Hasta La Motion!

Photo by Marius Kallhardt

Last week, the Motionographer Jobs database went kaput, and we lost all of the job listings. After pulling out my hair, I decided this was as good a time as any to try out a new system. It’s still in beta, but it’s a big improvement over the old system, I think.

My apologies to everyone for the downtime. Hopefully, the new job board will be a happy, stable framework upon which we can build. If you hit any bugs along the way, please use the Contact page to let me know.

Oh, and for the coders out there, the new system is based on the JobberBase script, which is pretty damn delicious.

Posted on Motionographer

1st Ave Machine’s latest project for Samsung is a delightful throwback to their early days (by which I mean a few years ago), when co-founder Arvind Palep cranked out photorealistic mechano-organic CG imagery that wowed everyone with its surreal beauty.

Like their “Sixes Last” promo from a couple years back, “New Species” is set in a forest of the imagination. I could decry agency Cheil Worldwide for forcing a repeat performance from 1st Ave, but it’s just so damned beautiful, I really don’t care. I feel like Arvind has created a universe—or rather augmented our own—with his work. You can’t contain that kind of potential in a couple of projects.

Check out 1st Ave’s portfolio here. For those who attended F5, note that Asif Mian’s new Mute Math video is now online as well.

By the way, I found this amusing old post from the Tween archives.

Posted on Motionographer

Cisma’s latest short film, “Le Sens Propre,” continues in the surreal tradition of “Handmade” and “The Fly and the Eye,” fleshing out a body of work that grows more interesting with each new project.

The narrative of “Le Sens Propre” loops around itself in a dreamlike Gordian knot. The film’s real focus is on perception—the little surprises that blossom when expectations are upended and conventions are twisted.

From a production standpoint, there’s no 3D involved. The hand-crafted tableaux feel palpably real, which only further underscores the film’s surreality.

For a Q&A with Cisma and some production stills,  read on.

Disclosure: “Le Sens Propre” was underwritten by Adobe, an advertiser on Motionographer. This is no way effected our decision to share this work.

Posted on Motionographer

If my chemistry classes had been as exciting and entertaining as this short by Christopher Hendryx, I’d probably be in a different profession today.

“Oxygen,” created as Christopher’s thesis for the Computer Animation program at the Ringling College of Art & Design, tells the adventures (and frustrations) of little Oxygen trying to make friends at Element-ary school. It’s a lovely piece of storytelling, taking a dry and otherwise uninteresting subject and turning it into a funny and engaging narrative.

I’m loving the hilarious voice over. The animation is filled with little details (my favorite are the little electrons floating outside the characters), and the subtle sound design really gives the feeling of being back to school.

Who knew Oxygen could be such an outcast?

Posted on Motionographer

As a follow up to their previous spot for Israeli telecom company Pelephone, Gravity teamed up with director Eli Sverdlov on another spot full of charm and cheer for agency Adler Chomski & Warshavsky/Grey Israel.

Like “Other World,” “Canons” is reminiscent of director Rupert Sanders‘ penchant for magical realism, but with a decidedly campy twist. The saturated visuals and grin-worthy denouement suggest an alternate reality of storybook proportions, the kind of place that could just as easily fit in a snow globe as it could in your imagination.

I like that level of approachability for something so surreal. It’s a difficult thing to master in 60 seconds of airtime.

Posted on Motionographer