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- Frame Broiled
All images: ©Disney/PixarThe cover story of the June issue of Wired is about the Pixar creative process and the making of Toy Story 3. I encourage you to check it out. Here’s one particularly amazing fact:
The average frame (a movie has 24 frames per second) takes about seven hours to render, although some can take nearly 39 hours of computing time. The Pixar building houses two massive render farms, each of which contains hundreds of servers running 24 hours a day.
7 hours for 1/24th of a second of a 90+ minute movie. And that doesn’t include all the drafts required to get to the final rendering stage:
COLOR SCRIPTS It took art director Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi one week to create this impressionistic digital version of the scene. The goal is to begin to define the style and lighting scheme of the frame. Concept art from past movies is on display in the Pixar art gallery.
PROPS Toys are positioned in the 3-D “dressed set.” The TS3 team wanted the nursery to be alive with movement, so hundreds of characters are placed on the shelves. Now the director can fine-tune the camera’s movement to best capture the action.
LAST DETAILS The amount of labor spent on each character depends on its prominence in the final shot. Background toys are given simple textures and basic movements, while Lotso and Woody—the stars of the scene—are lavished with attention.
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)FINALE Surfaces—walls, clothing, faces—are fed through rendering software that simulates light and shadow. It also adds texture to Lotso’s fur, Barbie’s leggings, and the carpet. An average frame takes more than seven hours of computing time to render. A more complex frame like this one required eleven hours.
Read the whole thing here.
- The beauty of data visualization: David McCandless
I’m gonna be giving a TEDx talk in a few weeks so I’ve been searching the amazing TED site for inspiration. The video speaks for itself. I’m feeling it.
- 7 Things my friend Josh showed me
Just back from US where I had a lot of fun. Many highlights, some of which I will hopefully be somehow documenting on here in the coming days. For now though I want to show some love and gratitude to my dear friend Josh who put me up for several nights and supplied me with a constant supply of awesome media things. In the interest of karma, I’m gonna tell you like he told me:
1. Louie
Louie is the new show by the comedian Louis CK and it is very good. Sort of like a dirtier, less Jewish Seinfeld. In the US you can watch it on Hulu, otherwise you can probably download it legally or otherwise. Here’s a preview:
And as a bonus, here’s a rant from Louis CK that I totally forgot about but was one of my favorite things ever a couple years ago:
2. http://beatelectric.blogspot.com
So much amazing shit on here it’s crazy. Check it out for yourself. Here’s one classic that I downloaded and then rinsed out at my friend’s wedding to mixed reactions.
Gwen Guthrie – Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent (Larry Levan Club Mix)
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DOWNLOAD
right-click + save target as (windows) / save link as (mac)3. Fact: Dr Dre is currently working on an instrumental album dedicated to outer space.
According to Spinner.com:
Dr Dre has revealed one reason for the delay on long awaited album ‘Detox’ — he’s working on an instrumental album.
In an idea somewhat reminiscent of Holst’s orchestral suite ‘The Planets’ (it even shares the title), each song will be based around the nine planets of the solar system.
Speaking to Vibe magazine (via Gigwise), Dre said, “Oh yeah, that’s in the works. An instrumental album is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I have the ideas for it. I want to call it ‘The Planets.’
“I don’t even know if I should be saying this, but f— it. It’s just my interpretation of what each planet sounds like. I’m gonna go off on that. Just all instrumental. I’ve been studying the planets and learning the personalities of each planet. I’ve been doing this for about two years now just in my spare time so to speak. I wanna do it in surround-sound. It’ll have to be in surround-sound for Saturn to work.”
4. Kanye Kartoons
The musical comedy team Paul and Storm had a very bright idea to combine Kanye West’s weird/boring-ass Twitter feed with cartoons from the New Yorker. Some of them are great. Example:
5. Kanye A kapella
This I guess has been going around for a few days, but in case you missed it, Kanye performing a song off his new album, a capella, in very clean suit, while standing on a table in the Facebook headquarters. Sounds corny but it’s not.
6. How to make your own pirate vinyl
It’s not simple, but it is doable and not that expensive. Full lowdown here.
7 (but definitely not least). NEW ANDRE!
Andre 3000 – I do
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- Double Rainbow: So Bright, So Vivid
I’m back in the Land of the Free, Home of the Whopper and all everybody I know seems to be talking about is weddings, hospitalizations, and this clip. If you’re up on Internet crazes, then you know I’m late as hell, but this thing is VERY FEEL to the max. The clip pretty much speaks for itself, only thing I would say is that the narrator is a man called Hungry Bear who became a cage fighter to prevent himself from dying of obesity. It’s true. Look it up.
