Spring is here, and I’m falling in love all over again with Motion Theory. They’ve recently released a bevvy of projects that show off their incredible diversity as image-makers and storytellers.
The spot’s seamless transitions are not only visually pleasing, they actually reinforce the underlying messages of interconnectedness and diversity. Coupled with the retro tinged palette and illustration work, the spot is smile-inducing even on the third or fourth viewing.
NCAA: “Ambidextrous” and “Boundaries”
And now for something completely different. “Ambidextrous” and “Boundaries” try to broaden the image of the NCAA through cleverly subtle visual effects. Neither spot socks you in the gut with eye-popping imagery—rather they take reality and augment it.
Again, this sober approach is consistent with the messaging crafted by agency Young & Rubicam SF: You think you know the NCAA? Think again.
Sara Bareilles “Gravity”
Lastly, put on your headphones and dim the lights for this Sara Bareilles promo directed by MTh’s Mathew Cullen. (This was actually released about a month ago, but it fits nicely in our round-up.)
The deceptively low-fi aesthetic pulls you in (no pun intended) and before you know it, you’re caught in the majesty of a lush universe seemingly built from little more than streetlights and umbrellas. The arc of the song’s intensity is beautifully mirrored by the visuals—a feat difficult to pull off in the span of several shots, let alone one long shot.
And therein lies Motion Theory’s power: weaving technical mastery with solid storytelling. Head and heart working together as one.
One 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.
London based Mainframe recently showed what they are capable of with an epic rebranding of Nickelodeon. Unusually for Nick, they let the design take the centre stage, with their flagship characters tagging along to enjoy the ride.
I had chance for a quick catch-up with Mainframe’s Managing Director Adam Jenn and team Mainframe for a little Q&A session:
What tools did you use to create the spots?
The main tool of choice was Maya for all the 3D modeling, rigging and animation. Each shot was tracked using SynthEyes and outputted to Maya for the main scene work and also to After Effects for the later compositing stages. Once the animation was completed, an average of 5-6 different render passes were outputted allowing a greater level of fine tuning within the composite. Final colour grading was all handled within After Effects.
On a project of this magnitude you must of had to please a lot of people. Could you please give us a little insight into the whole creative process?
When the process started we were commissioned by the UK team to create the idents just for the UK channel. As the project developed other territories got behind the work but at present we’re not allowed to talk about which other countries will be using the idents.
The idea devised by our client—the creative director at Nickelodeon, Peter Drake—was to try and really connect with the fantastical side of kids’ imagination. Mainframe was brought in to work with in-house Art Director, Akin Akinsiku, to produce all of the idents from Akin’s ideas and the commissioned illustrators’ sketches.
It was never the intention to create something for other designers to marvel at; it was always about something that would blow the kids away. Akin is a very exacting guy to work with, but I really think the results merit all the hard work everyone put into the project.
Technically, working for so many markets was pretty challenging with each ident having to be reversioned with kid, without kid, Nick branded + Nickelodeon branded, HD, SD 4:3, SD 16:9, PAL and NTSC frame rates. That’s quite a number of variations for each ident.
Each sting seems to have it’s own unique look to it, yet retains an element that keeps it all under the same umbrella. Was this a conscious decision from the start? How did you go about coming up with the look / looks?
When the project started, the idea was to commission as many as ten different illustrators to bring their own look and feel to each ident. As the boards started coming in, it was clear that although there was some amazing work coming back it wasn’t really sitting very well together as a rebrand, and the work of Will Barras was really standing out.
It was a pretty tough decision to make but the client opted to proceed with Will’s illustrations for all of the idents. One of our major tasks was to bring Will Barras’s sketches to life and build environments that they’d sit comfortably in. Because of the sheer quantity of work, our 3D team also created a lot of extra characters and environments for the scenes from scratch.
Many of Nick’s well-known characters make subtle cameos in the these vignettes. This is unusual (and refreshing) considering the way most network rebrands (see Cartoon Network) put the characters up front and center under a blazing spotlight.
Did the idea to treat Nick’s characters in this way come from Mainframe? Or did it come from Nick?
Originally there weren’t going to be any of the Nickelodeon properties in the idents at all but in the end Nickelodeon felt that a subtle nod to the characters was the way to go. The clients wanted to connect with the audience and entertain them rather than sell to them.
CREDITS:
Channel: Nickleodeon UK
Nickleodeon Clients: Peter Drake (Creative Director+Original Concept), Akin Akinsiku (Director And Art Director)
Nickelodeon Producers Will Poole, July Knight
Mainframe:
Producer: Adam Jenns
Animation Team:
Marcus Moresby
Carl Fairweather
Arvid Niklasson
Jimmy Johansson
Mickael Abensur
Jerone Dernoncourt
Call Allman
Everybody’s favorite AENY guest, Andrew Kramer, is going to be presenting this Thursday at 6:45pm. I missed Andrew’s last standing room only presentation, so I’m definitely going to be at this one.
Andrew is the guy behind the wildly popular mograph tutorials at Video Copilot. He’s also created scores of stock assets, worked on loads of commercial projects and built a thriving community of learners. When he sneezes, valuable tips and tricks scatter everywhere. It’s nuts.
We’ll also give away two passes to F5—not to mention the landslide of other great prizes that AENY regularly delivers. Full details on the AENY site.
With Gnarls Barkley crooning through their earbuds, some well-known sports celebrities turn on the juice and go shoe to shoe in this sixty second rivalry. The women get some help from world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe and dancer Sofia Boutella. The men are supported by Roger Federer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tony Parker, among others.
The 72andSunny/Nike team are no strangers to recruiting superstar athletes for their campaigns – my favorite being the “Take It to the Next Level” soccer spot directed by Guy Ritchie posted on Motionographer back in April of 08.
It’s refreshing to see an agency sell a concept that doesn’t rest on explaining the technology behind the product, but rather finds a way to appeal to what really gets our blood flowing – an old fashioned rivalry.
Agency: 72andSunny
CD: John Boiler, Glenn Cole
Writer/CD: Jason Norcross
Designer/CD: Bryan Rowles
Brand Team: Alex Schneider, Evin Shutt, Megan Woods
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Producer: Angelo Ferrugia
Business Affairs: Jessica Reznick
Production Company: Biscuit
Director: Tim Godsall
DP/Cameraman: Steven Keith Roach
Producer: Rick Jarjoura
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Sr. Executive Producer: Shawn Lacy
Editorial: Spotwelders Editor: Robert Duffy
Editorial Producer: Carolina Padilla
Asst Editor: Patrick Murphree
Executive Producer: David Glean
Post Production: The Mill, Los Angeles
Flame Artists: Giles Cheethum, Tara Demarco
Producer: Arielle Davis
Audio Post: Lime Studios
Mixers: Rohan Young, Joel Waters
Sound Design: Rohan Young
Telecine: CO3
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld
Producer: Rhubie Jovanov
Music Artist: Gnarls Barkley
Song: “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)”
Pictoplasma, the global clearing house for contemporary character design and art, commissioned director David O’Reilly to create the show open for Pictopia, the Pictoplasma exhibition taking place in Berlin this week.
Set to a hollow yet pleasing rendition of “When You’re Smiling,” O’Reilly tells the story of a skeleton looking for character parts in a warehouse-like digital space. Once the pieces are chosen, he replaces himself with the bits to create a generic but adorable little guy who walks through a mirror onto a stage.
WYS sparked some discussion at Motionographer headquarters. Although it seems innocent enough on the surface, O’Reilly’s film is subtly subversive: The central figure transforms itself from a human form into a clichéd icon, one assembled from samples of Japanese pop culture—a tendency that’s obvious in much of the character work at exhibitions like Pictopia.
In broader terms, “When You’re Smiling sets up a debate about the nature of animation and character design as triggers for empathy,” said Motionographer’s Justin Cone. Do characters—especially simplified, cuddly critters—act as psychological mirrors for audiences? If so, what sort of relationship is that? What kind of stories does that encourage/discourage? Are some stories being left behind?
As the opening for a gathering about character design, O’Reilly’s film couldn’t be more appropriate. It once again shows his penchant for intelligent iconoclasm expressed through engaging narrative. He reminds me of Brad Bird’s famous insistence that animation isn’t a genre, it’s an artform.
A brief run-down: Things get started both days around 11am and run until the early evening, with lunch and afternoon breaks for you to grab a drink from the bar and mingle a bit.
By the way, our remaining tickets are moving along at a pretty good clip. I see a sell out on the horizon…
Hot off the heels of Benjamin Button’s Oscar success, Digital Domain’s commercial division shows us what they’ve been up to with a three-spot campaign for the 2010 Lexus RX. They’ve been getting plenty of airtime on TV, but in case you’ve missed them, take a look:
The spots were directed by Carl Erik Rinsch and had some top notch talent on board with DP Claudio Miranda (nominated for an Oscar for cinematography) and production designer Donald Graham Burt(won the Oscar for set design).
The first two spots are filled with a beautiful blend of visual effects and live action, while the third spot is mostly live action with a sparse graphic touch. Some of my favorite moments from “Assembled” are the conveyor belt moving almost snake-like over the black leather couch and the pull-out shot of the car being assembled by robotic arms on the street.
“City” has its own share of visually rich shots and easily convinces you that a whole city of cars and buildings were literally hoisted up for your traffic-free pleasure.
If you haven’t already had your fill of car commercials, take some time to browse Digital Domain’s ever-growing library of 45+ automotive spots in the Advertising / Automotive section of their website.
If you’re a fan of Digital Domain’s work, remember that Ed Ulbrich, Executive Vice President and President of Commercials Division, will be speaking at F5.
Credits
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
CLIENT: Lexus
PRODUCT: 2010 Lexus RX
AIR DATE for “Assembled”: 02/16/09
AIR DATE for “City”: 02/16/09
AIR DATE for “Intersection”: 02/16/09
ADVERTISING AGENCY: Team One / El Segundo, CA
Chief Creative Officer: Chris Graves
Group Creative Director: Jon Pearce
Group Creative Director: Gavin Lester
Executive Producer: Jennifer Weinberg
Account Supervisor: Kristie Weston
PRODUCTION COMPANY: RSA Films, Inc. / Los Angeles, CA
Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Executive Producer: Marjie Abrahams
Director or Photography: Claudio Miranda
Line Producer: Annie Johnson
1st Assistant Director: Howell Caldwell
Production Supervisor: Bryan Mitchell
ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS: Digital Domain, Inc. / Venice, CA
President of Commercials, Exec. Producer: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Karen Anderson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jonah Hall
CG Supervisor – “Assembled”: Ron Herbst
CG Supervisor – “City”: Greg Teegarden
VFX Producer: Chris Fieldhouse
VFX Coordinator: Stephanie Escobar
Previsualization: Simon Dunsdon
Flame Artist: Jonny Hicks
Flame Artist: Brian Boungiorno
Flame Artist: Dave Stern
Flame Artist: Chris DeCristo
Flame Artist Assistant: Matt Bramante
Nuke Compositor: Rafael Colon
Nuke Compositor: Sven Dreesbach
Nuke Compositor: Brian Smallwood
Nuke Compositor: Michael Morehouse
Digital Artist: Marc Perrera
Digital Artist: Tim Nassauer
Digital Artist: Jon Gourley
Digital Artist: Chris Norpchen
Digital Artist: Terry Naas
Digital Artist: Justin Lloyd
Digital Artist: Jeff Dierstein
Digital Artist: Adrian Dimond
Digital Artist: Ruel Smith
Houdini Artist: James Atkinson
Matte Paint: Wei Zheng
Roto Artist: Marianne Magne
Roto Artist: Mattaniah Yip
Roto Artist: Tom Piedmont
Roto Artist: Mike Boden
Roto Artist: David Wu
Roto Artist: Kanae Morton
Roto Artist: Keith Weilmuenster
On Set Tracker: Scott Edelstein
Integration Tracker: Som Shankar
Integration Tracker: Shelley Larocca Courte
EDITORIAL HOUSE: The Whitehouse / Santa Monica, CA
Editor: Rick Lawley
Producer: Joni Wright
MUSIC, SOUND DESIGN & AUDIO POST/MIX HOUSE
Location: HUM
Back in November, we asked Motionographer readers how they were doing financially. At that point in time, pieces of the sky had already started falling, but the full economic Armageddon hadn’t hit everywhere yet.
Our poll results were mixed, but mostly positive. 67% of the 5,134 voters were either maintaining the status quo or doing better than ever. 22% were making less money, and 14% (or 720 people) had been laid off and/or couldn’t find work.
As promised, I want to revisit the poll now, just to see what’s changed. This is far from scientific, but it might give us some indicator of a shift. We’ll keep re-posting this poll every four months or so. Please post your personal experiences in the comments. It’s good for people to hear the stories (both good and bad) behind the numbers.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Here’s a nice one-two punch for IKEA PS and agency Nordpol. First, the jab to your occipital lobe from Parasol Island. This ethereal journey through a world of textures and displaced objects is a pleasantly relaxing transition from the world of the mundane to the magical land of IKEA PS.
It also serves as a bridge to the IKEA PS website, where the surreal adventure continues in a lightly-interactive product showcase created by Ikea Communications with production support from studio Kokokaka.
Production company: Parasol Island
Head of Animation: Philip Hansen
Technical Director: Paul Dreisen
Animation Director: Kay Tennemenn
Producer: Kerstin Kohle
Designer / Creative Director: Charles Bals, Kay Tennemann, Christian Hoffmann
3D Artists: Kay Poprawe, Bastian Traumfellner, Bardia Afchar, Axel Hamacher,
Compositing Artists: Stefan Ihringer, Elmar Weinhold
Music and Sound: Jonathan Wulfes
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A. during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
