Partly Cloudy

After watching various versions of this film, I'm not sure weather i was able to find the original, but i liked this one the most. Again a Pixar short, with sound by 'FilmSoundMarta' (Youtube account), for a school project.

This animation lives in a world where Stalks send animals their babies from the clouds who make them. However, their is one particular dark cloud who always makes his Stalks job unintentionally difficult by making animal babies that are dangerous and/or difficult to transport, ie a baby crocodile, hedgehog, and goat.

This animations strong point is its display of character personality in the dark cloud. Loving, and forever accidentally annoying you can't help but sympathies with him. Although i must give credit to 'FilmSoundMarta' for capturing the clouds sound and voice perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a6Pe1ovKHg

Presto

Presto is a Pixar short film that revolves around a Magicians Rabbit that's hungry for a carrot. Ordered to perform first, the two battle through a magic hat embarrassing the Magician on stage.

As expected, Pixar delivers beautiful animation once more, with humour, heart and outstanding design. What I like most about this animation, is its sound. Quick, sharp, and edited perfectly in all the right places, no dialogue is ever necessary, as the story is easily told through sound and character body language and expression.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeJQx9n5GPw

French Toast

 This short animation by Fabrice O. Joubert was his first, and also was nominated for an Oscar in 2010. The story of this animation consists of a arrogant, rich, greedy man in a restaurant refusing the ask for help from a homeless man. After a short while, the man discovers that he has forgotten his wallet, and in order to give him self more time continues ordering coffee. As a strange, humorous turn of events unfold, the homless man eventually pays the mans bill, showing you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

The animation is flawless, especially the colour pallet design for each layout, although the camera never cuts. Although my favorite part of the animation is definatly the character design. I think this is my favorite part of animation, the ability to use a stylist form that can defy what can by filmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsQlK7D0VdU

The Hobbit

 The Animation regarding the Hobbit was a strange concept. Because Although I think Gollum looked as good as  he did in The Lord of the Rings, (which was now a over a decade ago) the Goblin King was hugley disappointing.  I think he looked very cgi, which is strange for the reason that both characters were done with motion capture only one looked far better than the other. I'd say the Goblin king looked about as good as the cave troll in the Mines of Moria, and that was thirteen years ago. Even the Balrog and Shelob the spider completely outshone the monsters in the Hobbit, such as the Pale Orc (both in terms of design and animation quality). And as for the eagles, they looked far better and more realistic over 10 years ago. This is perhaps opinion, but for me over 10 years in animation should be completely out doing work made ten years previous, and for me, the Hobbits animation lacked realism, with the exception of Gollum. 

Hellboy 2 animation sequence

The opening sequence in Guillmero Del Toros Hellboy 2, The introduction to the Golden Army is told through an animated sequence in the style of puppets. This was a very original idea, executed perfectly in the use of colour, compostion, contrast and simplistic design. Also the likeness to the charters from puppet to actor in make up has a striking resemblance. The highlight for this sequence for me though was the lighting, which provided the atmosphere and beautiful layouts to each shot for the sequence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-35Wr5T2XIM

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Although I feel the animation in the game during gameplay was not of a particularly high standard, (the reason being i think is because it tried to hard to look like a comic book drawing). However, that being said, during the cut scenes the animation had a different approach, where the characters were a perfect blend of over-exaggerated anatomany and a sense of realism. This i think was a highlight of the game for me. Seeing the characters in this style was very intriguing, and how i think superheros should look in gameplay. It reminds me of the Marvel equivalent, in style, to the Batman Arkham City universe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIRmo1vfjg 

The Thing

This Design of The Thing from Fantastic Four was created by Thaddeus Maharaj (aka The Chindian) for a 2010 Comic-con compition. In my opinion this is the perfect visualisation for the Thing. Not only do his costume and cigar give him the indication of personality thats perfect for Ben Grimm, but the immense about of detail in him. The broad muscular physic and pot belly make him look very 'average Joe' while the scratches on the rocks show battle damage. With a new Fantastic Four movie in the works, this is defiantly a design that should be considered.

Wreck It Ralph

Disney's new film may look like another collaboration with Pixar, however, like Tangled its all Disney.  This may be because executive producer John Lasseter has worked on both projects, and even the Toy Story franchise, Cars, and the Incredibles which could be the influence for this new, more Pixar influenced style of animation Disney has adopted. Gaming fans may recognize some references such as 'Fix it Felix''s similarities to Donkey Kong, the appearance of Bowser, Pacman, Sonic, various characters from Street fighter, with references to games like Halo and Mario Cart. 

Wreck it Ralph is an amazing, dazzling film that will please people of all ages, with a well broad knowledge of the industry its based upon.

The Hulk - Avengers

The Hulk as he appeared in The Avengers I feel was a spectacular piece of animation. In order to make his transformation into the Hulk more believable, The special effects team (Industrial Lights and Magic) did a cast of Mark Ruffalo's teeth, shot the corners of his eyeballs, they took reference pictures of the inside of his gums, and his fingers. They even studied his fingerprints. They captured every aspect of Ruffalo's stubble and every mole, they even recorded the inside of Ruffalo's armpits. This was so when he transformed into the Hulk he still looked like Bruce Banner. Motion capture was also used for facial expressions and movements, as well as athletes, actors in the motion capture suit to explore various movements. The animators also created several layers of body structure's such as a skeleton,  muscle, and skin. All this combined to create, for the first time, a very believable and popular Hulk.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rb5P271k5f4 

Batman Arkham City

The enormous city in Arkham City is incredible, from as low as the underground sewers to as the tip of every rooftop, everywhere is wide open to explore, and highly detailed, with extra bonus items to look for once the story is completed. Its all the detail scattered in the city that makes it all the more enjoyable and believable to play in.

The darker take on Batman and Catwoman  (more fictional in presentation than represented in Nolan's films, but still with a more realistic, gritty look than usual comics) is what i also like much in the game. Their appearances I think are perfect for a Batman franchise, and this game being the only contender to better Nolan's masterpiece trilogy.