Onesize: FITC Amsterdam


Stunning main titles for FITC Amsterdam 2013 by Onesize. The design is by Bradley G Munkowitz (aka GMUNK), who also did the whole design package for the festival. More info on the project and collateral pieces here (and a process video below).

The main inspiration for the creative came from the DMT-Delicious moments in the super-favorite film Enter the Void… Munko has been on a tunnel infinite-void kick for some years now and wanted to build a practical, LED installation driven by graphic sequencing, utilizing the techniques learned from the FOTB Titles and applying them into a more densely packed setup called the PYRADICAL… Once the Pyrad was constructed, the aim was to capture the visuals with both high-resolution Film and Still cameras, which would generate a vast library of content to pull from to produce the artwork for the Conference Package.



Design & Concept: GMUNK
Production & Direction : ONESIZE
Type Font Design: Brian M Gosset
Music & Sound Design: MassiveMusic

Posted on Motionographer

Making Of: Seattle International Film Festival 2009

Our previous post about Digital Kitchen’s work for the Seattle International Film Festival tickled my curiosity: How exactly were the animation rigs set up? How did they maintain control over the acetate layers?

So I asked DK if they’d be willing to share some making-of morsels, and they came through with the goods!

A little explanation from DK:

In executing the piece, we created a small set-up in our Seattle studio consisting of two rear-illuminated lightboxes made of 5 panes of glass layered on top of a diffusion layer. Each layer of glass had an element that was either animated frame by frame or was static to create the environment.

For example, a scene might have a layer of diffusion, a painted layer, a layer of characters that we could articulate, and a layer of organic materials, etc. that created the environment. We mounted a Canon Rebel XSi over animation stands, and connected directly to a Mac Pro workstation running the stop-motion software Dragon.

DK also acknowledges their inspiration for the project:

DK developed an approach that not only fit within the overarching campaign, but celebrated the hand-made qualities of early stop motion animation as well as the universality and diversity of SIFF – films from around the world that range from the highest production value to the most raw, stripped down filmmaking.

In doing so, DK sought to pay homage to one of the oldest feature-length films, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, by German animator Lotte Reiniger, and also drew inspiration from the work of Jamie Caliri, Kara Walker, Kim Keever, and the Quay Brothers.

Check out the finished project on Digital Kitchen’s site.

Posted on Motionographer

Some LEDs and the Duality of In-Camera Effects

Two LED spots have been dropped off the back of another. The first one, for Samsung, from The Viral Factory (director James Rouse) in London can be seen below:

We grabbed this one a few weeks ago. Since then, it has racked up a decent 4.7 million hits on Youtube. For those who may have missed it, it follows approximately 300 sheep covered in LED lights, a cast of local shepherds and their sheepdogs. The film features sheep being herded into a series of ever more improbable shapes. “The Viral Factory will not be drawn on what was real and what has been achieved in post, but a YouTube debate is predicted.”

honda_light
This next, more recent, Honda spot is brought to you by W+K Amsterdam and Erik Van Wyk of Bouffant in Capetown. In this spot, the headlights of Hondas become the matrix in which to create simple animations. Most importantly, this was all captured in-camera.

Aside from the creative merits of the Honda ‘Lights’ spot, I’d like to shift the focus to the accompanying making-of video. Unlike the purely viral-format of the Samsung spot, W+K extracted their viral from the TVC shoot. Not only do they get a ‘free’ spot from it all, but they humanize the brand and introduce people to the innovation that goes on under the hood of it’s spots. By keeping it all in-camera, a BTS becomes something interesting enough to watch. Ramp up the scale of the actual shoot and you can do the same to the ‘wow’ factor.

The increase in creating supplemental BTS films seems to have hit a spike during the massive success of the Bravia Color Campaign. The BTS for the ‘Balls’ spot from Fallon/Juan Cabral and Fugslig is one of the more memorable. In preparation for the roll out of ‘Paint,’ Sony’s micro-site hosted a BTS with a countdown to the commercial’s premiere. And who could forget ‘Bunnies‘ and the making-of?

The price of a potential viral hype machine and a chance to show off your in-camera craftiness may not be more than a hand-held second unit. As ad dollars drop, web-content distribution grows and consumers become more savvy (and critical) of advertising, this practice seems like a multi-pronged solution to a few of the ad worlds evolving needs.

Posted on Motionographer

Paper Animation Pt. 4

I pop up books hanno sempre affascinato i bambini ma anche gli adulti, sono un fantastico modo per creare ambientazioni fantastiche e surreali.
Lo stesso effetto strabiliante viene aumentato quando ci sono le immagini in movimento o quando le pagine del libro servono come transizione per l’animazione.
Su MG ci sono stati già altri articoli che riguardano i pop up books, ma qui voglio mostrarvi il making of del film Enchanted (2007 Walt Disney).
Lo studio Reel Fx Entertainment spiega come hanno prodotto le transizioni per il film e di come sia stato difficile concepire la struttura delle animazioni.

Clicca sull’immagine per vedere il video

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Il secondo video è di Asif Mian per il videoclip “Fast Cars” di Aesop Rock.
In questo caso l’animazione è a passo uno, molto più grezza e scarna, ma tutti gli effetti pop up sono stati fatti a mano e molti frames sono stati stampati e incollati sul libro che viene sfogliato.

Clicca sull’immagine per vedere il video

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Director: Asif Mian
DP: Valentina Caniglia
Art Director: Asif Mian
Producer: Chesley Heymsfield
Post Production: Evaq Studio

Articolo redatto da Stefano Paron