The video for Sociedade Soul band was developed between late 2009 and 2010, when I had just arrived here.

This work was a great experience for me as I had never developed a serious thing, and never worked as a team. Not to mention that was my first time animating (which happened thanks to this book here, these DVDs here and this guy here)

This week I was looking at some dusty folders and for my surprise, I found some old stuff that I had never posted.

Things such as animations:

The studies that I did to learn how to draw Caxias‘ characters

Old concepts:

Despite some difficulties, I really learned too many things with this project.

And not only learned a lot, but met many people, changed my view of design, illustration and animation. Well, I really opened my mind. :)

Although we get most of our hours here at Cafundó, we all have our personal projects, ideas and events that happen outside the studio. Sometimes we show here  some of these works and we already noticed that you enjoy knowing what goes on the backstage, in our free times,how was the development and everything else. Thinking about it, from now on we are officially sharing with you and, of course, feel free to do the same!

After the wonderful video made by  Pedro Corrêa ​​as graduation project, I bring here a short film that our illustrator developed with his colleagues as a job for Graphic Design course at UFSC.

The activity was to create an audio-video concept generated in a dynamic, where each student started a mental map to be complemented by colleagues, guided by the teacher’s instructions. Build something consistent with random terms was the challenge for everybody who worked in groups with only random topics. Giovanni’s group focused on: sun, snack, notebook and dog. Whaaat!?

“Its pre-production took about a week, and once we decided what would be the story, we contacted Renan D’Avila, musician. To develop the script, we rely on the structure of a story, shown on the Sandro Massarani’s website (historian, teacher and researcher, focusing on the history of narrative structures) and then the storyboard. “says our illustrator.

Storyboard, animatic and script set out, was time to search for references to get the concepts:

Finally, the production! It was here that the rush began.

“It was Thursday, and the deadline was Friday (we had one day). “We’re f*ckd”, we thought. Starting at 2pm, only in the middle of the night the audio was ready. We finished at 5am and delivered the final version at 9am” the author confesses in his blog.

This short film was developed by Daniele Warken, João Paulo Abreu and Philippe Botelho. The soundtrack was composed by musician Renan D`Avila. “We liked the result. Hope you liked it too. “concludes proudly Giovanni Girardi.

LOD for those who are unfamiliar with this term means “Level of Detais”. To explain in simple words, is that the farther the camera is, the more simplified the geometry will be. In ourcase the proposal is to have a LOD subdivision, then we can conclude that the farther the camera stays less subdivions will be applied to geometry. The advantage of using this technique is to make the scene lighter to render optimizing the number of used polygons.

It has too many applications, but generally I think the best application for this technique is for rough and detailed places, such as deserts with dunes or oceans. Forms which can be composed using modifiers such as displace. I developed this technique due to necessity to make an ocean.

I had a vast area of animated water that needed waves, but weak machines to withstand the processing of many polygons.
So, as I think others may have specific needs you can find new applications for this technique, different from what Iquoted
above.

To explain the implementation and operation of this technique, we use a ”Plane” with10x10 segments as a basis.

The next step is to create a controller. He’ll have two functions, the first indicates the area to be selected, and the second is the ability to make a link between the subdivision and the camera.
This driver should be a geometry, it can not be a helper ’cause helpers are null objects. For our example we’ll use a sphere, but can be any other object.

Now comes the first secret part of the technique operation. Our subdivision will be selective and mobile, just in case the camera will be animated and we want a subdivision only where the camera is. So the subdivision shall follow the camera where it is.

We will use the modifier ”Vol Select” to make the selection of the area, and this selection will be made with our controller reference.

Pay attention on the used settings in the modifier. In ”Stack Selection Levels” will use the vertex selection, the selection method should be by addition (later I’ll explain why) and finally in ”Select By” we will use the option ”Mesh Object” and select now our controller, then we can see the selected vertexes inside the volume controller. In the case of this sample image we have only one vertex.

The next step is to adjust total area to be affected by the first level of subdivision. This must be done in the “Soft Selection” still in the modifier “Vol. Select”.

The next step is to adjust total area to be affected by the first level of subdivision. This must be done in the “Soft Selection” still in the modifier “Vol. Select”.

The values used to configure the “Fall off” and “Pinch” may change according to the dimensions of the scene, the scale and their own need.  After setting the “Vol Select ” we will apply the modifier “Mesh Smooth” so it will act only in the region that is selected.
It is important to warn that the modifier “TurboSmooth” does not work.

Another important detail is to uncheck “Apply To Whole Mesh” to subdivision be apply only in our selection.

Now we have ready the first level of subdivision, but we need more levels to the effect works better, so we’ll replicate what was already done. To be more practical we will only copy and paste both modifiers selected.

Done that we need to adjust the “Soft Selection” of new “Vol Select” to expand its selection area. Again, these adjustments should be made according to the scenes need.

Now it’s clear why we selected the method of Addition (Add) in “Vol Seletion”. Otherwise, the selection wouldn’t add second into the first, so the effect would not work. Notice thar now we have two different levels of subdivision. The first level is closer to the center and have two subdivisions: the first modifier “MeshSmooth” plus the second.

Now we can repeat this process  many times be necessary until the level of subdivision that is needed.

Now try to select the controller (the sphere) and move it over the “Plane” to see how the subdivision appears.

Now to complete the tool, we’ll make a link from controller to our camera but, first of all, leave the controller next to the camera as it takes to further subdivided area be the focus of attention.

After set the scene we’ll link (here I’m using the tool “Select and Link”) to the controller always follows the camera.

This “link” could be done in many ways, through “Constraints” or “Wire Parameters”, to limit the axis that the controller will move or so that the controller’s link can be animated from one camera to another.

Other really important detail that it should not be forgotten is entering our controller’s properties and disabling the option that makes it “renderable”. This way, it won’t show on the render and it won’t influence our scene.

Now, for us to test this techniques application you must add a “Noise” modifier on the “Plane”.

You should notice that the “Noise” is acting only on the selected area. Depending on the situation, this may or may not be desirable. In the case that it’s not desirable and we need it to be applied over all of our “Plane”, we just have to apply the “Poly Select” modifier before the “Noise”, without changing any of its parameters. This will end up cleaning all of our actions above it, making the “Noise” to affect all of our “Plane”.

In case the subdivision level on the first or remaining levels is not enough, we can go back to the “MethSmoth” modifiers and rise the “Iterations” value, but be beware! This should be done carefully, you should always save the scene before doing it and you should have backup copies, because too high subdivisions can brake you computer, specially those with low RAM memory (the minimum recommended by Autodesk to 3D Max is 4GB of RAM).

Another quite viable alternative is adding a “TurboSmooth” above the “Poly Select” or even a “MeshSmoth” and using the “Render Iterations” (Render Iters.). You can play with “Iterations” x “Render Iterations” values, everything may vary according to the scene’s needs.

You can notice that the subdivision level on the center is way bigger than on the extremities. Here you can see an example without the “Poly Select”:

As I explained, the “Noise” will act only upon the selected area from our “Vol. Selection”. On the other hand, the “TurboSmooth”, as it was said before, doesn’t work with selection. But if intead of working with the “‘TurboSmooth” you’re using a “MethSmoth”, then, differently from before, we need to leave the “Apply To Whole Mesh” option on so that it doesn’t act only upon the selection.

Now our tool is complete. You can try it by moving the camera to see how it will turn out.

All we’ve done so far is enough to optimize a lot our scene, but there’s still more we can make. We have a whole geometry that doesn’t show on scene and that it stays behind the camera, in specific cases we may need this part (for reflexes or other specific needs) so you just have to ignore this last step, this hidden geometry could be removed from the scene to leave our project even lighter, then let’s see how we can do this.

Add the “Slice” modifier under the “Poly Select” modifier and check the “Remove Top” option.

Next you should click on the + symbol next to “Slide” to access the modifier’s subproperties and select the “Slice Plane” option. With that being done, we can use the “Align” tool to align the “Slice” with our camera. Then, after activating the “Align” click on the camera and align the position and orientation using the “Pivot Point” as base.

Now we are removing the geometry part that stands behind the camera, but we still need to make that the “Slice” follows the camera while it moves or rotates. For that to work, we’re using the “”Wire Parameter”. To access it, right-click over the object to open the floating menu. Next, click on the “Wire Parameter” option. On the new menu that will open, follow the steps as shown on the image bellow.

After selecting the “X Position”, you shoud click over your camera so we can connect the “Slice”’s information to the camera’s

With that being done, the configuration window from the “Wire Parameter” will open. Here we will indicate who is controlling who using using the arrows that are located at the middle of the screen. Let’s make the control for the X and Y axes, because we don’t want the “Slice” to move on the Z axis.

Select the camera’s and “Slice”’s “X Position”, turn on the position arrow in a way that the camera is the “Master”, and, on the “Expression” field, let’s make a simple math expression to move the “Slice” a little further behind the camera, all you have to do is typing “-25” right after “X Position” (or the value that adapts best to your scene, because, as I’ve said before, values may vary according to the scene’s scale and proportions) and click on “Connect”. Do the same to the Y axis. Remember yourself that we should always connect each axis to its pair, therefore Y to Y.

Now the “Slice” is already moving with the camera, but we also need that it spins with it, so we’ll connect the 3 axes “Rotation”, but this time we don’t need to use an expression.

Now the “Slice” is already following the same orientation as the camera. Try spinning the camera to check the result.

After this last step our tool are complete and ready to use. I hope you’ve liked and this technique be very useful for all. Soon I intend to transform it on a script to have an easier application.
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The entire post is on my personal blog. Take a look!

Finally, the moment everyone have been expecting! The answers to all of your questions and doubts! After the 90 comments on the first half of our Top 10 last week, you will all know the five favorite animations of the folks here at Cafundó!

Not to ruin the surprise, but I must warn you that, unfortunately, this list is not as mixed as last week’s, but it must still please most of you – at least those that have been following since then.

Without further ado, I give you Cafundó’s Top 10 Favorite Animation Movies Of All Times – Part 2: Returns!

5. The Triplets of Belleville (2003) – Sylvain Chomet

Considering it is almost a silent movie, the mission of translating the protagonists feelings and motivations falls over the techniques of animation. The facial expressions and body language of the characters are responsible for pointing out the plots main events. Even almost speechless, the french/canadian/belgian/british production managed to conquer the world and run for the Academy Award for Best Animation – losing to Finding Nemo. The people here at Cafundó don’t really care about that, and we elected it as our fifth favorite!

Madame Souza’s grandson is kidnapped while running the famous Tour de France. So, the old lady crosses the ocean towards the USA to face the dangerous Italian American mobsters that took him. She will be helped by the three sisters from the city of Belleville (the triplets from the title) to save the cyclist from an illegal betting arena.

Benny Ricciardi: Visually, what I like the most in the movie is the caricature-like characterization of the characters. Besides that, I think it’s awesome a speechless film that manages to entertain and hold you attention, only by the use of onomatopoeias. Finally, it also pleases me its structure, totally diferent from Hollywood’s, which every one is already tired of.

4. Fantasia (1940) – James Algar, Samuel Amstrong, Ford Beebe, Norman Ferguson, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpstein

To save you the work, I tell you already: there are 11 directors of this master-piece of animation. It is a great deal for a movie from 1940 to be in any top 10, and that is why you guys deserve a little lecture. Come on, 37 guesses (on last week’s promotion) before someone finally remembered Fantasia? What’s up with that? Where else do you find overweight ballerinas dancing to the sound of La Gioconda (hippos, remember?)? All right, I know I played a little hard, but if I told you there was a sorcerer’s apprentice having a hard time with brooms, everybody would know what I was talking about in a second…

This musical, animated and produced by Walt Disney himself, is composed by several acts, each with its own representation of great examples of classical music, as Bach, Tchaikovisky, Beethoven and Stravinsky. In the movie, we watch as countless anthropomorphic animals get themselves in situations nobody would believe.

Giovanni Girardi: Among Cafundó’s Top 10, this is the only really old movie (1940, Disney’s third feature film), but it doesn’t owe anything to the others in terms of quality. This production is a musical and visual trip from the beginning until the end.

3. Finding Nemo (2003) – Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich

WARNING: the power of Pixar on our preferences begins here. And couldn’t be different. Pardon my French, but the guys are f *&@$.

Again, they combine an animation of the highest quality technically, with an engaging storyline, direct, and poignant. The producer plays the ocean with great skill, showing all the textures of this bustling environment, plankton, sand and jellyfish vivid and realistic. Moreover, the facial expressions of animals is already so intense that allows an immediate connection.

In production, a clown fish through the sea searching for his son, who at any time will be given as a gift to a little girl with a love a little too big. After this movie, nobody can ever say that fish are dull.

Edson Sant’Anna: Surround, creative and hilarious, Finding Nemo managed to get very interesting and funny characters in a script that appeals to both children and adults. The proof is that no one has seen the film and has not imitated the dory, no matter the age.

2. Monsters Inc (2003) – Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich

This is the third film that Unkrich, even as co-director, manages to topple here in our Top 10 (also directed Toy Story and Finding Nemo 3). If your production has failed to beat Shrek, Dreamworks, the first Oscar for best animated short in 2001, she managed to get even here, the second figure – the ogre got only two votes, and neither made the list.

The film tells the story of two employees of Monsters Inc., power company in Monstropolis, which supplies the city picking up the screams of children to scare them.The fear, however, is much higher among them, since only the touch of a human can be fatal. When a little girl enters their world,  Sully got scared and starts fighting to return the girl to her place.

Leonardo Minozzo: The film manages to deal with one of the phobias of children and very convincingly debunks the story that the monstroes are bad. The animation style is awesome. Definitely deserves to be in top 5.

1. Wall-E (2008) – Andrew Stanton

If Lee Unkrich was who won in number of films, Andrew Stanton, who shared the leadership with Unkrich of Finding Nemo, won the first place with Wall-E. The production won an Academy Award in 2009 as the best animation, and also competed in five categories. As in The Triplets of Belleville, the film also goes on mostly in silence. And it does so with a touch of genius. After all, it depicts the saga of humans, people with whom we can connect more easily, but a robot. And hey, getting to convey feelings and emotions with expressions as subtle as an arch of binoculars is not for everyone.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a small robot cleaner has continued to work alone trying to eradicate the mess left by humankind. Lonely and very fond of their ancient progenitors, Wall-E embarks on one last adventure when he meets Eve, a cyber sent far more advanced than him.

Cesar Soto: This came straight into my long list of favorite movies of all time, whether animated or live action – so maybe I have manipulated the statements you can talk about it. Wall-E is the greatest example of Pixar’s mastery in mixing animation with a perfect screenplay impeccable. Finally, represents the pinnacle of what every movie should have: the art of telling a story.

And then? Do you agree with our Top 10? Have any ideas for a future list? Leave a comment there, man! Until next time!

Even though we work with more than only animations, you all know that folks from Cafundó Estúdio are lovers of this gender. That’s why we have had the idea to rank and make a list of our favorite animation movies. As I got excited writting about movies and its animation process, this post got biggest than I thought so we decide to publish in two parts. Today, you’ll see the first part.

You’ll find stopmotions, tradicional animations, Pixar, anime and even rotoscoping. In the end, we noticed that our list is very ecletic! Ladies and gentlemen, with you, our top 10 favorite animations movies of all time!

10. Waking life (2001) – Richard Linklater

While much of the plot moving in a dream world – I can hear you thinking “Inception?” – this film has nothing to do with the more recent work by Christopher Nolan. The feature film of Richard Linklater, director of Before Sunrise and The School of Rock, talks about all the journeys and reflections caught by a young man while he sleeps.

Not to be commonplace scenes of old dreams, Linklater had used a technique not widely disseminated until then. After recording his entire movie with real actors and edit it, he used a software developed by animator Bob Sabiston, who paints each frame, playing with colors, borders and textures.

Alexandre Dias: “Despite being a very old technique, the rotoscoping in Waking Life creates an unprecedented sense: it increases the possibilities of visual expression in film, but without neglecting the interpretation of the actors. Adding to this well-directed dialogues, we arrive at this themed feature film production and so unusual.”

9. Toy Story 3 (2010) – Lee Unkrich

This is the first Pixar film in this Top 10 (and single sequence). Toy Story 3 had over a billion dollar collected around the world. Besides the obvious success of public, the filme also swept the critics and is one of the favorites for Oscar 2011.

15 years after winning Buzz, Andy is already too big and goes to the college, leaving behind their favorite toys. Without the owner and threatened by a life in the garret, Woody and his friends embark on a journey to find a new home.

Gustavo Brazzalle: “First of all, I should refuse to write to a list that has Toy Story 3 in ninth place. But, by fate I have already wrote another post (!) about this amazing movie (remembering: the best of all!)”

8. Akira (1988) – Katsuhiro Ôtomo

This adaptation of the same manga is considered a milestone in japanese animation. With more than 160,000 individual frames, almost triple than the usual, 2212 cuts and 327 different colors, this long japanese remains one of the most revered even today, 22 years after its realease.

In the story, which differs largely from the original manga in six editions, a futuristic Neo-Tokyo is plagued by gangs, military power-hungry, corrupt politicians and, apparently, kids with powers comparable to the gods. In this scenario, a young girl is kidnapped by the government and ends up involved in a conspiracy involving the dreaded Akira Project, which would have destroyed the original Tokyo at the 3rd World War.

Thiago Medeiros: “Akira was a landmark in the production of Japanese anime, and what drew the world attention to the animations manga. A story conceived in the best style of cyberpunk has one of the most well-developed plots and futuristic sci-fi post-cataclysmic created in the ’80s. “

7. The Nighmare Before Christmas (1993) – Henry Selick

Only stopmotion in this list, the Nightmare Before Christmas is a milestone of the genre. Directed by Henry Selick, master the art of storytelling through puppets, and produced by Tim Burton, this work appears in the first place on the list of best “Christmas movies” site Rotten Tomatoes, even subverting the concept with dark humor.

Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, kidnaps Santa Clauss and promotes for the world his own crazy vision of Christmas.

Pedro Correa: “What strikes me most in the film is its aesthetic, which soften bizarre themes as death, represented in the movie mildly comical.”

6. Persépolis (2007) – Vincent Paronnaud e Marjane Satrapi

If you think we don’t care about what happens in the world around us, Persepolis is a good response. Adaptation of the book autobiographical of Iranian Marjane Satrapi, the animation itself (done in black, white and grayscale) is not big news – although spectacular.

What really stands out is the screenplay. The story of the author, who had to leave Iran when the Islamic Revolution broke out, is told in a light and sweet way. Through his eyes we know moments of existence not only of the protagonist, but also this country now so distant to the Occident.

Cris Foroni: “Persepolis makes us reflect on the atrocities of war, focusing mainly on the figure of women in a society that had forgotten the word feminism, which removed women’s autonomy of choice. Far from being a children’s animation, Persepolis is fun , intelligent and exciting at the same time. “

Next week I go back with the top of the list. There is much more classics, award-winning films, robots, monsters … See you soon!

Apparently, Warner Bros. executives. learned some things about the failure of critical Clash of the Titans. The film was already in post production when Avatar was released, and to capitalize on the success of smurfs thundercats, needed to speed the process, and even postponed its launch by a month.

It was a consensus among many that the 3-D visualization was unnecessary and, in most scenes, worked against the film. Floating heads that seemed disconnected from the body, poisonous tails flying into the audience without any apparent reason and long-range plans much better appreciated in a normal screen, five dollars cheaper. In short: Many people thought the movie was crap.

Result: last Friday, August, Warner Brothers issued a note in which canceling the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part I in 3-D, keeping only two-dimensional version. The decision was taken due to discontent over the production process conversion used, which would not agree with the quality of the series – stance taken AFTER the hiring of Daniel Radcliffe.

A ‘No’ that is good
Cancel is good news for anyone following the series of wizard and great for anyone who enjoys cinema. After the overwhelming success of James Cameron, gems like Piranha and Final Destination 4 through the process of converting to stereo 3D, to earn a few dollars for the three-dimensional style, and still come around the next Spider-Man, plus The Three Musketeers, Smurfs, Jackass 3, Saw 97 (actually is the seventh, but do not you think that Jigsaw is harder to die than Charles Bronson?) and others …

Unfortunately, most people forget that Cameron waited for years until the technology exists to run exactly the way he wanted, recording all the film in cameras especially created to capture the best in three dimensions. Thus, studios, directors and producers are investing in a hasty and purely marketing solution that saturates the public even before the new masterpieces have a chance to be recorded.

The second part of the final chapter of Harry Potter will still be released in 3-D, as it has a full year for the process can be done right. And that makes sense. Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against this kind of movie. Avatar is one of my favorite movies along with Coraline, stop-motion animation very well produced in 2009 by genious Henry Selick. But in the process of seeing on the big screen classics such as Titanic and the two trilogies of Star Wars in 3D, is always worth remembering that things always have to be done well.

We all know that both Cameron and George Lucas knows how to make money, but it’s nice to spend money on something worthwhile, not a lot of shit without reason that generate only one headache at the end of the session.

With or without the hyphen: A small, brief, quick and light explanation

Do not confuse the old and criticized here stereoscopic 3-D with good old traditional 3D. The first is the name of the process that gives us the impression that something “out” of the screen (and those old comic books that were accompanied with red / blue glasses). This sensation is caused by an overlap of two images which, when processed by an eye each, generate a sense of depth.

The original 3D, very different from before, despite sharing similar name, is the modeling of images, objects, or sequences through three-dimensional computing. And this is one of the things with which we work here at Cafundó. So do not be confused, unless a good-hearted soul ask us ($ $) a project involving stereopsis, you hardly see anyone around here with those bizarre bicolor glasses – unless playboy of Larissa Riquelme is dropped somewhere in here.