Digital Cortex » comics

Reverse Cone-ing

Tom Saunter — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:37:43 +0000

There’s a scene in Batman #496 – 1993′s Knightfall story arc, supposedly the source material for much of Nolan’s TDKR – where Joker and Scarecrow set about terrorising Gotham through a series of prank calls.

In one panel they’re evading the police in an ice-cream truck, until they reach a toll booth… And that’s when this happens:

OK let’s get this straight.

Do we think the Joker invent cone-ing?

The meme to beat in 2011?

Or at least, reverse cone-ing?

Answers on a postcard, please.

Pixar’s Zoetrope and the 4th Dimension

Tom Saunter — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:15:36 +0000

As leaders in computer animation, in terms of box-office takings, technical prowess and industry awards, it’s easy to forget that Pixar’s roots are in traditional animation: the frame by frame progression of a set of still images at speeds that trick the eye into perceiving a single moving image.

But in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, it’s hard to explain the essentials of what Pixar really do without spoiling some of the magic: as any Behind the Scenes DVD extra will show you, it’s a probably a bunch of sweaty animators slaving over their Wacom tablets for months on end.

a traditional zoetrope

So when Disney sought to showcase their acquisition (they bought Pixar back in 2006) in a couple of their resorts, they tasked Pixar with a demonstrating how animation works in a way that keeps the magic in.

What they came up with – a modern re-imagining of the zoetrope – is something to truly surprise and delight.

Take a look at this:

Lovely, isn’t it?

What caught my attention is the point animator Warren Trezevant makes:

It’s the clearest explanation of animation, because you get to see every frame of animation before your current frame [...] and every frame of animation after it. Here you have the opportunity to see the tricks the animators use to make things move.

Dr. Manhattan

Thinking more deeply on this, one could consider the zoetrope’s design as illustrative of one other concept: four dimensional perception.

Unlike traditional screen-based animation, the zoetrope lends observers the ability to see ‘through time’. One can rewind or fast-forward through frames with a slight adjustment in perspective, much like Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan.

This recalls an essay I wrote applying McLuhanism to comic books, which talks around the medium’s unique ability to force a sort of cognitive leap between the panels of a page (despite speeds far lower than 30 fps).

In comics, the reader’s mind fills in the blanks, making it probably the most effective animator of all. And now that Disney owns Marvel too, perhaps we’ll see more examples of Disney playing around in the fourth dimension.

Superhuman Babies

Tom Saunter — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:09:49 +0000

French artist Alexandre Nicolas has produced some quite beautiful sculptures of superheroes in a foetal state. The work comprises his 2008 series: PRÉDESTINÉS, working in his preferred media acrylic and resin.

I think these pieces inherit a special fragility because we’d usually see these characters (Hulk; Silver Surfer; Batman etc) as fully-grown and badass, whereas here they are quite the opposite. Take a look:

Catwoman

Silver Surfer

Superman

Spiderman

The Hulk

Batman

Visit PRÉDESTINÉS for more images from this series.

Super Social Networking

Tom Saunter — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:30:27 +0000

Chris Sims from Invincible Super-Blog takes a look at the Facebook feeds of our favorite heroes, which I thought some of you might like:

Well I thought it was cool, anyway…!

Filter Heroes

Tom Saunter — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:40:47 +0000

Just a quick one that any lover of Photoshop will enjoy, from the mad-skills team over at Chop Shop T-Shirts. I love how ‘Silver Age‘ these characters look:

Sometimes, those Photoshop filters really do feel like superheroes to me.
What’s your favourite tool? And if it was a superhero, what would it’s power be?