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Super Bowl approaches – do you have your snacks at the ready? Have you chosen your team? More importantly, have you set your DVR to record the commercials? 

This week’s mashup consists of some Super Bowl sneak peeks – we have a “Twilight”-like tailgating party for Audi courtesy of The Mill, takes 2 and 3 for VW and the “Star Wars” enterprise involving Man’s Best Friend, a couple of car spots steeped in fantasy complete with bikini-clad extras, the Coca-Cola polar bears (Giants v. Patriots) up their game and “The Avengers” trailer.

I remember when you actually had to wait for Game Day to see the spots! 

This year’s previews are kind of light on VFX  - I suspect everyone’s still rendering. 

Let us know which ones you liked – and we hope your team wins!

Here is a mashup of news for this week – there’s a cry for old school technology, a list of tips for you to be better prepared for dailies, a couple of reports from CES, a fun commercial for Mini Coopers based on a fan suggestion, a great trailer from Blur, and a rendition of a Dr Seuss story as told by those who attended Burning Man last year.

What’d I miss?

In Rick’s compositing course, our students have already made great strides. They are currently working on Keying and Rotoscoping - finishing up the section of the course which deals with the core skills for a junior. Next, the students will start to work in ‘real world’ scenarios, which will help them to become problem solvers. They’ve completed work on the NUKE interface and are now focusing on the art of compositing, and the techniques to approaching problems. After the break they will be working on color correction, 3D in NUKE and CG compositing. They're all very excited to start shooting their own footage and putting together multi-pass composites.

The new Tintin movie is due out in the US on December 21 and I have decided it was time for me to write an impassioned plea - ahead of its release - to all my American followers so that they might give this wonderful and quirky European character a chance.

CG Whiz 2011 is now closed to new entrants, and it’s been an incredible third year for the competition. We’ve seen our highest-ever number of entries (almost 200!), including an impressive showing in the new Young Pros category. The standard this year has been higher than we’ve ever seen before, and it’s been amazing to see the amount of talent that’s out there in the world of digital creativity.

Ever wonder how to make an animated bird fly? It does look complex - doesn’t it? Now is your chance to find out how to make that fluid motion of flight look real. Alex Williams, Escape Studio’s character animation instructor will walk you through the mechanics of bird locomotion in this two part tutorial.

The creative people at Google have done it again - today you can interact with a doodle celebrating the work of Art Clokey on the event of his 90th birthday. The doodle was created by Clokey Productions Permavision Studios, and the lead animator worked under Art Clokey in the 80's. As you scroll across the letters beloved Clokey characters come to life - Gumby, Pokey, the Blockheads, etc.

Am I implying with the title of this blog post that experienced users of 3D tools are abnormal? Maybe. What makes them abnormal is they have to regularly deal with professional 3D software, which is extremely complex and difficult to master. "Normal" people don't have to worry about things like, well…normals.

I’ve resisted blogging about anything related to stereoscopy for fear that the subject has been done to death. But as my two most recent visits to the cinema were to see Thor and Kung Fu Panda 2, both in 3D, I couldn’t help but comment on how it affected my viewing experience. As someone really looking forward to both movies, neither of them quite lived up to my expectations. Thor was certainly one of the better comic book movies of recent times, but I think I prefer my heroes to be a little more grounded in reality. Kung Fu Panda 2 really upped the stakes in terms of the quality of animation and visuals, but felt like it lacked the simplicity of the original.

Whether I liked him or not, I remember Woody Woodpecker as a staple in my Saturday morning cartoon lineup. But what I didn't realize is that I was getting a lesson in Modern Art.