Giraffes leaping off a High Dive

December 21, 2015 9:57 PM

5 Mètres 80: An Absurd Animation Depicting a Herd of Giraffes Leaping Off a High Dive by Nicolas Deveaux. OK, this is ridiculous, but in the best way possible.

Spending too much time describing this short film by French animator Nicolas Deveaux would ruin it, so it’s probably best to just watch it. Created over a period of 1.5 years 5 Mètres 80 is a follow-up to a shorter animation he made 10 years ago about an elephant on a trampoline. Deveaux is widely known for his realistic animation of animals for both film and commercials, many more of which he shares on Vimeo. 5 Mètres 80 has toured film festivals around the world since 2013 picking up numerous awards and nominations including the Best in Show Award at SIGGRAPH Asia. Curling ostrich anyone?

posted by JujuB (22 comments total)

That was unexpectedly, and delightfully, odd. Amazingly realstic, except for the part where none of the giraffes have any discernable genitalia. Though, honestly, I haven't a clue what giraffe junk looks like.
posted by pjsky at 10:14 PM on December 21, 2015

I hate to be that guy, but I think this might be fake.
posted by cmoj at 10:26 PM on December 21, 2015 [5 favorites]

Of course it is. Running at the pool is one thing, but galloping? No lifeguard worth their whistle would tolerate it.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 10:30 PM on December 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

unsafe
posted by cmoj at 10:51 PM on December 21, 2015

I had no idea that this was what I needed tonight, but indeed it was. Bravo!
posted by Perplexity at 10:53 PM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

There is one hanging upside down who helps them with their spins - I am pretty sure this is cheating.
posted by marienbad at 10:58 PM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Absolutely joyous - I had this fear this would end badly, but no, it's just pure joy from start to finish.
posted by mochapickle at 11:02 PM on December 21, 2015

Where are the judges? There need to be judges. Just speaking for myself, I have no frame of reference for any of this.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:11 PM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

There's an invisible panel of hippos with scorecards in the front row of the bleachers. They are all wearing gardening hats. Can't miss 'em.
posted by mochapickle at 1:41 AM on December 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Previously.
posted by zamboni at 1:59 AM on December 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Any lifeguard worth their red tankini would not allow such horse, erm, ungulate-play!

Quite charming, I must say.
posted by Samizdata at 2:58 AM on December 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I loved the elephant on a trampoline video he made a while back, and watched it many times despite it's bittersweet ending.
I don't know why he would've wasted so much time making a video of geraffes aka long horses. Geraffes are so dumb.
posted by newpotato at 3:43 AM on December 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have been unable to find any note in the credits assuring me that no giraffes were harmed in the making of this video.

I find that ominous.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:14 AM on December 22, 2015

Wonderful!
posted by Wolfdog at 5:19 AM on December 22, 2015

I am pretty sure this is cheating.
Look who hasn't read the giraffe diving rules.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:20 AM on December 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Giraffes don't have front teeth on top, only on bottom. The muzzle looks like it was modeled on a horse.
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:44 AM on December 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Amazingly realstic, except for the part where none of the giraffes have any discernable genitalia.

The entire time I was watching this, I was like "this looks unrealistic only because giraffes don't move this way." If they had human-level intelligence and wanted to showoff, this is how they would look. (Or at least close, who knows what giraffe bodies can do when pushed to their limits, like when we push ours)

My only issue with the film was the occasional immersion breaking camera angles, which I think was exasperated by the fact that the rest of the camera angles were deliberately made to seem real.
posted by mayonnaises at 7:03 AM on December 22, 2015

This looks like it was made in part to test the limits of computer-assisted animation, what with the reticulated giraffes, the curved stairways with tiled glass, the hundreds of arena seats in varying shades of blue, the water, the slick giraffes, the dry giraffes, the dangling giraffes, the diving giraffes &c &c &c

I would love to have something deeply profound to say about this film, but the thought foremost in my mind was how much these giraffes looked like a comedian's rubber chicken.
posted by chavenet at 7:16 AM on December 22, 2015

Giraffes don't have front teeth on top, only on bottom.

This is the sort of quality science trivia that keeps me hanging out at Metafilter. This video has been around for a while, and when it pops up on my Facebook people say "Cool! LOL! Love it!"

But did anyone else tell me about the true placement of giraffe teeth? No they did not.
posted by emjaybee at 7:36 AM on December 22, 2015 [11 favorites]

Once the upside-down giraffes were lowered into the scene, I couldn't stop wondering: are a giraffe's neck muscles capable of supporting the entire weight of a second giraffe?

Google's excerpt from Wikipedia tells me that "The average weight is 1,192 kg (2,628 lb) for an adult male and 828 kg (1,825 lb) for an adult female with maximum weights of 1,930 kg (4,250 lb) and 1,180 kg (2,600 lb) having been recorded for males and females, respectively." That's a hell of a lot of weight to have hanging from your head while you're upside down and whipping your neck backwards like those hanging giraffes are.

And now that I think about it I'm also wondering how long those giraffes can safely hang upside down. Giraffe hearts have to put a LOT of pressure on their blood vessels to pump the blood all the way up there. How long before they faint from blood pooling in their heads?

And who the hell is going to want to take a long drink of the highly chlorinated pool water like they do?

I am a cartoonist. This is clearly a cartoon. I should not really be thinking these thoughts. But the high realism of the rendering brings these questions to mind.
posted by egypturnash at 7:48 AM on December 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Okay, so nobody is taking the bait and just politely ignoring the crazy instead.
Fine.
Here ya go, partypoopers:
geraffes are so dumb
posted by newpotato at 7:48 AM on December 22, 2015

I just passed this off as real to my son. Solemnly told him the guy spent years training the giraffes before making this film. Boy is unchurched and figured out there were too many Santas a while back and it is going to be 70 on xmas. Had to give him something wondrous to believe in and this is it for now.

His comment as the cannonballing began: "This would be a bad time to poop!"
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:22 AM on December 22, 2015 [1 favorite]