Pixar unveiled the teaser trailer for Up and its unusual 78 year-old hero at Comi-Con 2008.
The Arab Aquarius: Up by Pixar, Teaser Trailer

Seriously hilarious, Canadian director Patrick Boivin has created numerous stop-motion, live-action, and animated shorts. My favourites are shown above, but there are many more on Youtube.

Ok, I can’t resist. Here’s an embedded one of Optimus Prime re-enacting that Evolution of Dance you saw everywhere a couple of years ago.

Patrick Boivin’s Youtube Channel »

A very beautiful sepia-toned animation that is poignant as well as wonderfully animated and textured. The site itself is in Spanish (I think?) but you don’t need to understand the language to comprehend a short like this.

Tango Animation in 3D » [via NotCot ]

An interesting short done by some animation students over 2-3 years.

PACO: An Animated Short »

This is simply one of the most entertaining, visually appealing, useful applications of Flash on a website that I’ve ever seen.

Unscrew America –> [via NotCot]

The Digital Arts Technology Training Institute has registered on the Autodesk Student Engineering & Design Community networking site. This website community will allow our students to connect with students and faculty in dozens of countries in order to share interests and get inspired.

Students will be able to:

• Download free Autodesk software
• Take self-paced tutorials
• Show off projects
• Learn from experts
• Explore industry careers

Registered users will also have access to question and answer forums, job postings, tips and tricks, a magazine archive, an extensive article database and a resource link repository.

Currently, the community has a Student Design Challenge running with several prize packs including:

• Xbox 360 Game Console
• Full version of Maya® 2008
• Profile on Autodesk.com and in the online Autodesk Student Magazine
• $200 (USD) Visa Gift Card* (or local currency equivalent)
• Grand Prize Winning designer awarded a contract with Disruptive Media Publishers, the leading independent publisher of gamer themes on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace

Students are invited to check their email for an invitation link from their instructor that will allow them to join our school in this community.

Autodesk Student Engineering & Design Community –>

This is a find by Evan and I pounced on it to show you. It looks like it might be as useful as Muybridge’s freeze-frame photos in terms of reference. The fact that the 3d models are shown without skin is something you should exploit in order to learn muscle definition and placement. This could be a huge boost in learning anatomy for concept art, texturing, modeling and animation.

Posemaniacs –>

CGSociety has announced the winners of their latest challenge, “Strange Behavior”:

‘Strange Behavior’ – “The unexpected can delight or shock. It can be exciting or frightening. It’s often funny. It’s never boring!”

Pages of beautiful entries, including Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Cinematography, Matte Painting, Compositing & Editing and Screen Play adaption.

Make extra effort to watch the animated winning entries. I’m having trouble deciding between the black-and-white stripes of Polkarella, and the beautiful purples of Spaced Out as my favourite. Also make sure to click on the Challenger Page for each of the winners, because you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look backwards through the process of creating each scene.

It’s a LOT of eye-candy, folks, don’t overload yourself but make sure you take it all in eventually!

Strange Behavior –>

This is information specific to submitting a demo reel to Pixar – but as a student, you couldn’t find a better set of guidelines.

How to Create a Demo Reel – by Pixar –>

Gender bias in the world of 3D, gaming and digital media can be a tricky subject. There are studies, assumptions, and entire books about it. The facts remain that an extremely low percent of the industry is female, and most of those are in administrative roles. As low as 3% of game artists and developers are female, but 18% of producers are women. 18% is higher than 3, but it’s still abysmally low. [source]

As the only female who graduated in her Digital Media class (the only two others dropped out), I can verify that the divide is real. What I find extremely interesting is that a full 50-60% of my students are female. This tells me that women are interested, but an online class is far less intimidating than heading off to a class full of geeky guys.

There’s an interesting look into this phenomenon over at CGSociety.

Women in the Field –>