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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Funky Towel
Chris Wedge
Original: Joe's Apartment | 4425 * 3024px | 42.5 MB
Original: Joe's Apartment | 4425 * 3024px | 42.5 MB
Original: Joe's Apartment | 4425 * 3024px | 42.5 MB
Original: Joe's Apartment | 4425 * 3024px | 42.5 MB
The small, independent feature film "Joe's Apartment" has dancing and singing cockroaches in a Busby Berkeley style. They completely captivate you and draw you in as they sing and dance around a "funky towel", the prize winning sequence by Chris Wedge.
It's not your average love story. Afterall, the heros of the feature length motion picture "Joe's Apartment" are a bunch of mischevious roaches. When it comes to those with the rare talent for song and dance, it is the computer generated bunch, created by Blue Sky Studios, that clearly stand out. "Funky Towel", a two-minute homage to Busby Berkley, takes place in Joe's ripe and inspiring bathroom. The chorus of roaches sings, swims, waltzes and breakdances introducing the audience to their "funky" world.These 3D photorealistic animated roaches interact seamlessly and credibly with live action actors and environments. It is difficult to say what was the most important element in creating the incredibly real-looking roaches. To replicate nature's own greasy creatures, CG modelers studied tanks full of live ones. Animators studied the twitchy movements of scampering roaches and merged those characteristics with the performances so they could stand up, talk, sing and dance.Using Softimage's motion module the animators brought the stars of "Joe's Apartment" to life. To integrate the roaches into their scenes, the lighting had to be perfect. Using Blue Sky's proprietary software, CGI Studio[TM], the CGI world merged with the real world in seamless unity.Blue Sky produced over 13 mintues of animation that makes you laugh at and believe in the world of talking roaches.
It's not your average love story. Afterall, the heros of the feature length motion picture "Joe's Apartment" are a bunch of mischevious roaches. When it comes to those with the rare talent for song and dance, it is the computer generated bunch, created by Blue Sky Studios, that clearly stand out. "Funky Towel", a two-minute homage to Busby Berkley, takes place in Joe's ripe and inspiring bathroom. The chorus of roaches sings, swims, waltzes and breakdances introducing the audience to their "funky" world.These 3D photorealistic animated roaches interact seamlessly and credibly with live action actors and environments. It is difficult to say what was the most important element in creating the incredibly real-looking roaches. To replicate nature's own greasy creatures, CG modelers studied tanks full of live ones. Animators studied the twitchy movements of scampering roaches and merged those characteristics with the performances so they could stand up, talk, sing and dance.Using Softimage's motion module the animators brought the stars of "Joe's Apartment" to life. To integrate the roaches into their scenes, the lighting had to be perfect. Using Blue Sky's proprietary software, CGI Studio[TM], the CGI world merged with the real world in seamless unity.Blue Sky produced over 13 mintues of animation that makes you laugh at and believe in the world of talking roaches.
Chris Wedge (USA) has a BFA from the State University of New York and an MA in Computer Graphics and Art Education from Ohio State University. He is Vice President and Creative Director of Blue Sky Studios, Inc. and is considered one of the top computer animation directors in the world. He also was Director of Animation at MAGI/SynthaVision, where he directed and/or animated projects for television commercials and sequences for the Walt Disney feature film "Tron".