LEGO Jurassic World - “A Jarring Encounter"

In honor of the release of Jurassic World or, more specifically, the Jurassic World Lego sets, Lego has put out this cute stop motion animation A Jarring Encounter. Directed by Kris Theorin of Something's Awry, this short captures everything that is charming and iconic about Lego stop motion animations - quirky, slapstick comedy with unexpected punchlines in a recognizably Lego environment. This is what Lego animation should be.

In contrast Lego has also put out Jurassic Pals, a fully CG animation featuring Lego characters in a photo real environment, by CC Pixels. The short is well animated, and beautifully lit and rendered, and I take no issue with it technically. But if The Lego Movie taught us anything, its that the charm of Lego CG animation is that it obeys the rules of Lego physics. Lego is made of solid plastic which doesn't bend, it just rotates at the joints. It is also distinctively adorned with lots of small plastic studs, which allows for the interlocking of pieces and into which the character's feet snap. These facts about Lego are clearly visible in A Jarring Encounter, and The Lego Movie captured them so perfectly that people questioned if it was really CG. Without these elements, the Lego design of the characters is purely an aesthetic choice, and almost incidental to overall film.

So, in conclusion, the rule-breaking nature of the CG animation ends up falling a little flat, but the stop motion A Jarring Encounter is funny and charming, everything a Lego animation should be.

Star Wars Battlefront

Electronic Arts has debuted the first 5 minutes of actual gameplay footage from their upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront at the E3 video game expo this week, and frankly it looks amazing. I have never played the original Battlefront games, but I'm extremely excited at the prospect of playing what promises to be the most authentic Star Wars video game experience to date. Developers EA DICE (makers of the Battlefield series and Mirror's Edge) reportedly went back to the Lucasfilm archives to capture models, props and sound effects used in the original trilogy, so the game should look and sound as close as its possible to get to the original Star Wars that we grew up with. But what excites me the most is the chance to get involved in some of the classic action sequences. It looks like they have captured all the key moments of the battle for Hoth in the trailer above, and gone to great lengths to make it feel like you are part of the event.

This is the first gameplay trailer that we have seen, following on from the previous trailer released a back in April (below), which got us excited about characters such as Darth Vader and Boba Fett, but was game engine rather than gameplay, making it hard to judge what the final game would be like. This new trailer assuages our concerns, or mine at least. It looks amazing and I can't wait to see more.

Star Wars: Battlefront will be released November 17th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The History of Typography

I find this simple stop-motion animation about the history of typography to be really charming. Created by Ben Barrett-Forrest of graphic design company Forrest Media, the clip is composed of 291 paper letters displayed in 2,454 photographs, and represents 140 hours of work.
What I find most appealing about Ben's work is that, in a time when digital typographic animations are so quick and easy to produce, he has taken the time to craft something by hand. In doing so, he has created an animation which is raw and imperfect, and in places somewhat clunky. But it also has a feeling of being real and tactile, a hand-crafted work of typographic animation which mirrors the origins of the medium it chronicles - the painstakingly hand-made and imperfect way in which type was made and arranged for printing.

The clip is informative and entertaining, but it is its raw imperfect charm which I find most appealing, and why I recommend that you give it a watch

Solus

Despite its very simple graphic style, this animation from Identity Visuals is visually stunning, and surprisingly touching. I was immediately engaged with the piece and couldn't look away, something which I am finding occurs with ever decreasing frequency. Directed by motion designer Zac Dixon and, very importantly, with music from Cody Fry, Solus is a "short story of loneliness, adventure, and self sacrifice", and a beautiful one at that. Definitely worth 4 minutes of your life.

Photo Journal 05

With this photo, taken in the garden on our Mallorca cottage, I was interested in trying to capture the harsh nature of the environment, and how remarkable it is that anything can thrive here. Not sure if I have fully realized this ambition, but I feel that it goes someway to telling that story.

Photo Journal 04

Photo of one of the many cats which lives near where I'm staying in Mallorca. This is my first attempt at wildlife photography, and my first day playing with my new Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III Lens. I'm quite pleased with the way that this has turned out, I think the framing is good and the bokeh of the defocused BG is pleasing. I'm going to play around with this more and see what I can achieve.

Jurassic World at Waterloo

To celebrate the release of Jurassic World, velociraptors have been set loose in London's Waterloo station. Four life-sized and wonderfully detailed raptors have been built and placed in the station, complete with their own InGen transport crate, for tourists and commuters to admire and take photographs with. The models look a bit plastic-y when you get up close, but are otherwise incredibly life-like ... I assume. They certainly look believable.

The 4 velociraptors are part of Universal Pictures' 2 week 'Jurassic World  Takeover' event.

“Jurassic World is taking over Waterloo Station! A two week, fully immersive, takeover of one of London’s busiest stations with 350k footfall per day. All branding, posters sites and digital screens will be themed to the film while the station will also be split into zones for ‘in-world’ and film advertising. The underground tunnel has been completely wrapped featuring Mosasaurus aquarium and Jungle raptor scenes while the mezzanine level will take you through a 10 minute audio tour available at www.jurassic.london”

— press release quoted http://www.filmoria.co.uk/2015/06/jurassic-world-is-taking-over-waterloo/

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This is the second dinosaur stunt to happen in London in recent weeks, following the National Geographic Channel driving a flatbed truck carrying a dead T-rex on the back, to promote it's T-rex Autopsy show.

Photo Journal 03

Unfortunately I missed a few days, due to a combination of work stress and then illness, but back on it with something a bit different - this is the view from my airplane seat on the way to Mallorca. 

Photo Journal 02

I wasn't looking for a sunset sky photo today, and hopefully when I do go looking for them I will find something more interesting, but I found the lighting and colour on these clouds to be really beautiful, and the silhouette of the buildings made the shot interesting enough to be my choice of photo for the day

Photo Journal 01

Not entirely thrilled with the results of this one, but try trying something different after a few consecutive days of closeups of things around my house. This is a church near to the office where I work, and I'm attempting to capture a somewhat dramatic sky and a foreground object without either element being clipped.
Shooting raw and being able to grade back some of the detail has helped a lot here, but I feel like the image has ended up looking a little processed and also a bit flat. Will have to experiment a bit more with this