In Photos: All Souls Procession

Nate and I attended Tucson's All Souls Procession this last Sunday night. Begun in 1990 as a performative art piece by Tucson artist Susan Johnson in remembrance of her father, the Tucson All Souls procession has become an annual event attracting nearly 35,000 participants to come, walk, and remember those who have gone before. Inspired by the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertas, the All Souls Procession is meant to be a ritual that allows public mourning, reflection, and celebration of death, a universal human experience. These photos were taken at Tucson's 2012 All Souls Procession.

A parade of color

Of all ages

Of all cultures

Of all talents

Of causes

Of music

And of ghosts in the night

all images belong to Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Short Films: Pumpkin Carving

I know that Halloween has come and gone, but I couldn't resist sharing these two awesome pumpkin-carving films with you. The first tells the story of the "Maniac Pumpkin Carvers"- two crazy-talented artsy dudes who've actually made a business out of carving pumpkins. The second is a creative little stop-motion short filmed with actual pumpkins. Enjoy!

The year is 1992, and Marc Evan and Chris Soria are sitting next to each other in sixth-grade Spanish class. They don't know it yet, but these two twelve year olds are going to become best friends. They're going to construct epic haunted houses each year, petrifying parents more than peers. They're going to attend an artsy high school, study illustration at Parsons, grow up, and move to Brooklyn. They're going to freelance and bartend and, per their favorite holiday, casually carve some pumpkins for bosses and friends. And then the Yankees are going to put in a double-digit order, and Maniac Pumpkin Carvers will be born.

An animated carved Pumpkin Stop Motion I finished this week.
Animation - Auke de Vries
Music - Jelte de Vries
Pumpkins by - Taylor Vegetables Express

Short Film: The Green Ruby Pumpkin

Since Halloween is right around the corner (next Wednesday!), I thought I'd share this enchanting CGI-animated short film about a particular wondrous pumpkin. What blew my mind is that this entire film was shot in a living room! I'm quite impressed:

The Green Ruby Pumpkin is a magical and fun short film that captures the enchantment of Halloween.
It was a passion project that was created by two Senior visual effects artists. Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma.
This entire project was shot in the living room. watch the making of here: https://vimeo.com/51538157
If you enjoyed the film, please take a moment to vote for us by clicking here:
http://shortoftheweek.uservoice.com/forums/134313-submit-a-film/suggestions/3266593-the-green-ruby-pumpkin
You can see our other visual effects work at: www.monstersculptor.com
You can watch this film as well as Other directors films at the Stage5 site: : http://www.youtube.com/stage5



Oh, and in case you're curious, here's the making-of video. 

This is a small selection of some of the assets, and VFX created by Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma
for the short film "The Green Ruby Pumpkin" watch here: https://vimeo.com/51358765
The entire project was rendered on 7 computers, Running Maya for 3D, Mudbox for sculpting,
Mari and Mudbox for Texture Painting, Vray for rendering, Nuke for compositing. A lot of shortcuts had to be used in order to manage our render times Including 3d projections in nuke, miniatures, and practical elements.
The majority of the vfx work was just us two, however we had great help from friends on the rigging and animation side of things. We wanted to make sure everything you see on screen was designed and or fabricated by our team.
We learned a lot and hope to keep improving as storytellers and visual artists. Thank you for watching.

Is anyone looking forward to Halloween?