Apr 14, 2011

"Pirates" by the main vendor

Once in a blue moon I see a piece of animation that plain knocks me out. “The Pirate by Trollhättan, Sweden-based Meindbender is one such piece. Masquerading as an innocuous Cartoon Network station promo, it is a boundary-busting achievement in CG animation. The marriage of realistically shaded/lit environments and madcap cartoon distortion (particularly in the bird character) suggest new avenues in computer animation that are worth exploring further. Here's some background info about how Meindbender achieves its organic looking CG aesthetic.

CREDITS Director: Olov Burman Shading and Rendering: Michael Bengtsson, Hervé Steff Animators: Calle Halldin, Olov Burman Modeling: Hervé Steff, Michael Bengtsson, Olov Burman, Marcus Ottosson Rigging: Calle Halldin Post Production: Michael Bengtsson Music: Joel Eriksson Voice Acting: Pär Nymark Sound Effects: Ljudlabbet (Daniel Saxlid) Cloth and Hair Simulation: Marcus Ottosson Closepup Explosion: Matt Radford Water Simulation: Brian Looney Renderfarm: Rendernet (Henrik Norin) Modelmaking: Chris Schifferns Technical Support: Kustaa Vuori Programmer: Mihnea Balta 3D Scanning: Paulo Kiefe (Creative Tools) Cartoon Network Representatives: Raf Gasak (Creative Director, Turner Broadcasting Europe), Lola Gamester (Project Assistant) Rendered with Maxwell

(Thanks, Jorge Gutierrez)