'Womb Wars' wiggles into the spotlight, Brian Frisk's 'Robokopf' gets artistic, 'The Funeral' tells a doozy of a joke, and more tech-tastic animations for your eyes only!

WombWars2Spotlight: 'Womb Wars'
If "Eye Drops" were a true gynocracy, we'd be programming fun (but educational) shorts about female reproduction all the time! But we're a regular old democracy, with boys and girls just trying to get along in a small space. Luckily, this week we all agree on something: training our spotlight on Tom Newby's hilarious animation "Womb Wars." It's a drama that plays out in a territory seldom seen on television. Let's just say it really takes the viewer inside. Inside what is for you to find out. And check this out, it's also featured at Atom Films and on the official 'Star Wars' website as a bad-ass fan film. The Force is with us!
From the animator:
"It's the Miracle of Life meets 'Star Wars'! I've always wanted to do a complete short totally in CG. When I conceived, ahem, 'Womb Wars,' I never imagined it would be so popular, most notably from science teachers who wanted to show it to their classes to demonstrate the reproductive process." -- Tom Newby
VesuviusAnimation Lab: 'Vesuvius Had Spoken'
Sure, sure, you've all heard of Pompeii, maybe even perused a National Geographic story with those pictures of well-preserved Romans caught eternally in their respective acts by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Maybe you even felt a chill run up your spine before you turned the page to read about the lemurs of Madagascar. But for animator Danic Dabic, a scholar of architecture and archaeology, Mount Vesuvius' eruption prompted her to create a work of art commemorating Pompeii's neighbor, the town of Herculaneum.
From the animator:
"Until recently traditional modeling techniques involving plaster, clay, cardboard, and wood have been used in re-creating archaeological sites and bringing back to life the splendor and beauty of ancient cultures. These days, computer animation is used for such purposes. The idea behind this project is to link to the past, the present, and the future. I was sick of violent animations with fighting robots and shooting everywhere. I wanted to create a piece that's visually beautiful but also educational at the same time. I decided to re-create an ancient town whose story enabled me to combine all the aspects of animation: modeling, texturing, lighting, visual effects, animating, and compositing." -- Danica Dabic
Funeral'The Funeral'
Here's a fun fact for animation freaks: Vic Cherubini, president of Epic Software, has been a fan of animation at TechTV since the days of "Dash's Animation House"! A few years ago he and his team at Epic (including animators Tom Jordan and William Vaughan) began work on "The Funeral" with the best intentions of creating a half-hour show made up of animated versions of popular jokes. As you probably know, the "Eye Drops" gang loves a good joke, and 'The Funeral's' punch line delivers.
From Epic Software's president:
"We thought MTV might like the idea of taking a joke and using 3D animation to tell the story visually. Since putting video to music worked so well for them, we felt the idea of putting 3D animation to popular jokes would be a natural. But just as we finished the piece, 'Cartoon Sushi' [on MTV] was cancelled." -- Vic Cherubini
Emporer1'The Emperor's New Suit'
Animator and effects artist Scott Winston studied animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Winston's take on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale starts out cozy and familiar, like a good summertime nap, but then, with all that public nudity, it evolves into that classic bad dream that keeps us up at night clutching at the sheets!
From the animator:
"'The Emperor's New Suit' was my attempt to create a linear story through nothing more than gesture and emotion. The film was created in the 'fantasian' style, with the music driving the narrative. The production was a combination of traditional animation and Softimage3D with a cartoon shader." -- Scott Winston
MimeinaBox'Mime in a Box'
Mime school was one of those things we all begged our parents to enroll us in, right? That's why this animation by Eric Kunzendorf, an assistant professor at the Atlanta College of Art, tickles us pink with an invisible feather. And for those of you who would rather study under the rough and tumble tutelage of a rodeo clown, this piece has its dangerous side. Just wait and see.
From the animator:
"I designed, modeled, rigged, animated, rendered, and output 'Mime in a Box' during December, January, and February of 1999-2000. I created Marvin the Mime for students to use in my animation class as an example of what the rig could do. The story itself evolved from an idea I had had for a number of months concerning what could happen if your average mime routine went wrong... horribly wrong!
"The trickiest part of the animation was staging Marvin's actual turns within the box as he finds each wall. I had assumed this would be an easy thing given that it was one character on stage. I couldn't have been more wrong. I had to insert cuts to different camera angles that framed the action more expressively, otherwise he would wind up facing away from the camera. His body would be blocking his hands, and I absolutely couldn't have that! And be advised that no mimes were actually harmed during the course of this production." -- Eric Kunzendorf
Robokopf1'Robokopf'
This Flash animation by Brian Frisk nails the affected artist's accent and makes us want to run out to the local gallery and drop about a thousand dollars on bad paintings just so we can complain about them. Ah, to be a young, artistic robot with personality flaws rivaling Valeris Solano's!
From the animator:
"'We Are Robots' is an online animated series from Extrabad spotlighting the daily lives of common robots. Some might say this is a complex study of human nature, exploring inner layers of emotion and personality. Some may see a cynical commentary on the humanization of modern technology. However, it's just a cartoon about some losers who happen to be robots.
"The animation style is very simple. The goal is not to dazzle visually, but to use animation to present a very detailed story or character. I put more time into getting the script where I want it than on all other aspects of the production. I have a hard time cutting stuff out, so episodes tend to run a little longer than online cartoons should. Some people get impatient after three minutes, but I think the added time and attention to detail gives them a depth and richness that most online cartoons don't have." -- Brian Frisk