Cghub blog

Amazing Spider Man - 4 minute Trailer

Rawls — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:31:47 -0500

Starship Troopers: Invasion - Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:04:37 -0500

TRON: Uprising - Series Premiere Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:12:44 -0500

Lost Planet 3 - Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:51:43 -0500

Total Recall - Trailer

Rawls — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:42:40 -0500

Digital Domain’s John Textor Brags to Investors about Exploiting Student Labor

Rawls — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:12:16 -0500

I read this posting today on CartoonBrew by Amid, and just HAD to re-post it here on CG Hub, for the very purpose of informing you all about some of the things going on out there in the animation/entertainment world and to hopefully make some of you aware so you don't fall victim to these vultures. Feel free to leave your enlightening and enraging comments below and discuss with fellow CG Hubbers, or you can also join the comments over on Cartoonbrew.

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Digital Domain CEO John Textor envisions big things for his company’s new feature animation studio in Port St. Lucie, Florida called Tradition Studios. While we’ve written about the studio’s ambitious feature film plans, what wasn’t known until recently is how Textor intends to create the films. His plan is to convince students to pay Digital Domain to work on its films for free.

The blog VFX Soldier has obtained a speech that Textor gave last November to investors in which he revealed how the company’s new animation school Digital Domain Institute will be integrated with the Tradition studio. Textor told the audience:

Classes starting in the education space, what’s interesting is the relationship between the digital studio and the college. Not only is this a first in a number of ways that we’ve talked about, but 30% of the workforce at our digital studio down in Florida, is not only going to be free, with student labor, it’s going to be labor that’s actually paying us for the privilege of working on our films.

Now this was the controversial element of this and the first discussions with the Department of Education, ’cause it sounds like you’re taking advantage of the students. But we were able to persuade even the academic community, if we don’t do something to dramatically reduce costs in our industry, not only ours but many other industries in this country, then we’re going to lose these industries .. we’re going to lose these jobs. And our industry was going very quickly to India and China.

Students, in other words, will pay up to $105,000 for the “privilege” of working on Digital Domain’s features, the first of which will be The Legend of Tembo. As VFX Soldier points out, “It’s one thing to work for low pay, it’s another thing to work for free, but it’s unfathomable to be expected to pay to work for free.

If all of this sounds a little fishy, that’s because it is. The Animation Guild in Los Angeles is exploring whether Digital Domain might be in violation of state and federal labor laws. They’ve tried to communicate with multiple Florida government agencies, including the state’s Department of Education, with no luck yet. Federal labor laws, however, would appear to be in favor of artists as they clearly stipulate that interns cannot “perform productive work” (i.e. work on the production of a film) without being compensated with at least minimum wage and overtime pay. (Minimum wage, by the way, is $7.67 per hour in Florida.)

As animation education programs proliferate around the United States and competition intensifies for a finite number of jobs, studios find themselves in a position to exploit young artists more aggressively than ever before. Whether it’s Titmouse relocating its studio nearly 3,000 miles away to avoid paying its employees union wages or Digital Domain making people pay to work on its films, there are plenty of legal loopholes that studios can exploit to save a buck on the backs of their production crews. And some studio CEOs are so proud of themselves that they’ll publicly boast about how they’re getting away with it.

Hotel Transylvania - Trailer

Rawls — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:47:22 -0500

Rise of the Guardians - Trailer

Rawls — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:44:11 -0500

Total Recall - Teaser trailer

Rawls — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:23:36 -0500

Prometheus - Trailer 2

Rawls — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:03:45 -0500

My Family and the Wolf

Rawls — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:36:26 -0500

My Family and the Wolf is a beautiful hand drawn film in development in Europe, directed by Adrian Garcia, Alfredo Torres and Victor Maldonado at Barcelona-based Headless Productions (Nocturna), produced by Paris-based Nectarious Films.

Pilote Tout en Haut du Monde / Longway North

Rawls — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:11:22 -0500

Longway North is a proposed animated feature in development from director Rémi Chayé (storyboards, The Secret of Kells, assistant director, Le Tableau), writers Claire Paoletti and Patricia Valeix, and Paris-based Sacrebleu Productions.

Sasha, a young Russian artistocratic girl at the end of the 19th century, dreams of the Great North and languishes over Oloukine, her grandfather, a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer, who has not returned from his last expedition to conquer the North Pole.
He transmitted his vocation to Sasha which is far from satisfying her parents as they have already arranged for their daughter to marry.
She revolts against this destiny, flees and is resolved to going to join Oloukine a longway north.

A wonderful style for feature animation to say the least.

You can check out more work and info about the film on their production blog.

Ruin

Rawls — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:59:07 -0500

RUIN is an animated short set in a post-apocalyptic universe, created by the talented folks at Oddball Animation.

http://www.oddballanimation.com/

Frankenweenie - Trailer

Rawls — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 10:17:15 -0500

Brave - Extended Clip (Trailer)

Rawls — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:38:05 -0500

For more High Res images of some of the other main characters, go HERE.

Mass Effect 3: Take Earth Back - Trailer

Rawls — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:02:07 -0500

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Rawls — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:52:30 -0500

In our industry of creativity and imagination, it is moments like this this when I am able to say that I am humbly proud to be numbered amoung such talented idividuals who create the most heart warming and captivating stories and worlds.

When I first learned about the game/app of Morris Lessmore (you can purchase the ipad game here) I was instantly intrigued by the level of dedication that went into, what I thought, "just a cool looking ipad game".

After viewing all the footage that combines to make this animated short however, I am reminded of how seeing the creative minds of my coleagues at work can immensely lift my inspiration that much more. The very idea of using the power of "stories" to tell a story, on top of the expert level of art and animation that brings it to life, in my mind at least, makes this a lasting classic work of animated genius. My creative hat goes off to the whole Lessmore team.

A little more info from off of their Vimeo page:

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” is one of five animated short films that will be considered for outstanding film achievements of 2011 in the 84th Academy Awards ®.

Avengers - Super Bowl Trailer

Rawls — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:04:05 -0500

Amazing Spider Man - Trailer 2

Rawls — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:54:35 -0500

Adam and Dog

Rawls — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:04:05 -0500

This fantastic trailer is a little taste of a new personal short by Disney visual developement artist Minkyu Lee. The full film isn't available online as of yet, but it was just nominated for an Annie Award. Minkyu sent Cartoonbrew the trailer with this note:

This is a short film that me and a group of my close friends made. It was put together by artists who work at various studios, including Disney Feature, Dreamworks and Pixar; The animation is done by myself, Jennifer Hager, James Baxter, Mario Furmanczyk, Austin Madison, and Matt Williames. Glen Keane also helped by being a consultant on the film, and also doing some visual development. It is a completely independent film without any major studio involvement. We are really excited for people to see it, and wanted to share.

The Dark Knight Rises - Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:33:04 -0500

Wrath of the Titans - Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:23:39 -0500

Prometheus - Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:15:29 -0500

The Hobbit - Trailer

Rawls — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:45:45 -0500

Men in Black 3 - Trailer

Rawls — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:10:52 -0500

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Trailer

Rawls — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:28:02 -0500

John Carter - Trailer

Rawls — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:56:24 -0500

Brave - Trailer 2

Rawls — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:11:06 -0500

Pixar's Brave (new images)

Rawls — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:07:50 -0500

...and a couple older ones from the teaser trailer, just because they looks so good!

I for one am excited about seeing an original Pixar film again. – no more Cars, no more Toys.

Biggest launch in videogame history

Rawls — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:24:08 -0500

The year isn’t over yet, but barring a record-shattering gross by Tintin or Happy Feet 2, we already know what will become the highest-grossing animated project of 2011.

Drumroll, please. . . and the film is . . .

. . . actually, it’s not a film at all. It’s a videogame:

Activision’s release of the videogame “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3″ last Tuesday ranked as the biggest launch of any videogame in history. Within its first 24 hours of release, the game sold 6.5 million units in North America and the UK, earning $400 million dollars and well on its way to over $1 billion. “We believe the launch of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3′ is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories,” claimed Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision. By contrast, the all-time single-day movie gross record belongs to the latest installment of Harry Potter, which took in $91 million earlier this year.

Some may cry foul about comparing higher-priced games to movie ticket prices, but videogames have always cost more, and it has been only in the last few years that they have consistently challenged the dominance of feature animation grosses. Activision’s accomplishment provides an ideal moment to reflect on the growing influence of game companies like Activision and Electronic Arts on the animation community as a whole.

Some ideas to consider:
* Animation has become an integral component of contemporary games in a way that it wasn’t twenty years ago, and the quality of a lot of game animation surpasses anything you’d see in an animated TV series (not to mention some features).

* Using similar toolsets and production pipelines, game creators have achieved success by pursuing a vastly different aesthetic sensibility than traditional CG features.

* More animators in the US are likely employed in the gaming industry than are in feature animation.

All of this points to a paradigm shift taking place throughout the animation industry in which gaming is emerging as the preeminent form of cartoon entertainment. The effect that this will have on feature animation—the medium’s most prestigious format—remains to be seen over the next few decades. Perhaps animated features will begin to look more like games (an idea that filmmaker Robert Zemeckis has promoted) or perhaps they’ll push further in the opposite direction. It’s about to get interesting.

- Article re-posted from CartoonBrew -

posted by Amid

Paranorman - trailer

Rawls — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:55:22 -0500

The making of Orcs Must Die!

cghub.com — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:33:06 -0500

Hello CGHUB, I’m David Kubalak, and I’m an art director at Robot Entertainment. We have an art department of about 18 people, many of whom frequent CGHUB, so I thought I would go through the visual development processes for Orcs Must Die!

During the preproduction stage, we determined that the game would take place in a fantasy setting and that the gameplay would mix the strategy elements from the tower-defense genre with the 3rd-person combat of an action game. From the early discussions about the game, we knew it would be based around a variety of enemies and monster types, and we wanted to keep them pretty recognizable, so we stuck with ogres, orcs, goblins, and kobolds. Take a look at some of the initial concepts.

We knew we wanted an arcade-type title in the 15-dollar range, but we never wanted to hold back on the production values. We set out to build a couple of creatures, a playable character, and some environment objects, all of which were done in stunning detail in zBrush before being brought into the game engine. We created some initial dungeon scenes, and we really liked the direction the game was going visually.

But at the same time, we were also making really good strides on the gameplay. The game was revolving around traps that you would construct, and the chaos and absolute destruction of orcs and other baddies that were trying to invade your fortresses. The entire art department started brainstorming ideas for traps. We explored things like a cardboard cutout of your mage with bombs behind him; blades shooting out of the wall, exploding several orcs into a shower of blood and giblets; and spring traps that send guys ragdolling through the air. All of these ideas had us taking a lighter approach to the game, and then had us thinking if we should do the same with the look and the tone.

What was good about this adjustment is that our artists were still able to take the base models that were done for the previous vision of the game and exaggerate the proportions for our new models. This allowed us to go through our enemy lineup pretty quickly and get stuff in the game. Check out some of our revised creature concepts and the evolution of the Ogre.


All of the supporting content was really taking form and had a great personality of its own, and it was time to focus on our main character, the WarMage. The tone of the game was not taking itself too seriously, and we found a lot of inspiration for our main character from movies like Army of Darkness and Big Trouble in Little China. I think that we did a great job of making our WarMage character come to life.


Special effects and animations were a huge part that we didn’t want to neglect in OMD. I think that the game truly benefited from the attention that we paid to these areas. A lot of the character, tone, and cool factor is due to the FX work and all the animations.

The UI was another area that we took time to make just right. We really wanted to amp up the arcade feel of the gameplay, so adding notifications like ‘Headshot!’ and ‘Kill Streaks’ really helped make it feel ‘gamey’. We put some extra time and polish into the portraits for the cards and load screens between levels to take our game to the next level. I think that it paid off in the end for sure!


I’m really proud of all the work that we did on this game over the past year… and it wasn’t all just for the game itself. We put up content for the website and did over a dozen key art images to use to help promote the game. One of these images was chosen for the Into the Pixel 2011 awards. We also did a comic book that we gave away at the Penny Arcade Expo and the San Diego Comic Con, not to mention a variety of designs for Orcs Must Die! merchandise and apparel. It’s an incredible amount of work over such a short amount of time.


I hope you guys enjoyed this look back on our journey getting this game wrapped up.
Orcs Must Die! is out now on xBox Live Arcade and Steam; go check it out.
http://robotentertainment.com/games/orcsmustdie/download

Uncharted 3 - Launch Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:35:29 -0500

Avengers - Trailer

Rawls — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:07:44 -0500

Concept Design Workshop - Adelaide 2011

Rawls — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:26:41 -0500

Some highlights from the "Concept Design Workshop" held at Nexus in Adelaide, this past June 2011. For those of you who were able to attend, it looks and sounds like it was a great show.

The next event is set to be at Melbourne in January 2012!

Check out more on their website - www.conceptdesignworkshop.com

Countdown

Rawls — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:00:18 -0500

I've personally been a fan of Celine Desrumaux's work for sometime now, but that said, I wasn't prepared in the slightest for her latest creation... "Countdown". I actually went to comment on her video, and all I could manage to put was... "wow."

There isn't much more I can say that already hasn't been said by Amid via Cartoon Brew:

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"Every so often I run across a piece of animation that’s truly special. “Countdown” by Céline Desrumaux is one such piece. The short, which took over two years to make, is quite simply a masterpiece of composition, cutting, color and design.

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Céline, whose work experience include Passion Pictures and Cartoon Network UK, uses the style of film to express her vision. The film is narrative and the ideas pictorial, yet many of the compositions and shots would appear to be completely abstract if not for their sequential context.

Thanks to CartoonBrew for posting this and thanks be to Celine for being inspirationally awesome.

CREDITS
Directing/design/animation/composting : Céline Desrumaux
Additional character animation : Florent Remize
Music : “Granulard bastard” from Apparat

Plug - The New World

Rawls — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:48:51 -0500

This fantastic little animated short entitled: Plug, the New World, was created in order to promote Nissan’s electric vehicles. It is a beautiful mix of traditional Stop Motion animation and 3d.

The short is directed by Tsuneo Goda, who is best known as the creator of Domo, the poop-inspired mascot of Japanese broadcaster NHK-TV. There are LOTS of behind-the-scenes photos and making-of details on the website of Goda’s production company Dwarf.

A Monster in Paris

Rawls — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:49:34 -0500

Wild Star - Cinematic Trailer

Rawls — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:59:25 -0500

CGHUB.com 3rd Year Anniversary!

cghub.com — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:51:09 -0500

This week we're celebrating our 3rd year online! It's hard to believe so much time has passed since the site first launched, it's been an amazing adventure so far and we're just getting warmed up!

We would like to give a sincere thanks to everyone who has helped to make the Hub a great place to be, without the awesome community and hardworking mods & challenge leaders and our very talented web development team we would be nowhere today. To all those who donate their time and energy helping the community we would like to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude.

In the 3 years we have been online, CGHUB has experienced triple-digit growth year over year and shows no signs of stopping. The future is very exciting for us and we have a huge list of cool new features coming soon that we can't wait to share with you.

Thanks to all who have been patient through bugs, server & hardware speed bumps, and to all those who take time to participate and give back in the weekly challenges and activities, your loyalty, dedication & support to the community makes this a great place to be!

the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Images

Rawls — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:51:21 -0500

Overstrike - Cinematic Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:18:11 -0500

Prey 2 - Cinematic Trailer

Rawls — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:11:03 -0500

Avengers: Teaser

Rawls — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:25:25 -0500

Avatar - Legend of Korra - Teaser

Rawls — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 22:12:31 -0500

Are you as excited as I am?!?!

The Amazing Spider Man - Trailer

Rawls — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:55:58 -0500

Aardman's - The Pirates: Band of Misfits - Trailer

Rawls — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:47:42 -0500

Gobelins Animation - 2011

Rawls — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:36:00 -0500

Starhawk - E3 trailer

Rawls — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:07:43 -0500

Pixar's BRAVE - Trailer

Rawls — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:29:09 -0500