Summa Shorts: “Duet”

Gosh, this is gorgeous.

From Cartoon Brew’s story this past Thursday:

This morning at the Google I/O developer conference, Glen Keane debuted his new hand-drawn short, Duet, which he produced with Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group. The short is the third in Google’s series of Spotlight Stories that are designed to explore the possibilities of interactive animation on mobile devices.

Glen “Marahute” Keane is a bit of a legend — a genuine Disney Legend™, in fact — and after watching this, it’s easy to see why. So beautiful, and so fluid, yet so clearly story-driven, at the same time.(Instantly reminded me of Ryan Woodward’s work on “Thought of You”.)

The entire presentation is here, via Google Developers. The Keane stuff doesn’t start about 42 minutes into the presentation, and to be entirely honest, I just skipped the beginning the first time around. But now I’m going to have to go back and see a bit more about the technology underlying the short. An extraordinary melding of hand-drawn, traditional animation and technological advances, and for a hard-core “Hand-Drawn Devotee” like myself, this is exactly the sort of thing I love to see. “Best of both worlds,” anyone?

A special dedication for today’s post — an occasion for which this short seems entirely appropriate: To my wife, Sarah, on the eve of our 14th wedding anniversary. Thank you for the fluidity and the beauty you bring to our own little duet. (Keane may be a creative legend, but he’s got nothing on you; the boys and I can attest to that.)

Attribution(s): All artwork, publicity images, and stills are the property of their respective creators and/or distributors.