Hasta La Motion!

Buck has created two more spots for Cactus, the agency behind the Own Your C anti-smoking campaign, which has produced some remarkable motion work. “Ravens” and “Dragons” aren’t part of that series, though; they’re targeted to parents who smoke around their children.

The spots are entirely CG, which I assume was as much a budgetary decision as a creative one. But that decision also gave Buck complete control over the lighting and camera work, both of which contribute greatly to a mounting sense of tension in each spot.

Honestly, I could watch these just for the lighting alone. In “Dragons,” the pools of light (or stretches of darkness, if you’re a pessimist) create pockets of warmth that seem to slip away before they can be fully embraced, while the cemetery tones of “Ravens” suggest an ashen wasteland matched only by the smokers’ lungs.

Watch both spots on Buck’s site.

Thanks for the tip, Damien!

Credits

FOR DRAGONS:

– Creative Director: Ryan Honey
– Executive Producer: Maurie Enochson
– Producer: Jason Cohon
– Associate Creative Director: Jeremy Sahlman
– VFX Supervisor: Doug Wilkinson
– Art Director: Bradley Munkowitz
– Character Animation: Matt Everton
– FX TD: Gene Arvan
– Lead 3D Artist: Jens Lindgren
– 3D Artists: John Niehuss, Randa Mohtady, Thomas Madreiter, Mike Colarik, Kyle Raffile, Csaba Letay, Ivan Sokol
– Lead Compositor: Patrick Scruggs
– 2D Artists: Ian Kim, James Rydesky, Jon Gorman, Joe Mullen
– Editor: Aristides Zamora
– Audio: Cypher Audio
– Software: Maya, After Effects

CACTUS

– Strategic Director: Joe Conrad
– Creative Director: Norm Shearer
– Associate Creative Director: Jeff Strahl
– Associate Creative Director: Brian Watson
– Producer: Danielle Bryan
– Account Director: Amy Taylor
– Account Executive: Shanna Grimes

FOR RAVENS:

BUCK

– Creative Director: Ryan Honey
– Executive Producer: Maurie Enochson
– Producer: Nick Terzich
– Associate Producer: Eric Badros
– Associate Creative Director: Jeremy Sahlman
– VFX Supervisor: Doug Wilkinson
– Art Director: Bradley Munkowitz
– Character Animation: Matt Everton, Frantz Vidal
– FX TD: Dave Rindner
– Lead 3D Artist: Jens Lindgren
– Artists: Randa Mohtady, Henry Foster, Frances Yeh, Ivan Sokol, Doug Appleton, Sebastian Nozon
– Lead Compositor: Moses Journey
– Editor: Aristides Zamora
– Audio: Cypher Audio
– Software: Maya, After Effects

CACTUS

– Strategic Director: Joe Conrad
– Creative Director: Norm Shearer
– Associate Creative Director: Jeff Strahl
– Associate Creative Director: Brian Watson
– Producer: Danielle Bryan
– Account Director: Amy Taylor
– Account Executive: Shanna Grime

Posted on Motionographer

Buck: Ravens and Dragons

And now for something completely different. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon The Graveyard, but I’m glad I did. Calling it a video game doesn’t seem right; it’s an immersive, lightly-interactive audio-visual experience, the kind that gets exponentially better with the lights off and your headphones on.

Once you pilot the game’s character to the park bench at the far end of the graveyard, she sits down and a kind of music video (again, not the right term) starts. You can interrupt it whenever you choose, walk back to the graveyard’s entrance and end the game.

That’s it. That’s the whole game. (Well, that’s the whole demo.) But the experience is much greater than the sum of its parts. The game’s developer, Tale of Tales, helps explain the “point” of the game:

The purpose of Tale of Tales is to create elegant and emotionally rich interactive entertainment. We explicitly want to cater to people who are not enchanted by most contemporary computer games, or who wouldn’t mind more variety in their gameplay experiences. For this purpose, all of our products feature innovative forms of interaction, engaging poetic narratives and simple controls.

I really, really like the idea of using gameplay as a mode of presentation. The full-screen experience of gaming both literally and figuratively envelopes you, blurring the line between viewer and player. I think motion designers could do pretty amazing things within the expanding framework of video games.

In fact, now that I think of it, that’s precisely what Rex Crowle did with Media Molecule and LittleBigPlanet. He took his motion design (and character animation) background and fused it with a brilliant but simple concept for a video game. For anyone who’s played LBP, you know how Rex’s design sensibility infuses the entire game with a sense of beauty and friendliness that’s not found in most video games.

By the way, Media Molecule will be speaking at F5.

Credits

The Graveyard
a Tale of Tales
by Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn
March 2008

Animations by Laura Raines Smith
Music by Gerry De Mol
Sound effects by Kris Force

Posted on Motionographer

The Graveyard

“The Divine Comedy,” written by Dante Alighieri in the 14th century, is an allegorical vision of the christian afterlife, depicting a journey through the three realms of the dead. This is a big story.

So, as modern, classy people, we remake it into a video game.

With Psyop at the helm, EA’s “Dante’s Inferno” game trailer captured the imagination of the 13 year old boy inside of me (note to audience: I am not a boy). Knowing that fact says something about the impression this trailer has on someone that loves the original story, but hates video games.

“Inferno” is distinguishably different from most game trailers. Psyop’s spin takes us to an organic place that the 3D game trailer genre has seldom gone before. It’s got the elements of being a cheese-ball 3D showpiece: a glow-y woman, a beefed up man in armor grunting.

But “Inferno” could care less about being a glossy 3D trailer, and more about rendering Hell with all its might—slovenly liquefied flames, orifice-shaped monstrosities tearing through the blurry mess of a rotting flesh landscape. It’s poetic and sick. We’re in hell, and I love it.

Read our interview with the creators at Psyop behind “Dante’s Inferno” game trailer.

UPDATE: Psyop has graciously shared their storyboards and some concept development imagery with us.

Posted on Motionographer

Psyop’s Inferno

Those damn Supinfocom kids do it again! Gary, a short film created by Clement Soulmagnon, Yann Benedi, Sebastien Eballard and Quentin Charillet is a unique vision of a boy struggle with his sexual coming of age. In a time when we are so used to crispy 3d animations with cutesy round beavers and big eyed rabbits as the main characters, that only emulate what Pixar churns out on a yearly basis, I find animations with this illustrative style and somewhat risque storyline to be a far cut above the rest.The Supinfocom and Gobelins students have learned a very hard and important lesson with their software and that is to not let it dictate their style. With each animation that comes out of these schools I find that style exploration is a lengthy process and then they bend the software to meet their needs.

I was able to get in touch with some of the crew and ask them some questions about their film. Its a long interview but make sure to read it, there are some gems of information and techniques about their production not to be missed. Read it here.

Make sure to go to the official Gary website to check out images of their lengthy design and research process. Also if you are wondering, Clement is in Paris working as a young director with Gary Levesque under the name, Viking & Viking. Yann is in London working as a director and illustrator. Sebastien works as a TD and lead animator for Mathematic in Paris and Quentin is freelancing as a 3d animator.

Posted on Motionographer

Gary: Another great Supinfocom short

There is not much info yet on these eight fully-CG spots for the Lexus RX, but i’m sure that Logan’s name on the director’s chair means you guys probably don’t wanna miss this!

Posted on Motionographer

Logan: Lexus Rx