Alek Vacura: “Without Arms” Q&A

Last week, we posted Alek Vacura’s elegant short film, “Without Arms,” created for his MFA thesis at Pratt Institute. Alek was nice enough to answer a few questions for us about his background and the film:

The narrative for “Without Arms” is elegantly simple. Where did the idea come from?

The idea for Without Arms came to me as I was falling asleep one night. I think some of the best ideas come when you’re not consciously trying to create them. I have always had a fascination with statues, and studied marble sculpture in Italy a few years earlier, so it seemed fitting that my thesis would head in that direction.

“Without Arms” was created for your MFA Thesis at Pratt Institute. What made you decide to go to graduate school?

I received my Bachelors in illustration from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. I always knew I wanted to go to graduate school, but I wasn’t sure that illustration was going to be enough for me. I wanted my images to move and have more depth, so I took a storyboarding class at VCU. After that I knew I wanted to get into 3D animation. So I decided to pursue a Masters in CG, even though I had no undergrad experience.

How did you decide on Pratt?

Once I decided on a Masters in 3D animation I started applying to multiple colleges. But because I had never touched a 3D program before, most schools were not willing to accept me. Pratt however caters to students like me that are going into the Digital Arts MFA program with little to no 3D experience. They offer intense introductory courses to learn the basics, which was perfect for me. I also decided on Pratt because of its reputation as one of the best art schools in the United States and because of its location in NYC.

Would you recommend Pratt to others?

Pratt has great faculty and very talented students. I had a great time there and would recommend it.

According to your Vimeo project page, “Without Arms” took three semesters to complete, two of which were completed while at The Mill. How did that arrangement work?

At the start of my second semester at Pratt, a string of lucky events granted me an invitation to tour the Mill office on August 8th, 2008. After showing them my work in progress they offered me an opportunity to complete my thesis at their facility. Once I started working at the Mill my thesis only took me 8 months to complete. Being surrounded by such talented professionals everyday motivated me to work extremely hard. 080808 is the luckiest day in the Chinese culture — it’s triple prosperity. I feel like luck was definitely on my side. I still feel like the luckiest guy in the world for being given that opportunity.

What was the most technically challenging aspect of the film?

Honestly, every aspect was a giant challenge. Before my thesis, I had only worked on class exercises and small projects. I had never worked on a project of this scale. One of the trickiest parts was the animation. The hardest part was making it subtle, which meant re-animating each shot dozens of times.

I feel like this thesis was the biggest learning experience of my life. I just kept reminding myself of something that Ed Catmull said at SIGGRAPH: “If everything is going according to plan, you’re not learning anything.”

What are you up to now?

I have been freelancing full-time as a 3D generalist at The Mill in New York City since January.

Motion Graphics meeting at SIGGRAPH 2009, Tuesday, August 4th

Photo by eduardoizquierdo

Gil Irizarry sent us a notice about a motion graphics meeting at SIGGRAPH. Check it out:

There will be a birds-of-a-feather meeting at SIGGRAPH 2009 specifically dedicated to motion graphics. Last year, there was the first motion graphics BOF and the response was tremendous. This year, we have a great line-up:

• Gil Irizarry, Conoa, talking about Conoa plug-ins for motion graphics
• John Lepore, Perception, talking about the general workflow at Perception, with an emphasis on how they do beautiful work in really short time frames, and looking behind the scenes at some recent projects.
• Pete Litwinowicz, RE:Vision Effects, talking about the latest versions of RE:Vision Effects for motion graphics
• Rick Barrett, MAXON, showing the integration between Cinema 4D and After Effects and the benefits for motion graphics

The meeting is free and will be held at:

Tuesday, Aug 4, 3 – 5 pm
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
Room 264

Jonathan Jarvis and The New Mediators

Building on the success of his incredibly lucid and educational animation, “The Crisis of Credit Visualized,” designer/animator Jonathan Jarvis announced an interesting new venture, The New Mediators, which launched in earnest a few months ago.

To quote the introductory video above, The New Mediators builds diagrams using a “design language that can be assembled quickly, almost in real-time, and universal enough to be adapted.”

What Jarvis is proposing goes beyond motion graphics into the fields of journalism, education and activism (though he doesn’t seem to actively acknowledge that last one). Unlike visual essays, which use metaphor to suggest multiple layers of meaning at once, Jarvis is interested instead in simplifying and demystifying our complex world.

This is the general aim of information graphics and in itself is nothing new, but Jarvis’ real-time twist points to an exciting array of possibilities that are only now being tapped.  Before I go on, take a moment to watch Jarvis deconstructing Obama’s stimulus package before a live audience:

Video after the jump…

Steven Spielberg on Animation

Excerpt:

I think all directors should be animators first, because you really can take the imagination to become something tangible, something you can hold in your hand, and say, “Can you see this? No? Well, I can.” And then you make that, make that happen.

Via: ProLost Tip: Fred Kim