Cute Animation From Kansas City Art Students

My friend Steve Mayse, an instructor at the Kansas City Art Institute, directed me to a great little video some students at the school had created. Their effort "Dried Up" is a professional-quality piece of stop-motion animation. I think Steve gave them some input on their set construction technique. You're sure to appreciate the thought and care the kids put into their production.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCUvFXQzSk

Healthcare Explained On Napkins

This is a very simple and straight-forward explanation of the healthcare system and subsequent reform attempts on a series of napkins. You'll get it!

www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all

Healthcare Napkins All

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Comic-Con: Bring Your Stormtrooper Costume

I've gone to the International Comic-Con 3 or 4 times now. It's super-incredible (if you like geeky forms of entertainment)! It fills up the San Diego Convention Center from end to end and is divided up so: 1/3 independent illustrators, 1/3 comic book memorabilia sellers, 1/3 publishing companies. Comic-Con is the place where fantasy fans can see all the latest stuff set to hit the shelves and theaters long before it does. Roaming the floor is really a trip, because so many people are in costume. It's like Halloween. If you're into pop culture creativity, this experience is for you!

www.comic-con.org/cci

Real Giant Robots In Japan

To celebrate Mobile Suit Gundam's 30th anniversary, the anime company has built a 1 to 1 scale statue of it's famous giant robot outside of Tokyo. Seems to be right at home in the Japanese landscape. Let's just hope they don't build a lifesized Godzilla.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6nUX57gCg

Mating Silly Songs With World Of Warcraft

Videos by Spiff Booth need a bit more explaining than normal. The music comes from singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton. It tends to be catchy, humorous, and full of unexpected references. Spiff takes Jonathan's recordings and creates computer animated videos for them using 3D characters and environments from World of Warcraft. This collision of influences produces an almost Alice In Wonderland craziness for the mind to digest. "Bacteria", my selected example, adds an additional layer of weirdness. The vocals were lifted from a KFC training video on food handling safety. Somehow, it all manages to work together.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRPpXh2ycU4

TMBG - Cute Music Video For Kids

Oddball musicians They Might Be Giants often craft songs that seem to be meant for children, but are really for adults. In this case, however, they have intentionally started creating tunes for the wee little ones. I found "Never Go To Work", particularly charming and a potentially good mantra to live by. I'm guessing you"ll find it somewhat irresistible.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Kgj6EiZtw

Disney's Enchanting Fairies

Ever since I saw a promo video for the Tinkerbell movie, I have been mesmerized by Disney's beautiful fairy characters. If the long line of Disney's animated female heroines weren't attractive enough, these particular ones are deliciously gorgeous. I guess you have to give the parents something to hold their interest while they take their little ones to the show. In fact, Dad might be more motivated to see these films than his daughter.

disney.go.com/fairies/

Bruce Branit's "World Builder" Video

"World Builder" is a touching high-tech video from Kansas City digital animator Bruce Branit. I would describe the video, but it would ruin the wonderful experience you will have as the story plays out. Bruce is also famous for his "405" short, where a moving car becomes situated in front of a landing commercial aircraft.

vimeo.com/3365942

World Builder from BranitVFX on Vimeo.

Highly Realistic Computer Generated Body Motion

This demo from a company called Natural Motion displays computer-generated, human-esque figures that exhibit highly realistic behavior. What their Euphoria software does is really quite astounding.