Hasta La Motion!

Say what you will about SyFy’s new name, but the House of Imagination trailer does a fantastic job getting the rebrand off to an epic start. With vfx by the Moving Picture Company and direction by 4Creative’s Brett Foraker, the entire two-minute video is an inviting trip to a place I genuinely wish I could visit.

The companion website for the House of Imagination teases me with just such a wish, but ends up being a collection of mini-games and behind-the-scenes featurettes—and that’s a pretty sweet consolation prize.

It also points to SyFy’s understanding of its core audience. The inclusion of these making-of gems starring the cast members of SyFy’s shows is essentially like putting DVD extras on the web—something that the decidedly cultish fans of SyFy’s programming will respond to. When the name change was announced, I was concerned that SyFy would abandon the geekier clicks of its viewership, but if House of Imagination is any indication of the future, it appears the opposite is true. That’s good for the fans, and that’s good for the brand.

Incidentally, a high-dollar project like House of Imagination underscores something I heard more than once at Promax|BDA this year: commercial projects aren’t coming through the doors of studios and prodcos as often as they used to, and there’s something of a broadcast design renaissance starting to take form. The new broadcast work, however, is deeply tied to the web and is focused more on branded narrative experiences than IDs and show packages.

With viewers watching an increasing amount of programming on the web (and through web-enabled technologies), that makes perfect sense to me. As platforms edge closer together, like tectonic plates of media, it seems only natural that they will collide, forming new landscapes and, hopefully, new reasons to take creative risks.

For more on the SyFy rebrand, check out Proud Creative’s portfolio, which encompasses the entire new branding scheme.

Credits
Director: Brett Foraker
Creative director: Tom Tagholm
Executive Producer: Shananne Lane
Business Director: Olivia Browne
Producer: Roberts Jones
Production Designer : Tino Schaedler
Director of Photography: Larry Fong
Editor: Adam Rudd
Sound design and composer: Rich Martin

From MPC:

Jay Lichtman – Executive Producer
Paula Da Costa – Producer
Marcus Wood – VFX Supervisor (2D Lead)
Steve Moncur – VFX Supervisor (3D Lead)

Posted on Motionographer

Last week I posted this cute little spot directed by Andy McLeod from London-based Rattling Stick. I finally managed to get my hands on some behind-the-scenes-info, and there’s a fair bit of really delightful facts here:

1. What was the agency’s initial brief?

‘Be Natural’ is a juice made entirely of natural ingredients. So the basic thought was that if Nature itself (here represented by the bird) could choose a juice, it would be Robinson’s ‘Be Natural.’

2. Describe the production process—what happened next?

The agency wanted everything to be done as ‘naturally’ as possible, to reflect the nature of the product, and I felt that was absolutely the right way to go about it as well. Pretty much everything you see on screen was done for real, in-camera, with as little CG and post as possible. It was hard work, but I think this made it more controllable, and more fun.

We had a bird trainer train six identical birds to do various set of actions. One was good at picking up the wooden toy and putting it in the basket, another was good at turning on the TV, another was good at going over to the fridge, and so on.

3. How did you get the bird to perform various actions? Tell us a few tricks to make it all look so believable!

The key to the trick was birdseed. To get the bird to ‘turn the TV off,’ you put a seed on the remote control, the bird then pecked it off, and you remove the seed in post later on. We also shot a real TV remote, scaled it down, and placed it over our miniature TV remote in post. Similarly with all the other actions: to get the bird to look at the TV screen, you place the seed just above the it, and so on.

We shot multiple takes of each action, picking the best bits out of them. It’’s a more painstaking process than it looks on paper, and it took the trainer a couple of weeks to get the birds to do it.

4. Tell us more about the environment–was it all miniature?

Yes. We had a great production designer who designed the interior–we wanted it to be impressive, and tardis-like. Then we spent a lot of time working out the right dimensions of objects within the birdhouse, to get the scale right, and even more time building the whole set, so it looked absolutely real.

5. And how did you shoot it all?

The size of the birdhouse was approx. 10 square ft. We placed four mini HD cameras strategically around it, to capture the action from several different angles.

6. My favorite was the human cuckoo clock idea. How did it came about?

Well, we wanted the spot to have plenty of repeat-viewing value, so we built lots of little jokes into our set, and the cuckoo clock was one of them. That sequence also worked as a time-filler, between the bird going to the fridge, and sitting at the table for tea, because there was no way we could get it to set the table or pour the juice out.

Some of the other ‘jokes’ are: worm sausages, family portraits, bird news featuring a police arrest photo of a cat, bird-shaped wellies (waterproof rubber boots–ed) by the door, a stag beetle’s antler trophy, and a ‘Tweet’ Magazine.

7. That’s fantastic! Lastly, are there any other particular aspects of the spot that you paid special attention to?

I was keen for the bird to have ‘human’ traits, seeing as it’s already got a ‘humanistic’ apartment. So we spent lots of time at the sound studio trying to get the bird’s chirping to sound like human expressions: annoyance at having to tidy up, shock at the news story, giggling at tweet magazine, whistling along to the music. I think in the end there was a fair bit of my whistling blended into real bird sounds to get the desired effect!

Posted on Motionographer

Warning: Extreme gore and violence. Content may not be suitable for all audiences.

Nathan Love’s latest masterwork, “Blood Trail,” is a neo-renaissance for the studio, a breakthrough as they launch into game and film territory.

“Blood Trail” unfolds mysteriously. Its subtle storyline is boosted by bloody, body-ripping visuals that are fervently executed as Nathan dives into uncomfortable CG guts territory. Consequently, this animation is gorrific, ultra violent, horror-themed, over the top CG storytelling in all its glorious might.

UPDATE

Nathan Love graciously chatted with us about this project, sharing their process imagery and delving deep into the details. Check it out.

Posted on Motionographer

A while back, we made a post about the Bonaroo line-up animation, the basic concept of which was taken from Javan Ivey’s My Paper Mind. Despite not being involved with the Bonaroo project, Javan was honored to have his work sampled and taken further. In his words: “It looks great. I mean, I’m kinda bummed I wasn’t invited to the party, but I really enjoy seeing what they’ve done.”

The ensuing Motionographer comments raised questions about involving the originators of a particular technique in commercial applications of that technique. People wondered why Javan wasn’t brought on as a collaborator or consultant by Ghost Robot (who had, it turns out, contacted Javan about the Bonaroo project).

Acting as a model for how things can be done differently is the opening sequence for the Promax|BDA Awards created by Favorite Color.

A couple days before the awards opening was released, we saw an engaging experimental film created by Parson’s student Varathit “Tu” Uthaisri. Surface bore an uncanny resemblance to the Favorite Color project, and the inevitable cries of “rip-off” came from some of us here at Motionographer HQ (me included).

But then we looked closer, and we discovered that Tu was actually listed as an art director on the Favorite Color project.

That intrigued me, so I asked Favorite Color Founder/Executive Producer Dave Dimmick about it:

Frank [Pichel, Creative Director] went to a screening of Tu’s thesis at Parson’s right around the same time we were asked to do the Promax/BDA opening.  With the Promax/BDA theme this year being “leading the new economy of marketing and design,” we thought it might be a cool idea to do something metaphoric to how we interpreted that theme.

Our thought was that we could create a metaphor for the economy, where things are not exactly as they appear.  We thought Tu’s Surface film was the perfect concept for us to build from.

So they got Tu involved as a freelance art director. As simple as that. They brought him out to the shoot in upstate New York, and Tu helped set up scenes, working closely with Frank Pichel to achieve the right look.

But it gets better. Tu’s Surface was obviously inspired by other projects that came before it, as he clearly states in the Process area of his site, going so far as to link to the relevant works. His openness about his influences imbues him with a sense of confidence and integrity, setting a fine example for students and studios alike to follow.

Now, if we could just get advertising agencies on the same page…

Posted on Motionographer

Speaking of POV’s and interesting twists — Minneapolis’ design/animation powerhouse, Make, goes all out in almost every medium for their new Palm Springs Short Fest Program Opener.

A seemingly happy couple is doing everything in their grasp to have a moment of peace when we quickly realize that they are on set and about to be transformed into a barrage of animated likenesses.

The characters are willed by the indecisive hand of their director, who seamlessly shifts them from worlds of live-action, 3d, 2d, cel and claymation. This gets very messy for all involved, resulting in a stylistic mash-up. This piece’s flawless execution and transitions push it the next level.

Posted on Motionographer