Jul 19, 2018

Mindbender's "The Food Thief" teaser is as wild and fun as CG animation

Gothenburg, Sweden-based Mindbender has released a teaser for its next project, a 90-second short film titled The Food Thief, which will be online this year.

Directed by Olov Burman, the film was created with the goal of "creating a 3D rig that is more flexible than any we have made before." To accomplish this, Mindbender developed a rig with sliding body parts that can be turned on and off between various poses; here are some of the rigs produced in collaboration with Kippcase studio:

Mindbender is a computer animation They have spent years developing a full-fledged cartoon language and offer a vision of CG that is completely at odds with mainstream production.

Not only is Mindbender's technology superior, especially their innovative rigs, but also the studio's intentions. In other words, they make cartoons.

Feature animation studio rigs are at least as sophisticated as the ones used by Mindbender, and some studios have rigs designed to handle smudges and all sorts of distorted character effects. The reason we don't see much of this type of work in the mainstream is not for lack of technical skill, but for lack of creative vision; CG animation has always required restraint and naturalism; it has always been a matter of the artist's ability to create a film that is not only a masterpiece, but a masterpiece in itself, and a masterpiece in its own right. Even when a feature film contains exaggerated cartoon elements, everything else in the film, including vocal acting, script, cinematography, and overall production design, is based on the language of live action filmmaking and is designed to minimize the impact of cartoon effects.

For more on The Food Thief, see a behind-the-scenes look at the film on Berman's website.