GeekSugar

Do You Know the Definition? Uncanny Valley

GeekSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:02:40 PDT

Do you know, or can you guess, the definition for this geeky term?

Uncanny Valley

4 Details to Look Forward to in Pixar's Brave

Kelly Schwarze — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:16:16 PDT

The magic of Pixar's Oscar-winning films is in their ability to take seemingly ordinary story lines about childhood toys or a garbage-collecting robot and transform them into emotional narratives about love and life. The studio's upcoming Summer film Brave is its first foray into the familiar coming-of-age tale, this one as told through the experiences of a defiant teenage girl. Pixar's first female lead, Merida, is a princess with an affinity for archery in ancient Scotland who refuses to give up her freedom by submitting to an arranged marriage and sets off to change her fate.

Though the movie isn't due for release until June 22, 2012, we caught an unfinished preview of the first 30 minutes of Brave, and there's a lot to get excited about in this Pixar period piece. Here's why the film is worth the wait:

Pixar Technical Wizardry - Brave demonstrates the studio's technical prowess at its best. Merida's gorgeous curls (seen in the above picture) are no easy feat of animation. There's a reason so few of your favorite animated characters have big, curly hair - it's very difficult to create on the computer. Over 111,000 individual curls were hand-drawn for Merida's mane, which was then digitally rendered as 1.8 million strands. Pixar then had to create a physics simulator to mathematically control how the waves move in the wind and exist within gravity.
The Art - Without verging into awkward moments of uncanny valley, Brave has moments of startling realism amid its fantasy story line. The overcast skies and moss-covered landscape of Scotland have been painstakingly studied, drawn, and shaded to create a setting worthy of this new legend. By the time filming wrapped, 111,394 storyboard drawings were created, a number that far exceeds the preproduction that went into most other Pixar films.

Keep reading how the film's great for gingers and view the official trailer after the break.

Memorably Geeky Super Bowl Commercials

Kelly Schwarze — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:20:06 PST

Being scholars of the empirical battle known as Star Wars, naturally our favorite commercial during last year's Super Bowl game was Volkswagen's now-classic Darth Vader commercial. The TV ad showed, through a geeky lens, that not just extreme sports or models are needed to sleekly highlight a product. Beyond the mini-Darth spot, last year's game had its share of geek-approved commercials. Were these your favorite, too?

Bridgestone Reply All - It's the office drone's biggest fear: Reply All. The cheeky ad for tires tapped right into the tech nightmare that keeps us up at night.

Coca-Cola Fantasy Epic - A fantasy war worthy of a Tolkien treatment, this commercial showed you can buy a Coke in any world to make the locals smile.

Check out the rest of our favorites last year after the jump.