Baidir by Slimane Aniss

BAIDIR from slimane aniss on Vimeo.

I am an awful animator. This proves it. Also, check out this dude's demo reel. It is rad.

The site is pretty neat, as well: http://baidir.fr/

Thanks to Mr. Kirun for showing this to me!

THERE'S RHYTHM EVERYWHERE!

Collage of Bad Art

What is with this trend? It's getting out of control. Anytime a movie is "indie" or otherwise considered to be away from the mainstream, they ask some 12 year old to draw the movie poster to keep it "UNDERGROUND" and "HIP"!

This isn't to say I don't like the movies. I think the movies shown here are great. But, at some point this trend needs to stop. It stops being cute when you realize the sheer number of movies that are using this style of cover art.

Let's have some more explosions on the cover, people. Seriously.

-Gene

Birthday Suit

So, my birthday came and went. I am now 2 decades old. Hurray!

The lovely Rachel was here for the weekend. We had a good time just hanging out. I got a couple of sweet shirts, and some moolah. Overall, a pretty fine weekend.

I watched Memories, a collection of 3 anime short films. I'd say the quality of the story improved with each one. The third story, Cannon Fodder, was probably my favorite. Yes, it was. *nod*

I saw Inglorious Basterds. It didn't like it. Everyone is pissing themselves about it, but I thought it was very forced and Tarantino is totally out of ideas. He's just pandering to the crowd, and everyone is buying into it. His movies used to push the limits, now they just kinda simmer there, with the occasional violent scene to keep it "Tarantino-ish". Ah well. If you like it, you like it. If you hate it, hi-five.

Check out this dude: http://bangalores.livejournal.com/
He's got this project going where he draws some fanart of a character each day. They're so full of charm and originality that it makes me angry. Follow him, you won't regret it.

-Gene

THE FUTURE IS NOW

They now have digital and nicotine-free cigarettes:

http://www.blucigs.com/index.php

A friend of mine bought some of the nicotine-free cigs and we were trying them out. It's pretty awesome. We get to look cool and pretend to be all of our favorite cigarette smoking characters, WITH NO DAMAGE TO OUR LUNGS.

It works through some kind of voodoo, but basically the "smoke" you breathe out is water vapor. It's totally harmless, and only smells like faint java, vanilla, cherry or whatever other flavor you buy. The flavors are subtle and non-invasive, but too much can get kinda obnoxious and it doesn't taste too good. But, you get used to it. And that's a small price to pay for harmless smoking.

I guess it helps real smokers too, since the nicotine cigs have no tar or any of that BAD STUFF. And it gives them their fix without having to go outside or annoying the people around em. I can support that.

Also, the price is very fair for the length of time that you can reuse em. For smokers, it comes out way cheaper down the line.

MORAL: NOW YOU CAN LOOK COOL AND NOT KILL YOURSELF.

-Gene

Here is a Modest Mouse video directed by Heath Ledger, before his death. I think this video shows how much you can get out of very basic animation coupled with a powerful song. I've always enjoyed animating to music, because you get away with so much more. As long as you do it right, and sync up major events to dynamic parts of the song, you can usually turn a decent animated short into an excellent one.

New Blog!

Sup chicky babies? I'm starting a blog! ARE YOU EXCITED?

Most likely, I'll just post cool things I found and rant about stuff I don't like. Even more likely is the fact that I will give up on this and never update again. But, let's be optimistic, eh?

To start off, I guess I'll mention the fact that I am featured in Fat Chunk Volume 2, which you can buy HERE: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chunk-Zombies-Jamie-Smart/dp/1593621388/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250290824&sr=8-1

So please get yerself a copy! I don't earn anything from it, but its a neat anthology and you should support it!

Stay awesome!
-Gene

PS - To follow this blog, go to http://www.google.com/reader/ and get yourself an account, and you can follow this easily and efficiently. I'd appreciate it if some people actually read this, so it's not a total waste. >_>