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Use Media.IO to Convert Files

By on May 23, 2011 in animation, General Interest, MAYA

Multimedia producers and digital artists. Need to convert your MP3′s to a specific format required by a particular piece of software? Give Media.IO a try.

I had to convert a MP3 to a WAV file to finish a short animation in Autodesk Maya and it was quick and simple. Great converter for a wide variety of audio options.

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Feeling Kind of Bond-ish

By on March 7, 2011 in animation, General Interest, YouTube

I’m working on my final project for my Visualization Stylization in  3D Animation class and I’m going with an action adventure theme. I’ve had James Bond movie theme music ringing through my head for the last two weeks, solid. I have to determine which 15-20 second section of a famous Bond track I want to include as the audio for the animation short.

In my research of YouTubing 007 hits and sifting through Wikipedia background on some of the movies I came across this one for series author Ian Flemming including his career literary credits. Turns out I’ve been a Flemming fan all my life. He wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as well as the Bond novels and short stories among others. Amazing that an author can write all time favorites for kids and adults.

But back to my homework. The assignment is to create a short with the theme displayed in two different styles. I’m starting off with a 3 dimensional spy boat on a 2 dimensional background and then transitioning to a full 3D scene – similar to the 2D flat scene – to end my short movie. The first draft which is due tonight is purely to get an overall sense of timing. It’s coming together decently and I should get some pretty good feedback from class critiques tonight.

I’ll post it on my YouTube site when it ‘s done in a couple of weeks. In the mean time go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube Channel, martybiz, and check out some of my other animation work. Leave comments here or there and tell me what you think of them.

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The Overlooked Iron Giant

By on February 11, 2011 in animation, General Interest

I can’t believe this  movie didn’t get more attention when it first came out in 1999. Talk about under rated. The story was well written and the animation is great. It should have been a hit. I’m referring to the The Iron Giant and I watched it for the first time recently myself.

The Iron Giant Takes a Seat

It’s a streaming option on Netflix in case you were curious to check it out and I recommend that you do.I’m picking one of the still shots in the movie for one of my next homework projects. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

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The Adventures of Prince Achmed

By on May 22, 2010 in animation, General Interest, YouTube

Last weekend I took the family to see an old fashioned showing of The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The Silent Film Society of Chicago presented the Lotte Reiniger classic stop motion puppet movie from 1926 complete with a restored Hammond cinema organ from the era at the Portage Theater. The organ raised from a pit so the organist could accompany the movie and lowered back into the pit after the movie was done.

The photoplay organist was Jay Warren. We asked him if the purpose of raising from the pit was so the the could see the screen easily. He said  no. It was purely for overall theatrical effect. The house lights go down, the projector turns on and the organ rises from the pit.

cineorgan.jpg
Animator Jacqueline Smessaert Brennan gave an introduction before the show began. It was an amazing experience to see how the first picture shows were presented to the public, prior to the “talkie” age of vocal and musical sound tracks. If you ever get a chance to go to one of the older, more artistic movie venues to see an old style production I encourage you to do so. In the mean time rent The Adventures of Prince Achmed and imagine a classic on a theater screen.

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