Saturday, September 30, 2006

Surf "vibe"!

I'm not a surfer - though a part of me would most definitely LOVE doing it! I just don't think I was "cut" for it somehow...

Anyway, Sony Animation is releasing it's new animated feature next year. Ok, there's still some time to go, but the first trailer is online, and boy, does it look awesome!! My good friend Renato dos Anjos is animating the lead character, and doing a great job as usual... :)
The characters show excellent design, and the story promisses to tap into what I think is really cool about surfing.

You can relate to the characters' thrill for riding the waves, and the whole thing about the story seems to talk about doing that not through the movie-selling "radical sports" trend, but it looks like it's more about the true "vibe" of surfing - of enjoying the feeling of being alive and being in sync with the water, the sky, the whole energy of creation that surrounds you as you ride the waves...

If that's what Sony aims to build this movie on, I wanna be first in line!
I'm tired of the same crappy ideas some studios insist investing on. So I'm hoping there's a new trend in animation comming up... Less farting ogres and more characters with true personality and spirit. I end up enjoying those movies that make me leave the theater thinking about my life, and characters I can relate to in a positive way.

I'm not talking about "shinny, happy cartoons"... I'm talking about a Woody that feels jealous and rejected, about a Buzz that is egocentric and detached, a Sully that questions the purpose of his existence, a Lightning McQueen that hits rock-bottom to find out what life is really about, a Mater who is happy about who he is no mater what, a Chicken Little who craves for acceptance, and so on.

All of these are funny and entertaining. But they also have "spirit", content, "stuff"!
I hope Sony has found a way of doing that in Surf's Up. Otherwise, this will be a waste of the whole "surf vibe"...

Meanwhile, I'll go on experiencing the "vibe" vicariously through some surfing friends of mine!

Cheers!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

New Vetor Zero website







Vetor Zero is the company I've been working with for the past 7 years.
A lot has happened ever since, and some of this can bee seen by browsing our brand new website.

Go check out www.vetorzero.com!!


Monday, September 18, 2006

Chipicao redesign!

Chipicao is a popular brand from Chipita - a subsidiary of Vivartia S.A. - that produces various pastry products sold throughout Europe and a few Eastern countries like Egypt, Lebanon and Kazakhstan.
Chipicao is a chocolate-filled croissant targeted to kids, and "Chipi" is the brand's mascot.

We were approached by a Portuguese ad agency that was participating in a bid to get the whole Chipicao account for all Europe. They wanted a full redesign of the character to aim towards a more pre-adolescent audience.
This is our first version of that, and it helped the agency to nail the account right away!

The 3D model, and character rig were done by my good friend Alex Liki. I handled art direction, shading and lighting.
I'll post a new version soon that has the final features of the character, plus a few other angles.
Stay tuned!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Let's start meeting the Robinsons!...

Yes, it will be out pretty soon.
Disney's "Meet the Robinsons" is already raising some eyebrows with it's colorful - not to say "daring" - art direction.
Things show amazing color palettes and sets and props from the future seem to have come from the Imagineers' wildest concepts for Disney World's "Tomorrowland".

What I've seen so far has gotten me curious about this one... the story seems to be pretty original, and the characters show the same wildly exaggerated style shown in "Chicken Little", now applied to humans and with an extra "punch".


Jim Hill Media is showcasing a few images from the upcoming "Art of Meet the Robinsons" book.
They are definitely worth peeking, and I'd say the book is a definite "must buy".
Let's hope the movie will keep the standards high for Disney.
The previews I saw during Siggraph 2006 gave me the impression I won't be disappointed... ;)

SKELETOONS!!

Ok, so moving a little bit back to our central theme for this blog, I urge you to take a look at the images of Corean artist Hyungkoo Lee.
His work is being displayed at the Arario Gallery in Korea.


Taking a hint from the works of artist Michael Paulus, he took things a step further by actually building quite believable and "anatomically-correct" resin casts of the skeletons of some very famous animals from the Cartoon Kingdom.



Do check out both websites for some great imagery and creativity!