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Faerieworlds 2010 in photos: Costumes, music & aerial art
 Me in my Good Faerie costume |
 And my Bad Faerie get-up |
Outta This World the show covered Faerieworlds 2010, and it was a blast! From winged faeries to horned creatures to an authentic-looking Avatar, everyone donned incredible works of art.
Attire aside, mystic bands such as Woodland and Faun mesmerized festival goers through the night, followed up by fire dancing and a haunting aerial number.
Here’s a look at some of the best costumes and enchanting entertainment from this year’s festivities.
(Click on any thumbnail to see a larger image or view as a slideshow.)
Costumes: Faeries
Costumes: Other Creative Wonders
Entertainment: Faun, Fire Dancing & Aeriel Art
Related articles
Faerieworlds: The Experience (VIDEO EPISODE)
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How to Make Faerie Wings (step-by-step)
Designed and crafted by Kristen Nedopak
In the midst of planning my Faerieworlds costume, writing interviews for Brian and Wendy Froud and packing for the 3-day excursion into a mythical realm, I decided to share my famous faerie wing secrets by creating a “how to” for our fans and festival goers alike.
Making your own faerie wings
Join me at Faerieworlds
As I mentioned, we’ll be at Faerieworlds this year, capturing footage for our next episode on event costumes and music… be sure to look for me!
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Oragami combines ancient art with fantasy and sci-fi characters
The Japanese art of paper folding, otherwise known as Origami, has been the vehicle for creating incredibly intricate creatures since the 17th century. These days, however, this traditional art form has merged with pop culture to bring us our favorite fantasy and sci-fi characters, including Yoda, dragons, robots, and even spaceships. Take a peek.
Dragon by Kamiya Satoshi
Yoda
Yoda
Fairy by Alicia Shafer
Oriland robot by Mammaoca2008
Cylon by NIshida Shatner
Alien by origamiwolf
Alien by EZ Origami
Designed by Satoshi Kamiya. Folded by Phillip West
Lord of the Rings by Eric Joisel
Vader by orixander
Optimus Prime by origami RXMAN
Gryphon by Andrey Ermakov
WALL-E by Brian Chan
Elf by Wizmatt
You know who this feline looks like!
Nekobus by Brian Chan
Designed by Satoshi Kamiya. Folded by Phillip West.
USS Enterprise by Won Park
Millennium Falcon by Won Park
Mermaid by childofsai
Merlion by Andrey Ermakov
Ogre by kittykatkards
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7 inspiring motion graphics & animation projects
When I was in art school, I remember hearing a lot of buzz about the newest major to hit SU’s School of Visual and Performing Arts: Graphic Design. Ya know, learning how to design and develop websites. (I also remember wondering, “what’s a website?”) Those were the days when computers took up far too much space on our desks and the world of art still remained essentially 2D.
Fast forward to the year 2010, and we can’t even walk down the street without seeing interactive, highly visual and engaging media. And for artists, it’s a chance to wander in the world of motion.
Here are seven incredible motion design and animation projects (hint: click images to view videos).
The Mill NY: 2010 OFFF opening titles
Read about the project on Motionographer.
Click image to play the OFFF Opening Titles
Psyop: Whole New World
Read about the project on Motionographer.
Click image to view Psyop: Whole New World
Bl:nd: Lilac Wine (music video)
Read about the project and view storyboards on BLIND.
Click image to view Lilac Wine
Superfad: Preguntas Hermosas
Read about the project on Motionographer.
Click image to view Superfad's Preguntas Hermosas
Click image to view Superfad's Preguntas Hermosas
Azureus Rising (Proof of Concept)
Azureus Rising by Black Sun Entertainment
Watch it here!
Seagulls Fly & Adobe CS5 Production Premium
Read about the project on Motionographer.
Click on image to view Seagulls Fly
Nokta
Nokta by Onur Senturk
Watch it here!
Want more?
Motionographer does an incredible job of promoting expert and upcoming motion designers, along with discussions on the creative process. Check out their blog for more amazing work!
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CG artists rereate mother nature’s peace and fury in The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender will release to the public a mere few days from now when mother nature’s powerful elements—Air, Water, Earth and Fire—will be handed to us in a way we’ve never seen. Creating a made up world full of CG elements wasn’t easy for M. Night Shyamalan and Industrial Light and Magic; yet regardless of whether the story unfolds as we expect, the special effects will certainly give us enough eye candy to gawk at (and talk about) for quite some time.
The Last Airbender TV Spot
Here are some of the the latest production stills released in the final press kit from Paramount Pictures.
Fire
“Visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman recounts that he went outside and lit some stuff on fire, so he would have a bunch of studies of real fire to show to director M. Night Shyamalan. But when Helman showed the footage of actual fire to Shyamalan, his response was, ‘You know what? That fire looks CG.’ Even real fire looked fake.” ~ Charlie Jane Anders (io9)
Water
The Industrial Light & Magic crew used a NASA video of water in zero gravity as reference for how bending water could look.
Air
“The ILM team decided that what you want to see is what the air is pulling up—whether it’s dust or snow, depending on what environment Aang is in. They used the same algorithm for air that they’d used for fire, except that they didn’t render it as fire.” ~Charlie Jane Anders (io9)
Facial motion capture
“There are actually three Aangs in the movie. There’s Ringer, who’s an accomplished martial artist and actually plays the character most of the time. There’s his stunt double Jade, a girl who’s roughly the same size and shape as Ringer… And then there’s a CG rendering of Aang, who’s doing some of the crazy acrobatics and ultra-dangerous stunts that no actor or stunt-person can do. To put Ringer’s face onto the other Aangs, Harrington captured a closeup of Ringer scowling and grimacing, with a billion dots to capture every aspect of the performance.” ~Charlie Jane Anders (io9)
Creatures
For Appa, the six-legged flying bison, “The cool thing about Appa is that I kind of thought of him as a combination of the Millennium Falcon and Chewbacca…. We looked at polar bears, and we thought of the front two legs as arms that are offset slightly, and the back legs are legs… We looked at polar bears, bison [and] elephants to get kind of the physics and the weight right. We also looked at beavers. There are scenes where he actually swims and kind of uses his beaver tail in the water.” ~ Tim Harrington (ILM Animation Supervisor)
“Aang has a pet flying lemur named Momo. Harrington spent a lot of time figuring out how to get the light to scatter through Momo’s wing membrane. The mechanics of how Momo flies were based on the giant fruit bat, which Harrington figured was roughly the same weight.” ~Charlie Jane Anders (io9)
Environments
“In general, the team took a ‘less is more’ approach to layering in computer-generated details to all the scenes, aiming for the most photorealistic images they could create. The locations the film visits are based around the styles of the different tribes.” ~Charlie Jane Anders (io9)
Behind-The-Scenes footage
From The Southern Water Tribe Set
From The Northern Water Tribe Set
“I’m not the most techie guy in the world, so if I can keep coming from character, I can keep it grounded. When we saw the cartoon, the mythology was so well thought out and had Buddhism, martial arts and CGI, but the kind that is character-based and that’s coming from emotions. So I could tell ILM [Industrial Light & Magic]…and speak in terms of character point of view and be effective in that way.” ~M. Night Shyamalan
You may also enjoy
The Creatures of “The Last Airbender” – An Interview with ILM Animation Supervisor Tim Harrington
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Artists capture the world and characters of ‘The Hobbit’
Reports are flooding in that Peter Jackson will indeed direct The Hobbit in a two-movie deal, and I know I’m not the only Lord of the Rings fan who is jumping for joy at the news. Yet before we see this world once more through Jackson’s eyes, let’s take a peek at what artists have been doing for years: creating incredible art depicting Tolkien’s beloved world and characters.
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Let’s go to a Renaissance Faire
One of my favorite things to do in the summertime is hit up a Renn Faire! Or for all you non-geeks out there, a Renaissance Faire.
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This past year, I had the incredible opportunity to visit the Original Renaissance Faire in Irwindale, CA. What I love about these festive events is just how in character its attendees are. It’s a perfect opportunity to transform oneself into royalty and join the queen’s court, or perhaps a wench better suits your mood? Whichever character tickles your fancy, you can no doubt immerse yourself in a world of folk who will play along.
Though most renn faires emulate historical periods during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England or Henry VIII, characters from other time periods and countries, like as pirates and Vikings, along with fantasy creatures such as fairies, centaurs, and wizards are also welcome.
Not sure what to wear? The Elizabethan Costume Page provides a lot of history, along with a breakdown of articles that make up a fashionable outfit from this era.
As you can see, I’m one of those dorks who takes pride in wearing a costume. So, I put on the purple fairy creation I made a few years back (for another faire, of course), grabbed my video camera, and head out east to see what kind of interesting folk I’d run in to.
Let’s take a peek!
For those of you who are interested, here are the details for this year’s faire:
The Original Renaissance Faire
April 10 – May 23, 2010
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Location: Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area – Irwindale, CA
Outta this world: the show!
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Author: Kristen Nedopak
Kristen is a professional actress, host, artist and lover of anything fantasy or sci-fi. The goal of this blog is to share the art and creativity involved in capturing the otherworlds that inspire us daily. Enjoy! * * * Kristen's official site: KristenNedopak.com
