Two scampering octopi

September 13, 2008 7:56 PM

Oktapodi is a nice short from Les Gobelins, (last covered here). The 'Making-Of' is fun too.
posted by of strange foe (14 comments total)

I was going to post this earlier today. It's quite good.
posted by empath at 7:57 PM on September 13, 2008

So enjoyed that, especially seeing a Mediterranean village so beautiful rendered in animation.
posted by nickyskye at 8:24 PM on September 13, 2008

Technically good, but very derivative of Nemo.
posted by unSane at 8:35 PM on September 13, 2008

Squashy and stretchiness!
posted by damo at 9:37 PM on September 13, 2008

I saw this in the Computer Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH 2008 (where it won best of show and much publicity), and I remember it was also on a Dreamworks student reel at SIGGRAPH 2007. The 2008 festival jury award went to another French school project, Mauvais Rôle, which is clever and a must-see for videogamers, but it's not as impressive visually as some of the other nominees; I was surprised that it beat out Our Wonderful Nature (featuring two scampering water shrews), which is really a stronger short. (It seems the jury thought so too, as they awarded it the made-up-on-the-spot Best Well Told Fable Prize).

My very favorite short this year had no shot at winning (and you'll see why) even though it was a nominee for the jury award: Chump and Clump from Germany. The full short doesn't seem to be available anywhere, but there is a trailer. The other jury award nominee that stood out was The Plush Life, produced by NVIDIA's Gelato team, which I feel like I've seen on the blue before... but maybe it just seems like something one could find on MeFi. In a good way.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:46 PM on September 13, 2008 [4 favorites]

heheheheheh...great!
posted by HuronBob at 10:43 PM on September 13, 2008

of strange foe: great link, thanks. I loves me some octopuses, and I loves me some animation.

ulotrichous: I've made a note here. I'll be expecting an FPP after the next SIGGRAPH, with a complete rundown and context. Winners, runners-up, everything.

Please?
posted by lekvar at 11:23 PM on September 13, 2008

"derivative of Nemo" are you kidding? So that's it? All computer animations with marine creatures are not automatically "derivative of Nemo". Please.
posted by schwa at 6:08 AM on September 14, 2008

Thanks for your comment, ulotrichous. I too saw Oktapodi at the CAF, but I wasn't even aware of Chump and Clump.
posted by rlk at 7:28 AM on September 14, 2008

I don't disagree that much with unSane; but it's not so much about being derivative of Finding Nemo as the whole world of digital character animation has been heavily influenced by Pixar's success.... especially eyes. When you watch a bunch of character animation in one go, it's as if there's a law that all eyes must follow the Pixar stylebook, with the beveled, reflective irises and the flat, plasticy eyelids... their visual influence is very widespread.

lekvar, fair enough!
posted by ulotrichous at 7:34 AM on September 14, 2008

That was delightful, thanks for the post!

Linguistic note: the title is strange. The Ancient Greek word for 'octopus' is οκτώπους [oktōpous] or οκτάπους [oktapous]; the Modern Greek word is either the katharevousa (classicizing, archaic) οκτάπους [oktapous] or the demotic (spoken) χταπόδι [khtapodi], which derives from a diminutive (ο)κταπόδιο(ν); "Oktapodi" is neither fish nor fowl.
posted by languagehat at 8:07 AM on September 14, 2008

I am shocked to see octopi portrayed as cute cuddly creatures struggling to find happiness and that we are asked to empathize with them, when in fact octopi are conniving, eight armed monsters, able to camouflage themselves into any environment so as to be near invisible, morph their entire body to fit through a hole a fraction of their normal size, and are secretly plotting to overthrow their two armed adversaries, the humans.
posted by Large Marge at 10:36 AM on September 14, 2008

That was cute! Thank you!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 6:51 PM on September 14, 2008

Here's No Fat Clips' archived copies, too.
posted by zusty at 10:21 PM on September 15, 2008