It must be springtime! Several of our biggest hits in the month of March hearkened back to childhood, youth, and renewal.
1. Our favorite diversion was this post from Mashable, 23 Kids Having a Worse Monday than You, with 23 videos reminding us that stumbling and falling down are a part of creativity and growth…even for grown ups!
2. Snow is a powerful storytelling tool as evidenced by the complex character interactions in the Disney blockbuster, Frozen. Snow dynamics, beyond the rendering and accumulation of snow, are not easy to visually simulate. In this video from Walt Disney Animation studios, we found A Material Point Method for Snow Simulation quite stimulating (no pun intended). This novel method integrates a usercontrollable elasto-plastic constitutive model with a hybrid Eulerian/Lagrangian Material Point Method (natch).
3. We also marveled at filmmaker Susi Sie’s continued fascination with the effects of sound waves on lycopodium powder in this promotional video for Burkhardtsmaier. Who knew that placing power made of moss spores atop a subwoofer would generate fascinating patterns and forms that appear digital…
4. With every keystroke from A to Z, interesting sounds and melodies, and swirls of cool and vibrant colors and shapes are what you’ll experience at Patatap, a portable animation and sound kit. The brainchild of designer Jono Brandel of Google Creative Lab’s Data Arts Team and Japanese composer duo Lullatone will have your inner child banging away at the keys (i.e. the keyboard).
5. Some parents clearly have more time on their hands than others, but this designer dad really impressed us with his Youtube channel of home videos transforming his 3-year-old son into a superhero; five of his twelve videos made the news in Kansas City (see one of our favs below). Analyzing the special effects had our design and technical staff wondering (guessing, really), “Is it Boujou for matchmoving? Is it AE with Actions Essentials stock? No…it’s VFX editing!)
