Maverick filmmaker Robert Rodriguez tackles producing duties for a revamp of the Predator film series with this 20th Century Fox/Troublemaker Studios production focusing on a human survival adventure set on the Predator’s home planet.
At a time when our world feels more divided than ever, who would have thought we’d look towards monsters for acceptance? Mattel’s Monster High teaches us that there’s more in the world to unite than divide.
For the TV special Welcome to Monster High, Mattel approached Flaunt Productions to produce a revamp of the Monster High brand, telling a story which the fans of the series will love, while also adding a new twist. The project represented a great opportunity for Flaunt Productions, enabling the team to flex its creative muscles across production, from script, storyboard and design to final delivery.
Mixing Things Up
Flaunt utilised a diverse range of artists for Monster High, with one goal – to refresh the brand while retaining the element that made it stand out in the first place.
“Our aim was to create something targeted at six to 11 year old girls and give it a fresh, bold look at the same time,” explained art director, Jon Beeston. “Monster High being a strong brand in the Mattel world, we worked closely with Emily Kelly-Cabal, the art director at Mattel, to make sure we kept things on brand, while giving things a twist.”
In order to achieve a unique feel, Flaunt delivered assets with the highest production values, using realistic materials and textures to give characters a tangible feel. It also coined two new terms to fulfil the brief – everything contained within each frame was ‘monsterfied’ and ‘wonkified’. The former involved adding monstrous elements to all of Flaunt’s designs — cobwebs, skulls and bat wings, all make an appearance. As for the latter, a distinct shape language was introduced to the design process. Monster High needed a playful, charming quality i.e. it needed to be ‘wonkified’. This involved skewing the lines of objects throughout scenes, giving the world a strange, off-kilter feel.
Building Character
Flaunt’s roster of designers and illustrators worked hard to flesh out each characters’ individual personalities when building them into workable CG models. They even turned to the voice actors for inspiration, mimicking hand gestures and facial expressions from the booth and transplanting them into the animation witnessed on screen.
Shane Amsterdam, the creative force behind Welcome to Monster High, and Mattel’s supervising director Jun Falkenstein, challenged Flaunt at every turn to deliver their most colourful work to date.
“We wanted to have moments of real heart and emotion,” said director Stephen Donnelly. “These weren’t just dolls; these were real, breathing characters that kids could get emotionally invested in.”
Fashionista Monsters
Fashion also plays a leading role in the Monster High universe, something Mattel encouraged exploration around early in the production process. “We spoke to some fashion stylists to get valuable knowledge from the fashion world,” said executive producer on the project, Richard Scott.
“We wanted to know not only what’s hot and fashionable right now, but also what could be coming up further down the line. The biggest revelation for me was definitely ‘pastel goths’. Never heard of that before!” Pastel Goth, also known as Hipster Goth pertains to chic, pastel haired people who take vintage styled pictures.
“There was always a great energy in the team, everyone was excited to be working on this brand and everyone was excited about working on a movie, and that carried through to every department,” said Flaunt’s executive producer, Andrew Pearce. “At the end of the day, we were creating animation and working for a toy company – the two most fun things in the world!”
The post Flaunt Productions gives insights about what went into the making of Mattel’s ‘Welcome to Monster High’ movie appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Four years ago, the idea for B.L.A.C.K. – first instalment in Jasoos Balram detective comic series – was born at Fenil Comics, a comic book publishing house based in Surat, Gujarat. The 32-page comic is written by Fenil Sherdiwala and edited by Bipin Sherdiwala.
Fenil Sherdiwala
News surrounding Fenil Comics publishing their two new titles – SECRET AGENT OM and B.L.A.C.K. – first came in 2012, when the company was in the midst of publishing the multi-series comics. B.L.A.C.K. is the first instalment in the Jasoos Balram detective comic series from Fenil comics. B.L.A.C.K. – B for Buddhibal, L for Lockwin, A for Allwin, C for C.P.U. and K for Krita – is a contract criminal team of five persons and when assembled together, they create massive disruption.
The protagonist of the series is Jasoos Balram, a detective superhero. “Characters like these were most popular in Indian comics industry during the period from 1960 to 1980. So we decided to develop a character in the 1980 work style of detectives but with a modern world imagination,” said Fenil Sherdiwala. There is also a character with the name of Salim who is the assistant of Jasoos Balram, and will help him solve the mysteries.
Elaborating on the storyline of the comics, Sherdiwala mentioned, “Developed countries are tensed as the Indian Nuclear Programme is now advanced. They want to stop the programme anyhow. Hence, they hire team BLACK. But the truth is not what it seems.” The story will further be revealed in the comics. He also shared his vision of launching the characters in all formats, including web series and TV series.
So what inspired Sherdiwala to choose this concept? “I have been a comic book fan since my childhood. I have always been inspired by detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Colonel Ranjeet and Colonel Karn.” He created the character of Jasoos Balram at the age of 16 and decided to start Fenil Comics six years ago, at the age of 30. Four years ago, the team started working on Jasoos Balram and now have more than 12 stories for the concept. “I again started working on some old characters and now they are all part of Fenil Comics.”
Targeted towards audiences of north India and middle Indian states, the Hindi language comic book is for all ages. It is printed at 4000 dpi, hence looks better than their last four releases. “This time we launched the book in two different versions with different covers. Fans can buy it from our online store with the selection of cover. The pages we used for printing are also very thick.” The cover art is by Mohit Arya and Yogesh Pugaonkar. It is for the first time in India that a book is published with two different covers.
Comic book fans are crazy about their books and preserve them too. “It is necessary that our book should have high quality papers and printing. That is why we chose this look and feel for the book,” explained Sherdiwala.
The Fenil Comics team was dependent on newspapers and online articles for their research. “Working on the mystery was the biggest challenge.” When they were satisfied with their R&D, they started working on the story. After finishing the artwork manually, they added colours in Photoshop. The calligraphy was also done digitally on Photoshop.
Rs 50,000 were invested in creating the artwork and the book is priced at Rs 150. The comic is available at all the book stands and leading book stores of India. It is also available on their website, along with books from other publications like Aayumi Productions, Speech Bubble Entertainment, The Beast Legion, Red Streaks Publication, TBS Planet, Chariot Comics, Sooraj Pocket Books and artprints by Dheeraj Verma.
The post Fenil Sherdiwala demystifies the creation of B.L.A.C.K. comics appeared first on AnimationXpress.
The concept of love is quite volatile in itself and to explore it through creative eyes, a gargantuan task.
The same subject was picked up by Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara, from National Film and Television School (NFTS), who decided to portray it through an interesting, experimental method, which happens to be one of her likeness. ‘A Love Story’, which recently won the Best British Short Animation Award at BAFTA 2017, explores the concept of love through the method of stop-motion. What’s especially intriguing about the movie is the mode of storytelling and the substances used to do so. The two characters featured in the seven minute short film are completely made of wool (and other textile products), woven together in a beautifully uneven world.
So, what is the film really about?
Here’s the official description:
“Told through the medium of stop-motion , A Love Story follows two characters , cocooned in their love, who go on a heart-breaking journey of self discovery. Believing themselves to live in a world without sharp edges, instead they find hardship in a sudden sickness that infects one of them. As the journey from lover to carer and back again grows from unlikely to seemingly impossible, these two creatures must make some hard decisions about how much of themselves they can give, without compromising their identity.
The richly textured world, made from soft, cloud-like fabrics, is a deceptively innocent space for the raw pain of the lovers as they fight tooth and nail to hold on to what they once had. Their woven faces are kissed, knotted, ripped and torn in equal measure, ever-weathering in the harsh reality of love. It’s a love story, but not like you’ve seen before.”
Speaking to AnimationXpress, the director, Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara (fondly called as Nush) provided a metaphoric sketch on how the film was created.
The idea of the film seemingly lies close to Nush’s self as she says, “The film was heavily inspired by a personal experience and at the start of development; I was quite reluctant to admit that it was inspired by personal experience. I felt it would appear quite self-indulgent. But then I came across ‘Amy’: the documentary about Amy Winehouse by Asif Kapadia. Watching her talk about why she chose to write such personal songs was inspiring, and made me want to be more open about my own feelings. Although, I did find it strange animating real life, as it unfolded.”
With 30 people working on the film at different stages, the feature attempts to portray a story surrounding two beings, how they fall in love and how they hold on to it. But as we mentioned above, the concept of love is subjective and might appeal everyone differently and it seems like the creators did keep the same fact in mind. “Initially we wanted to make a film that could offer support or direction to people who found themselves in a similar position. But soon we realised that each relationship is individual, and has its own ending. So we then decided to just make a truthful story that hopefully people could relate to.”
However, to do justice to a film portrayed through not-so-usual methods, it took a lot of effort as going about with the script was pretty tricky as well. As Nush says, “Initially I was unsure about collaborating with a screenwriter because my style is quite experimental and I had no idea how we could work together. But Elena (who is the screen writer) really embraced the idea of the two characters in a woolly world. So development, although stressful, was exciting because it was the two of us stuck in the same world. We used post-it-notes so we could move the story beats around. We also came up with a language for the world to express the characters emotions through the threads. We even envisioned the film as a real life scenario. As the film reflected a personal experience, the original ending, soon became un-relatable. So, development went on till the end of production, with the animatics going through numerous changes.”
The imagery for such a feature has to be curated carefully as the concept is pretty abstract at first and thus storyboarding becomes one of the most crucial parts to breathe life to the story.
“I always try to draw the images that are clear in my head first. But they are usually very rough and then try to develop more images around these key images. I find that my character design usually comes together through the storyboarding process.
As a stop frame animator, I wouldn’t say my strength lies in drawing. Therefore, I initially drew some rough storyboards by hand, for my own use. Then I went straight into animatic, working closely with the editor Joseph Comar.”
No task is devoid of its difficulties, and ‘A Love Story’ was not an exception as well as the director narrates, “Most of the shots were challenging to animate, even the simple ones. If I had to pick one shot, it would be the scene where the puppets dance around each other. In this scene not only did I have to try moving the threads towards the camera, while the camera was moving away, but slow-motion of the puppet moving across the screen and rotating the puppets whilst they burst through a cloud. It took me six weeks to complete it.” Luckily for Nush, help was round the corner at NFTS. “In this shot I also became stuck on how to animate the puppets dancing. It was not a shot you could act out in real life either. So I decided to visit the VFX department, and see if they could put together a previse for me. The previse not only gave me structure and pacing, but it also gave me the freedom to play with the shot. As it was two characters falling in love and I felt that having too much control over the puppets would take away the energy between them.”
Among the two distinctly beautiful films nominated from NFTS for this year’s BAFTA Awards, ‘A Love Story’ took home the accolade while ‘The Alan Dimension’ did not manage to make the cut. For now Nush says that she enjoyed her time with the team working on this feature and hopes to get back with them in the future for some project.
She did not mince her praises for all the support she has received from the organisation (NFTS) as well. She concludes stating, “The school was extremely supportive towards the making of the film. They provided creative and technical support throughout the process, as well as allowed the team to complete the film when it ran over schedule.”
The post Bringing a woolly love story to life – The BAFTA Award winning short film, A Love Story’s director unwinds her success story appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Epica is a global entertainment, Production Company with expertise in 2D & 3D Animation – Work on Hire, Co-Production, IP Production, 3D film Production.
The company presently employs very talented professional artist in 3D and 2D animation.
The studio is spread over 16000sq ft. of State-of-Art Infra at Techno park in Trivandrum – Kerala, India apart from offices located at USA and UAE.
We are looking candidates at the below following streams:
2D Animators
Job Location :Trivandrum
Software : Flash
Vacancies:30
Layout Artist – 2D
Job Location :Trivandrum
Software : Adobe Photoshop
Vacancies :07
Minimum 4 – 6 experience in 2D Layout
BG Artist – 2D
Job Location :Trivandrum
Software : Adobe Photoshop
Vacancies :06
Minimum 4 – 6 experience in 2D BG
Compositing Artist – 2D
Job Location :Trivandrum
Software :Adobe After Effects
Vacancies :03
Minimum 4 – 6 experience in 2D Compositing
Texturing Artist – 3D
Job Location :Trivandrum
Software : MARI, Photoshop, Mud Box, MAYA
Vacancies :02
Minimum 4 – 6 experience in 3D Texturing
Sr. CHF Artist – 3D
Job Location : Trivandrum
Vacancies :01
Minimum 4 – 6 experience in Cloth,Hair & Foliage.
Drop your resumes at hr@ariesepica.com
The post Epica appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Is Michael K Williams being typecast? Are you? The Atlantic invites audiences to question their assumptions in a short film starring an actor known for the nuanced complexity of the characters he portrays. The film is the centerpiece of Question Your Answers, a new campaign from American magazine The Atlantic, built on The Atlantic’s 160-year legacy and the idea of of questioning conventional wisdom. In the two-and-a-half-minute film, “Typecast,” we see Michael K Williams, known for such roles as Omar Little in The Wire and Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire, wondering aloud if he’s being typecast. But we soon discover that he’s not alone: He’s debating this complicated question with four versions of himself, all representing different aspects of who he’s been and who he is today.
“Question Your Answers” arrives at a moment of great conversation and debate about the state of media. On social media and at TheAtlantic.com, the campaign urges audiences to break down their information silos, challenge established answers, and embrace a lifestyle of continuous interrogation and exploration.
In a note introducing the campaign, The Atlantic’s President Bob Cohn writes: “The central premise of the campaign is that The Atlantic has a 160-year tradition of questioning established answers. We scrutinize our own (and others’) opinions; we challenge the received wisdom; we’re open to ideas that mess with our assumptions. We do all this as part of our commitment to bring clarity and original thinking to the most consequential issues of the day.”
“It seems like everywhere you look, people are shouting their opinions,” says Wieden+Kennedy creative director Jaclyn Crowley. “The Atlantic respects introspection and the vulnerability that comes with exploring and questioning your beliefs. This kind of thinking is not only refreshing, but necessary.”
The film’s director, David Shane of O Positive Films, says: “The idea is so smart and so simple—The Atlantic allows and encourages you to look at all sides of an issue. We tried to create the vibe of four dudes, four friends just hanging out and having this kind of thoughtful discussion. The degree of difficulty of this performance is actually hard to fully understand. He was playing, in effect, four characters, and trying to keep track of them.”
The QuestionsAnswers campaign campaign was developed at Wieden+Kennedy New York by executive creative director Karl Lieberman, creative directors Jaclyn Crowley and Al Merry, copywriter Brock Kirby, project manager Danielle Rounds, head of integrated production Nick Setounski, media director David Stopforth, executive producer Alison Hill, media strategist Sophie Novick, social media director Jessica Breslin, strategist Brian Ritter, account team Sara Jagielski, Patrick O, Lindsey Tim, PR and publishing director Teressa Lezzi, and management supervisor Samantha Wagner.
Filming was shot by director David Shane via O Positive with director of photography Maryse Alberti, line producer Marc Grill, executive producer Ralph Laucella,
Editor was Gavin Cutler at MackCut with producer Gina Pagano and assistant editor Pamela Petruski.
Visual effects and colour were produced at The Mill by executive producer Verity Grantham, producer Clairellen Wallin, production coordinator Kate Aspell, shoot supervisor/2D lead artist Antoine Douadi, colour producer Natalie Westerfield, colour coordinator Elizabeth Nagle, colourist Josh Bohoskey, colour assistants Daniel Moisoff, Nate Seymour, Amanda Bernhardt, Zack Wilpon.
Hopefully, you’ve had your coffee. In this episode, we talk about our morning routines and the odd habits we’ve picked up that help us get our day started.
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Nick’s Color and Displacement tutorial
Spilt Studios
Colorado C4D Meetup
Allen Laseter has set the bar quite high on what someone can produce on their own. In this Motionographer Q&A, we find out about the production of Allen’s new film for Ted-Ed as well as what the animation scene is like down in Nashville.
The technology behind the cinematic style of the BBC’s Planet Earth II.
Check back next Monday for the next episode in this mini-series.
Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
And check out BBC Earth’s channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/BBCEarth https://www.youtube.com/user/EarthUnpluggedTV
Planet Earth II is airing Saturdays on BBC America. Full episodes will also be streaming the day after they air on BBCAmerica.com for subscribers. http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/planet-earth-ii/where-to-watch
Clips from BBC:
Iguana vs. snakes (Planet Earth II) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv9hn4IGofM
Attenborough & sloth (Life of Mammals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndMKTnSRsKM
Komodo dragon (Zoo Quest) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6z_PjBppGY
Attenborough & orangutans (Zoo Quest) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=692fiaoJWy8
Indri (Zoo Quest) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OALx3kKJhqA
Lion hunt (Wild Africa) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XabZLTpugN8
Kangaroo (Life of Mammals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiTG6T9pTcM
Herbivores (Life of Mammals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtnLNmB3ZNE
Polar bear (Planet Earth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSWa8DZEy84
Wolf hunt (Life of Mammals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UH-6r5jrGI
Wolf hunt (Planet Earth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0E6geAq1k8
And many more on BBC’s mobile app: Sir David Attenborough’s Story of Life http://www.bbc.com/earth/storyoflife
//
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