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'Liesl & Po' Book Trailer

19

By Digital Dreams.

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a luminous and magnificent novel that glows with rare magic, ghostly wonders, and a true friendship that lights even the darkest of places.

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

19 Comments

    • People shouldn't have to attribute their work to Blender. It's an amazing tool, getting better day by day, but a lot of people don't care how the meal is cooked, only that it tastes good.

      I went to a screening of Monsters, which was introduced by Gareth Edwards, the director/editor/VFX artist. He said it pains him when people can only think to ask what software he used. It's not the software that does the work. It's the user that does the work. You can be given the best tools in the world, but if you haven't got the ideas of how to use them, they're useless...

      • hmm, did you type that on a Mac, LInux or PC? Because that wll change my response! ;)
        I agree 100%, the tools should facilitate the artist's needs and in some cases inspire because of ease of use and functionality. I find this true w/ new software synths and new features added into blender. I think because of way things are marketed now people tend to gravitate towards the wrong thing, altough iimportant. I too get a little annoyed or bemused when asked what DAW I use to compose. Most of the time i chalk it up to ignorance or people merely trying to sound interested :) I think the assumption is if it's done on package XYZ, they too can eventually do the same work on that software, failing to realize that work can be done on most identical apps.
        I have no doubt this was made in Blender either, but would be nice to know how Blender was used in production pipelines, especially when professional material is presented. May not be feasible to always get that info, but that's my wish anyways! Thanks for posting work at various levels. Always fun to see bigger productions like this and then the next day work that someone managed to pull off solo that's good looking art too.

        • Posted using a Hackintosh ;-)

          Can't agree more with what you're saying.

          To follow up my example of Gareth Edwards, I was a bit disappointed by how he backed Adobe software after the release of Monsters:

          http://tv.adobe.com/watch/customer-stories-video-film-and-audio/monsters/

          Not so bad saying that he used/liked the software, as no doubt he did, but he's saying that "all" the visual effects shots were done in After Effects. Call me crazy, but this is right after he's been seen working with one of the aliens in a 3D application... If I were a bright eyed and bushy tailed youngster thinking I could re-make Monsters in After Effects because Gareth Edwards said that's all he used, then open her up to find out all the cool 3D stuff wasn't actually done in After Effects, I'd be really peeved... Especially as After Effects isn't free...

          Also, forgot to say, really like the animation, good job Andrew :)

      • I think it's only fair to at least advertise blender for being able to use it for free. It's a really awesome tool. When I had to use poo like 3ds Max at work for a half an hour, it was uber slow and crashing often. Blender loads instantly, it's stable and doesn't cost a dime. And plenty of other reasons to pick blender. We need to spread the word and advertise great foss tools, especially since the blender foundation doesn't spend money on blender ads afaik.
        I own http://blender-club.deviantart.com and I actually require submissions to mention blender in the description.

        • I agree with what you're saying about Blender, it's the most valuable tool in my belt at the minute, love it, but I think the freedom that Blender gives us to do the things that we do should be carried over to how we showcase our work. Blender can be used any way you like, completely free, can even branch it off and make your own 3D application if you were so inclined. It's this freedom that has spawned such an active and passionate community around the software and I can see it doing nothing but snowballing from here. I don't agree that people should have to disclose what software they used for a project, it kind of goes against the freedom that the application gives us in the first place. Sure, I'm more than happy to state that I use blender on my projects, but people shouldn't be lambasted for not doing so. Just my opinion...

  1. That was one of the most moving adverts I have seen in ages. The music was simply wonderful and the imagery was just beautiful in it's simplicity. I really felt connected to the characters and now I want to get the book to see what happens to them, so in this instance, job VERY well done and goal achieved in a spectacular way!

    Bravo!

  2. Really top-notch presentation. My only qualm is the mismatch of music to art style. Both are very good, well polished, just doesn't fit together for me (time-period w/ modern music - although this is happening more and more in films). However, most people probably won't notice as it's still a great presentation! Love the art style and inspiring!

  3. Thanks for posting Bart. Everything was done in Blender (I will post the workflow on my website later). Basically, I cut apart the illustrator's artwork and projection mapped it onto proxy geometry. It's a great workflow to quickly generate animation from 2d assets.

  4. Philippe ROUBAL on

    Very nice drawing and music. The "morphing" is well done : simple and expressive 2D animation. All together, It is a great work !

  5. Christos Georgakas on

    iam a sucker for this kind of art i must say! btw blender tends to make me say that i have finally a program that does everything!

  6. @ Stephen and 8-bit
    I happen to be an art historian with a fascination for CG and all-things open-source (including open-source education) - so I look at the frequent questions put to new media artists in longer historical context - what software did you use? (CG/ digital arts); what lenses did you use? (to photographers); what kind of paint did you use? (impressionists using paint in tubes for the first time), what medium/binder did you use? (early Renaissance artists using oil painting on canvas for the first time), and it goes back in time to the first caveman who is too finicky to put his/her hands directly in the goo that they used to paint the cave walls and so crushes the tip of a stick with a stone to get the fibers only and invents the first paintbrush...and you can imagine the purists at that time disliking that new technology.
    Anyway Congratulations Andrew Enyart, nice mix of old and new!

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