A Scanner Darkly
So this is what it looks like when you look into a scanner…in case anyone wanted to know. We have a great big scanner at work and I just couldn’t resist.
So this is what it looks like when you look into a scanner…in case anyone wanted to know. We have a great big scanner at work and I just couldn’t resist.
Alrighty, I feel it’s my sworn duty to introduce some of you animation cats and kittens to my secret indulgence in an emerging geeky underground film genre: Machinima.
Machinima, or ‘machine cinema’ is an example of creatively using a game engine as a virtual set in which to ‘film’ a movie. You use the game characters as actors; it’s essentially real-time digital puppeteering. Of course, the quality and versatility of the film is highly dependent on the quality and versatility of the game engine; you’ll never get Pixar like results. But that’s part of the charm and the challenge of creating in this medium. It’s sorta like…underground low budget CGI filmmaking.
So here’s some filthy merchandise I devised in the form of stickers to pass out at the San Diego Comicon this summer. Endless self promotion! Yes! That’s what it’s all about!

This vertical beauty sports a clever quote extolling what virtues befit an ideal woman. An ideal woman in the gaming world, anyway. Perfect for that social, I mean, level climbing geek in your life.
Once upon a time, all we had was this in the Random Cartoons kitchen…..

Yes. Sad. Especially considering that in the main building, they not only had a soda dispenser and a popcorn machine but some crazy cappuchino making thingy.
And suddenly, this large machine appeared in OUR kitchen!
Yeah, I’m throwing this rough turn of Rosemary up here at 5:45pm on Monday. As most of you know, the full body turn is usually the first page of every character’s model pack. It’s the one page that animators will pull out of the pack and tack on their desk wall for reference, and chuck everything else. Just kidding, but, well, it does contain the most info on one page.
I remember when I was young and excited and the industry was still all about the hand drawn animation in the early 90’s. My animation geek buddies and I would ‘collect’ model sheets from every possible show - in particular I always wanted to get my hands on the ones from Disney. These model sheets were the ‘keys’ to learning to draw the characters - usually created by the lead animator for the character. And having the ‘official’ model sheets [Read more…]
