Hasta La Motion!

Brazilian graphic novel artist and writer Rafael Grampá (“Mesmo Delivery”) turned his powers to the small screen for the first time in “Dark Noir.” The animated short was his directorial debut, a commissioned work for Absolut’s “Transform Today” campaign.

The project was billed as a “co-creation” between Grampá and Absolut’s Facebook fans, who supplied concepts and drawings via Absolut’s Facebook presence.

But when it came to producing the actual animation, Grampá partnered with Red Knuckles, formerly of Passion Pictures, where they had worked heavily with director Pete Candeland.

Rick Thiele and Mario Ucci, co-founders of Red Knuckles and co-creative directors on “Dark Noir” shared some process behind “Dark Noir” with us.

Q&A with Red Knuckles

How did you guys get involved in this project?
Sid Lee approached us about “Dark Noir” in late November 2013 with the intention of making a live action short film with animated characters.

Their main reference was a project we art directed while still at Passion, Gorillaz “Stylo”, in which we turned Jamie Hewlett’s famous 2D characters into 3D animation and integrated them against live action plates.

We eventually managed to convince everyone that doing it fully animated was a good idea.

Did Red Knuckles do all of the CG animation? What about the 2D animation?
Yes. Both 3D and 2D. The main reason Red Knuckles exists is to allow us to work with the artists we admire and a lot of those artists happen to be 2D animators.

So when this project came along, we immediately pitched to Rafael the idea of having a mix of 2D and 3D animation, and he said yes straight away. So then we went after those incredible dudes — 2D and 3D — and they were all up for it, too.

Describe the process of working with Rafael Grampá. How did you work together?
Well, the fact that we are all Brazilians helped a lot. We had pretty much the same imagination, and Rafael is one of the most incredible artists we know (we were fans of him from way before). The visual communication flowed seamlessly.

He would explain the sequences he had in mind by drawing them, and to us, this is the best way to communicate.

Absolut understood Rafael’s persona very well and just let him do what he wanted to do without any interventions. With that, we were blessed with an entire studio of artists creating and making decisions 24/7. That is not something that happens often.

The film has a rich look inspired by film noir. Can you tell us a little about the look development process?
The mood of the film was in there since the first revision of the script. It was impossible for us to imagine the film any other way, so we gathered all the references that came to mind into a mood panel. This panel included “Blade Runner,” “In the Mood for Love,” anything by Christopher Doyle.

We wanted to have eveyone coming in and out of light all the time, engulfed in shadows one second and then showered by light in the next. And if the characters didn’t move on the shot, then we would create mechanisms to make the lights move instead, revealing and hiding.

What consolidated the noir look was the combination of the script with the images.

The official making of video (below) says that Facebook fans had input. What was that like?
This crowdsourcing of ideas was a big thing for Absolut, so we knew that it had to be very well planned out in order to make it work with the schedule.

The hardest ideas to accomplish were obviously posted first. People had quite a small window of time to respond, due to pressing deadlines. Even so, the response we got from it was astonishing. Hundreds of people submitted ideas and drawings that just blew our minds and gave us a completely fresh take on things!

In this case, it seems like crowdsourced aspect of the film was pretty focused. How do you feel about crowdsourced filmmaking/animation in general?
At times, we danced with the idea of crowdsourcing aspects of production like modeling and texturing, but since we had a very tight schedule, we had to keep everything in a very controlled environment.

If you have a project with a more flexible schedule crowdsourcing might work, just as long as the creative direction remains consistent. Still, artists would have to be carefully handpicked.

You guys recently left Passion to start Red Knuckles. How is it going so far? What have been some of the challenges?
Yes, we left Passion in December 2013 after having a great run there, working almost exclusively with Pete Candeland on some fantastic projects.

Red Knuckles started with the idea and the ideal of collaboration. There are many ultra-talented artists, directors, creatives, etc. out there that we want to work with. We thought the best platform to reach and collaborate with them would be via our own studio.

So far, it has been truly incredible. We got to meet those amazing people that we would not have had access to if we were associated with a single production house.

What we have set ourselves to do is a different business model where we want to be an animation studio, an artist’s house exclusively, without attaching ourselves to only one production house or director. That’s where the challenge lies: in making this model understood and needed in London.

But everyone we have talked about this were extremely happy to know that we are out and and free to do some animation. I hope we can show some more cool stuff soon.

Making Of Featurette

Credits

Written and Directed by Rafael Grampá
Animation Studio: Red Knuckles
Director of Photography: Red Knuckles
Red Knuckles Creative Directors: Mario Ucci and Rick Thiele
Producer: Monica Domanska
Original story and characters created and designed by Rafael Grampá
Lead Animator: Lucas Vigroux
3D Animators: Giovanni Braggio, Scott Beharrell Bono, Chris Whyte, Magali Barbe, Florian Mounié and Martyn Smith
2D Animators: Adrien Gromelle, Stephen Vuillemin, Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Alice Bissonnet, Duncan Gist and Giovanni Braggio
Technical Director: Maïckel Pasta
Lighting TD: Patrick Krafft
Environment Modelling: Florent Rousseau
Mattepaintings: Manuel Dischinger, Ian McQue, One Pixel Brush
Global Facebook Fans:
Scene 1: Adriano Antonini
Scene 2: David Jesus Vignolli
Scene 3: Greg Fenwick
Scene 4: Nina Robra
Scene 5: Anton Kovalenko & Adri Ceesari
Scene 6: Maria Vlad
Creative Agency: Sid Lee Amsterdam
Associate Creative Director: Gill Glendinning & Roger Leebody
Account Manager: Jonah Dolan

Production Company: Jimmy Lee Amsterdam
Producer: Justin Townsend & Ezra Xenos
Voice of Vincent Black: Doug Cockle
Voice of Madaleana Proud: Ajit Sandhu recorded @Stainless Sound

Music Company: Croacia
Music Composer: Marcio Chavemarin

Music Company: Wake the Town
Sound Engineer & Music Composer: Paul Schumpter
Music Producer: John Connon
‘Paper Bones’: Written and performed by Mike Ghost

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” the reboot of the classic science TV series helmed by Carl Sagan that aired in 1980, should be required viewing for all of us.

In “Cosmos,” artful visual effects and elegant motion design inform and delight in equal parts. Animation is as essential to the success of “Cosmos” as the lovable hosting talents of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

All-Star Team

With executive producer Seth MacFarlane behind the show and a 13-week run on Fox and National Geographic, the creators of “Cosmos” are going toe-to-toe with primetime. The premiere launched opposite AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and ABC’s heavily promoted “Resurrection” and still managed to rake in an impressive 8.5 million viewers.

Brannon Braga, co-executive producer and director, is no stranger to space drama. He co-wrote “Star Trek: First Contact” and executive produced all of the Star Trek series after the original.

Co-directing from behind the camera is DP Bill Pope, best known as the cinematographer for “The Matrix.”

Then there’s Rainer Gombos, visual effects supervisor of “Game of Thrones” fame. VFX shots themselves have been handled by a who’s who of facilities including Framestore, BUF, Tippett Studio, Atomic Fiction and Montreal’s Mokko Studio.

Not too shabby.

The Title Sequence

The title sequence (seen above) is as thoughtful and jaw-dropping as the show itself.

Created by BBDG (Shaun Collings and Curtis Doss), the opener oscillates between the cosmic and the microscopic, the tangible and the ethereal. Like the show, the sequence uses the power of metaphor to draw parallels between the mysterious grandeur of the universe and the grand reality of our everyday lives.

Character Animation

The animated sequences produced by Kara Vallow (with whom MacFarlane has a long working relationship) and Six Point Harness are an alternative take on the live-action based historic segments from the original “Cosmos.”

In an interview with Geekosystem, Vallow explains the reasoning behind using animation:

Seth [MacFarlane] thought that [using live action for the historic segments] was going to be prohibitive in this incarnation of the series, because viewers are much more sophisticated now than they were then in terms of historical time periods being recreated by Hollywood. We’re attuned to seeing big budget period movies and costumes and stuff, and in the original series they were done very low budget.

I don’t think they thought that viewers were going to accept that now, and they didn’t have the time to do a big budget Gosford Park type imagining of the narrative. So, it was Seth’s idea to do those in animation.

Watch it online

Full episodes of “Cosmos” can be viewed on the official site and on Hulu.

Or if you’re feeling lazy, watch the first episode here.

As I write this, I’m 36 years old.

I’ve done a lot with my career, and yet I feel like I haven’t scratched the surface of my potential. I struggle to balance the demands of the real world (paying bills and feeding the family) with the demands of my creative spirit (making cool shit).

Sound familiar?

I’ve talked to a lot of you about this. Some over email, some over beer. I’ve learned that many of us feel we’re not doing enough. Worse, we’re not doing enough fast enough.

Cooking the Last Supper

If that sentiment touches a nerve, give the above video from Adam Westbrook (published by Delve) a quick watch.

Yes, it’s a visual essay told in the language of motion design, but I’m posting it for the core ideas it’s presenting. So try to zero in on that and chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

To be honest, I’m ambivalent about its message. I appreciate that mastery and success often take longer than we publicly acknowledge.

But I’m also suspicious of the whole concept of “success,” at least in the context of creativity.

Which success matters most?

I’ve interviewed many of the top talents in our field and talked to a good deal of other accomplished artists about success. While they all strive for it, even those who achieve it don’t seem fundamentally happier or more at peace because of it.

Success, like money, is one of those slippery treasures that squeezes out of our grasp and lands just out of reach — over and over again throughout a lifetime.

Maybe the real challenge isn’t painting a metaphorical Last Supper but realizing that true success is in enjoying the process more than the product.

That definition of success doesn’t preclude other definitions, of course. In fact, I suspect that those who enjoy creation for creation’s sake probably also enjoy a good deal of “traditional” success. They just don’t define themselves by it.

“The Long Game Part 1″ is the first of a two-part series based on two posts from Mr. Westbrook: Difficult and 47 Years to Success.

UPDATE: Here’s part two of Mr. Westbrook’s series. (Thanks, Angelo!)

Hat tip to Jordan Taylor.

Director Johnny Kelly’s latest short, “Shape” is about the changing shape of the world around us. From home to school to work, it’s a tale of progress and technology rendered in deceptively simple line work and meticulous animation.

Scott Burnett of multidisciplinary Dublin-based studio Aad wrote the script, and production was handled by Nexus Productions, who have long represented Kelly.

Commissioned by Pivot Dublin, the film culminates in a question: “What would you change?” From the film’s website:

MAKESHAPECHANGE is a project to get young people thinking about how the world is made around them and where design fits in. At its heart is a short film that shows changes happening before our eyes that we might not normally notice, and how these affect us.

The co-star of “Shape” is its delightful analogue soundtrack by Antfood. The sound design is seamlessly woven into the music, which rolls along with the same effortless optimism of the film.

Other projects directed by Johnny Kelly

Credits

Directed & designed by Johnny Kelly
Written by Scott Burnett
Produced by Ali Grehan

Production Company: Nexus
Nexus Producer: Isobel Conroy
Animators: Felix Massie, Joe Sparrow, Alex Grigg and Johnny Kelly
Editor: Steven McInerney

Thanks to Mark Davies, Sergei Shabarov and Chris O’Reilly
Special thanks to Cllr Naoise O’Muiri and Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan for their support

Music & Sound Design: Antfood
Ensemble:
Andrew Rehrig — Flutes
Will Bone — Trombone, Trumpets, Tuba, Baritone Sax, Tenor Sax I, Clarinets
Jesse Scheinin — Tenor Sax II
Wilson Brown — Pianos, Guitars, Synths, Percussion
Chris Marion — Strings

Composition and Arrangement: Wilson Brown
Sound design: Spencer Casey, Charlie Van Kirk, Wilson Brown and Pran Bandi
Final Mix: Andy Baldwin

Website designed and built by Aad
Written by Scott Burnett
Illustrations by Johnny Kelly

EDIT April 4, 2014: The original text erroneously reported that Johnny Kelly and Scott Burnett worked on this under the studio Aad. While there is a Johnny Kelly at Aad, it is a different Johnny Kelly who was not affiliated with this project.