Nov
14
Giant Ant’s 2013 Motion Reel
Posted in: Animation, Canada, cel animation, character, Colorful, General, giant ant, portfolio, reel
What an inspiring reel by Giant Ant!
Jun
01
CANADA on How to Deconstruct Ice Cream
Posted in: Canada, General, music videos
Editor’s note: The following post is by a new Motionographer contributor and copy editor, Brandon Walter Irvine. Please welcome him aboard!
Perusing the Quickies the other day, I was blown away by the video for “Ice Cream,” (NSFW) a punchy track from Battles and Matias Aguayo.
Produced by Barcelona-based collective CANADA, the video moves through a sequence of utterly distinct effects. Unlike most videos, where themes and looks are slowly built up, often in an additive process, the “Ice Cream” clip walks a very careful line by introducing a particular effect or theme just long enough for it to be registered, only to move on to another. Even after a couple of viewings, I couldn’t make sense of it, but I was definitely intrigued.
Director Luis Cerveró of CANADA broke it down for me.
Yes, it has a structure
It may be apparently random, but it all has a reason to be there. In our treatment, we divided the song into different chapters of what deconstructing the idea of an ice cream cone melting could bring to your mind. So there was first the concept of two opposites colliding (cold vs. warm, starting with the ice cream drops hitting the hot bath tub water) and represented by the young pretty girls (hot water) against older ugly guys (chocolate cold) and all these double shots of something against its opposite (snowy mountains vs. desert, etc).
Whence the licking
Then there was the chapter of happiness feeling brought up by eating ice cream, which is the overlaid part where you can see people just having fun, whose shots form ice cream shapes from circles and spheres against triangles and cones. The dance routine is also in the same spirit and again deepens the idea of an ice cream being deconstructed. Then comes the licking part, where, well, we show all the licking any ice cream needs — but being applied to other rounded shapes.
Then a part that focuses on the color: the vivid, almost tropical color of ice creams — we decided to apply that to images of girls fainting, because it kind of looks like a melting thing, and also because it relies on the idea of a lot of heat, very summer-like. And then we wanted to center on the milky texture and the fruity bits, so we decided to do that in a manner of old Otto Muehl performances — very chaotic and sticky — but with a merry approach instead of the spooky feeling you get when seeing those old performances.
Showing it without showing it
This all came from a previous phone chat with Dave from Battles where he explained how the song came out. First they did the music track, and then they decided it sounded like ice cream and started working with Matias on the lyrics and vocals. We thought that if the music sounded like ice cream, the video had to look like ice cream without really showing ice cream. Our first idea was to just show ice cream at the beginning and the end, with the girl inside the bathtub, but then Roger from the art department brought that huge strawberry ice cream cone and we decided to shoot Gina, our make-up girl, running in the woods carrying it.
The summer look
The look was, I guess, a collaboration with Marc Gómez del Moral, our DOP. We wanted to have something both very summer and playful. We were extremely lucky with the weather — we had some super shiny Mediterranean days and shot really close to the sea, where the light is powerful and clean.
There’s no stock footage; we did it all ourselves. The only thing would be the mountains and desert photos, which my dad took while traveling in the eighties, and an old Volvo catalogue photo, which we reshot.
You always have to reference previous work, so there were samples of Norman McLaren, Michael Snow, and Otto Muehl, and some overlaid pictures by Tierney Gearon. But they were more tools to reflect what we were after. The real inspiration came mostly from speaking to the band.
The girl that kicks herself
Tuixén Benet from the dance collective Les Filles Föllen did the choreography and the dance. It was quite hard to conceive and practice, because she had to put in on tape and overlay it constantly to see if everything matched. But once it was good for her, it was super easy to shoot, really. We did five takes for each color, but they all matched quite right.
On working with the dog
It was a lot of work, but it was pretty much fun to shoot and we didn’t come across any real trouble. My main surprise was how nice the karate fighters were, because they were scary during casting! And the only thing that was really hard to shoot was the final shot with the dog and bananas. Goshka wasn’t in a mood to lay down on the floor in the first place, and once we got that, she didn’t pay any attention to the bananas for ages, so we just had to wait and wait and waste a lot of film.
About the edit, the crazy thing is because of our deadline we only had one single day to edit the whole thing, so it was a long and tiresome day. When I got to bed, I kept seeing flashes of timelines, ins and outs, and matte effects.
Dec
16
CANADA: Scissor Sisters Invisible Light (NSFW)
Posted in: Canada, General, invisible light, music video, Nicolás Méndez, partizan, polydor, promo, scissor sisters
Barcelona-based directing collective CANADA have been rocking quite a lot of people’s worlds for the past few months, with their breakthrough music video for El Guincho – Bombay having enough iconic, Jodorowsky-esque imagery in one piece to fill an encyclopaedia!
Nicolás Méndez (from the collective) is back, with CANADA’s first piece since signing with Partizan. It’s no surprise that CANADA’s use of golden breasts got the attention of New York camp-royalty Scissor Sisters.
This jaw-droppingly epic collaboration is a joy to behold, and a perfect pairing of talents (so, massive hats off to commissioner Dilly Gent of Polydor for that one!).
Incredible cinematography by Gomez del Moral and David Valldeperez completes the high production values of this erotically charged wonder. It rounds off CANADA’s exploration of vintage-style montage work perfectly, and I for one will be very interested to see what’s more to come from these Spanish artists. Repeatedly watch-able and, for you all those that need warning, it does contain some nudity!
Scissor Sisters
Invisible Light (Polydor)
Director: Nicolás Méndez
Prod co: Canada
Representation: Partizan
2nd Unit: Luis Cerveró, Lope Serrano
Executive Producer: Òscar Romagosa
Production Manager: Alba Barneda
DoP: Marc Gómez del Moral
DoP 2nd unit: David Valldepérez
Production designer: Roger Bellés
Stylist: Carolina Galiana
Make Up: Gina Ros
1st AD: Javier Rodríguez
Special FX: Marc Velasco
Motion graphics: NO DOMAIN
Digital FX artist: Gloria Gil
Commissioner: Dilly Gent
Oct
06
Different and Explore for Girl Guides
Posted in: Alchemy, Andrea Kang, Anthony Burns, Canada, claymation, curious pictures, Eric Makila, General, Girl Guides, Hayley Morris, John St., Nathan Jurevicius, paper animation, Six Degrees, Stop-motion
Different is a gorgeous new film by Alchemy in Toronto for the Girl Guides of Canada and agency john st.. It features stop-motion animation of paper-cut out characters with terrific lighting and inventive transitions from scene-to-scene. I found it a real joy to watch. The ultra-cute character design and illustrations are by noted illustrators Nathan Jurevicius and Andrea Kang via Lunch.
Explore by Hayley Morris is another film for Girl Guides that combines stop-motion, paper animation and cel-animation into a sweet, personal narrative that encourages girls to get outside, and to interact with each other and turn off their televisions. The playful, craft-filled world is both tactile and charming. Nicely done!
More films at the Girl Guides Online Film Festival site here.
Title: “Different”
Client: Girl Guides of Canada
Project: Girl Guides Online Film Festival
Agency: john st., Toronto
Creative Directors: Stephen Jurisic, Angus Tucker
Interactive Art Director: Daniel Saunders
Writers: Jennifer Rossini, Elizabeth Whalen
Broadcast Producer: Nicole Andrisevic
Interactive Producer: Ryan O’Hagan
Project Managers: Robyn Crookshank, Tara Giacinti
Production Company: Alchemy
Director: Anthony Burns and Eric Makila
Director of Photography: Anthony Burns
Executive Producer: Stefani Kouverianos
Art Direction: Jamie Webster
Character design/Illustration: Harley and Boss (Nathan Jurevicius and Andrea Kang)
Animation & Compositing: Eric Makila and Anthony Burns
Music & Sound Design: Six Degrees (Via Lunch)
Title: “Explore”
Project: Girl Guides Online Film Festival
Client: Girl Guides of Canada
Agency: john st., Toronto
Director: Hayley Morris
Writer: Hayley Morris
Production Company: Curious Pictures
Director of Photography: Hayley Morris
Executive Producer: Mary Knox
Producer: Hilary Downes
Editor & editorial company: Hayley Morris, Curious Pictures
Music & Sound Design: Hayley Morris and Evan Kultangwatana, Curious Pictures
Aug
17
Ubisoft Montreal Annual Convention Opening
Posted in: Canada, creative process, General, Montreal, overhead, quebec, Stop-motion, UbisoftYou know how it is. Everything is calm. The pace, relaxed. Maybe you’ll write a little email to your mum, letting her know how special—
BAM! The shit hits the fan. Demands on your creative powers are being made from some shadowy force on high, and you jump into high gear, riding that familiar blend of adrenalin and caffeine that all creative workers know too well.
That experience is brilliantly encapsulated by this opening for the Ubisoft Montreal Annual Convention. Conceived by Greg Barth and Noé Sardet under the direction of Emmanuel Sevigny, the project is a stop-motion ride through the creative process from conceptualization to delivery.
Favorite moments: the error message during the blender sequence, the post-it note reading “Find money and weapons” and the elegantly executed end-tag.
The sound design, created by Ubisoft, really pushes this to the next level (as all good sound design does), exaggerating the action and creating striking contrasts throughout the project.
Similar projects from others:
Mar
26
Patrick Boivin
Posted in: Canada, comic books, General, short films, Stop-motion, toys
Patrick Boivin’s latest stop-motion short—a comedic battle between Iron Man and Bruce Lee—burned up the interw3b as soon as it was released a few days ago. And for good reason. Boivin’s storytelling skills are matched by his spot-on stop motion work. Watch the making-of video to get a glimpse of Boivin’s meticulous process.
The film above is just the tip of the iceberg. Boivin’s portfolio is brimming with entertaining and inventive work. Oh, and don’t miss the interactive dance-off between Batman and Joker.
Posted on Motionographer
Mar
24
Atelier Transfert: Watch and Learn
Posted in: Canada, educational, explanatory, General, Montreal, Stop-motionOne of animation’s greatest strengths is its ability to simplify complex systems for digestion by the widest possible audience. This is something Montreal based Atelier Transfert understands implicitly.
Their approach is very specific: Using mostly stop motion, they “can take abstract concepts and bring them into the tactile world to illustrate a very simple message. Through simple and visually entertaining analogies, we can communicate complex features.”
Case in point is their recent video explaining how Email Center Pro software works. Atelier Transfert mixes metaphor and humor to keep things simple and engaging. It’s a technique that’s harder to master than it sounds, so I thought I’d ask them a few questions about their process. Atelier Transfert’s Christian Martel graciously responded.
If Google Translate can be trusted, “Atelier Transfert” roughly translates to “Transfer Workshop.” Why did you choose that as your studio’s name?
Yes, Google Translate is accurate. ‘Atelier’ in French often suggests an artist’s workshop or practice, and ‘transfert’ means transfer, which I sort of meant as in transport—intersecting various approaches, disciplines, and media through a design process.
These stop-motion tutorials we’ve been doing lately are still very rooted in design in that they attempt to reduce a message to its simplest expression.
AT has a very specific approach—namely, using stop-motion animation for “how-to” or expository videos. Why stop-motion? Why not, for the sake of argument, 3D animation?
Initially, this allowed me to create entertaining videos within my comfort/technical knowledge zone (using good old basic graphic designer’s tools such as a digital still camera, Photoshop, and Illustrator). Afterward, I understood that you have way more control with such short cuts. In this sense, the phenomenon of manipulating time with cuts is taken to a whole new level.
The timing on the images throughout the entire clip can edited to syllable, rather than to a word or a phrase. This makes for a high impact on the educational front—especially when demonstrating a recipe or technique.
With stop-motion, you can achieve the precision of an illustrated manual with each frame. This is even more interesting than the eye candy aspect of making objects move by themselves.
Now that our approach is even more centered on photography (seriously, shooting/composing these is like a very very long photo shoot, with all the usual preoccupations and concerns with the final shot), we use remote capture software combined with Photo Mechanic to check to motion while filming. We still put together the edit in Final Cut Pro, but have also started experimenting with Dragon Stop Motion. All the colour correction and any transparency tricks are all done in Photoshop.
Do you ever get clients asking for things outside the world of stop-motion?
Not yet. Just some simple illustrations added to a stop-motion piece.
Would you ever consider doing work that wasn’t stop-motion?
Sure, we’re always eager to innovate. Plus, with the appearance of of DSLR cinematography (Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D90) you can start to get near film-quality HD video. I love the idea of film and photography converging.
I imagine in some cases, it can be quite challenging to understand a product through the lens of a company’s brand. It sounds like it takes a lot of time and patience.
Yes, it certainly does. Before figuring out how we’re going to film, we do all that good marketing stuff too. The commercial sphere of graphic design, photography, and film has given us enough experience to make sure we achieve the branding message. Like an ad campaign, this requires a lot of initial background research before we propose a concept.
Plus, we try to adapt our video style to a company’s existing branding. In fact, although the style is similar, we rarely shoot them the same way: StartCooking is shot in natural light, Alltop was done with flash photography, and Email Center Pro was lit with modeling lights (which, by the way, tend to dim slightly around dinner time as power consumption in the building goes up).
What’s in store for the future? Any big projects coming down the pipeline? Any new ideas you want to work on?
Yes, although I don’t think I can mention it just yet. Anyway, we’ve just started with these and we’re looking to do a few more.
Posted on Motionographer
Feb
06
Head Gear Animation: Milk Dots
Posted in: Canada, cel animation, character animation, General, milk, stop action, super short
What better to accompany our previous post about cookies than a post about milk?
Way back in 2007, we posted a Quickie for Head Gear Animation’s fantastic 5-second spots for the Dairy Farmers of Canada and agency Due North. Well, Head Gear’s added to their collection since then, and it’s definitely worth taking a few seconds (literally) to enjoy them.
Each spot—or “dot”—is a tightly packed joke told in a dizzying array of styles by Head Gear’s directors. David Gee (Writer) and Shawn Wells (Art Director) of Due North did a bang-up job writing these nuggets. Some of my favorites:
…but really, check out as many as you can. Oh, and in case you’re wondering who aced the sound design for the spots, that was Head Gear, too. Nice going!
Posted on Motionographer
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