Animation
milhayser | March 16, 2016Would it surprise you to learn that the top movie at the North American box office, a computer-animated family film made for children, is a nakedly racist allegory, a celebration of the urban police state, and an insult to the entire animal kingdom and the natural world at large?
The premise of Zootopia is simple: a country bunny named Judy (yes, she's a rabbit) leaves her parents and her hundreds of siblings behind for a life in the big city. The difference between rural and urban living is the first ugly dichotomy the film establishes: farming carrots with your family is framed as a dead-…
esiegel | April 13, 2013"There is an energy with stop-motion that you can’t even describe. It’s got to do with giving things life... to give life to something that doesn’t have it is cool, and even more so in three dimensions, because, at least for me, it feels even more real." -Tim Burton
Of course we always like to think of the world as being constantly in motion, with time flowing smoothly and continuously from one moment to the next. Living in our bodies, it feels -- as Ozomatli would say -- like no matter what, you
Can't Stop.
But our perceptions fool us. It's why you can take a series of stationary images,…
jtoney | February 24, 2012
(Not Really) the Last Word on DNA from Virginia Hughes on Vimeo.
Science writer Virginia Hughes brilliantly explains how DNA is packed into our cells using animation.
jtoney | February 2, 2012
SpongeBob, that iconic, impossible character living in a pineapple under the sea. You've been living a lie, you know?
Here it is. The jig is up, so to speak.
Imagine this. An iconic figure revealed to be a lie. No, it's not the first time. When I was a boy, it was Dino the dinosaur from "The Flintsones," in his purple glory. Really?
Here's the amazing part. The designer himself has fessed up. It appears that the iconic undersea pineapple is changing its character, in response to brilliant Vi Hart's investigative, mathematical reporting. Don't believe me?
The "confession," such as it…
jtoney | July 28, 2011
Why is the sun so hot?
Well, the sun is "like a big nuclear submarine - in the sky."
Henry Reich, who studied Physics at Grinnell College & Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and is now working on an MFA in Film Production at the University of Southern California, explores this question in, yes, one minute. He is developing a series of these innovative videos to explain concepts in physics to help us understand our world.
I invite your feedback and hope you enjoy this minute.
Note that Greg Laden posted this on July 26; my apologies for the redundancy.
jtoney | July 9, 2011
Photo source.
This is a guest post co-written with Nathaniel Epstein-Toney.
SpongeBob and Patrick's episode "Idiot Box" (2002) brillinatly portrayed imagination games inside a cardboard box. Could it (Did it?) inspire the 3D virtual box or the 3D virtual CAVE?
We believe it could have. No, SpongeBob and Patrick are not scientists. But their playfulness and imagination is the very essence of scientific discoveries. If you have not experienced a 3D virtual box or a 3D CAVE, in which you are fully immersed in a 3D environment, a reminder of this wonderful episode may give you an idea:
From…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2010tags: The surprising truth about what motivates us, tasks, simple tasks, complex tasks, commissions, innovation, mastery, economics, financial rewards, purpose motive, blog writing, making the world a better place, RSA, streaming video
This video is really interesting for two reasons: first, it's a hand-drawn animation that evolves in front of your eyes, and second, I think it explains why scientists like to write blogs for the public about science -- for free! Adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, this fascinating video illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2010tags: Great Microbiologists, Lego, brickfilm, animation, technology, scientists, history, microbiology, animalcule, streaming video
This is yet another Lego animation. This time, instead of recreating highlights of the World Cup 2010 games, this one shows highlights for the history of the field of microbiology. It's actually good enough to show as an intro to a microbiology course.
More Lego films can be found at Brickfilms.
sciencepunk | May 19, 2010In 1926 German illustrator Fritz Kahn drew Der Mensch als Industriepalast, part of a series of artworks reinterpreting the body as a mechanical factory. Now fellow countryman and artist Henning Lederer has updated the the famous image, turning it into an interactive animation.
He says:
The visual crossover between industrialization and science in Fritz Kahn's artwork demonstrates surprisingly accurately how human nature became culturally encoded by placing the knowledge in an industrial modernity of machine analogues. He produced lots of illustrations that drew a direct functional analogy…
grrlscientist | May 12, 2010tags: Prometheus and Bob, behavior, space alien, caveman, humor, funny, comedy, animation, art, streaming video
This is another look at the continuing adventures of a space alien and his pet human. In this amusing video, the space alien, Prometheus, attempts to teach the caveman, Bob, about how to use the toilet.
grrlscientist | May 5, 2010tags: Prometheus and Bob, behavior, space alien, caveman, humor, funny, comedy, animation, art, streaming video
This is another look at the continuing adventures of a space alien and his pet human. In this amusing video, the space alien, Prometheus, attempts to teach the caveman, Bob, about wheels.
grrlscientist | May 1, 2010tags: Bible Contradictions Quiz Show, religion, christianity, Bible, humor, funny, satire, comedy, fucking hilarious,animation, cults, streaming video
This amusing video shows a quiz show where the two contestants are asked questions about the bible -- unfortunately, the holy word of god is filled with contradictions (more contradictions than the Harry Potter series, for that matter!)
grrlscientist | April 28, 2010tags: Prometheus and Bob, Breakfast, behavior, space alien, caveman, humor, funny, comedy, animation, art, streaming video
This hilarious video shows the space alien trying eat breakfast with Bob, who is more interested in grabbing an eagle egg from a tree-top nest. Unfortunately, the birds are not cooperating.
sciencepunk | April 22, 2010Rhizome has a cache of incredible 1980s-era Soviet animations of American science fiction stories. Quite fittingly for Earth Day, here is Ray Bradbury's "Here There Be Tygers" as imagined by Russian animators. The hyper-synth music is especially awesome. неимовеÑно!
More wonderful animations of stories by the likes of Stephen King and Robert Silverberg can be found at Rhizome.
grrlscientist | April 21, 2010tags: Prometheus and Bob, behavior, space alien, caveman, humor, funny, comedy, animation, art, streaming video
What happens when a space alien tries to 'edumacate' a caveman? This video is hilarious (as are all the others in the series) and no one dies, or (to the best of my knowledge) says anything vulgar, although Bob (who sounds suspiciously like Homer Simpson) does lose his hair ... Hrm.
grrlscientist | April 9, 2010tags: math class, film making, animation, technology, weird, offbeat, flatland, Biola University, Matthew Weathers, streaming video
This is a trick that Matthew Weathers made for a lecture he presented in his Nature of Math class at Biola University. He apparently likes experimenting with mixing live action with video.
Here's his Halloween 2009 lecture:
How the heck did he do that?
grrlscientist | April 8, 2010tags: Lego Monsters Attack NYC, Lego, art, animation, technology, weird, offbeat, NYC, New York City, streaming video
This is a silly video but the technology that was used to create it is really interesting to watch, especially for this NYCer!
grrlscientist | March 25, 2010tags: nature, numbers, geometry, mathematics, Fibonacci sequence, Golden Ratio, Angle Ratio, Delaunay Triangulation, Voronoi Tessellations, filmmaking, animation, Cristobal Vila, Nature by Numbers, streaming video
In this beautiful video, "Nature by Numbers," filmmaker Cristobal Vila presents a series of animations illustrating various mathematic principles, beginning with a breathtaking animation of the Fibonacci Sequence before moving on to the Golden Ratio, the Angle Ratio, the Delaunay Triangulation and Voronoi Tessellations. The words are scary-sounding, but the math is beautiful and the…
grrlscientist | March 25, 2010tags: Resonant Chamber, music, music video, film, animation, technology, computer graphics, Animusic, streaming video
This interesting animation is an argument for how a self-playing harp might work. The one thing that would improve its efficiency is to have a "plucker" that is dedicated to each string (as you see on the bass part of this contraption) rather than have each plucker pick at any or all of the strings. What do you think?
You can learn more at Animusic.