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The Uncanny Resemblance Between Disney's "Frozen" Teaser And A 2009 Student Animation

2013-06-18T16:15:00.002-05:00

Shortly after posting the teaser to Disney's upcoming Frozen feature earlier today, it was brought to our attention by a concerned individual that there were some striking similarities between the teaser and a short written, produced and directed by Kelly Wilson in 2009 called The Snowman, which featured an identical scenario, down to the resolution. While we initially wrote it off as coincidence, after comparing the two shorts closely it did raise some suspicion as to whether some ideas were borrowed without Wilson's knowledge.

We initially assumed that Frozen's scenario might simply be based off of an event that happened in the fairy tale it was based off of, but following some research about the Danish fairy tale we realized that there was no comic relief snowman in the original story (The Snow Queen), just a reindeer that accompanies the ice princess. We did a comparison between the two plots, and if you watch the shorts you can judge for yourself whether Disney might have lifted some ideas from the student animator. Considering Disney's history of borrowing ideas, like the infamous Lion King/Kimba The Lion controversy, we wouldn't be terribly surprised.

Both shorts feature a clumsy snowman that loses his nose, which lands on a frozen lake that gets the attention of a carrot eating creature. Rabbits in The Snowman, a reindeer in Frozen.
In both shorts the carrot lands on a frozen lake, and a struggle ensues in which the snowman and creature struggle to get the carrot back.
Both shorts feature the creature getting the carrot instead of the snowman, nearly eating it, and changing their mind last minute before handing it back to the snowman.

The Colorful Pop Art Of Manuel Kilger

2013-06-18T12:20:00.001-05:00

(Via)

German based artist, Manuel Kilger is a master at transforming iconic characters into cartoonized versions of themselves in the most colorful way possible. With his unique style, Manuel has a knack for creating extraordinary detailed pieces featuring amazingly creative takes on pop-culture icons.

Featuring his own takes on iconic protagonists Samus Aran, Isaac (Dead Space), and Donatello, Manuel's work features an awesomely diverse cast of characters, including some of his own original creations. After the break I've included a few more of Kilger's work. I'm quite keen on his work for Dead Space, but unfortunately prints aren't currently available.

The Les Gobelins Annecy 2013 Lineup - SeeSaw, The Fancy Family, Copernicus, Sawa

2013-06-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

Continuing their yearly tradition of contributing signal shorts to the yearly Annecy International Animated film festival, this year was no different for the students at Les Gobelins animation school. As part of their curriculum, 5 teams contributed their own unique 30-50 second animated bumpers to the festival. We featured The Retake individally yesterday thanks to it's creators reaching out with their extensive making of, so here are the other 4 submitted to the festival this year.

A soft NSFW for stylized nudity in the See Saw and Sawa shorts. The short above was created by Marlène Beaube, Marion Bulot, Thibaud Gayral, Guitty Mojabi and Raphaëlle Stolz
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Biomorph

2013-06-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

Crafted at the 3d College of Denmark, Biomorph is a truly amazing little short headed up by director Henrik Bjerregard Clausen and a group of 12 students as a means of simultaneously promoting the school and it's students. Inspired by Blizzard's cinematic for games like Starcraft and World of Warcraft, as well as his love of gritty 80's era science fiction, Clausen crafted a short teaser that would play to his students strengths: Texturing and modeling.

Due to the lack of animator support, his pitch revolved more around building up suspense and a good emphasis on cinematography to establish the setting, before ending the entire short of a really cool high note with a biomechanical creature exploding out of a sea of human skulls. If anything this short perfectly accomplishes what Clausen and his group set out to do, leaving us wanting more.

Billy Butcher's Videogame Pop Culture Mashups

2013-06-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

(Via)

Is it a game? A movie? A band? We don't know anymore, but it's undeniable that Brazilian based illustrator Butcher Billy created a series of truly amazing illustration pieces. Starting off with a solid foundation of classic videogames, the artist then proceeded to layer and dot these illustrations with elements of of pop culture in the form of vintage movies, rock stars, iconic Hollywood celebrities, anime icons and more to create some truly striking mashup imagery.

If you can guess the sources of every one of these twisted images, consider yourself a pop culture savant of sorts. Check out seven more amazing images from Butcher Billy's series after the break!

LSD ABC

2013-06-18T09:20:00.000-05:00

After a year of work, Laura Sicouri & Kadavre Exquis have finished this awesome short featuring some awesome design work and animation. Accompanied by an entire album which you can download or purchase on vinyl over here, LSD ABC sets a great mood for each letter of the alphabet. Just when you start to assume what the next letter is going to stand for, they throw a curve-ball and take you further down the rabbit hole on a design induced drug trip.

Music Video Roundup - Young Galaxy, Siriusmo, David Lynch & Lykke Li, Washed Out

2013-06-18T08:20:00.000-05:00

The latest video from the Canadian electro-pop band is an exercise in stark, disturbing contrasts and apocalyptic melancholia as all hell breaks loose. Director Ivan Grbovic commented that the epic spectacle was born out of many a conversation with band members, who sought to address the lack of substance present in many modern music videos with this ambitious endeavor.

As frontwoman Catherine McCandless sings 'Here it comes again, the beautiful, warm weather,' the world as we know it comes to an end. Young Galaxy's 'New Summer' is from their fourth LP: Ultramarine and now available via Paper Bag Records.
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Disney Releases First Teaser For "Frozen"

2013-06-18T07:23:00.002-05:00

Following the massive success of 2010's Tangled and last year's Wreck It Ralph, Disney has finally given us a taste of what's to come this year with their teaser for Frozen, which is set to release in late November. Adapted from the Danish fairy tale known as Snedroniggen (The Snow Queen), Frozen follows the story of a queen called Anna on a quest to reverse a curse cast on her by her estranged sister, the cold-hearted Snow Queen Elsa. Joined by a rugged outdoorsman called Kristoff, a one antlered reindeer and a clumsy snowman, Anna must race against time, battle the elements and battle an army of frozen warriors if she ever hopes to melt her own frozen heart.

Directed by Christopher Buck (Tarzan) and co-directed by the recently promoted Jennifer Lee (Screenplay, Wreck It Ralph), I'm optimistic that Frozen will be yet another hit in the Disney repertoire. While this initial teaser is reminiscent of Ice Age's humorous Skrat shorts that have preceded every installment, the official trailer for Frozen will premiere along Pixar's Monsters University coming out this Friday. It has also been rumored that the feature might be accompanied with a brand new Mickey Mouse short titled: Get A Horse!

Mirage

2013-06-17T15:04:00.002-05:00

Most student thesis films are generally composed of one to two minutes of quality animation, but Mirage ups the ante with a nine minute short of awesomeness. With some beautiful hand drawn animation and an endearing set of characters, Mirage propels itself into a short list of one of my favorite student projects I've seen yet.

The dialogue-less short tells an adventurous tale of an Eskimo child and his husky companion that continues to progress into something more and more fantastical as time goes on, that by the end you'll be wondering if it could have gone even further. Kudos to the composer for Mirage, the musical score definitely propels this short to all new heights.

Gesaffelstein - Pursuit (NSFW)

2013-06-17T14:17:00.001-05:00

French electro artist Gesaffelstein has been making waves recently, especially since being outed last Friday as one of the collaborators on Kanye West's upcoming Yeezus album (Dropping tommorow). Considering the extremely eccentric and fastidious nature of West's tastes, the revelation drew a ton of attention to the French producer, who whether through coincidence or not decided to give us a look into his pandora's box in the form of this brooding, heavy industrial track.

Replete with some mind bending, surreal dystopian imagery, Pursuit is extracted from his upcoming studio album, which has been in the works since 2011 in between collabs with artists like Lana Del Rey, Miss Kittin and other artists on top of their game. Directed by Fleur & Manu, the overlying theme to the unsettling visual narrative centers around the pursuit of power at any expense: Morality, dignity, sanity. The golden gloved individuals in each scene represent the supposed reward, everything around them represents the cost of the pursuit. By far one of the coolest music videos we've seen in a while. Gesaffelstein's studio album will be dropping sometime towards the end of the year.

The Art Of Lizzy-John

2013-06-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

(Via)

Lizzy-John is a female digital illustrator based out of Brooklyn. As a self proclaimed gamer, art freak and all around nerd, Lizzy got into the art game thanks to a talented older sister who drew her into the craft during her childhood. Her focus is definitely more illustration oriented, with her pieces being executed by scanning in pencils and painting over them in Corel Painter. The overall style, colors and thematic elements definitely fit in the 'modern American' illustration style pushed forward by artists like Jon Foster and Julie Dillon, with a few personal elements thrown in.

Lizzy is one of the few artists that we've featured who uses Corel Painter over the more common Photoshop or Sai packages. While the program has fantastic potential for creating more painterly work with it's intuitive brush system, it definitely has a steeper barrier to entry due to it's more complicated interface. Check out more of Lizzy's awesome illustrations after the break!
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Worth Checking Out - Soul Saga

2013-06-17T09:33:00.003-05:00

I can hardly handle the amount of love put into this project, I feel like the Grinch near the end of his grump spree, except I'm not feeling grumpy, I'm just really endeared by developer Mike Gale. Soul Saga is a return to the JRPG glory days, influenced by classics such as Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire and Persona.

Using gameplay mechanics inspired by Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy X, Mike Gale has implemented a twist on combat, requiring a level of puzzle solving skills to defeat enemies. It sounds like an interesting mechanic, and if pulled off well could really improve the level of thought process put into each battle. Probably the most exciting thing out of this entire Kickstarter is the awesome soundtrack, it's not an everyday occurrence that an indie title get's a full produced anime theme song, vocaloid and all!

If JRPGs and indie devs toot your fancy, make you way over to the Kickstarter page and think about donating a bit of your monies. The custom figure alone is worth backing it.

Derelict Graffiti Timelapse By Sofles

2013-06-17T09:30:00.000-05:00

Created as a collab between the Ironlak, Selina Miles from Unity Sound and Visual and street and street artist Sofles, Infinite is an epic music video shot in a series of fluid, moving timelapsed takes. Using a mixture of custom dolly rigs and plenty of post processed image stabilization, the video tracks Sofles going berserk on a series of warehouse walls, dispensing his distinct street art tagging style. The dubstep-tinged soundtrack was provided by Bassnectar, aka Lorin Ashton.

Capcom and 3A Toys Team Up To Bring Us Lost Planet

2013-06-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

(Via)

While I do feel that the gaming community never quite warmed up to Capcom's lukewarm Lost Planet franchise, you can't deny that the game had some really cool scifi designs, like the VS (Vital Suit) mechs and the kitted out mercenaries. As much as I wanted to love the game though, the forgettable story and uninspired gameplay remained an issue in both the first and second installments of the game. Is it too much to ask for to get a scifi version of Monster Hunter? With Lost Planet 3 on the horizon, third times the charm, some say.

Following a few months of teasing, 3A Toys has finally announced the arrival of the 1:6 scale, beautifully detailed Lost Planet mercenary, which will go on sale at the Bambaland Store June 21 for $160. As an owner of one or two of 3A Toys' wallet destroying works of arts, these toys are totally worth every penny for their attention to detail, articulation and quality of materials. Some proto shots from toy fairs abroad also point to a new upcoming Lost Planet toy that will include one of the VS mechs and a 1:12 scale pilot. Check out some more detail shots of the Mercenary after the break!
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The Retake

2013-06-17T08:30:00.000-05:00

Created by a team of students over at the Les Gobelins academy in Paris, The Retake is a veritable painting in motion created as a bumper/ident for the Annecy 2013 animation festival. Despite being just under a minute, the short centers around a frustrated court artist and a King who can't see the beauty in front of him.

The entire video is a visualization of the freedom of experssion and personal pride, an issue typically brought up by artists dealing with clients aloof about the artistic process. The short was created by Maxime Delalande, Nadya Mira, Semiramis Mamata, Laurent Moing and Rayane Raji. Check out the making of the short after the break, going over the entire creation process, including some really cool shot breakdowns.
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The Pirate Cinema (NSFW)

2013-06-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

This truly fascinating project by Nicolas Maigret was developed over the last 2 years for usage as an interactive art exhibit, turning raw streams of monitored Bit torrent data into visual snippets at a machine gun pace. As well as displaying the jarring tastes of audio-visual content, IP addresses and countries are displayed to give viewers an impression of the global nature of content consumption and distribution. Considering that the data being extracted is from incomplete torrent chunks, the entire project also turns into an amazing glitch fest.

A visualized torrent chunk of PSY's Gagnam Style being transferred from Italy to Australia

In the context of omnipresent telecommunications surveillance, 'The Pirate Cinema' reveals the hidden activity and geography of Peer-to-Peer file sharing. The project is presented as a monitoring room, which shows Peer-to-Peer transfers happening in real time on networks using the BitTorrent protocol. The installation produces an arbitrary cut-up of the files currently being exchanged.

The Miniatures Of Revolve-Gear

2013-06-17T07:30:00.000-05:00

(Via)

Revolve-Gear is the alias for Takumi Takaoka, a Japanese graphic designer by trade with a truly cool hobby on the side as a model kitbasher. For those unaware, kitbashing is a model kit practice in which a new model is created by taking pieces out of different commercial kits and reassembling them into something completely new and unique. The practice has been around for years, and came into prominence in the movie industry when practical effects were still in full swing.

In Japan there's a huge community dedicated to this craft, making use of the plethora of kits to assemble some truly badass new creations without having to build much from scratch. Takumi's approach draws a lot of inspiration from the work and model kits related to Maschinen Krieger, a universe created by Kow Yokoyama in the 80's that mixed scifi aesthetics with World War II era design language. If you're looking for some reasons to get yourself involved in a hobby that will burn holes in your pockets, check out a few more example of the fruits of Takaoka's hobby after the break.

Portentous

2013-06-17T07:00:00.001-05:00

Created by Sasha Schotzo-Harris as part of her second year Calarts project, Portentous stood out from the mostly 2D animated crowd thanks to her choice to go down a stop motion route. Featuring a 50's era diver exploring a strange derelict boat camped at the bottom of the ocean, the entire affair has a moody, Kubrick inspired feel to it, especially considering the supernatural elements the unfortunate diver encounters. Perhaps it was all due to a lack of oxygen, or something far more sinister? We'll never know, but things aren't as they seem on this shipwreck.

One thing I'd like to point out is that the diver had a helmet, which meant that Sasha probably had to remove the helmet face, move the head and place it back frame by frame to create the more expressive moments present in the short. You've got to appreciate that kind of drive to overcome production obstacles like that.

Disasterpeace Brings A Collection Of Awesomness With Strays

2013-06-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

After being launched into nerd stardom with the incredible soundtrack for Phil Fish's Fez, Disasterpeace has maintained an incredibly busy musical career. Following two remix albums for Fez, Disasterpeace has released Strays, an album filled with tracks from non-existant projects, game jams, and other projects. Despite being an album filled with random songs from here and there, Strays will fill your daily dose of Chiptune quite nicely.

For a minimum donation of $1 you can pick up the album from Disasterpeace's website over here, but after a few personal sessions of heavy listening, Strays falls more in line with a fully produced $10 album than a budget album of assorted tracks. I don't know what Disasterpeace ate while growing up, but it apparently gave him the ability to consistently craft pure Chiptune gold.

Strays by Disasterpeace

Inside Jaws - A Filmumentary By Jamie Benning

2013-06-17T03:38:00.000-05:00

Sent to us by the creator himself, Inside Jaws is an awesome passion project created by filmmaker Jamie Benning, an in depth documentary regarding the making of Steven Spielberg's 1975 film: Jaws, a movie noteworthy for becoming the movie industry blueprint for summer blockbusters. Meticulously crafted over the period of 16 months, this long form documentary features an incredible wealth of information regarding the making of the movie, including unreleased interviews and deleted scenes.

Benning has done an amazing service to movie buffs online, crafting and releasing similar in depth documentaries: Raiding the Lost Ark, Star Wars Begin and more for free as a labor of love to movies he truly loves. If you're interested in donating towards keeping his operations going, head over to his Filmumentaries website for more details.

The Making Of The E3 Titanfall Mech

2013-06-16T15:29:00.000-05:00

One of the coolest E3 set pieces came in the form of the gigantic Titanfall mech which graced the entrance to the showfloor. Aside from being a 1:1 scale replica, the mech was impressively detailed, covered in battle wear, dings, scratches and an attention to detail that we've rarely seen for such a display at previous conventions. During an after party we happened to get into a conversation with some Respawn studios developers, and learned some rather surprising details about the making of the mech: While the mostly foam base was contracted out to a third party, the actual weathering, details and attachments on the mechs were taken care of by artists who worked on Titanfall.

Described as a 'fun little project,' the developer disclosed that a group of game artists spent a few weeks gathering up found objects and hardware from places like Home Depot and went to town on detailing the display and mech with spent shell casings, paint damage, rust, decals and more. Considering the amount of work that these devs put into a display model of one of their Titan mechs, I can only imagine how that type of passion will translate into the final game. Check out a ton more detail shots, and a turnaround of the full mech after the break.
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E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Transistor

2013-06-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year, fans of the fantastic indie title, Bastion, were treated with a tease for Super Giant's upcoming game, Transistor. After Bastion being released exclusively for PC and XBLA, it was quite a surprise when Sony announced an exclusive console release for the Playstation 4, solidifying their push for more indie titles. Featuring the same beautiful art of Jan Zee and a pulsating soundtrack, Transistor is absolutely stunning in person.

In Transistor you play as Red, who loses her voice in the midst of chaos and stumbles upon a talking blade called Transistor. The gameplay feels tight,allowing for quick movement around the map, but the real meat of it all stems from the ability to freeze time. In the midst of battle players can freeze the battlefield and move freely around as they line up attacks and shots to gain an upper-hand on the battlefield. The mechanic feels smooth and balances nicely with a cooldown bar, forcing players to plan their assault without jumping straight into battle.

Along with the ability to freeze time in the midst of combat, some areas also require this ability to complete puzzles to progress. The gameplay was amazingly fluid and felt extraordinarily tight, something that not even a lot of AAA action games manage to nail. After the game's initial announcement all the way up to it's reveal during Sony's press conference, my excitement for Transistor has grown immensely and I'm excited to get my hands on the final release.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Super Ponchos By Switchblade Monkeys

2013-06-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

Switchblade Monkeys' Secret Ponchos came as a total surprise to us this year, and it truly left an amazing impression on us. Developed by a passionate group of creatively dissatisfied devs who decided to leave corporate development environments behind, their recently unveiled title was an absolute blast to play, focusing on fast paced combat in an isometric environment.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Mercenary Kings By Tribute Games

2013-06-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

Following the surprise announcement of the indie focused 'Playstation Loves Devs' lineup, I was elated to see Mercenary Kings, a title that was Kickstarted late last year following the Canadian studios' previous project, Wizorb. The project (Which we backed) got our attention thanks to it's Metal Slug-esque gameplay, visualized by the amazing Aussie pixel god Paul Robertson.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Ray's The Dead By Ragtag Studios

2013-06-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Similar to the story of the devs behind Switchblade Monkeys' Secret Ponchos, Ragtag Studios was founded by a group of veteran developers with a need to pursue their own creative ambitions. Founded by Matt Carter, Chris Cobb and Shawn Halves, the Chicago based studio had previously been developing IOS games before moving on to their first indie console undertaking: the humorously named Ray's The Dead. While the project was initially Kickstarted, the plug was mysteriously pulled towards the end of May with news of an upcoming announcement as their reasoning: Becoming part of the Playstation 4 indie initative.
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