The blog has moved! Go to blog.yair-mor.com as I no longer post new stuff here. Update your feeds as well. Thank you :)

Why More is moving

Great news! I’m moving my blog to a new address. Please update your links and RSS stuff and let everyone know that the new address is http://www.darkstagestudio.com/blog.

This Week’s Stuff #8

This was, strangely, quite an uneventful week, yet I have been really busy, so I’m only sharing two links with you this weekend. Enjoy!

1. LHC amazing photo gallery
   Check out this awesome collection of photos taken at the LHC site. They have such a sci-fi look to them. It’s really inspirational.
2. Cars: Unifentified Flying Mater
   Directed by Pixar’s John Lasseter, this is the 5th in the series of Cars shorts. Check it out, it’s pretty cool.
   

Elevator pitch for Darkstage

I just realized I didn’t have an elevator pitch for Darkstage Studio. Whenever people ask me what it’s about I use terms such as “like” and “sort of”, which do not convey much confidence…

An elevator pitch, as implied by the previous sentence, is a short description of your business or idea that you can deliver in a few words to almost anyone, and especially potential clients. Here’s a first draft.

• Darkstage studio specialized in visualization content for the horror, fantasy and sci-fi entertainment genres. My passion for these themes has motivated me to start Darkstage as a freelancer. I collaborate with studios and bring in my expertise as an animation, illustrator and 3D designer in projects related to themes of darkness, horror and macabre.

What do you think? Let me know if you have any idea that can push this pitch even more.

Book review: Asylum

This weekend I got the book Asylum: Inside the Clossed World of State Mental Hospitals by Christopher Payne. I saw a recommendation on Kitzune Noir a few weeks back and I just knew I must have it.

Asylum is a photography album of the inside and outside of many mental hospitals across the United States. The forward, written by neurologist Oliver Sacks, is an interesting review of the entire concept – how it came to be at the beginning of the 18th century and it’s decline after the 1950s. He wrote about the Kirkbride Plan – a special design of the layout of institutes that was meant to promote comfort for patients, but eventually becoming too expensive to maintain. He also discusses how mental hospitals become a place of confinement, rather than a haven.

Payne’s photographs are simply amazing. They show in great detail the outside of hospitals and the inside of wards; untended forgotten gardens and dismal corridors with paint peeling off the walls. Looking at all the abandoned corridors and rooms makes you imagine them busy with strange patients wandering around and doctors tending them. I try to picture people living and working in such a morally questionable environment.

It’s a fascinating book. Browsing it fills me with inspiration and curiosity. I wish there was more stuff to read on this subject, but I guess that’s what Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization is for.

Check out the book’s website: www.asylumbook.com.

This Week’s Discoveries #7

I packed a lot of animation for you, my devoted readers, for a fun and relaxed weekend. Enjoy!

1. Madame Talbot
Found it on from with us or against us blog. This is a website selling dark art merchandise. They have lots of posters, skeleton baby dolls and lots of other stuff linked to gothic 18th-19th century western culture (like bottles of laudanum). Great stuff!

2. Ramona Falls – I Say Fever video
I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, and I listened to it many time since. But that’s not the reason why I tell you about it. Check out the video. It’s really beautiful.

3. Fumiko’s Confession
Amazing anime clip. It’s so fast it actually tricks your brain into believing it’s falling off the hill and dodging pedestrians, trees and cats!

4. Tarboy
Found it on Coilhouse magazine blog. The style here is simply amazing. Using Flash, James Lee and Hania Lee created this fascinating action packed story featuring Tarboy, a hero born in the slavery tar pits who gets up and fights the high society robot regime. Check out the Tarboy website here.

The Skull and Mask II

Another take at this drawing.

A Skull and a Mask

I tried to play with the Darkstage logo theme a bit. This is what I came up with. I think I’ll stick it in the “about” section on the upcoming Darkstage Studio website. Click image to enlarge.

This Week’s Discoveries #6

1. Ataque de Pánico!
   An awesome little clip directed by Federico Alvarez of Murdoc Films and produced by Aparto.
   
2. Good Vibrations
   A short by French animator Jeremy Claptin (the one who made Skhizein). Great job. Unfortunately I could not embed the video, so you’ll have to click here if you want to watch it.
3. Alex Roman
   Amazingly realistically. This is a montage of some of Roman’s work on 3Dup.com. He uses 3dsmax with vRay to create these stunning images. I really liked his work because, as opposed to other technical demos, this one is really elegant and beautiful. Also check out thirdseventh.com for the rest of his work.
4. Phil Plait on Gnomedex 9
   Phil talks to a bunch of tech nerds at the Gnomedex 9 convention. He gives a nice introduction to the skeptic movement, talks about the key people and organizations (like James Randi, Penn and Teller, JREF…), who’s their adversaries (Sylvia Brown, chiropractors…).  A really fun lecture.
   
5. Cell size and scale
   This one I found on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog. It’s a nice Flash presentation that lets you zoom and see a lot of tiny items in relation to each other. It starts from a coffee bean and ends with a carbon atom. This thing was made by the Genetic Science Learning Center in the University of Utah.
6. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
   You’ve got to check out this amazing trailer. It has some really fun surprises inside 🙂
7. The Kinematograph
   This is a trailer for a short directed by Tomek Baginski (Fallen Art) and produced by Platigue Images (Moloch, and also Fallen Art). The film is about an inventor obsessed with his work and what he has to lose for his passion. I love the details on all of his contraptions, the character design with European touch and an atmosphere of an old family photo album. There’s some more information on Quite Earth here.
   

Opeth in Israel

I think most of my readers don’t know this about me, but I am somewhat of a headbanger, and my favorite band is Opeth. A lot has been said about these amazing guys, so I will write about my impressions from their gig here in Israel.

It was held in Tel Aviv, in a very nice location (Hangar 11, Tel Aviv port). Opeth went on stage and kicked in with Heir Apparent. I swear to Satan, the impact of the first 2 notes was so astounding it made the unlikely hypothesis of the rising of His Unholiness himself and his entire entire Army of Darkness look pale and insignificant in comparison. Unfortunately, this effect did not last long, probably because I got used to the sound and everything. But the show was so great nontheless.

Once Heir was done, they quickly switched to Ghost of Perdition. And after some funnies from Mikael they played The Leper Affinity and White Cluster. During Windowpane Mikael almost swallowed his pick and missed a line, which was quite amusing (and brought many cheers from the audience). I guess he should have thought less on tits and more on playing (referring to his report on what they did at the beach before the show).

I enjoy listening to Mikael between songs. He’s so laid back talking as opposed to playing and singing. After another talk they played The Lotus Eater. Then Mikael decided to suddenly change the plans and play something off setlist, so they did Bleak, which was played fairly well, considering Opeth’s claim they did not rehearse it in a while. After that they played April Ethereal and Reverie/Harlequin Forest.

I think one of the best songs Opeth played that night was Reverie/Harlequin Forest. And Hex Omega. They are both amazing live, even though they’re less heavy than, say, Deliverance, which they played after the encore, and was a pretty good finale to a truly awesome night. Right before Deliverance Frederik astounded everyone with an amazing killer solo.

I really enjoy Mikael’s presence on stage. He doesn’t take things too serious or false pretending. All is fun and games with Opeth, because they know they don’t need the pretension – they prove their seriousness and professionalism through their music.

It’s going to be hard for me to get back to listen to Opeth. Every record now sounds so dull and empty in comparison. Ugh, who am I kidding? I couldn’t resist and popped in Watershed a few minutes ago.

P.S. Thanks Israeli Youtubers for putting some clips online. Most of them really suck because you guys have shitty equipment, but I managed to dig the few decent ones.

What am I up to

I do not write a lot these days. Every spare time I have I spend on building the Darkstage Studio website. It’s coming along nicely, I think, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. I do hope I get back to do some creative work soon. Coding is fun, but animating and drawing is even more.

This is how the site looks so far.

I’ve finished the main page along with a nice free slideshow plugin called Pikachoose. What’s left is building the rest of the pages, adding content and putting it on the interwebs.

So don’t think I gave up just yet only because I’m writing only This Week’s Discoveries posts. I’m up and well and pushing my dreams forward!