Bob Sabiston

Last updated
Bob Sabiston
Born1967 (age 5354)
United States
Occupation Art director, programmer

Bob Sabiston (born 1967) is an American film art director, computer programmer, and creator of the Rotoshop software program for computer animation. Sabiston began developing software as an undergraduate and then graduate researcher in the MIT Media Lab from 1986 to 1991. While at MIT, and also after moving to Austin, Texas, in 1993, Sabiston used his 2D/3D software to create several short films, including God's Little Monkey (1994), "Beat Dedication" (1988), and "Grinning Evil Death" (1990). "Grinning Evil Death" was widely seen on the first episode of MTV's "Liquid Television" show. "God's Little Monkey" won the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica award for 1994.

In 1997, he developed his interpolating rotoscope program, Rotoshop, [1] for an animation contest sponsored by MTV. The software was used to produce a series of 25 30-second interstitials in New York, collectively entitled "Project Incognito." He moved back to Austin in 1998 and with the help of local artists made the short film "RoadHead." This was followed in 1999 by short "Snack and Drink" in collaboration with Tommy Pallotta. "Snack and Drink" won several film festival awards and resides in the MOMA video collection. The shorts collection "Figures of Speech" followed in late 1999, for PBS. In 2000, Sabiston hired thirty graphic artists in the Austin area[ citation needed ] to help make Richard Linklater's film Waking Life . [2]

After Waking Life Sabiston spent several years making more rotoscoped short films, including "Yard", "Earthlink Sucks", "Grasshopper". He directed a series of shorts for the PBS show "Life360". In 2003 he directed a short segment for the Lars von Trier film The Five Obstructions . Both "Grasshopper" and "The Five Obstructions" were shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.

In 2004 Sabiston was hired as Head of Animation for Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly . He modified the software substantially for the film. Since 2005 he has also directed the "Talk to Chuck" campaign of animated advertisements for Charles Schwab.

Sabiston developed Rotoshop as a means to make rotoscoping easier for artists by automating the interpolation of hand-drawn shapes and lines over video. The software is proprietary and currently not available for use outside of Sabiston's production company, Flat Black Films.

Sabiston is also the creator of Inchworm Animation , a paint and animation program for the Nintendo DSi. It was released on April 25, 2011 in North America and subsequently in Europe, Australia, and Japan. [3] A follow-up successor to the app, Butterfly: Inchworm Animation II was announced in October 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released the same month via the North American Nintendo eShop. A European and Japanese release is set to follow suit. The new app supports new raster and animation tools, sounds effects, and has native online sharing functions. [4]

Since 2008 Sabiston has developed several apps for iOS: the 3d mind-mapping app Headspace, the modeling/3D-printing app Voxel , the video game Retroid, and a drawing keyboard, Jot Keyboard. In 2015, he released Lowlander, a tribute to Richard Garriott's classic video game Ultima II .

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<i>Waking Life</i> 2001 film

Waking Life is a 2001 American experimental adult animated film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. It is centered on a young man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful philosophical discussions.

Visual effects is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live action footage and other live action footage or CG elements to create realistic imagery is called VFX.

Rotoscoping animation technique

Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced over the image. This projection equipment is referred to as a rotoscope, developed by Polish-American animator Max Fleischer. This device was eventually replaced by computers, but the process is still called rotoscoping.

<i>A Bugs Life</i> 1998 American computer-animated comedy adventure film produced by Pixar

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Richard Linklater American director and screenwriter

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy romance films—Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the animated films Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

<i>A Scanner Darkly</i> (film)

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 American adult animated science-fiction thriller film written and directed by Richard Linklater; it is based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-tech police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. The film was shot digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope, an animation technique in which animators trace over the original footage frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films, giving the finished result a distinctive animated look.

Rotoshop is a proprietary graphics editing program created by Bob Sabiston.

Tommy Pallotta is an American film director and producer.

Graham Eric Reynolds is an American, Austin, Texas-based composer-bandleader-improviser. He holds a Creative Capital Award, an Independent Music Award, two Frederick R. Loewe Music Theatre Awards, nine Austin Critics Table Awards, the John Bustin Award, multiple Austin Chronicle Best Composer wins, and a B. Iden Payne Award.

<i>Life Is Cool</i>

Life Is Cool is a 2008 South Korean romance animated film, and is the first rotoscoped film from that country. This film's visual style was influenced from Richard Linklater's two films, Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006).

Dean Hsieh is an American artist, writer, and animator.

Collapsus

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Jason Archer and Paul Beck are a team of American music video directors, and animators. They specialize in the animation rotoscoping technique which have been used on their work for the films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Archer and Beck also directed music videos for several performers including David Byrne, Juanes and Molotov. The duo won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2003 for "Frijolero".

Jason Archer is an American artist living in Austin, Texas. He is the creator of a variety artworks as a director, animator, painter, and muralist both collaborative and solo. His work includes political satire and Texas inspired characters including Jesus Cornbread & the Alcoholics and Stray of the Dead. Archer’s early career in animation earned him a Grammy and an MTV Video of the Year Award for directing and animating "Frijolero", a music video for the Mexican rock band Molotov. Currently, Archer co-owns Show Goat Mural Works, a company that installs large scale murals such as Daniel Johnston’s ‘Love is the Question. Love is the Answer’ and his very own ‘Conservatorium of Infinite Wisdom, Sustenance and Guidance.’ Archer has participated in numerous art shows, exhibitions and events ranging from SXSW, East Austin Studio Tour and the inaugural Pop Austin International Art Show.

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DC Super Hero Girls is an American animated action-adventure television series developed by Lauren Faust and produced by Warner Bros. Animation for Cartoon Network. Based on the web series and franchise of the same name, the series premiered on March 8, 2019, with a one-hour special.

Apollo 10½ or Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure is an upcoming American animated science fiction film written, directed, and produced by Richard Linklater. It stars Glen Powell, Jack Black, Zachary Levi and Josh Wiggins. Parts of the film, which was shot in live-action, will be animated using a technique similar to the rotoscoping used in Linklater's Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). The film takes place during the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing and will explore children on Earth's fantasies about the event.

References

  1. G4TV
  2. Kehr, Dave (October 14, 2001). "FILM; Waking Up While Still Dreaming". The New York Times . Retrieved July 6, 2010.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  3. Nintendolife.com
  4. Whitehead, Thomas (October 19, 2016). "Butterfly: Inchworm Animation II Aims to Bring the 3DS eShop to Life Soon". Nintendo Life . Retrieved October 20, 2016.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)