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Sony succeeded in removing multiple films from Vimeo with the word "pixels" in its title.

Critics pretty much couldn't stand Adam Sandler's videogame vehicle, but who couldn't see that coming?

Adam Sandler and company square off against actual squares.

Retromania — 3D pixel (voxel) art tribute to the 8-bit gaming era.
Available as a high-quality art print.

More images: MetinSeven.com.

This quintet of posters came out today for "Pixels," the big-budget Hollywood feature based on a two-and-a-half-minute French animated short.

This quintet of posters came out today for "Pixels," the big-budget Hollywood feature based on a two-and-a-half-minute French animated short.

America’s harshest social critics aren’t some distant foreign leaders; they’re French animators. Remember the 2009 Oscar-winning short Logorama and its merciless take on American consumerism? Now it’s Patrick Jean’s turn to satirize the United States. In his new short Motorville, he delivers a stinging commentary on America’s addition to other countries’ natural resources. The film was originally commissioned by the American broadcaster Showtime Channel, but after Jean submitted the film, Showtime decided not to air it. Some ideas, even animated, are too dangerous for mainstream America.

Jean’s previous film Pixels, which turned New York into a batch of pixels, was a big hit both online and offline. It not only won the top prize at Annecy in 2011, it also attracted the attention of Sony Pictures and Adam Sandler who are now trying to develop it into an 8-bit Ghostbusters-style feature.

The key visual element in Motorville is using a map of a major metropolis (in this case, Los Angeles) as metaphor for the human body. Jean generated the maps using open source data from OpenStreetMap.org, which lands him clearly in the emerging New Aesthetic camp. While Motorville is hardly the first time that map data has been turned into film art, Jean’s sharp and witty handle on the concept elevates this film into a league of its own.

CREDITS
Directed by Patrick Jean
Produced by Showtime Channel
Sound design: David Kamp
Additional animations: OneMoreProd, Stephen Vuillemin

Illustration and design of an alternative poster for the Disney-Pixar animation film Monsters, Inc.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this.

The featured game is Galaga from Namco, a classic 8-bit game for the arcades, released in 1981.

Would be great to see a series of these scenes released as tangible designer gadgets. If anyone is interested to realize that, just get in touch with me. I can deliver the 3D scenes ready for rapid prototyping.

You can find my other 3D pixel artworks over here.

Adam and Eve in 3D pixels.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

3D pixel (voxel) art experiment.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

3D pixel illustration of a fictitious game level for an article about computer games.

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A visual experiment in blending my two major passions: 3D graphics and 2D pixel art.

More pixels at Sevensheaven.nl

Before I was a 3D guy I was a pixel artist for commercial 2D games, from the late 80s to the late 90s. Now I'd like to return to my roots (without leaving 3D of course).

Here's an illustration I made to get into pixeling again. I tried to keep it as minimalistic as possible, in search of the ultimate essence in conveying a visual message.

More pixels at Sevensheaven.nl

The New Publishing Math: Trilogy = Four...

After finishing the third book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy, I was really excited to find that Extras was coming out, a fourth book in the once-was-a-trilogy- now-is-a-series. Now it's being reported that Christopher Paolini's best-selling Inheritance trilogy will have a fourth book, officially changing it from a trilogy to a "cycle." At 5 p.m. EST today a video will be available on Paolini's website offering an Exclusive Message about this development, which I'm sure will be very exciting to fans of the fantasy trilogy series cycle.

I probably shouldn't admit this in cyberspace, but I gotta say that Christopher Paolini is not exactly a favorite of fine. Every time I hear him interviewed I sort of get this powerful urge to kick him in the shins. Does he have to use 15-syllable words I must look up? Did he really say that if they're looking for a family to live alone in a biosphere for five years he and his parents and sister are so there? Does he really think having his work edited feels like splinters of hot bamboo being driven into his tender eyeballs?

Maybe I'm being too grumpy. I've never met him, and he may be a perfectly nice young man with whom I'd enjoying having a beer (or forging a sword). But for now I can only suppose he's some sort of eccentric young genius who I could never possibly understand.

I'll be sure to check out his video.