The Gate to the Mind's Eye

When I was attending the Art Institute of Philadelphia, one of the other students in a computer animation course, introduced the class (or me, at least) to a video compilation called "The Gate to the Mind's Eye" series. The video consisted of segments of some of the latest examples of computer generated animation from around the world, set to music, and it quickly became my favorite indulgence in the world of animation.


One of my favorite scenes from the video, was the opening of a segment called "Valley of the Mind's Eye", which can be viewed here (at the DailyMotion video website.  Sorry, there will be a short commercial first). The scene depicts curtains and a table cloth blowing in the wind, set to terrific music by Thomas Dolby.  I thought that this moment of animated bliss was exceptionally romantic, and that it gave a legitimacy to animation that, for me, had been missing for some time (I was never as enamored of Walt Disney stories as everyone else was).  The window view is followed by a flower petal floating on the wind.


On the same page at DailyMotion, are of course other segments of animations (with Thomas Dolby's music), which are parts of the "Gate to the Mind's Eye" compilation.  In particular I like "Moon Base"...  There's a scene near the end, where the camera zooms out on two people standing with a tiger...  The blue and white sky turns into the blackness of space.  This split between the Earthly sky and deep space was the inspiration for the half sky / half space setting of my "Lighthouse" digital painting.


The N.E.O. segment features the voice of Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, an astrophysicist, singer, and fairly interesting person in her own right (I'll post again about her probably at a later date...!).


The "Gate to the Mind's Eye" was followed by another compilation called "Odyssey Into the Mind's Eye", which featured excellent music by Kerry Livgren (from the group Kansas) and more animation made with feeling!