Cars - The Review!

As was the case for a million other artists out there, the moment I laid my eyes on "Toy Story" back in 1995, I knew I wanted to create artwork like that for a living one day.

Since that film's debut, Pixar has become a household name, creating such masterpieces as "Finding Nemo," "Monsters Inc.," and "The Incredibles." Each film has been more successful than the last, and with each film Pixar seems to grow in terms of storytelling and sheer artistic brilliance.

As I've said in a previous post, it was for this reason that I was less than excited to see "Cars." It just didn't seem to be up to the level of previous Pixar releases. It was tough to put a finger on exactly what didn't appeal to me, but the movie just didn't seem to carry that "Pixar magic spark" that the other films had. As much as I wanted to like the film walking into the theater on Sunday, I just wasn't sure that I would.

Well change my tires and paint me in sparkles, because I'm now a true believer in "Cars," and I'm now wondering why I ever thought of second-guessing Pixar.



I'll tell you right now that this isn't Pixar's strongest release. Films like "Nemo" and "The Incredibles," were done better, but I kind of feel like "Cars" did the best it could with... well... cars. After all, fish and superheroes are living, breathing things (yes, I know superheroes aren't real), while cars are just big lumps of metal. That said, the team at Pixar did an outstanding job of breathing life into relatively lifeless forms.

The film takes place in a sort of alternate universe, where there are no humans, and instead cars rule the world. They have careers and social lives, and even attend sporting events, such as the Piston Cup racing series (think Nascar's Winston Cup). The racing circuit is where the star of the film, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) makes his living.

On a trip across the country to compete in the championship race, the cocky McQueen, who has already lost his entire crew because of his attitude, is separated from his truck and winds up in a town by the name of Radiator Springs. Without giving too much of the film away, McQueen gets in a bit of trouble and is sentenced to community service by a crabby old car by the name of Doc Hudson (Paul Newman).

While paying off his debt to "the man," McQueen gets to meet all of the townsfolk and in turn begins to see that life shouldn't always be seen out the window at 100 miles an hour.



The whole "stop and smell the roses" theme is the driving (HA!) force behind the film, and it's executed relatively well without ever getting overly cheesy. The only time I found myself rolling my eyes was during a flashback sequence showing the town the way it used to be, but it only because it was just a bit too sappy for me. Other than that, I never felt like the film was forcing any beliefs or ideas down my throat, as I often do with other films.

Overall, this film did seem to be a bit more serious than Pixar's previous releases. While it certainly had it's fair share of slapstick moments (such as "Tractor Tipping"), the overall mood seemed to be much more subdued. Where the film really seems to let loose is actually during the closing credits, where the gags come one right after the other. This isn't a bad thing, just don't go into the film expecting the wackiness of "Monsters Inc."



The acting, as one would expect is great. While one may tire (HA!) of his stand-up routine in a relatively short amount of time, Larry the Cable guy really did steal the show as the lovable tow-truck, Mater. From his southern charm to his hillbilly teeth, Mater is just a downright likeable character.

McQueen's love interest in the film, a Porsche by the name of Sally, is voiced by beautiful Bonnie Hunt and does a wonderful job of being the voice of reason in the town.

Other character voices include Cheech Marin (Ramone), Tony Shalhoub (Luigi), Michael Keaton (Chick Hicks) and George Carlin (Filmore), as well as the Pixar staple, John Ratzenberger (Mack), who even manages to poke fun at himself as the end credits role.

However, one of the few times the movie really did falter for me is when a racing legend made a cameo in the film. For example F1 driver, Michael Schumacher, makes a brief appearance towards the tail end of the film, and delivers his lines with the skill of an electronic answering machine. I understand the filmmaker's desire to have these legends in the film, but you'd think they could have coached them on their lines a bit more. It's really not a big deal, as their scenes never last too long, but man it drags the film down in spots.



The film is absolutely stunning to look at. Pixar's team of artists have not only pulled a rabbit out of their collective hat, but they've also fitted the rabbit with amazing smoke effects, neon lights, and flames aplenty.

There were two scenes in particular that really stood out for me in the film. The first is the scene where Sally and McQueen go for a drive through the forest outside of Radiator Springs. Just watching them bob and weave along the highway, as their tires gripped the road and they danced along the winding s-curves made me want to get out and drive somewhere. The colors, the lighting and the feel of the road all translated extremely well, and it made for a beautiful ride along for the viewers.

The second scene was one in which McQueen gets the townsfolk to turn all of their neon signs back on and then go for a cruise up and down the main street. The team at Pixar did a wonderful job with the models and textures and it was really neat to see the signs reflect in the cars as they cruised the strip.

All in all "Cars" is without a doubt worth your money. While it starts just a bit slow (despite the opening scene taking place on a race track), it picks up quickly and develops into a wonderful story that people young and old can enjoy. While it isn't Pixar's strongest work, that's sort of like saying one homerun isn't as good as another because the ball didn't go quite as far. It's still a homerun, and "Cars" is a homerun in every sense of the word.

Go see it.

Le Building

If you have yet to see the masterpiece known as Le Building, then you're really missing out. This short film was created by a small handful of French students for a class project, yet looks like it was done by a seasoned Hollywood animation studio. Fluid animation, excellent character design, bright visuals, and a mix of 2D and 3D.



According to the website:

"The movie was completed in 4 months and a half (including screenplays, storyboards and designs). The technique is a mix between traditional 2D flash animation, flash and 3D animation. For example the Pizza guy, his bike, the bus and the crane are in 3D, the cat on the pizza guy's head is animated with Flash, and the other characters are traditionally 2D animated."

Well worth the minute it will take you to watch it.

GO... NOW!!!

BY DAVE: 3D Stuff

So I just went ahead and copied this over from my cartoon blog, since it contains a good portion of my 3D work.

As fair warning, this will probably be a pretty large post...

I graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle a few years back, with the dream of working as a 3D artist in games. Just as I was starting to get good enough to maybe pull it off, I quit doing it altogether, due to a number of factors. Well, in recent months, I've decided to climb back into the ring. My job in the games group at Microsoft (as a Software Test Engineer) has provided me with a wonderful network of people that, up until about two weeks ago, I had neglected completely to take advantage of. So I sat down with an art director this week, who is an amazing talent, and he has agreed to take me on as a mentee, or apprentice if you will. The way it should work is that I will meet with him weekly and he will provide me with "assignments," which I will then struggle with throughout the week and bring results back to him. At that point, we'll chat over the results and continue the weekly cycle.

To say the least, I'm very excited, but I know that I have a LONG way to go before I meet the bar needed to even be considered for an artist position at MS. I figure I've got a good year of hard work ahead of me, if not two or three, but I'm willing to commit to reach that original dream I had.

So I've been dabbling in Maya over the past week or so and getting used to it again. I was please with how quickly I remembered the controls and most of the functions, and in no time I had modeled a nice little headlight. It wasn't much, but it did the job and made me remember how much I actually enjoyed doing this. I didn't save the headlight, so you won't be seeing it. Frankly it wasn't worth showing. What I will show you is some of my work from my time at the AIS.

Now again, I am 100% aware that my 3D stuff needs a lot of work. However, I still thought I'd share, since (hopefully) you'll being seeing more and more 3D work on this blog in the future.

Oh... and one additional note: You'll see that a lot (if not all) of the images have a 3Dave.com logo on them. Don't go there, as I think it just directs you to this blog. It was a website I used to have in school. I still like the logo though...

Let's begin!

First up is an alley scene that I did. It's funny, because when I was making that little headlight this week, I was racking my brain trying to figure out the best way to put a crack in it, yet on this image, I did exactly that on the window. Just one of the things I forgot.



Here it is again with slightly different textures.



This dimly-lit retro kitchen you see before you was probably the first scene I ever fully modeled using Maya. My three favorite things from this scene are the blender, the sink, and the wallpaper. OBEY THE FIST!



This scene was based on a class assignment. We were told to pick out any image we wanted and turn it into how we thought it would look in a game. While I think it's a decent job and might find a home in a game that was say five or six years old, I don't think it would hold a candle to 99% of the artwork found in games today.



This one is a ship from an amusement park ride. That's supposed to be dried vomit on the side and wing of the ship, though I think I could have done a much better job with that.



By the time I completed the image of the subway below, I really had started to get a strong grasp on the basics of Maya and 3D modeling. I still had a problem with organic objects, but I was getting to the point where I could texture most objects and make them look decent. My lighting still needed a ton of work though.



And finally we have the army truck that I modeled. Note that there isn't really a spec of dirt on this sucker, which I would certainly change if I could do it again. All in all though, it turned out okay, but again would not touch the level of detail found in most games today.



I hope you enjoyed this stroll down memory lane with me, and as I get new 3D stuff to show, I'll post it here, though I wouldn't expect to have the courage to do that (the stuff will probably look pretty rough to start with) until at least a month or two down the road.

Digital Tutors

I just ordered around six or seven training DVDs from Digital Tutors. They have lots of free samples on their site, and cover a huge array of different 3D and 2D programs.

The discs should be arriving sometime next week, so after I've had a chance to check them out, I'll post a bit on their quality.

In the meantime, they've got a pretty cool gallery and (as I stated) lots of free tutorials on their site. Check em' out by clicking the button below.

Cars!

Pixar's latest film hits theaters today!



I have to say that the film did little to excite me when I first saw the trailer a year or two back. To me it just felt like an extended Chevron commercial, and to me just didn't have that "Pixar spark" that their other films have. I remember the first time I saw the teaser for "The Incredibles" where he's trying to latch his belt, and it just made me laugh with glee.

The smacking of the desk is probably my favorite part of that thing.

Anyhoo... I didn't really get that from the teaser from "Cars."

Yet over the months leading up to the release, as I've seen more and more of the clips, I've started feeling much better about it, and can now say I'm actually pretty excited to see it with my wife this weekend. I'll try and post some kind of review of it on Monday.

Looks like it's sitting at a 72% over on Rotten Tomatoes right now. Not too shabby.

Welcome!

Glad you stumbled onto my Digital Art blog. With this blog, I plan to post works in progress as well as finish pieces of things I've done using a combination of programs such as Maya, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max and others. I'll also be posting any cool related stories, developments or projects that I happen to scrounge up, so if you have something you think is cool, send it my way.

I'll try to make it as crystal clear as possible when something is my work, or when I've found it via the work of others. If you are the owner of a piece that I happen to post here, and you would like it removed for any reason at all, please let me know. Otherwise I will do my best to provide a link and info as to the author(s) or companies behind the work.

I look forward to sharing with you, and hope you continue to stop on by!