Animation Using 3D Software in the National Film Board's "The Spine"

And now for something completely different.  If you're interested in advanced animated film production techniques, you would have heard of the  National Film Board (NFB) and Norman McLaren in particular, who developed early animation technology including synchronizing images and sound.  In 1953 he won an OSCAR for Best Documentary, Short Subjects for Neighbours (1952).  His films are available on the NFB web site.  My favourite is A Chairy Tale (1957) with sitar music by Ravi Shankar.

I just came across a new release by the NFB called The Spine, an animated short film by Chris Landreth, who won an OSCAR (Short Film Awards - Animation) in 2005 for his film Ryan about animator Ryan Larkin. 

The trailer for The Spine is worth watching because it outlines the production processes including digital animation techniques that were used to produce the film.  This is a long way from the days of Norman McLaren, who scratched and hand painted frames in his early pictures.

If you look at the credits, you'll find a software development team,  not what you normally expect in film credits. 

Director, Product Development
Autodesk Maya
KEVIN TURESKI

Head of Quality Assurance
Autodesk Maya
MIKE MARSHALL

The reason for these credits is that the animation for The Spine was created using Maya software. Maya does 3D modeling, especially of materials, animation, visual effects, and rendering.