Quba HQ

Get ready for Stash Online

Starting May 5th 2010, the Stash DVD magazine will be available in a new, online form. The full 120-hour archive of the world’s most exceptional animation, VFX and motion graphics will become accessible in a full resolution streaming video form. All the bonus materials such as behind the scenes, production notes, music, toolkit and more, will also wind place in this new format.

The regular price for a yearly subscription runs at $158, but if you pre-order it before May 1st, there is a whole bunch of discounted options available.

More details at:
http://www.stashmedia.tv/?p=5732

Pixels by Patrick Jean

The motion graphics world is talking about it. The gaming world is talking about it. It was sitting on my desktop for the last three days and I didn’t have a moment to post it. Now it’s about time.

Pixels is a short film produced by One More Production and directed by Partick Jean. It tells a story of an 8bit invasion over the New York city and combines live action footage with blocky, stylized CGI. Drawing inspiration from the Nintendo and Commodore64 era of games, it unleashes waves of 3D sprites onto the world, bringing the coolest possible version of an apocalypse I have seen in a while.

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Exit Through the Gift Shop

So, as you may know, Banksy made a film. I am assuming everyone here knows who Banksy is, but in case you don’t, welcome to our humble planet and I hope you come in peace.

The film, entitled Exit Through the Gift Shop premiered at Sundance and people there liked it quite a bit. Now it is getting its theatrical release in the US, starting on April 16th. For more details, check the official site of the movie. Trailer after the break.

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Romantically Apocalyptic

Romantically Apocalyptic is a webcomic like no other. Produced and illustrated by Toronto-based Russian artist Vitaly S Alexius, each panel is rendered in stunning photo-realistic fashion and based on photographic and stock references.

This (at the moment 22-episode long) comic follows adventures of the captain, pilot, sniper and engineer in the wasteland ruin of post-apocalyptic tomorrow. The humor ranges from black to surreal, bringing to mind works of Banksy or Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch.

If you have a little time to waste, make sure to give it a read – it’s really worth it.

Romantically Apocalyptic website:
http://www.romanticallyapocalyptic.com/

Japan: The Strange Country

Japan: The Strange Country is an infographic animation, created as a final thesis project by a Japanese designer Kenichi Tanaka. This exceptionally executed 11 minute video examines Japan and its culture, taking a step back and observing it from a global perspective.

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Adobe Creative Suite 5 is coming

So it is official. In 17 days Adobe will reveal their Creative Suite 5 in an approximately 30 minute long live webcast. So far it seems that CS5 will be a worthy upgrade (not a big fan of CS4 here) but I’ll reserve my judgment until I actually spent some time with the software.

If you want to participate in the first look presentation (Monday, April 12, 2010 at 8am PDT / 4pm GMT) you should go ahead and register with your Adobe ID at the following address:
http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

And by the way, that content-aware fill coming to Photoshop CS5… WTF?If it wasn’t on official Adobe site I would have never believed it.

Cycles

I have come across this surreal video by Cyriak while still on holiday, but had to wait until coming back in order to share it with you. The piece is a great example how in motion graphics / animation all you need is a simple idea and the will to push it really far.

Cycles reminds me of Zbigniew Rybczyński’s Tango – a 1982 Academy Award (Oscar) winner in Animated Short Film category. Both films begin with very plain setup and by constantly adding new looping elements, build a crazy scene that you can’t look away from for even a moment.

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Mousepaths

I have recently come across a very cool java applet developed by Anatoly Zenkov (kickass idea for the flash background on the site, by the way). It’s a quite simple, open-source code that tracks your mouse movements on the screen and creates a visual representation of your activity.

The following image was generated while I played through the Retrieve the IFF device mission in Mass Effect 2. I superimposed the graphic against some watercolor splashes, since with all the doodles QubaHQ started becoming a bit too monochrome.

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Your Life as One Big RPG (from DICE 2010)

Whether you are a gamer, designer, marketing specialist, advertiser or a consumer – you do not want to miss this presentation by Carnegie Mellon University professor Jesse Schnell. The presentation was delivered during DICE 2010 summit and covers games, social networks, marketing strategies, consumer trends, and many more subjects, delivering quite an interesting prognosis for the near future of life and entertainment.

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Unspectacular VFX

Usually, when we hear keywords like VFX, green screen and compositing, what comes to mind are spaceships, CGI characters, explosions and other elements impossible or incredibly expensive to shoot in real life. Visual effects are, however, present in most of the shows you watch on TV, often in the places where you least expect it.

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