Glass Half: The latest open movie from the Blender Institute (Opensource.com)

[Posted December 30, 2015 by ris]

Opensource.com introduces the latest open movie from the Blender Institute, Glass Half. "Like all of the other open movie projects released by the Blender Institute, Glass Half has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, along with all of the assets (3D models, textures, animations, etc.) used to create the short. However, there are some key differences between this animated short and the Blender Institute's larger projects like Cosmos Laundromat. For one, the production time for this piece was much shorter. Although there were some concepts and storyboards being put together by the team as Cosmos Laundromat's year-long production was wrapping up, the actual production time for Glass Half was just around seven weeks."

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Posted Dec 30, 2015 23:25 UTC (Wed) by ldo (guest, #40946) [Link] (15 responses)

Hjalti Hjálmarsson gave this talk at the recent Blender Conference about some of the subtleties of getting animation motion correct. One sequence he used comes straight from this movie. Can you spot the difference between his “right” and “wrong” examples?

Also worth pointing out: who needs 2D-specific animation packages, when a fully-3D-capable package like Blender is capable of producing work like this?

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Posted Dec 31, 2015 12:45 UTC (Thu) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link] (1 responses)

Even though some art forms _seem_ like they're a superset of a previous form, that doesn't automatically mean it makes sense to abandon the previous tools if what you wanted is achievable within the limits of the previous form.

It would be crazy in 2015 to build black and white televisions, but it isn't necessarily crazy to shoot a movie on black and white film if you wanted to make a black and white movie...

Some of the novels I read this year included pictures but the vast majority did not‡. If you aren't writing a novel which includes pictures, why /not/ use a simple text editor or, if you're so inclined, a biro and a notepad to write the novel ? Sure, other tools exist, but you don't need them.

‡ The cover picture doesn't count, that's almost invariably chosen by the publisher and is a marketing message to potential purchasers not part of the story. Popular novels will be re-printed with new cover pictures but the same contents for this reason.

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Posted Jan 6, 2016 22:46 UTC (Wed) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

> If you aren't writing a novel which includes pictures, why /not/ use a simple text editor or, if you're so inclined, a biro and a notepad to write the novel ? Sure, other tools exist, but you don't need them.

Data point: Neal Stephenson still writes his first draft with a fountain pen[1].

[1]https://tzinski.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/neal-stephenson-...

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Posted Dec 31, 2015 13:34 UTC (Thu) by halla (subscriber, #14185) [Link] (9 responses)

Why use a 2D animation tool instead of blender? Well... Because it allows you to draw instead of setting up assets and animating them, then rendering with a toon shader? Because the look and feel of the end result is completely different? Because there are three ways, roughly, to do animation: 3D, either rendered in 3D or using a toon shader, 2D vector cut-out and 2D hand-drawn. In the end, these are different art forms.

We've just spent a year adding 2D animation to Krita, and have just now released the first beta's and our users are going wild. Check, for instance, this work:

http://temmiechang.tumblr.com/post/136031613544/more-anim...

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Posted Dec 31, 2015 21:46 UTC (Thu) by ldo (guest, #40946) [Link] (8 responses)

Because it allows you to draw, did you say?

Certainly tools like Krita and Inkscape have much better drawing/painting tools than any animation package can offer. But I think they are wasting their time trying to get into animation. Their role should be in the creation of assets for the animation packages.

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Posted Jan 1, 2016 13:44 UTC (Fri) by halla (subscriber, #14185) [Link] (7 responses)

Yeah, did you think I wasn't aware of Blender's grease pencil? But it's fine. You're entitled to your opinion, wrong as it is. Fortunately for all those artists that went crazy over our new animation functionality, your opinion is also completely irrelevant when it comes to influencing any of the real work that is being done.

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Posted Jan 1, 2016 20:28 UTC (Fri) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link] (6 responses)

Jeez.. can people please lighten up a little?

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Posted Jan 2, 2016 18:34 UTC (Sat) by halla (subscriber, #14185) [Link] (2 responses)

Why, thank you, Mr Vitters, for telling me to lighten up a little! Such a wonderfully constructive contribution to a discussion you aren't involved in! I certainly will take it to heart, I am most touched by your condescension. Once again, you have won my utmost respect by your timely intervention.

In the mean time, excuse me for ignoring the sage advice of the person I replied to, while I continue to provide my users with the features they need, want and provide funding for. They are, no doubt, as misguided as I am, but what do we know? We're only doing the work, whether it is creating art or creating software, we're not manning the all-important peanut gallery. Our opinion cannot be relied upon.

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Posted Jan 2, 2016 20:49 UTC (Sat) by andresfreund (subscriber, #69562) [Link]

Seriously? You're complaining about condescension after sentences like: "You're entitled to your opinion, wrong as it is."?

There might be some people involved in this or in the nearby emotional thread that mostly man said peanut gallery. But several names sure sounded like people that are actually regular developing & maintaining open source software.

I know by heart how stressful superficial/uninformed criticism and discuscussion can be. But you right now sound rather uncharacteristically, judging from the messages I read here on lwn over the years, strongly pissed of. Maybe it'd be a good idea to just avoid reading the comment sections for a few days?

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Posted Jan 3, 2016 3:54 UTC (Sun) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link]

It was meant to both, not just you specifically. Though suggest to read back your reply after knowing it was meant for both. After reading this reply: Your attitude sucks.

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Posted Jan 3, 2016 14:22 UTC (Sun) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (2 responses)

Er, ovitters wants people to lighten up? Maybe standards are different when Gnome3 is not the topic.

Also: boudewijn is correct, 2d animation and 3d animation are different art forms. Plus, let the users decide. (Not really ot: I remember when people asked, when Gimp existed, why did KDE bring us Krita? It turns out Krita serves a different sort of user.)

Re: 2d animation and 3d animation are different art forms

Posted Jan 3, 2016 22:41 UTC (Sun) by ldo (guest, #40946) [Link]

How long can you watch your favourite 2D-animated cartoon series nowadays without seeing some 3D graphics slip in somewhere?

You probably didn’t notice, because it was so seamlessly done.

The border lines between “different art forms” exist only in the minds of the unimaginative...

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Posted Jan 3, 2016 22:54 UTC (Sun) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link]

Yeah, attack me for trying to tone down the aggressiveness in the comments. You could've read that it wasn't about taking sides.

Why get personal? I totally disagree with stop energy. GIMP is confusing. Develop whatever you want, etc.

I make a comment with the sole aim that discussion is done in a different way and your response is really poor.

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Posted Dec 31, 2015 17:33 UTC (Thu) by ledow (guest, #11753) [Link] (1 responses)

That's like saying who needs pixel art now that we have computer programs with brushes.

If anything, art is one area where techniques don't stop being used just because they're a bit old.

Pottery. Painting. Calligraphy. The list goes on and on.

Re: like saying who needs pixel art now that we have computer programs with brushes.

Posted Jan 2, 2016 21:13 UTC (Sat) by ldo (guest, #40946) [Link]

Not at all. New technology can give a fresh look to an old idea.

Look at the whole concept of “low-poly” 3D graphics. Nothing like that ever existed in the pre-3D era.

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Posted Jan 1, 2016 21:44 UTC (Fri) by jonquark (guest, #45554) [Link]

I find it quite fun that underneath an animation showing people with passionate opinions, disagreeing with (or dismissing) other people's passionate opinions, this comment sparked a discussion where people with passionate opinions...

...this comment thread is almost performance art ;)

Glass Half: The latest open movie from the Blender Institute (Opensource.com)

Posted Jan 4, 2016 22:15 UTC (Mon) by cov (guest, #84351) [Link]

> Like all of the other open movie projects released by the Blender Institute, Glass Half has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, along with all of the assets (3D models, textures, animations, etc.) used to create the short.

The Blender movie scores/soundtracks have generally been released under proprietary (fractional freedom?) licenses. (Perhaps the soundtrack isn't an "asset"?)

Elephants Dream: CC-BY-NC-ND https://orange.blender.org/blog/complete-score-available-...
Big Buck Bunny: CC-BY-NC-ND https://peach.blender.org/2008/06/complete-score-availabl...
Sintel: CC-BY-NC-ND https://durian.blender.org/news/complete-score-available-...
Tears of Steel: CC-BY-ND https://mango.blender.org/production/soundtrack-files-rel...

Has anyone encountered specific information on whether the soundtrack is released under a libre license this time around?