I didn't even know you could nominate.

There's a new nominee for really, really, really bad idea: Ghost in the Shell 2.0

The makers of this anime classic apparently decided to go all George Lucas and "enhance" the visuals with new CGI graphics.

Most of the changes are to secondary things like the helicopters and computer displays. Things you never really pay attention to and don't really matter if they look a little more detailed or not.

Progress!

They also took a couple of the landmark scenes (including the opening sequence) and redid it all in CG, Kusanagi included. On top of her looking like a Poser model and it being really awkward when they cut back to her in her original drawn form, the redone versions are composed terribly. Iconic shots now look really cheap. Often there's just more artistic freedoms in 2D.

Which do you prefer?

On top of changing graphics that didn't need changing, they also redid all the sound effects, and not for the better. All the guns now sound kind of out of place.

The weirdest part of all is that they've completely changed the prevailing color scheme of the movie from blues and greens to orange. Not only have I no idea why they would got through the effort to do something like that, it really changes the mood of the film from cool and mysterious to just sorta toxic and burned out.

Again, which would you rather look at?

I should point out I've never been a big fan of Ghost in the Shell. I do own it and recognize its influence on anime and on me as an animation fan, but I still think it's cold and confusing.

But despite all that, there's really no point trying to fix something that wasn't broken.

Milking it for all it's worth

I was surprised to look on Amazon today and see Avatar show up for pre-order. For a film that's still in theatres and still making well over $5 Million a week after three months, (over 6.5 this past week in the US alone) I wasn't expecting a release for months. But one is set to hit shelves on April 22nd.

Earth Day, natch.

But it turns out the release coming out next month is just the movie and nothing more. For someone like me who's only real interest is in the special features that's of no use. Well, except for Rifftrax.

The pimped out version I was expecting isn't coming out until November, and even that won't include the 3D version of the film. (Fine by me, but some people are sure to be angry.) That probably won't come out until next year. By then Avatar will likely be re-released in theatres, if it ever leaves in the first place.

And of course they're also planning a 3D re-release of Titanic.

Multiple DVD releases is a pretty common Hollywood trick, (I'm annoyed enough about re-buying a couple favorite films in Blu Ray) but I've never seen anything like this.

Maybe this will encourage someone to take the next step and only sell the first half hour of a movie and make people buy the rest a month later.

A guy can dream.

Go-Go HBO

This is a testament to how much more TV influenced my childhood than movies. If I were to pick to most iconic piece of media from when I was a kid, I'd probably go with the HBO "starship" intro.



If I could make that fanfare my ringtone, I would.

Of course it didn't hurt that they were occasionally still using that intro all the way up to 1999. That's probably why I remember it so much.

Also take a look at the Behind the scenes video which bills their little model city as the most elaborate ever built. I know this this is almost 30 years old now, but it's hard to imagine that as "cutting edge."

Although learning how they did the light effects toward the end is pretty amazing. I could figure how to build all that in After Effects, but couldn't fathom how they did it pre-computer. I never would've thought they used some sort of spinning fiber-optic light rig.Of course I never expected they actually built a big, chrome HBO logo either.

Squeezing out a few more Tunes

With the yearly Looney Tunes Golden Collection releases drying up in 2008, I was wondering if there would be a chance for the cartoons that never made it on to a Golden Collection set to get released on DVD.

The answer is.... kinda.

In April, Warners is putting out two 1-disc releases of 15 cartoons each, one for Bugs Bunny and one for Daffy Duck.


Obviously these aren't the cream of the crop, or else they would've made it on one of the earlier sets. They all appear to be from the 50's to when the studio shut down in the mid 60's. The only cartoon the stands out to me by name is Lumber Jackrabbit because it was made in 3D during the time when WB shut down animation for a year to feel out the 3D fad.

Cartoons like these might seem second rate to most people, and they probably are, but to

The Looney Tunes have the luxury of still having a fair amount of marketable stuff to sell, just not enough for a 4-disc set anymore. There are scads of Walter Lantz cartoons that'll never see the light of disc because they're not Woody Woodpecker.

Hopefully there'll be more little releases like this that can wring out as many classic cartoons as possible.

I got back from finally watching Avatar about 4 hours ago and I'm finally to the point where my screed against the movie will be fairly succinct rather than a multi-page bilefest.

I'm not going to complain about the "Pocahontas/Dances With Wolves" story, but I'll try to be tot he point since I'm sure everyone has read scores of rants and raves about Avatar by now and I don't want to subject you to any more if you don't to.

One little thing first: I'm also mad I went against my better judgment and watched the film in 3D. To me 3D It always takes an hour of crap swooping out at me before actually don't notice and can really get into the story.

Anyway, the one big thing that pisses me off about Avatar is that I see the potential for a really cool story in there that was cast aside for a poorly done version of the "don't kill the trees/American Imperialism" morality tale I've seen countless times before.

The main plot point of Avatar is this concept of putting someone in another body. Given how people more and more are living their lives through machines and online programs I personally can't think of a better allegory to explore our modern world through storytelling. And here's a movie that takes it one step further by putting people in the bodies of another species that they're in conflict with.

This raised up a lot of questions I would have loved to seen answered in the film. What is it like to be in another body? What is it like to literally see the world through someone else's eyes? What is is like to fall in love with someone who's in many ways not real?

The story points are all there. The big mech suits are essentially avatars. The way when one body is awake the other is basically in a coma. Jake initial motivation for spying on the Navi is so he can walk again, even though he can already walk in his Navi body. It's just that all of that stuff is glossed over in favor of Indian Wars/Vietnam symbolism.

It's like James Cameron found a cool story, but pointed his camera in the wrong direction.

As much as I hate to say it, I do feel like I've got that bullshit post-Avatar depression people have talked about. But not because I'm sad I don't actually live in a world full of technicolor dragons and floating rocks. I'm sad because for better or worse, Avatar was a once-in-a-lifetime moment in filmmaking and it was spent making the wrong movie. And now the movie I wanted to see can't be made.

I did stuff

I just finished a 3 week winter session class in stop motion animation. I never realized how little I knew about stop motion, especially considering how much I know about other forms of animation. Plus I got two pieces of animation done in 3 weeks. One good and one... less so.

First the not so good one:



For some reason, I wasn't smart enough to do the audio until afterward, so I couldn't sync things up the way I wanted. Plus I suck at waves, so the tail looks awful.

Now for the other one:



For my first ever stop motion piece, I'm pretty satisfied. Although I had a lot of problems, I shot it all on a green screen, so I was able fix some of my biggest problems in After Effects. Of course the green screen caused problems of it's own.

I'm a little mad I had to resort of stock sounds for the screams. The ones I recorded just sounded anemic. But thank God for freesound.org.

All in all, it was a decent use of 3 weeks, although I have a ton of paper scraps to clean up.

The wait is over

I went and caught The Princess and the Frog last night, Disney's first traditionally animated film since 2004.

This has easily been the most anticipated animated film over the last year. Did it live up to the hype?

The short answer is yes.

---

After a year of seeing the same five scenes in every trailer and promises of being a return to the way things were in the early 90's, I went in to this film fearing the worst, knowing Disney and stagnated and squandered potential before aimlessly trying to make Cinderella again.

However I was largely mistaken. The Princess and the Frog is an interesting mix of things you've never seen in a Disney film and things you've seen in every Disney film. Parts of the story had already been done to death others were amazingly fresh.

Some of the cliches are obvious. It does have a princess in it after all, and it has more wishing on a star in it than Pinocchio.

Another standard throwback this film has is being crammed full of songs. Like 9 of them, including one spot where there's two in the span of five minutes. That's a Don Bluth movie level of songs. And the the good Bluth neither.

As for the different stuff, one thing that surprised me was the lack of "star voices". Oprah notwithstanding (I didn't notice her and you probably won't either) the only names in the credits I recognized were John Goodman (rather small part) and Keith David (classic "that guy").

The animation felt a lot more like an old Warner Bros. cartoon than the standard Disney style. It definitely added more fun to the film.

The characters were surprising as well. Tiana's friend Charlotte has all the makings of a bitchy spoiled brat, but she's not. Even if she does look like Darla Dimple from Cats Don't Dance.

Coincidence?

I'll end it here since I don't want to get into spoilers on a movie that been out one day.

Go watch The Princess and the Frog. It was well worth the wait.

Back to Brackenwood

If you're not familiar with Australian animator Adam Phillips, you should be. On top of all his freelance work, he's created several animated shorts in his Brackenwood story-world.

He just finished his newest film: The Last of the Dankin.

Also, be sure to check out his other Brackenwood films.

It's pretty inspiring to see someone make so much by himself. Especially since they're full-standing stories rather than little 10 second pencil-tests. If you're the type to kick an artist a couple bucks so he can keep making great work, he's definitely one to consider.

And if you're looking for a way to donate while actually getting something, he's also putting together an online book on animating in Flash that you can buy a chapter at a time.

Goin' Gnomon

Animation and visual effects-types are probably familiar with The Gnomon Workshop. Their training DVDs cover all manner topics in the film, effects and game creation worlds, with discs by industry professionals covering topics like matte painting, character design, 3D modeling and sculpture.

One common theme amongst the design discs are these alien bug-beast things. I know a lot of the instructors are concept designers and invented creatures are sort of their stock and trade, but how many crab/spider-monsters do you need?

Sexy

I've wanted to get my hands on some of these fro a long time. I even feel a desire to get the ones that teach things I'd never use; like tattooing. The downside is the cost. Each disc runs $60-80.

Since these things are so unbelievably expensive I'm constantly scanning eBay to find people unloading their copies on the cheap, which there are plenty, usually going for about half the original price. I recently picked two discs for $50 that would've cost me $110 new, both coming from a guy selling about 70 discs in a two hour period.

In fact there's often someone selling a bulk lot of 100 or more. I can't fathom spending the 10+ thousand dollars it would've taken to acquire that stack of DVDs. For that money you could've gone to college and learned some of this stuff.

Book hunt

It took me a month or two, but I finally finished The Education of a Comics Artist, an extensive collection of essays and interviews about the comics medium.

Despite being a real word-brick with very few pictures for being a book about a visual medium, it had some very interesting and enlightening ideas.

My personal favorite essay was by Craig Yoe. He talked rather tongue in cheek-ly about being a voracious accumulator cartoons and comic art to the point of saturation. That point where A&E or Oprah might document your extensive hoarding and give you an intervention.

Some artists he mentioned, like Heinrich Kley, only have so much available. Just the same two books that've been around for the last 50 years.

Even a prolific artist like Walt Kelly is hard to find books published in the last 20-30 years. Fantagraphics was supposed to start releasing books of Pogo strips like they have with Dick Tracy, Terry & the Pirates and the like, but nothing has ever come of the book since I preordered it on Amazon two and a half years ago. Yet every year instead of canceling it Amazon pushing it back and keeping my feeble hopes up.

Sorry, maybe next year

Despite all this I've been cramming my Amazon wishlists (yes, plural) full of cheap, used books on comics, cartoons and illustrations that'll take me years to buy off.

I'm not sure what happens after that. I think you just soak up comics awesomeness through you pores or something. Maybe I need to reread the essay.