Franco Brambilla's cute aliens (and pirates)

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Impossible IRL'er and über virtual explorer Molly Montale wrote to share Franco Brambilla's Flickr stream and "sci-fi imagery Photoshopped on to retro Swiss postcards," and because we are always interested in Real Life artists who inspire us, we had to follow up with him.



Where are you, Franco?

Franco: I live and work in Milano, in the north of Italy, a decadent, conservative post industrial city. I'm a free-lance illustrator, specialized in sci-fi. Since 1999, I have been working every month for URANIA, the Italian sci-fi book collection by Mondadori that began in 1952. I do a lot of "post production" with Photoshop and Painter but I also use some 3d programs such as 3ds Max, Poser and Bryce. You can find many of the book covers I created for them here.



Are you a resident of any virtual worlds and have you considered using these as a platform to create your art?

Franco: No, I don't visit virtual worlds too often, but I did shape a virtual asteroid attacked by space pirates for club NEVERDIE.

Why this obsession with cute aliens?

Franco: Obsession?



If you had the opportunity to spend an entire day alone with a friendly alien, what are some of the highlights that you would show and share with it about our planet?

Franco: First, I would ask him to show me Earth from orbit, and maybe take a little detour to the moon. Then I think I would invite him to meet my family and friends before asking him to take us to a better place... his planet maybe? Italy is full of fantastic locations and art that an alien with superior technology probably visited and appreciated already... Maybe, before going, I would ask him to vaporize our Parliament with all the politicians inside... Mars Attack style :)))))

The Alien Factory

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Once in a blue moon (heh!) I just grind my heels in the ground and quit blogging for a bit. When I do, I get downright stubborn about it and nothing can compel me to post a thing on this blog for days or even weeks. It's my way of staying sane, I guess.

I was in this mode just about a month ago when, on a whim, I whipped up a little machinima to share the fun of a new avatar-generating gizmo that Madcow Cosmos had come up with, with a little help from his friends Tezcatlipoca Bisiani (scripts) and Lorin Tone (sounds). I happened upon my vid just now as I was browsing through friends' works and thought "what the heck," so I'm posting it here for posterity. Y'all have probably seen it already and that's okay. You can just watch it again! Oh, and you can get your own alien avatar for free here, at Alien Isles of course.



And if alien avatars aren't your thing, you can head on over to the Museum of Robots where Madcow and his pals have created a variation on the same theme: Yep, you guessed it, a Robot Factory and also free. Teleport directly from here.

I've also been meaning to tell you that Madcow's got a new blog, too. So there you have it. You've been war..told.