Coming to Life

Walking on water and developing websites from a specifications are easy if both are frozen.

- Edward V Berard, "Life-Cycle Approaches"
 

I haven't lost my mind, I have it backed up on flash somewhere.

Our Senior Thesis Project

Are the Mannequins Alive?...  (Flash plugin required)  About 19 meg   This is the trailer for our final project.  We didn't upload the whole movie because it's half an hour long and about 50 gig in size.  But trust me - it's good (if I do say so myself)...

Something's on Manny's mind - all in all, he's having a weird day...  (Flash plugin required)  About 20 meg   This is the first video of the semester.  We think our standards got higher as our capabilities improved...

Meet Idi Amin.  Thank goodness he's dead!  He's lucky Uganda wasn't situated atop an oil field...  (Flash plugin required)  About 35 meg

Take the Long Way Home - Manny tried to do what everyone else was doing.  It looked so easy - but...  (Flash plugin required)  About 30 meg

Everyone needs a hero to emulate.  Manny thought he had found the perfect one: Hal Graham. the first Rocketman.  But what Manny did next was daft...  (Flash plugin required)  About 16 meg

Craft - Manny was lonely - but he had an idea for how he could fix that problem...  (Flash plugin required)  About 9 meg

In No Time - The neighbours said Manny was making enough racket to wake the dead.  But they were wrong...  (Flash plugin required)  About 16 meg

Razed Eyebrows - If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?  (Flash plugin required)  About 67 meg   This was our final project...

Time Out - Manny could think of nothing but his bike, that is until his accident.  Then he realised that the world was filled with beauty.  (Flash plugin required) About 50 meg

This is merely an Illustrator project which I made into a shockwave file so I could show the layers.  Boring...  (Flash plugin required)  Less than a meg

Room to Move - a silly Photoshop project which doesn't even belong in this section.  (I'd skip this one if I were you...)

From Web Design Classes...

Prince Felix (an animated parable about Management by Expectation) - (Flash plugin required) 28meg.  A smaller (11meg) version for dialup connections takes about 40 minutes to load at 56k...

Brain Games - nine very short quizzes about a variety of topics - questions you may not have been asked before...  (Flash plugin required) 5.1 meg

Six Easy Pieces - Well, SOME were easier than others... (An 8-page website requiring a Flash plugin.  Clicking on the "Submit" button at the end doesn't mean you have to say anything - but will allow you see the final animation...)

Dog Talk - Did you ever wonder what your dog was really saying?

And Now, for Something Completely Different - well, sorta different, anyway...

From 3D Studio Max Classes...

Our 3D Studio Max Class - My sons and I are all taking a class to prepare us to learn game design.  My projects take me about 24x as long as theirs does them but I still enjoy it immensely...

3D Studio Max Class (continued) - includes reflections, camera matching and forward kinematics.

Still More 3D Studio Max - includes inverse kinematics (robotic arms) and space warps (logos with moving text and moving water).

Wrapping It Up - the last two projects include particles and dynamics (explosions using gravity and deflection) and video post (space scene - nebula, planets, sun, stars - using fog, noise, starfield and/or lens flares).

Interlude - Wolf made this during our holiday break as a gift for a friend who likes peregrine falcons.

Advanced 3D Studio Max Class - Includes new materials (sun rays, blends and masks), using controllers for animation (a dune buggy) and using meshsmooth (mirroring, working with meshes).

Advanced 3D Studio Max Class (continued) - Modelling with surface modifiers (our own heads) and Lip Synching (a character of our choice).

Still More Classes - Walk cycles, skin and bones.

Almost Finished - Particle Flow systems and stuntmen...

And Finally - Flowing streams and a final project of something we learned on our own.

A Pot Shot - The wizard in modern clothes is actually my son Wolf (he can now star in his own movies...)

I Can See Clearly Now - How would you like to have x-ray vision?  To see through walls?  Or maybe you'd prefer a cloak of invisibility?  (Flash plugin required) 40 meg

Zombies can be so funny...  (Flash plugin required)  About 7 meg

An ad for Metro de Madrid - done with flair...  (Flash plugin required)  About 5 meg

Stubbies - watching this made me miss New Zealand terribly - so I thought I would share it with you...   (Flash plugin required)  About 6 meg

Not Impossible - I should say not!  With computer graphics, anything is possible - including filming each member of a soccer team in a room by himself - then putting it all together such that it looks like they are playing on a team - a winning team...  (Flash plugin required)  About 3 meg

Ages of Man - And you thought it was time that's flying by - in reality, it is YOU!  (Flash plugin required)  About 2.5 meg Also Admiral Cigarettes - a strange cigarette commercial from 1897 done by the Edison Manufacturing Company...

But You Can Always Fix It - In the first spot, our heroine pauses to allow a plunging piano to miss her by inches, casually pulls a litter basket into the path of a fleeing robber, jumps up and hangs from a handy crossbar as a cat and dog chase beneath her and finally tugs a young man out of danger as a runaway car crashes through a showroom window.  (Flash plugin required) About 8.5 meg

Stunt City - an impressive Rexona commercial created by The Mill and directed by the talented Ivan Zacharias... (Flash plugin required) About 10 meg

Delivery - the artist rendered the original in 1280 x 720 pixel resolution at 25 frames/second.  Each frame took 5 - 30 minutes of rendering time - so he had up to 10 PCs rendering over a period of about 4 months... (Flash plugin required) 24 meg

Those Entertaining Gringos - two unusual heroes whose only ambition is to die with their boots on... Also Cactus (Flash plugin required for both) 13 meg and 6 meg

Kallahar's Pace - He strapped a rocket to the back of his car and drove from Los Angeles to Oregon at 6,000 miles per hour.  Don't believe it?  He made a video to prove it... (Flash plugin required) 52 meg (you need a connection almost as fast as Kallahar's car!)

Snakes - based on a woodcut by M C Escher.  Done by the incredibly talented Italian artist Cristobal Vila...  (Flash plugin required) 9 meg

Cane Toad: What Happened to Baz - an animated short film by Australians Andrew Silke and David Clayton.  Dazza the cane toad has a best mate, Baz, who has gone missing.  Dazza provides us a few insights into what he fears may have happened to young Baz... (Flash plugin required) 43 meg

Three Commercials - first, Rebok's Escape Your Sofa.  Next, unusual bike racks that illustrate the term "down under" in a new way; finally, see what a good mood getting a home loan can put you in... (Flash plugin required) 11 meg and 6.5 meg

Eye Popping - A lady with an unusual talent which is...  Well, you'll just have to see for yourself...  (Flash plugin required) 822kb and 405 - A short, funny movie.  (Also requires Flash plugin) 7.8 meg

Feats and Defeats - I'll be honest with you - just like life, there are more of one kind than the other...  (Flash plugin required) 8.4 meg and Ping Pong Players - clearly a fun game (Flash plugin required) 13.5 meg

Indigen - This short film was done by four people using tools I supposedly know how to use.  Sigh...  (A slightly longer movie which also requires a Flash plugin) 14 meg

Fun at Work - There is a vast world of work out there - at least 111 million people are employed in the US alone - and many are bored out of their minds all day long...  (Flash plugin required) 3.5 meg  (Also contains a 1 meg animated .gif showing how to draw a portrait...)

When Your Needs Overwhelm You - You can find it fast in the Yellow Pages - though sometimes not quite fast enough...  Plus, "On the Horns of a Dilemma" (Flash plugin required) 5.6 meg and 7.5 meg

You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours - 3 short cat videos... (Flash plugin required) 9.5 meg, 3.8 meg and 2 meg

Making A Basket - She really did it.  She ended up with a headache but the guys were over the moon... (Flash plugin required) 4.3 meg

Condiment Man? - It's hard to tell if this is part of a Japanese guerilla marketing campaign by the Kikkoman Corporation, a bored animator's project, or the work of a mad soy sauce fanatic...  (Flash plugin required) but only 372kb!

This Is NOT Logical - Have you ever had days when you wanted to bash your computer?  Now you can...  (Flash plugin required) 570kb

RecurRecurRecursionsionsion - Having trouble with the concept of "infinity"?  This could help...  (Flash plugin required) and only 28kb!!

How to Be a Better Driver - a "dyseducational road movie" from Bruno Bozzetto...  (Flash plugin required) 1.1 meg Also includes Bozzetto's Europe versus Italy 1.9 meg and Life 1 meg

Closing Down - sometimes daydreams are all that get you through the day...  (Flash plugin required) 4 meg

When Things Just... Work - I don't like advertisements, but this is an elegant exception... (Flash 6 required) 4 meg

As Difficult As You Might Expect - And those guys are herding - what?!  (One more advertisement, but an impressive one.)  (Flash plugin required) 6 meg

If You Could Hear What I Think - If we could hear each other's thoughts instead of our spoken words, would conversations go something like this?  (Flash plugin required) 22 meg - warning, language not perfectly pristine...

Cumming and Going - Alan and Hector for perfume and Renault.  Some ads are better than the shows they interrupt...  (Flash plugin required) 10 meg for both together

Zabriskie Point (1970) - no CGI here - they actually just blew stuff up and filmed it from different angles (better get it right the first time!).  This is the house exploding... (Flash plugin required) about 30 meg

For sections on other topics including ageing, animals, animation, drugs, education, environment, flying, humour, immigration, investment in forestry, intellectual amusements, men, money, New Jersey, oddities, photographs, playing cards, prisons, relationships, science, terrorism, Wellington, working, and more please see the Topics Index Page.

The next topic in this section is The Art of Playing Cards.  The previous topic in this section was Animals.