Exhausting the entire problem space of animated teddy-bears, cars, people and pigeons

Cory Doctorow at 2:04 AM March 11, 2010

Animator/composer Cyriak just posted this surreal video featuring infinite giant teddy bears climbing out of the sea at the Worthing shore and crossing the road. You'd think that this would be thin gruel for three minutes' worth of animation, but you'd be wrong: it turns out that the number of variations on the themes of pigeons, people, teddies, cars and shore is a lot greater (and weirder and funnier) than instinct would suggest.

Cycles (Thanks, Arthur!)

31 Comments Add a comment

Pantograph #1 02:34 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

That...let's call it music...
It's...just...TOO MUCH!!!

adwkiwi #2 02:46 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

That's a lot more awesome than it really has any right to be.

Anon #3 02:59 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

As a local of worthing im pleased to see cyriak highlighting our unusual wildlife. But you still dont see spring watch down here!!

Antijoe #4 03:27 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I bet they used a green-screen!

Ben Morris #5 03:47 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I'm pretty sure this video is fake.

Anon #6 04:01 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Well, looks like someone topped flying toasters...

jacquesphoto #7 04:34 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I'd like to see this made into a 90-minute feature film.

PaulR #8 04:46 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply
J France #9 04:57 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I want to play the flash game of this, so many permutations to explore - throwing hoomans, dodging cars, hitting bears with cars, breaking lamp poles, being the pigeon. Internet get on that, stat.

Incidentally cats did not like that music.

dross1260 #10 05:26 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Koyaanisqatsi-Schmoyaanisqatsi.

zyodei #11 07:03 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I don't think I have ever seen anything in my life that reminded me so much of a drug experience.

merreborn #12 07:10 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Has a bit of a Terry Gilliam vibe.

I kept expecting it to cut to John Cleese for a "And now for something completely different"

arkizzle / Moderator #13 07:12 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

P E R F E C T.

awwhoneybear #14 07:23 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

i'm in LOVE with this. *squeal!*

lewis stoole #15 07:29 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

i love cyriak. his 2006 demo compiliation is awesome, both musically and visually. i have not been back to his channel for a while, but i think maybe i should see what else he has been up to for a while.

Anon #16 07:53 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Drugs!

Anon replied to comment from merreborn #17 08:25 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

... with a bit of Zbig Rybczynski.

ike #18 08:31 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

This is amazing and wonderful.
I want to see this in a museum. Or even more than that, I want a Cyriak gallery, with lots of video screens in lots of rooms, all displaying different animated things, on loop.

Here's also hoping that Cyriak gets into sculpture and animatronics at some point. For stuff like robo-spider rabbits and helicopter penguins and such.

snej #19 08:58 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

New Cyriak! Yay! Anyone who digs this really must, MUST click through and view all of Cyriak's videos on the YouTubes. They are totally inspired and utterly crazed — worthy of the Terry Gilliam comparisons. My kids and I spent an hour laughing ourselves sick at these when I first discovered them.

nemofazer #20 09:29 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I'm so jealous of this man's mind.

senorglory #21 09:36 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

this is a prime example of why I love you all so.

sarmady #22 09:49 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

When everybody was debating what message to send out to deep space and in what format, how come this guy was not leading the project?
This made me panic a bit towards the end - and the music did NOT help.

RobMagus #23 11:38 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

In case anyone hasn't seen Cyriak's original Strangest Internet Video Online Ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23iW4G0J6Wg
I actually thought Cyriak had ripped the ideas from that video until I realized that he made both. Whoops!

Lobster #24 12:21 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Typical Cyriak. The only thing missing was the hideously mutated teddybear with an eyeball in its mouth.

Man, I love that guy. :)

apoxia #25 12:24 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Wow, my brain is confused. Perhaps this could induce psychosis in those predisposed. Perhaps I could use it as a dementia screen in my research. It definitely could be used as a measure of visual attention and processing speed. So many applications.

magickalrealism #26 13:04 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

One thing makes me love this video:
pigeon smacking.

VagabondAstronomer replied to comment from J France #27 17:38 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Your cat might not have liked the music, but my little calico loved the video (no sound on this machine at the moment). She was swatting at the bears. Trippy.

XenoTrout #28 18:25 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

Apt title. I really liked the iteration and variation, and it did seem sort of like
(loop for i in teddy-bears do
   (loop for j in cars do
      (loop for k in people do
         (loop for l in pigeons do
            (animate i j k l)))))

Anon #29 22:05 on Thu, Mar.11 Reply

I feel it'd be nice just to mention his website:
www.cyriak.co.uk

Anon replied to comment from J France #30 22:32 on Fri, Mar.12 Reply

Yes.

Also, we must now film cat reactions to this music. Epic paranoid reactions.

UnnecessaryUmlaut #31 23:02 on Fri, Mar.12 Reply

This melted my mind. Not just watching it. Or watching it over and over. But thinking about how he actually created all of this. It looks so simple on the surface. But really, this is so damn impressive. We need to throw him a big Teddy Bear stomping, pigeon swooping, million-car parade. Over. And over.

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