Hasta La Motion!

If you’re in need a good chuckle, take five minutes to watch the lovingly crafted “JohnnyExpress,” the latest short from Korea-based Alfred Imageworks.

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

Not sold on the idea of going back to school? Neither was Daniel Savage.

The NYC-based designer/director just released his animated short, “Helium Harvey,” a labor of love that doubled as self-directed education:

After much debate on whether to go to graduate school or not, I decided I would take part of 2013 off to explore storytelling and character driven narrative on my own. I turned down most commercial jobs (except the really exciting ones), read as many books as I could, explored things outside of my comfort zone, and made “Helium Harvey.”

It was completely self funded, teaching a few classes at NYU and online, as well as select freelance projects to help pay for it.

Q&A with Daniel Savage

Let’s rewind to before you decided to make Helium Harvey. You were considering going to grad school, right? Why?

I come from a graphic design background, so jumping into character driven narrative isn’t an easy task. It’s a different way of thinking. But I love the idea of cartoons and technology meeting, so that’s where my interest is.

Originally, I wanted to make a story app, but I felt I had a lot to learn in animation first.

How did you come to the idea of making a short film?
I guess it’s what everyone comes out of school with, so it made the most sense. Plus I had the idea of Harvey for a while, so I wanted to make that.

Do you feel that making Helium Harvey was a good substitute for going back to school? Or was it a different kind of learning?
It’s tough to say. I’m sure I would have a better film if I was surrounded by other people in the same situation, but I like to learn the hard way. When someone tells me something it goes in one ear and out the other. I think it depends on the person.

Looking back, are you happy you decided not to go to school? Are you considering still going in the future?
I am happy, it was a great year. I don’t think I will go back, I will always take a class here or there though.

How hard was it to fund everything yourself?
Not very hard, it was really about time more than money. My rent is super cheap, I was on my lovely girlfriend’s health insurance, and having a skill I’ve developed (After Effects animation) that I could help other people learn was my biggest asset. People got something valuable out of it, and I got enough money to make a film. I still took on a few fun jobs, which also helped pay for it.

For those that are thinking of doing the same thing, can you give them advice/warnings?
I would take it slow, do a month here and there (being freelance helps) to practice new skills before jumping into a project as overwhelming as a film.

Making of “Helium Harvey”

The making of montage is bursting with goodies, from concept art to time-lapsed After Effects sessions.

Orchestra Recording Session

There’s something magical about watching an orchestra perform a soundtrack live.

Credits

Written, Directed & Animated: Daniel Savage
Title Designer: Dave Foster
Additional 2D FX: Jay Quercia
Digital Ink & Paint: Christina Lu
Audio Post services by Impossible Acoustic
Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer: Brendan J. Hogan
Foley Artist: Jamie Hunsdale
Mixed at Clatter&Din studios
Music: Cyrille Marchesseau
Performed by: Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra
Conducted by: Oleg Kontradenko
Music Mixer: Rodolphe Gervais
Music Thanks: Aude Nassieu Maupas, Boban Apostolov, Georgii Hristovski
Special Thanks: Tricia Desjardins, Mom and the former Savages, Cody Murray, Alex Mapar, Amid Amidi, Jerry Liu, Dark Igloo

With a charming jewel tone palete and lovingly wrought 2D animation, designer/director Celyn (Nexus Productions) shows how simplicity and complexity can coexist in “Map Table.”

The spot’s main aim is to convey the modular nature of Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby’s Map Table desk, produced by furniture manufacturer Vitra. But in Celyn’s hands, the story becomes unexpectedly beautiful — and reassuringly human.

Concept – Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby
Direction and Design – Celyn Producer – Beccy McCray 2D Supervisor – Dave Walker
2D animation – Stuart doig
2D animation – Maki Yohikura
2D animation – Manav Dhir 2D animation – Luca Toth Compositor – Alasdair Brotherston Composer – Dan Arthure Studio manager – Natalie Busuttil

What an inspiring reel by Giant Ant!

Posted on Motionographer