Candymation!...

...is the word that I promised myself I wouldn't use when I started making this.

Heaven

Here's a 3D self portrait from Heaven...

Sing Sang Sung - AIR

Good song, great video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuSPRu4lzag

Racist Robots and Guinea Pig Spies? Fine. But Sound Scientific Theory?!

Science and reasoning has no place in popular American cinema. I was pretty upset by the fact that in its most recent Ice Age installment, Blue Sky abandoned all understanding about the Earth's prehistoric timeline, simply for the sake that, well, kids love dinosaurs. Whatever, it's just a cartoon that's bound to confuse kids. What else is new.

But this is ridiculous. The film Creation, starring the fantastic Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Mr. And Mrs. Charles Darwin (respectively), can not find a distributer in the U.S. because the theory of evolution is simply too controversial for an American audience. It has a deal EVERYWHERE else in the world, except our own country. It's embarrassing, and not just because such a huge percentage of the American public (61%) refuse to believe a beautiful and simple truth that has done more to further humanity's understanding of the natural world than any other idea. It's embarrassing because so many American's refuse to give a film that the Hollywood Reporter called "even-handed and wise" a chance because they're so vehemently opposed to any form of thinking other than their own.

I've been to church, several of them in fact in fact. Not my thing, but hey, I see the appeal. Is it too much to ask of the American public for a similar show of open-mindedness?

NY GeekCast Cult Classics

It seems the only thing internet related I do these days involves the GeekCast. Not that that's a bad thing, but still... I need to plug back in.

So check it out!

NY GeekCast's Pc vs. Mac

I make a short and irreverent appearance on the most recent NYGeekCast episode. In my defense I had just been at a bar. And apparently, these do not have a great microphone...

Here's the link.

Beeatify me, baby.

I love being on film sets. It can be a lot of work and mean giving up a little sleep, but when the people are fun it is more than worth it. Plus you get to goof around and make fun stuff like this:

Untitled from Ben Oviatt on Vimeo.

Animation + Science = Awesome

I've been to three animation festivals in only the last two weeks, and I didn't see anything half as... I don't want to say good, but, awesome perhaps, as the films that Drew Berry is making. 

I hope that there can be more of a place for this type of animation in a festival setting. I don't see why there couldn't be. These are amazing and beautiful films that anyone can appreciate.

link to more

CS 4-EVA

Ooooooooooh:

Cisma's "Le Sens Propre" from glossy inc on Vimeo.

Meet one of my role models.

His name is P.Z. Myers, and I've been following his blog on ScienceBlogs for a while now. His most recent post, however, went so far as to earn him a special introduction.

This is an important chart.

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2605/26051202.jpg

who knew we used so much phosphorous.

Scanimate!

Try out some scanimation on your own!   link

special thanks to j.d. amato for helping me out with some java-scripting on this one.

Schizophora: The Trailer!

You've seen the files...

You've seen the card...

Now don't miss...

THE TRAILER!

Schizophora: The Card!

       front back

Synesthesia

I'm very intrigued by the principles of Synesthesia. I'm almost a little jealous of people who experience the phenomenon. 

I recommend playing with the above visualization, created by synesthetic Cassidy Curtis.

Also, this documentary does a really great job of describing the life of a synesthetic, and it has some really great animation in the titles.

Schizophora: The Film

Hey I finished animating my Advanced Film, Schizophora!



Feel free to watch the film below.

Scanimation Card: Final Draft

I finished my invitations to the spring animation showcase!

If you get one of these in the mail, it means you are either important to me, or the animation department... or both (you know I mean you, Lamar Sanders).

and more scanimation

i have learned thousands of ways to make this not work...

and i have learned one way to make it kind of work...

Scanimation Experiment 2

I've completed a rough prototype of my poster for the 2009 NYU Spring Animation Showcase.

It utilizes the ever popular "scanimation" technique.

As I said, it's rough, so the image is a little too wobbly. But I'm very pleased with this.

Scanimation Experiment

I'm trying my hand at some scanimation.

Here's my first pass with a series from Muybridge.

Original photos: