Computer graphic artists may be overworked-but don’t tell Robert Rioux. A modeler/technical director at Rhythm & Hues (R&H), Los Angeles, he spent some of his spare time creating an animated spoof of the scene where Luke learns that Darth Vadar is his father from the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back. Dubbed Block Wars, the piece, which was modeled in Power Animator, used a store-bought Star Wars Lego set as the basis for a short that he animated and rendered in Maya.
"It is important to work on short films," explained Rioux, who recently completed a Nintendo spot and just finished his role as a modeler on the feature Bedazzled. "I’m a modeler and, for me, [Block Wars] was an opportunity to get out of the modeling world and do something different."
Although he did it on his own time, he used company equipment, and Rioux said his bosses were supportive in other ways-for example, R&H helped clear some music rights. He reports that they were ultimately pleased with the result: Block Wars is one of a number of shorts and computer-generated imagery (CGI) sequences from theatrical films that will appear at the annual SIGGRAPH confab in the prestigious Electronic Theater. The pieces on display, selected by a panel of industry judges, represent cutting edge work in the CGI world.
This year, several companies that have commercial ties are featured in the theater. Bicoastal Curious Pictures is represented by "The Anti Indie," an episode of Avenue Amy, an animated series airing on the Oxygen Cable network and Web site. Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., has a brief sequence called the "Brain Fly-Through" from the feature The Fight Club. Industrial Light + Magic, San Rafael, Calif., has two pieces in the theater: the short Synchronicity, and scenes from the film The Perfect Storm. New York-based Pitch has Protest and Pixar Animation Studios, Richmond, Calif., offers For The Birds. (Pixar is no longer heavily active in spot work, but last fall, the company created tie-in ads for the Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 2. The spots, for McDonald’s, included "Up Periscope" and "Remote," out of DDB Chicago; and "Surveillance" and "Toy Vs. Candy" for Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, SHOOT, 12/10/99.)
