Area 56: Peeing robots, rockin' office workers, engaging panoramas, and even a few sexy girls.
posted on Sep 6, 2008 - View this thread

In the middle of the movie Gremlins 2, there is a sequence where the film seems to break, and where the gremlins invade the projection booth. For the VHS edition in the early 90's, they reshot a special sequence where the VHS tape seemed to be torn apart and in which the gremlins invaded a John Wayne movie. The DVD just kept the original theatrical version.
Sacha Feiner's fan video updates the "break sequence" for the Video on Demand era. via
posted on Sep 1, 2008 - View this thread

The BBC has a new sketch show, called Wrong Door. It's very heavy on CGI - indeed, the official blurb calls it 'a parallel world where the effects you see in TV and movies are real'. And it's funny - check out the trailers on YouTube. And it has Brian Blessed and a spaceship shaped like a giant silver cock and balls. Really, what's not to love? But the best bit isn't in the show,
posted on Aug 24, 2008 - View this thread

Emily is considered to be one of the first animations to have overleapt a long-standing barrier known as 'uncanny valley' (watch the video) - from the team who, in part, brought you GTA4.
posted on Aug 19, 2008 - View this thread

In the years after leaving MST, Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater, and his "smarter brother" Jim Hodgson, worked on a new movie-repurposing concept for USA Networks. The introduction for the test clip read:
"The Jolly Filter segment is a proof of concept test for a new film process. You will first view 2 minutes of the original film 'Rollercoaster' and then the same 2 minutes utilizing the JollyFilter technique.
"Note: If you find yourself getting bored during the original 'Rollercoaster' footage, don't worry, this is normal."
(SLYT, but an awesome one.)
posted on Jul 27, 2008 - View this thread

Not literate analysis. Not a fresh insight into a perennial problem ransacking the world. Not an obituary. But ... well ... Chewbacca dancing with a Jawa to "Footloose", Leia singing to Padme that "mommy dear, girls just want to have fun" (with a Gamorrean Guard with a red-haired fright wig), and were I to tell you the third ...
posted on Jul 9, 2008 - View this thread

A 3D Exploration of Picasso's Guernica (flash movie via)
posted on May 15, 2008 - View this thread

Blosxom is an ultra-lightweight piece of blogging software that uses the existing structure of a file system to index and date your posts. The program itself weighs in at a scale-tipping 16.4 kilobytes, and does everything you need to tell the world about your navel. And for those things it doesn't do, there are plugins. At the other end of the weight scale is the >160 page annotated source code.
posted on Mar 6, 2008 - View this thread

"In" is a lovely, maddening, hypnotic 23-minute CG/live-action abstract short created by Philipp Hirsch and Heiko Tippelt. via
posted on Feb 26, 2008 - View this thread

The short films of Floris Kaayk and Sil van der Woerd blend live-action footage and computer animation. Metalosis Maligna. Swim. Duet. Order Electrum.
posted on Dec 22, 2007 - View this thread

Dinosaurs preach Young Earth creationism. "The Fossil Finders are a group of eight homeschooled children on a search for the [Biblical] truth on fossils." (This shorter excerpt cuts to the main argument, involving the discovery of flexible T. Rex tissue. Scientists remain interested in the find.) The video was produced by World's Biggest Dinosaurs, the people who now own the roadside landmark, Cabazon Dinosaurs -- and have turned it into a creation museum. [Previously]
posted on Dec 1, 2007 - View this thread

Sometimes called "The Ed Wood of Animation", director Sam Singer had an interesting career. He was responsible for some of the most godawful cartoons ever produced, and through his work on 1975's Tubby the Tuba, was present at the birth of Pixar.
posted on Nov 16, 2007 - View this thread

Evil Bee (embedded QT) is a gorgeous & interesting animated short about a worker bee in a factory who rebels; bonus points for awesome soundtrack by menomena.
posted on Nov 8, 2007 - View this thread

Reality, Imagination and Fear. Three short animated films by young students and artists. [more inside]
posted on May 3, 2007 - View this thread

Nazi Robot Attack
posted on Apr 18, 2007 - View this thread

Questionable special effects - Sliding a horse under a moving vehicle. Shooting the landing gears off a moving plane. Insane fight scene. Truck rollover.
posted on Mar 30, 2007 - View this thread

The Fountain "No matter how good CGI looks at first, it dates quickly...So I set the ridiculous goal of making a film that would reinvent space without using CGI." Director Aronofsky tapped into the microphotography work of Parks and Parks to bring a new look to special effects in science fiction cinema.
posted on Feb 13, 2007 - View this thread

Pioneering electronic artist Ben Laposky began creating his “Oscillons” – abstract artworks created by photographing Lissajous figures off a cathode-ray oscilloscope – in the early 1950’s. Some consider him the father of computer art, and the beauty and clarity of his work is astonishing.
posted on Jan 23, 2007 - View this thread

In 1983, John Lassetter and Chris Wedge created some test footage that integrated CGI and traditional animation [YouTube] for Disney. The work it was based on? Where The Wild Things Are. The movie was never made and Lassetter left to start Pixar, which redefined how animated movies were created. Curious to see the shorts that led to Toy Story and its followers? Pixar's put all their short films online.
posted on Dec 13, 2006 - View this thread

Nonononono, After You (.mov): A short animated film by Christopher Cordingley, graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design. The school's computer animation portfolio is worth a browse; there's some real talent being nurtured there. (Last four links are to .avi files.)
posted on Jul 24, 2006 - View this thread

In 2003, Paramount proposed redoing the special effects for the original "Star Trek" series and rereleasing the episodes as "Star Trek Enhanced". Two CGI firms redid the effects for the teaser, the opening credits and title, and the first two acts of The Doomsday Machine as a proof-of-concept with no changes to the acting or the story. Paramount ultimately decided not to pursue the project, but it's interesting to see how two different CGI firms handled the transporter, phasers, and starship effects.
posted on Jun 23, 2006 - View this thread

Jor-El speaks. Cool clip from Rhythm + Hues studios detailing how they adapted footage of Brando from the original Superman flick for the upcoming Superman Returns. embedded quicktime, and via AICN
posted on Jun 19, 2006 - View this thread

Artificial images of our real planet : computer-generated Earth views and panoramas, all created using various free tools and resources, including the Blue Marble and USGS datasets, POV-Ray and the Gimp. CGI Mount Saint Helens vs the real thing. For truly artificial landscapes, see also the randomly-generated Landscape of week from the same author.
posted on Mar 27, 2006 - View this thread

The Steam Tank is a brief visual effects reel by Chris Paul, from the Vancouver Film School. It begins with a somewhat mundane steam powered tank attacking a mounted gun in a downtown building, but then replays the event shot by shot, showing the original filmed plate, and adding on each cgi component, to give a good idea of how cg & reality interface in an effects piece. warning: link goes to direct download of 56MB QuickTime mov
posted on Feb 7, 2006 - View this thread

Tempbot (QuickTime) is a new short by Neill Blomkamp. This piece combines the ultra-realistic robot CGI seen in Tetra Vaal and Alive in Joburg (QT) with a softer story of everyday alienation very reminiscent to Greg Pak's Robot Stories.
posted on Jan 6, 2006 - View this thread

Eat Dog Cat Mouse (link goes to embedded QT movie with audio) is a charming, weird 3 minute cg cartoon described as a folk tale about the food chain. More info here.
posted on Dec 12, 2005 - View this thread

Amusing, stylized violent cgi cartoon of a series of assassins trying to take on the lone biker of the apocalypse. Embedded windows media video.
posted on Sep 23, 2005 - View this thread

Bizarre music video featuring a cgi animated Nazi army composed of anthropomorphized piglets. The video is for a song called Shvayne by a 19 year old Russian singer named Natasha Ionova, who performs under the name Glukoza. Video is embedded flash animation.
posted on Sep 8, 2005 - View this thread

CGI animation of Neil Peart playing YYZ. Large (43.5Mb) .wmv file.
posted on Jul 10, 2005 - View this thread

Alien planet "The drama takes place on Darwin IV, a fictional planet 6.5 light-years from Earth, with two suns and 60 percent gravity. Having identified Darwin as a world that could support life, Earth sends a pilot mission consisting of the mothership and three probes." Discovery channel feature, Flash heavy site, via Pharyngula.
posted on May 9, 2005 - View this thread

How Bob the Tomato got squashed by Barney the Dinosaur
Phil Vischer, creator of those Veggie-Tales cartoons gives a reflective account of why he did not become "The Christian Disney". So why did Big Idea Productions fail while other "Holy Cultural Warriors" are thriving? (Maybe this guy was too sincerely Christian?)
A shorter version of this Tale from "Christianity Today" magazine here.
via the spiritual center of animation on the web: Cartoon Brew
posted on Apr 30, 2005 - View this thread

Fake or Photo? Can you tell the difference between a photo and a CG render?
posted on Apr 25, 2005 - View this thread

Muppets Overtime via (MoFi) QT
posted on Jan 20, 2005 - View this thread

Our Whizeels iz tha Shizeel Awesome compositing, audio and 3D work. I like art that make me want to step in to its world, (Note: QuickTime). The incredibly low barrier to entry for this kind of project, as compared to 10 or even 5 years ago blows my mind.
posted on Nov 19, 2004 - View this thread

Videogames are falling into the uncanny valley. (Previous mefi discussion: 1 2 -- aw, hell).
posted on Jun 12, 2004 - View this thread

Seeing The Matrix yesterday (and just before it, the preview for the third Terminator movie) reminded me of this old David Foster Wallace essay"F/X Porn", in which he points out how Hollywood blockbusters have become the equivalent of your average "2 for $10.99!!" XXX rentals. [Google cached version here.]
posted on Jun 13, 2003 - View this thread

There's a new 3D picture every day, and if you look at the archive all at once, it's like reading a slightly unnerving children's book.
posted on May 11, 2003 - View this thread

Ability vs. Guile. If you've seen the latest Gatorade commercial where 39 year old Michael Jordan plays against himself circa his 85 - 86 Bulls era and wondered "how'd they do that?", here's a very cool description of one of the neatest tricks I've seen recently.
posted on Jan 16, 2003 - View this thread

The Vancouver Company that created ReBoot will be making a CGI Spider-Man cartoon for MTV. Neil Patrick Harris as Spidey, Lisa Loeb as Mary Jane and Ian Ziering as Harry Osborn will inhabit a "seemingly realistic neon lit city of the immediate future". Will this show set a new standard of production for cartoons based on comics? Will MJ wear glasses?
posted on Jul 30, 2002 - View this thread

It's the plot, stupid. USA Today runs their usual insightful commentary about the upcoming release of Lilo and Stitch. It obsesses over the absence of CGI graphics pointing to Atlantis as evidence for the failure of traditional animation to draw box office. Funny me, I thought that Atlantis bombed because of a plot better left in 50s serial format, a cast of sterotypes rather than characters, and no sense of humor beyind dirty French jokes repeated over and over again. And is huge success of Pixar due to their pioneering animation, or their brilliant comic talent? What causes FX myopia anyway? Granted I can understand why fanboys obsess over the wrong things in a movie. Do the studios set it up by trying to hype each new summer release as the next big technical development (while the artistic development gets trumped by Waking Life and Insomnia?)
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

Best. Transformers. Video. Ever. CGI render of a new VW Beetle transforming into a transformer with live background [1.5 meg mpg video]. Makes me wonder if a live-action Transformers TV show would work, with real actors and CGI rendered robots. I'd certainly watch it.
posted on Jun 9, 2002 - View this thread

Astroboy! Get out your red rocket boots and laser shooting behind. Sony is planning to bring the cult superhero/wonderboy to the screen in 2004 in computer-generated glory. Will the film feature Astro's evil brother Atlas, or Astro's slightly unnerving robotic parents?
posted on Dec 10, 2001 - View this thread

Great, yet unsettling, CGI reconstruction of a Neaderthal child's head. (via robotwisdom)
posted on Aug 2, 2001 - View this thread

Computer Review While Final Fantasy is the first movie to have only computer generated actors, it's gotten few good reviews. All Things Considered, found a reviewer who wholeheartedly liked it: their Mac G3. Listen with RealAudio: 14.4 or 28.8 (via Macintouch)
posted on Jul 12, 2001 - View this thread

Mr. Spock during the Pon Farr? Actually a very funny CGI character test (direct 4.8MB Quicktime movie link here).
posted on Feb 21, 2001 - View this thread

Oh, yeah. Reboot!, truly one of the geek shows of all time, is returning Fall 2001. Two made-for-television moives have been in production forever. But, now this: not movies, but a freaking full 13 episode season! With talk of another 13 after that! And a season-ending musical number! Fall 2001 can't come soon enough. Reboot! is a Canadian production; anyone know about US release dates and network? (more inside)
posted on Dec 13, 2000 - View this thread

Episode II loses the 'humanity' of R2-D2 Artoo to be totally computer-generated? Kenny Baker smells a rat as the Industrial Light and Magic boys wire up a dustbin for motion capture...
posted on Aug 31, 2000 - View this thread

Admittedly, this is nerdy-precedent cool, but methinks it will yield celluloid hemlock. Although, if it does work, maybe they can start augmenting the often less-than-lifelike performances of certain flesh-and-blood starlets (who are usually already augmented in other ways). HOO-ah! indeed. Brave new world, and all that.
posted on Aug 15, 2000 - View this thread

Are americans really this stupid or does the rest of the world just have better things to do? TV owners are suing a company for running an ad with a CGI cockroach in it after destroying their TV's while trying to kill the roach. Will wonders never cease?
posted on Apr 18, 2000 - View this thread