New music video AM Theme for the band ‘Other Lives’ directed by Justen Renyer … in regards to the animation, “The technique consisted of rotoscoping using straights lines and many anchor points, so that the anchor points would slide around the contour of the shapes from frame to frame. The footage is a mixture of […]
Marc Atlan Design updated their facebook group with several new projects including designs for these James Perse Window displays. Join their group for all the latest updates. We’ve heard there are some big things coming in early 2010.
It’s inappropriate, but hilarious. Childlike, but grown. Like David Shrigley, but with color. Rob White’s forté for making satirical art at its most primal and ridiculous degree can be found in his ongoing project the Art Hole. Since 2002, a growing collection of exactly 907 drawings and 5 pieces of animation have been stockpiled, investigating politics, humor, and the unconventional. Check his stuff here.
Warning: These films are not safe for work (NSFW).
We got the scoop on these deliciously macabre promos from Mainframe last week, but we’ve been holding out for a Q&A. Well, the Q&A is here, so feast on all three promos before getting the lowdown below.
Created in collaboration with Ministry of Sound’s “brand innovation group,” MSHK, and illustrator Neal Murren (Breed London), Mainframe brought to life the viciously dark novel, Tomas, written by Ministry of Sound co-founder James Palumbo.
How hard was it going from Neal Murren’s illustrations to full motion? Did you feel boxed in it all?
This did cause a few problems, as the characters weren’t really drawn for animation. It just took some careful cutting out, painting back in the hidden areas and also sourcing or drawing similar imagery. I think using black and white really helped everything to amalgamate. I tried to create each scene around the angle the characters were drawn at so I didn’t have to force them into any un natural positions, this was the only real limitation, as for what was going on around them was left to me.
Were there technical challenges that resulted from this arrangement?
I wanted to match the detail of the animation to the detail of the drawings, which was quite daunting; animating enormous breasts, a dripping penis and exploding heads was all new territory, but I always found a means to an end. The most ambitious was the first shot in cocks away where we are flying through the night sky of French Riviera amongst a squadron of cock bombers. Due to time limitations, I created the whole thing in 2.5D, building the bombers out of flat ribs like a toy balsa wood plane. Once in silhouette, they looked right.
On the whole, I tried to get the most out of camera moves and background detail. Also I had about two weeks to complete each one, so redrawing characters was out of the question.
I’d love to know what the brief was and how they ended up here!
I was given TOMAS to read and they highlighted the three scenes which they wanted animated, as well as showing us Neal’s illustrations. Then through the course of a few meetings with the client, we nailed down what we would like to focus on, how the SFX and music would work and most importantly, how the animations were going to create publicity for the book.
The client gave me a lot of creative freedom, and I knew that for this to work it would have to be shocking. I think it’s great that anyone who sees the animations and then reads TOMAS will have these strange scenes ingrained in their mind’s eye. When I read the book, I found myself seeing the story in black and white, which is quite interesting.
FRENDEN’s explosively colorful illustrations came to us late last night via the whispernetz and forced us to immediately watch a stack of powell peralta videos, do an acid drop, and call in our medicinal marijuana prescription. If these prints came in blacklightable velvet we’d quit everything, make our bedrooms into a shrine to teenagedom, and dole out bags of whipits and JD cards to all our friends as communion.
Antwerp-based artist Kati Heck’s porn meets renaissance mosaic collage has been a recent inspiration in WMIG land. Her work expresses a complex visual narrative through photorealism and roughly illustrated images all smooshed into a massive single image that falls just short of making sense. Check out more after the jump.
Superstar Illustrator McBess teamed up with Simon, their mates and the Mill to churn out this gorgeous music video for their own band, The Dead Pirates.
The characters featured are drawn in his signature style and animated flawlessly. They might remind you a bit of the Gorillaz Feel Good Inc. video, which I must say is about the best company to be in. The whole piece is visually beautiful in its reduced colour palette and soft shadows, and at the same time it tells a cool story that ties in with the music perfectly.
Editor’s note: Bits at the end of this video might be deemed not safe for work.
It could be the sad, sad sound of the always-growing-louder death knell of print that gets me all squishy for John-Paul Thurlow’s blog, COVERS, or the quaint nostalgia emanating from the stacks upon stacks of glossy magazines which I no longer have in my possession; but no matter which it is, combined with some swine flu and the remote possibility of someone douchey going to jail for torture, it feels like the times are a changing. So, what better way to celebrate than to sit with some beautifully illustrated mag covers from simpler times and toast to cooling off. Cheers!
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
Illustrator:
Will Barras
Sound:
Ian Chatham at Blue Post Production
Posted on Motionographer
Although he’s been working hard at Ed Banger Records for some time, So Me launched into wider view with his work on the “D.A.N.C.E.” music video for JUSTICE.
His hand-drawn illustration style, penchant for retro typography and undeniable hipster appeal have helped So Me become a sought-after name nearly overight. Amidst cries of “sell out,” he even teamed up with JUSTICE to create a bottle design for Coke. (The accompanying video has been pulled from YouTube and every other video-sharing service.)
But stardom aside, So Me’s music video for Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘N’ Night” feels homegrown and from the heart. It’s rough around the edges but full of imagination and charming visuals. The melange of daydream imagery is oddly compelling—like a mashup from a coloring book and a smoke-out. Fitting and fun for the subject at hand.
Paris-based Mathematic also deserves a shout-out for their work on the animation and post-production for this project.
Thanks to Johnny for the tip!
Director : So-Me
DOP : Arnaud Potier
Producer : Mourad Belkeddar
Production company : El Niño
Animation and post-production: Mathematic
Post-production supervisor : Guillaume Larose
Head of animation: Yue WU (at UFO)
Flame and After Effects: Clement Germain, Arnaud Ecobichon and Vince
3D artist: Clement
Posted on Motionographer
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.
