Comments on: virtual wendy lets her hair down.wmv

virtual wendy lets her hair down.wmv

codacorolla — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:05:04 -0800

wendyvainity makes 3D animations and puts them on YouTube. They are strangely captivating.

They frequently feature cats. They are frequently (either vaguely or explicitly) NWS. Sometimes Wendy appears alongside her creations. She uses Carrara to create her animations, and you can see work from other users at their forums.

By: jontyjago

jontyjago — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:08:39 -0800

You say strangely captivating, I say fucking disturbing.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:19:08 -0800

I think she's been seeing Doctor Legua. He's not a real doctor, Wendy.

By: msbutah

msbutah — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:22:05 -0800

Anybody who uploads their files and leaves the file extension on the YouTube title is suspect.

By: corey le fou

corey le fou — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:22:38 -0800

Cool. Reminds me of crackers and snacks.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:23:30 -0800

Very strange indeed.

By: griphus

griphus — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:26:05 -0800

There was a time you'd be paying fifty bucks to a strung-out art student for a third-hand VHS copy of this stuff.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:27:23 -0800

There was a time when these tapes would have netted me fifty bucks.

By: thylacine

thylacine — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:27:31 -0800

pointless animation to utilize unused broadband.wmv Where is Xavier?

By: crunchland

crunchland — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:34:28 -0800

strangely captivating --- I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:40:33 -0800

That poor kitty ate something neurotoxic.

By: ...possums

...possums — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:41:29 -0800

Some say captivating, others say seizure-inducing.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:50:02 -0800

The WTF levels are high in this one.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:50:40 -0800

I'm just old and cranky, but that is not artistic, captivating, interesting, well done, or, really, 3D. Y'all want 3D, go see Legend of the Guardians...

By: adipocere

adipocere — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:51:48 -0800

The cat is being made to smile. The cat is forced to frolic. I may only be imagining the look of trapped torment in that cat's eyes as it tries to run away through the fields of grass and flowers, only to be hauled back to the endlessly rolling ball. It's the eyes from the Catherine Madison trophy meets "It's a Good, Life," with a touch of "Under the Bright and Hollow Sky." You know that Mem the virtual cat wants the simulation to be over, finally, so the terrible accordion music will end.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:54:27 -0800

On another note, I had completely forgotten about the spaghetti ownership of Carrara. Seriously, read that Wiki page on it -- it's ownership chain is: Ray Dream 3D -> Fractal Design -> MetaCreations -> Eovia -> DAZ. There aren't many applications with so many parent companies.

By: jjjjjjjijjjjjjj

jjjjjjjijjjjjjj — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:56:41 -0800

I gotta ask. What's the audio track to the link marked "strangely captivating"? Was it her own creation, was it altered by her from something extant, or is it something else entirely? Anyone know?

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:07:14 -0800

That cat looks like it was sewn together from windblown pieces of burned evil clown.

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:24:10 -0800

I gotta ask. What's the audio track to the link marked "strangely captivating" ? Was it her own creation, was it altered by her from something extant, or is it something else entirely? Anyone know? She says that she makes most of her own music in the comments. In one comment thread she mentioned using stuff available in the creative commons youtube archive (soundswap, I think?).

By: RobotVoodooPower

RobotVoodooPower — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:28:38 -0800

Flies right down the uncanny valley and strafes the shit out of it with radioactive napalm.

By: notion

notion — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:30:36 -0800

piss and poop 3d animated titles Either this is brilliant homage to dadaism through the lens of 21st century media, or she's got some drugs that I need, or she's slightly mentally dispossessed. Maybe all three...

By: signal

signal — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:33:47 -0800

This might have been captivating back in 1995. Now, they're just sort of sad.

By: RobotVoodooPower

RobotVoodooPower — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:36:14 -0800

This is the digital animation version of Wesley Willis.

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:50:57 -0800

Shit Sandwich™ never tasted so... accurate.

By: theodolite

theodolite — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:56:59 -0800

The music in this one sounds sort of like a lo-fi The Knife.

By: Seekerofsplendor

Seekerofsplendor — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:30:57 -0800

OMG, that vocal sound is annoying as hell. As spiderskull said, "the WTF levels are high in this one", all around. That is all.

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:49:56 -0800

Someone did a video very similar to this a couple of years ago; I only remember that it featured an animated witch in this sort of style reciting art-pop lyrics by Laurie Anderson or Kate Bush or someone similar, and it would frequently switch characters to an animated cat, then a cowboy, then something else ... It's killing me that I can't remember it, actually, but it struck me as a sort of spiritual predecessor to this. (Except I liked it more.)

By: citywolf

citywolf — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:31:46 -0800

The music all makes me think of Terry Gilliam films.

By: phooky

phooky — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:54:50 -0800

The only difference between this and Ryan Trecartin is sixteen million dollars.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:25:06 -0800

Remember those Beyond The Mind's Eye videos? This is like those but with more poop and less Thomas Dolby.

By: anigbrowl

anigbrowl — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:51:05 -0800

Metafilter: more poop and less Thomas Dolby

By: Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:40:47 -0800

This reminds me a lot of the crude CGI artwork/videos that The Residents have been making for the last fifteen years or so — similarly (intentionally?) amateurish, and quite happy to live, work and play in the uncanniest of valleys. For instance: Constantinople Amber

By: 5_13_23_42_69_666

5_13_23_42_69_666 — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:43:12 -0800

gah - these remind me of the hell I used to have to endure at my old job when we were hiring. I'd have to watch dozens of horrible demo reels from untalented animation students, sifting through crap like that for hours to find the few people who could actually create imagery that didn't make us want to pluck our eyes out.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:20:37 -0800

friggin weird

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:22:33 -0800

In related videos: this uncanny valley smashing dance video featuring a girl with a frozen face dancing to hiphop.

By: A Thousand Baited Hooks

A Thousand Baited Hooks — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:22:07 -0800

They are frequently (either vaguely or explicitly) NWS. +1 for use of Curlz MT in credit sequence

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:06:54 -0800

JESUS CHRIST

By: darkripper

darkripper — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:20:44 -0800

This is nothing compared to Poser Porn. Yeah, porn. There's an entire industry built around those kind of programs. Via this tools people can and will make any kind of shit that turns them on in 3d form. There's some weird shit flowing around the web in both comic and video form. Every sexual fetish is represented, even imaginary ones. Midget pregnant centaurs? Giant lionesses in love with homosexual elves? Elaborate super-hero rape fantasies? Seriously, the day the first version of Poser was released was the day the Internet cried. Luckily, making animation is harder. Roll a sanity check before watching animated Poser Porn: think this kind of stuff but with people fucking.

By: Michelle Stevens

Michelle Stevens — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:39:15 -0800

All this is very interesting. Any graphic artist knows how long it takes to design a video like this, it isn't easy. I just wonder how people decide on some of these crazy ideas. I would spend my time creating something practical like an ad or something like it!

By: seanmpuckett

seanmpuckett — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:00:23 -0800

Nnnyeaaahhh... No.

By: everichon

everichon — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:14:45 -0800

This is fucking awesome; what a wonderful time for outsider art.

By: 5_13_23_42_69_666

5_13_23_42_69_666 — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:43:42 -0800

Any graphic artist knows how long it takes to design a video like this, it isn't easy I dunno, slapping a bunch of weird crap together doesn't take long, the hard part is getting it to look good

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:29:10 -0800

I dunno, slapping a bunch of weird crap together doesn't take long, the hard part is getting it to look good Most of these videos are her trying something new in the Carrara software. She's learning how to do 3D modeling, and letting people in on her creative process. If you care to look, you can go back to her earlier videos and see how they've gotten smoother, longer, with more effects, and with better composition. She isn't saying these are great, but she is sharing something she loves with the internet. I didn't post these to make fun of her, I posted them because... well, it's hard to put a finger on, but I really like something about them.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:39:29 -0800

I think we'd all be suitably mortified if we realized that she's probably read our jaded internet hipster criticisms. It's brave to put works in progress and less than perfect examples up for all of us to see --- even if they remind us of drug-induced nightmare terror visions.

By: wallarookiller

wallarookiller — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:45:38 -0800

I thought that one cat was going to mount the other one at one point.