Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Organic 2D goodness!

This is the stuff I love. This animation has so much movement that looks so flowing and organic its hard to think this was all keyframed. I'm very curious as to the process he went about trying to get everything to sync so well. I've found in my experience simple patterns of keyframing can make waves, but there's something entirely different when it comes to inertia. What do you think?

LOCKWOOD OPENING TITLES

by Cyril Izarn

LOCKWOOD OPENING TITLES from Cyril Izarn on Vimeo.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

2011 Motion Reels are coming!!

The end of the year is approaching and it's time for me to make a 2011 reel. I've been thinking about this for a while now, primarily the work I've done this year has been 2D animations and I wasn't sure if I could get it to look as exciting as some 3D and live action reels I've seen.
Sander Van Dijk has just submitted his 2011 reel and it is a great example of how to catch the viewers attention with 2D graphics as well as his other work. The intro alone is amazing, it's like BOOM!! in your face!

Sander van Dijk - Reel Dyad

by Sander van Dijk

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Macro Storytelling

I've always found macro cinematography to look amazing when well lit and properly used. Recently I've noticed a trend of storytelling that uses macro throughout the narration. Here are a few fantastic examples

Burger King: California Whopper
by Pysop

Karl X Johan - Flames (dir. cut)

by Gustav Johansson

Friday, November 11, 2011

Music Video of the Week

Amon Tobin - Calculate
Over the past year I've become more and more a fan of creative 2D animations. This music video is a great example simplistic/complex animation matched with the beat. At first glance it's child like in simplicity but as the song progresses the complexity gets to the point of... "how the heck did he do that!"

Infographic Animations that you can't help but pay attention to

The world of infographic animations is relatively new. It's the idea of taking something that would normally be seen in as a print diagram and animating it as the narrative explains what you're seeing. This is a animation style I'm very familiar with having done many myself for the company Column Five Media which specializes in infographics.

TakePart: Waiting For 'Superman' - Infographic
This animation is done by the legendary Jr.canest, a lead animator at Buck in LA. The animation techniques he uses keep the eye focus on what is important and never make the eye go board. By sequencing his mask it creates a flowing organic feel that hits right as the brain is ready to transition. This animation set a new standard for what is possible 2D infographic animations.

Gates Foundation – G20 Summit
Another amazing animation by a new studio in the motion world called Gentleman Scholar. This was their first infographic animation and they really nailed it. The action is constant and the transitions are powerful, moving you from one place to another seamlessly without confusing the audience off of the narrative of the piece. There are so many good things to say about this animation but in the words of Jr.canest:

Jr.canest

7 days ago

Well done gentleman, well done. :D

Sexy GUI by Kim Holm

GUI (Graphic User Interface) has made a very prevalent appearance in many modern movies today. Usually it's on a screen or some sort of plane that the user can interact with. Kim Holm takes a different approach to this GUI by having a motion tracked interface that is simply beautiful.

Matta - Release The Freq
This is a fantastic compilation of something simple made into a complex hierarchical dubstep mashup. Fantastic edits and color correction make this music video entertaining to the bitter end.

Matta's Soundcloud:
soundcloud.com/matta-music

Kongsberg - Opening Titles
Another excellent example of motion tracked GUI. It's always interesting to see how the user can interacted with this digital world that is seemingly at their fingertips.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Resonance

Resonance is the vision of SR Partners; a collaborative project with over 30 independent visual and audio designers/studios. The aim was to explore the relationship between geometry and audio in unique ways.

This abstract collage of short clips is an amazing example of what can be done with high quality sound effects and top notch animation.

SEE || Displace Studios and MoveMakeShake | Esteban Diacono | Heerko Groefsema | Jean-Paul Frenay | Jr.canest | KORB | Kultnation | Mate Steinforth | Matthias Müller | Momentary People | MRK | Murat Pak | Onur Senturk | Physalia studio | Polynoid | SR Partners | Thiago Maia | Tom Waterhouse | Tronic Studio | Spatial Harmonics Group

HEAR || Audionerve | Combustion | CypherAudio | David Kamp | Echolab | Hecq | Michael Fakesch | Mutant Jukebox | Radium Audio | Box Of Toys Audio | Studio Takt | World Gang

resonance-film.com for more details and opportunities to get one of the limited edition Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the full film.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Apache by Oeedo

What was the concept behind the spinning environment in the piece?
I had a rough, hazy idea for what happens in the video based on the music. The pace of the music suggested traveling to me. I liked the idea of the Apache traveling from his home via different old fashioned modes of transport and finally getting swallowed up the modern city, giving a sense of nostalgia – similar to the start of the film ‘Midnight Cowboy’ with it’s track ‘Everybody’s Talkin’. The spinning environment came out of a need to find an interesting way to show this. I started with a panning background. To show distance and visualise his journey of where he’s coming from and going to, I folded the picture plane twice, creating an ‘S’ shape which then moved off to exit screen. The spinning environment came out of that, I just thought it would be cleaner and more concise. The layering of action came out of exploring the new possibilities of this style, the fact that you can have simultaneous scenes overlapping like a cross dissolve is quite exciting.

How did you execute the concept and what types of mixed media where used?
The video was created in After Effects with imported files from Illustrator, textured in photoshop. I had 3 main comps that ran the length of the video, one for the inside loop, the middle loop and the outside loop. The backgrounds panned inside these comps (pic A) and the main action happened in the centre. These comps were then taken into the final TV res comp and turned into 3D. I then duplicated each comp about 10 times and masked along the comp (pic B). I attached each section to the one previous and rotated all of them on the Y axis to form the bend. I then masked the ends so that the action dissolves to nothing.

The style of the environments and characters is very graphic. Was there a particular inspiration for this approach?
I do like things to be simple. I’m attracted to mid 20th century design but I don’t tend to get locked into a style. I like to explore things graphically through shapes and have something come out of that. A bit like a magpie, I’ll find a shape for a nose I like and use it on one character but use something different for another character. I like the concept of collage of styles within illustration.

Altogether, how much time did the piece take you from start to finish and how was the working relationship between yourself and the band, Danger Beach?
I contacted the band at the end of Feb this year and I worked on the video in my spare time finishing it last week. It’s a self initiated video, I do these to explore Illustration styles and modes of storytelling that I don’t get much chance to do in my commercial work (www.hoverlion.com). The band was understandably very happy.

Do you have future plans to continue working in the music video genre?
Yes, I think the simple combination of music and animation is one of the best things going. I’ve made a few already and I do plan to make more. It’s just a matter of finding a track that sparks something I want to say in animation.

CREDITS:

Director: by Ned Wenlock

Character animation: Rodney Selby

Music: Danger Beach on Dream Damage Records.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Tim Minchin's Storm the Animated Movie

Stylistically amazing, great story line, excellent use of typography, awesome use of graphical techniques and very well edited to keep you interested the whole time. This short animation really impressed me to say the least. Also, very well put counter argument to the fairytale speaking people out there. Check it out!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Thicket - An audio/visual app like no other

I love my visual apps and have collected a folder of them that I'm always playing around with. In fact for Halloween this year I just strapped my iPhone to my chest and ran visualizer apps all night. Most of them are silent and a few have music that plays in the background. Thicket on the other hand, let's you control audio and visuals at the same time. This unique trait makes the interaction with your touch screen visualizer truly captivating.

Also, from March 11-31 all proceeds from Thicket sales go to Japan Earthquake Relief.

Thicket is an audiovisual world of texture, movement, line and tone. Thicket is part art piece, part toy, part wind chime, part spiderweb.

Control visuals and sound simultaneously with touch and gesture
5 distinct modes
VGA-out support: Connect your iPad™ to a projector or monitor and watch Thicket on a big screen (iPad/iPhone4 and Apple adapter required)
Universal App: works on iPad™, iPhone®, and iPod touch® (iOS 3.1.3 required).

What people are saying (quotes from App store reviews):

"...I got lost in the thicket for an hour tonight..." "...seamless interaction of audio and visuals. Beautiful..." "...the fluid feel and a/v implementation is impeccable. extremely well made app." "It was lovely before, now it's exquisite..." "...It's so much fun, may never do anything productive again!" "This ARTapp is as close as I've gotten to actually making love with my phone!"

Thicket's creators, Morgan Packard and Joshue Ott, are artist/programmers with roots in underground techno, classical music, art, theater and dance, who usually present their work on big screens and big sound systems. Thicket is an intimate, highly personalized realization of the artistic styles they have each developed over years of dedicated work in venues throughout the world.

support email: thicket@intervalstudios.com

PRICE: $1.99

Monday, March 21, 2011

Music Video of the Week - Foreign Beggars: Get A Bit More

This video has some intense edits! It keeps your heart pumping the whole time. Hip-hop is all about going over the top and this video definitely lives up to that standard without going into the cheesy overly flashing "rollin in a benz" cliche look. The filter effects and fast cuts with interesting dynamic b-roll completes this video as a story saying "We're the real deal and we're bad asses".

Foreign Beggars - Get A Bit More
Directed by: D Zennie
Dented Records
Video Produced by: Eric Brvnjes
Online/VFX by: MIP
Production Manager: Zeshan Parvaiz
Production Coordinator: Stewie Jingles
Shot in London, UK
Executive Produced by: Mirror Image Pictures
MIP 2009

Grab the new Foreign Beggars Album:
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductD...

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Paul's Adventure Fundraising from Visual News

My good friend Paul from Visual News is currently walking live on UStream to raise money for his 2,665 mile hike down the Pacific Crest Trail to help raise money for an organization called Blink Now, an Orphanage in Nepal.

Paul and I have collaborated together on visual projects in the past and he continues to inspire me for the future. Please take a moment to view his site and learn more about Blink Now and what you can do to help.

http://www.visualnews.com/hike/

Free video streaming by Ustream

Not-So Cheesy Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion is the act of taking lots of photos of real life objects in sequence to form a story. Usually these animation look rigid and "home made". This video caught my eye though. The animation is smooth and the stop motion combines real video with their animation to make a seemlessly clean final video. It also tells the story well which is the more important part!

TUI Weather Spot from Lucas Zanotto on Vimeo.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Macro is Amazing

Macro video can be done in amazing ways to achieve effects of natural quality and abstract design. The blurry background is a fantastic art board for text to shine as well. In this title sequence the designer combines close up macro video with well design typography to create a icy world of tension and beauty.

macro kingdom III from clemento on Vimeo.

I've taken to macro photography as well having recently purchased a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for my Canon 60D. Lesson learned, shoot with lots of light at a low iso. Live and learn!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Slow motion and time-laps video in reverse

METRONOMY - She Wants - by JUL & MAT

by JUL & MAT

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Little Planet Video

Here's a really cool effect I've been playing around with that photoshop people call the "little planet" effect. I'd like to use this same effect with actors, dancers, and unique environments. This is my first testing of the effect to see if it's possible and how it would look.

This video was shot on a multi-lens car mount system, simular to what google uses to take photos of their street view. This lens cost around $500 and I do not have one or plan on getting one for the purposes of this music video but there are other solutions.

One camera can be used to record multiple shots spinning on a tripod. Then the video can be blended together to form one 360 panorama.

example:

http://www.patrickyen.com/skate360/360.swf

Music Video Pick of the Week

Dr. Dre - Kush ft. Snoop Dogg, Akon

After a near decade wait, Dr. Dre treats fans to a new music 'Kush,' the first single off his long-awaited 'Detox' album. After years spent perfecting 'Detox,' Dr. Dre plans to release his third album this February.

In this music video, motion is limited to Dre, Snoop and Akon while private jets, pimped out rides and video vixens are all put on freeze frame. This effect is created by combining CGI effects, wax figures, real people and wrap motion photography. All of these effects are used in such a blended fashion, it's hard to tell what's real and what's fake.

This is my pick of the week not only because it looks cool, but because it's affective in telling the story of these 3 bigger than life rappers. They want to show who they are, how they party and a glimpse of what a true baller is. This video also does a great job at showing a new Dr Dre. He's mature, distinguish yet still a true O.G. Overall a great comeback video from this sleeping giant.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Globe Effect in Photoshop

This is a great effect created in Photoshop using a panoramic photo and Layer>Effects>Distort>Polar Coordinates. To make it seamless use the clone stamp tool and any other cloning tool you're comfortable with.

I'll be testing this effect out in after effects. I already know of some complications that will arise but may have some creative solutions up my sleeve. I'll post the results asap.

Merdeka Square
by riefa