"New York Times" article on animation

Perfecting Animation, via Science

Published: December 29, 2010

ABSTRACT: At a Columbia University lab, Eitan Grinspun and his students work on helping movie studios to get hair to blow in the wind and clothes to hang properly.

Oliver Mark

One of the most impressive new photography books is Oliver Mark's portraits. His personal site showcases some of the photography in the book. Take a look at this fantastic photographer next time you are in the library.

Mark, Oliver. Oliver Mark: portraits. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2009.
TR 681 .F3 M37 2009

Jason's Super Reviews-Maya Dynamics

Alright you bloggees, here's where the fun stuff starts...yup you guess it, BOOK REVIEWS!! Anyways I'm going to start this series reviews off with a book that will get all you animators and game designers bouncing off the walls.

"Jason's Super Reviews" presents a Maya studio projects instructional / tutorial book on Dynamics.
what is Maya Dynamics you say? Well, that can be answered in one simple word, "Awesome!" Dynamics in Maya is where all the cool special effects stuff like meteors, volcanoes and EXPLOSIONS are created.

This book starts you off with a simple and small explosion using particles and editing them to do simple stuff like orbit around a larger object, just like an asteroid belt orbits a planet. Later on in the book, you get to more complicated stuff, such as tornadoes, mushroom cloud explosions, flood,s and even a gas station blowing up! How cool is that?! The book also comes with a CD with all the project files, so you can follow along.

I have been super excited to get to read this book and I'm glad it was everything I hoped for. I highly recommend this book to anyone learnin' Maya and wants to get into doing cool effects in movies, animated films and game cinematic.

Palamar, Todd. Maya Studio Projects: Dynamics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.
Q 183.9 .P355 2010

~Jason Kunz

Reviews of New Films

The New York Times gave good reviews to a couple of new films...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: Time for Young Wizards to Put Away Childish Things

Tangled: Back to the Castle, Where It’s All About the Hair

Culinary Blogs

There is now a huge list of culinary blogs on our Culinary Arts subject guide. Click here to see them.

The Lost Thing Trailer

Day Of the Dead: let me twist your mind

So Halloween has come and gone for another year. And I, in true film student fashion, celebrated it with a healthy helping of mind-bending movies.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was on the top of my watching list, but in true end of October fashion my internet died on me and I could not watch it on my Xbox Netflix queue. So I sneaked a peek into my girlfriend's DVD collection and watched a few.

Fight Club and Memento were my two choices for the day. Both these movies are on my top lists because they aren't only amazingly awesome movies; they both are great movies to learn from. Fight Club is an exceptional example of great cinematography. The lighting and camera work play compliments to each other. Memento is a prime example of how a great story is told. It's one of my favorite Christopher Nolan movies, right behind the Dark Knight (I have yet to see Inception...I know I know I should be ashamed of myself).

I am going to get my hands on Doctor Parnassus sooner or later (or until my internet decides to revive itself). Then I will include it in a Zombie Marathon for this weekend. In the lineup: Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. Both are great movies again for cinematography and story, respectively. The zombie marathon might seem like a week too late, but November 2nd is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, or All Saint's Day depending on your geographical location and culture). In my culture (Mexican), this is a more important day then Halloween.

So in conclusion, psycho thrillers... good. Zombie movies... great. Feliz dia de los Muertos and now my picks of the week.


Picks of the week:
-All of the Above
-Seven
-The Sixth Sense
-The Bollywood version of Thriller

In my Queue:
-The Imaginirium of Doctor Parnassus
-The Crying Game
-A Clockwork Orange