbox, a heavy modification of the game Unreal Tournament 2004 that turns it into a Machinima application. The game world becomes your stage and the characters your actors, who you can direct as you please, either ‘live’ or through pre-defined scripts.

Some cool input methods were shown, one involved controlling your ‘actor’ like a virtual puppet using the strings on a usb golf controller. Another made use of the Xbox 360′s Guitar Hero controller so your machinima actor can jam on some chords.

Also demoed was an innovative supporting technology called Milkscanner, a low budget but highly effective method of scanning 3d objects using a webcam, lego, a bowl and some milk(!). A (small plastic) elephant was gradually submerged in milk, each stage captured by the webcam and then the software assembled each ‘slice’ into a 3d wireframe suitable for import into Movie Sandbox. Great stuff, innovative and nutricious!

The characters were fantastically imagined and many had a dark edge. Commander Makara had a symbiotic cyborg eyepatch (?!) that would take over and speak through her now and then, wierd and scary for a kids show.

The most memorable moment of the show was probably all the characters flew their crafts into formation and combined to form the giant robot Dai-X. They would then fight off whatever threat the Imperial Alliance had sent, leaving the galaxy safe for another week. Genius stuff – link1 – link 2 – link 3

Character Design For Mobile Devices
Everything you need to know about sprite graphics, a history of 8/16 bit video game systems, production techniques and tips, a Super Mario evolution and lots of and interesting insights… packed with clear screenshots… indespensible. link

Refill – Issue 4
A bit like a designer's 'Lucky Bag' containing the magazine, a mousepad, stickers and some fliers and stuff… But it's really all about the 'mook' (magazine/book hybrid) and the interviews and artwork showcased in it. link

Business Cards – The Art Of Saying Hello
Just about every concievable twist on the 80x55mm biz card format, from sticky-note pads to 5mm thick perspex blocks and everything inbetween… I particularly liked the idea of just putting your own sticker on someone elses card to make it your own. link

.Some download links for the vid
.Times article on how it was achieved technically
.Guardian article about planned tour
.Unofficial Gorillaz site
.Official Gorillaz site
.Gorillaz fan site

This week Masamune Shirow's Ghost In The Shell has been on my mind a lot, I've been rewatching a subtitled dvd of GITS 2 Innocence that I picked up in Sydney's Chinatown last January… I still can't help but be blown away by the it, the story / visuals every time, breathtaking. Then on Friday The Irish Times reviewed Innocence to coincide with the screening of an English dubbed version on limited cinema release locally. Also today while browsing the 3 for 30 euro section at Xtravision I spotted Vol's 1 and 2 of Stand Alone Complex, the GITS animated tv series, and a copy of the first movie (to replace the Divx copy I have) so I snatched them up… The movie dvd features a nice music video by Sly and Robbie, a Japanese ambient music meets dub type ting… Then there's the sequel of sorts to Innocence in novel form where Batou looks for his dog and in the process questions if he has a soul… and the Stand Alone Complex 'Gig 1' (first series) box set out mid Nov… and the Subtitled Gig 2 boxset out now… plenty of brain-hacking, net-jacking, cybercrime fighting, cyborg soul searching for the winter and beyond :D