Google Doodle artists spotlight a film legacy as towering as Godzilla
JENNIFER HOM, the Bay Area-based Google artist, has both an eye for the precise and a flair for the dramatic.
Today, Hom achieves that artistic union by helping create a Google Doodle to mark the 114th birthday of late Japanese cinematic legend Eiji Tsuburaya.
As an interactive ode to the special-effects pioneer, the Doodle allows the user to build a film, step by monster-loving step.
“Director Eiji Tsuburaya is best known for the famous characters he brought to life, like Ultraman,” Hom says in Google’s “making of” peek behind the scenes.
“After many years in the ‘monster business,’ he set up his own practical effects studio, Tsuburaya Productions.
The Japanese film director, who died in 1970 aged 68, worked on classic monster films such as Godzilla and Ultraman. Tsuburaya was also the innovator of the movement known as Tokusatsu, a Japanese term which refers to the extensive use of special effects in film and television. Today would have been Tsuburaya’s 114th birthday.
To celebrate this, a new Google Doodle allows you to create your own short action film in just 10 steps.
Eiji Tsuburaya, July 7, 1901 – January 25, 1970, in Sukagawa, Fukushima) was the Japanese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, being one of the co-creators of the Godzilla series, as well as the main creator of Ultraman.
Tsuburaya Productions
In the 1940’s, Tsuburaya started his own special effects laboratory (set up at his home), and in 1963, founded his own studio for visual effects, Tsuburaya Productions. In 1966 alone, this company aired the first ‘Ultra‘ series for television, Ultra Q beginning in January, followed it with the highly popular Ultraman in July, and premiered a comedy-monster series, Booska, the Friendly Beast in November.
Ultraman became the first live-action Japanese television series to be exported around the world, and spawned the Ultra Series which continues to this day.
Eiji Tsuburaya was the Japanese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, being one of the co-creators of the Godzilla series, as well as the main creator of Ultraman.
JANUARY 3 Face Hacking- Real-Time Face Tracking & 3D Projection Mapping
Real-time face tracking and 3D projection mapping is a fairly new technology. Japanese technical director/producer Nobumichi Asai has created this amazing video displaying the amazing art show. This video superbly showcases how this combined technology can transform faces instantly, morphing them into various effects. This opens up a world of possibilities for global make-up brands and, perhaps theatrical performances.
While you wrestle with your own personal growth and development. The future is quickly making its presence known. You can choose to identify however you wish, belong to groups or clubs, all the while life is forcing us to look from the inside-out and outside-in being all inclusive rather than thinking in terms of ageless exclusivity. Simply put, we are evolving as a whole, not just parts. Science, art, technology, and music are just pieces to the puzzle.
The puzzle is yet another piece of a bigger picture and the bigger picture is but a snapshot in the scrapbook we call life. This continues Ad Infinitum. Forever. Forever will we be growing, learning, exploring the infinite. At issue is that forever is catching up to our today, this makes many people uneasy, intolerant, and nervous.
~Face Hacking/Real-Time Face Tracking & 3D Projection Mapping~
~Published on Dec 31, 2014~
CREATORS NOBUMICHI ASAI [OMOTE] (PRODUCER / TECHNICAL DIRECTOR – PICS)/ YKBX (DIRECTOR) HIROTO KUWAHARA [OMOTE] (MAKEUP ARTIST / FACE DIRECTOR) / EVALA (MUSIC) PAUL LACROIX [OMOTE] (TECHNICAL DIRECTOR / SYSTEM ARCHITECT – TRANSIT DIGITAL WORKS)
Just another traveler on life's highway hanging out in the slow lane. It's quiet, it's peaceful. Beyond the horizon is rest calling my name. Green pastures, still waters, my cup runneth over.
