Passion Pictures: Red Bull Music Academy World Tour


If you’ve got a month-long tour of events spanning from Berlin to Toronto, from Melbourne to Detroit, how do you visually convey the magnitude of the event? How about hiring a whole team of artists to collaborate on a mixed-media hommage that moves from city to city, hopping from style to style, to reflect the range of locations and music they’re celebrating, while Sammy Bananas seamlessly provides the soundtrack?

For the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy World Tour, Mother New York and Passion Pictures created a short tribute for each of the 10 cities. Led by Pete Candeland, the talented team of directors blended 2D, 3D, stop-motion, photography, illustration and CG. I’m most impressed with the many co-directors and art directors that got credited and the creative freedom to run with their respective sections.

An interesting model for sure, and it sounds like they had a lot of fun as well. Read on for some insight into the process.

Posted on Motionographer

Rockband Beatles – Intro & Outro

Dopo l’uscita di “Across the Universe” è ormai chiaro che i testi dei Beatles si prestano perfettamente ad interpretazioni visionarie dal gusto surreale.
Accade lo stesso nei due nuovi video realizzati da Pete Candeland per l’agenzia Passion Pictures, in cui si ripercorre idealmente la storia e l’evoluzione dei Fab Four, dagli esordi in bianco e nero negli scantinati […]

Happy City

Bird is the word.

Passion Pictures’ Pete Candeland: Coke Zero “Happy Kingdom”

Built atop the repertoire of his work with Passion Pictures for the Gorillaz, director Pete Candeland’s buzz reached a fever pitch with the indelible Rock Band cinematic for The Beatles.

In “Happy Kingdom” for Coke Zero, Candeland delivers the goods again and lines the court with a rich cast of characters plucked straight from medieval times. Chock-full of pizazz, “Happy Kingdom” is a spectacle— a dazzling array of eye-candy that embodies the directors flair for extravagance and lavish aesthetics into an eclectic parody of fairy-tale clichés.


Title: Happy Kingdom
Length: 1×60 with 1′45′, 1×40′, and 1×30′ CD
Client: The Coca-Cola Company
Product: Coke Zero

Agency: Ogilvy Argentina
Executive Creative Director: Gastón Bigio
Head of Art: Jonathan Gurvit
Creative Directors: Javier Mentasti, Christian Camean
Agency Producer: Laura Passalacqua

Production Co: PASSION PICTURES

DIRECTOR: Pete Candeland
Producer: Debbie Crosscup
Executive Producer: Hugo Sands, Michael Adamo
Head of CG: Jason Nicolas
VFX Supervisor: Neil Riley
Technical Direcor: Julian Hodgson
Directors Assistant: Giles Dill
Storyboarding: Kevin Dart, Kim Frederiksen
Character Design/Development: Ron Kurniawan, Pete Candeland, Dan Sumich, Mario Ucci
Production Coordinator: Crystal Crompton
Matte Painting / Backgrounds: Kim Frederiksen, Lukasz Pazera
CG Modelling: Mario Ucci, Ian Brown, Matthias Bjurstrom, Doug Lassance, Dan Sweeney, Craig Maden
Rigging: Chris Dawson, Francois Pons, Julian Hodgson
CG Animation Supervisor: Wes Coman
Animation CG: Cath Brooks, Chris Welsby, David Sigrist, Melanie Climent
Animation FX: Jamie Franks, Tommy Andersson
Art Director: Mario Ucci
Texture \Shading: Mario Ucci, Ian Brown, Sally Wilson, Rick Thiele, Matthias Bjurstrom, Melanie Climent, Craig Maden, Nico Domerego, Dan Sweeney, Doug Lassance
Lighting/Rendering: Quentin Vien, Guillaume Cassuto, Claire Michaud, Rick Thiele
Lead Compositing: Niamh Lines
Compositing: Johnny Still, John Taylor, Lee Gingold
Editor: Jamie Foord, Dan Greenway
Technique and Software: XSI for CG, AFX/Nuke for Comp
Telecine: Rushes
Sound Mix: Toby Griffin at The Jungle Group
Music: Power Solo

Posted on Motionographer

1st Ave. Machine: Audi ‘Unboxed’

1stave_AudiUnboxed

Happy 2009 to everyone! The folks at 1st Ave Machine and Passion Pictures are ringing in the new year with “Unboxed“, an imaginative commercial for the Audi Q5. Not your typical car advertisement, the spot effortlessly combines traditional and 3D animation. I’m particularly a fan of nice touches like the camera racking focus from the character’s face to his hands and back to his face.

The two co-directors, Aaron Duffy (1st Ave Machine) and Russell Brooke (Passion Pictures), divided their roles on the project. Duffy took responsibility for the overall vision for the spot and the transformation of the car, and Brooke for the 2D drawn character.

Aaron was kind enough to answer a couple questions:

How did you coordinate between the cel and 3D animation?
The first step was to choose a design for the character. Russell Brooke, who co-directed the spot with me, did dozens of designs for the folks at BBH to look at. It did not take us long to settle on our final character, whom we decided was a good balance between charming and industrious. As I built the story boards I worked with Russell to make sure that our character would feel “comfortable” performing all of his tasks as he builds the car. As we went into 3D design the 2D animators were able to use printed frames of the animatic to estimate how the character would look on the form. When a piece of the 2D animation was finished we would UV map it onto the 3D animation and move it around until it fit appropriately.

Were any elements shot or was it all 3D? What software was used?
The final spot is a combination of live action (filmed) environment, 3D animation and 2D cel animation. Nothing in the final product was shot practically. However, I did shoot a lot of little stop-motion tests along the way to figure out how to manipulate the cardboard properly.

The software we used was XSI and Nuke.

How many cardboard boxes were sacrificed for the cause?
My space at Passion Pictures was a constant cardboard mess. But that was the best part. It was very important to me that the construction of the car felt like real tactile moments. I made paper and cardboard models of every stage of the animation so that the translation to 3D would be accurate. In the end it was extremely important to work from cardboard models because it is impossible to make all the unpredictable wrinkles and bends from scratch. Having the bending cardboard mechanisms in front of us dictated how the 3D forms were animated and textured and how the character’s face and arms would bend with it.

The collaboration involved in this project was particularly fun. It was our first project as 1stAve UK and working with the folks at Passion Pictures was like a dream. There was a lot of good input and good times all the way through and I can’t wait to do it again.

Title: “Unboxed”
Length: 1 x 60
Client: Audi
Product: Audi Q5
Agency: BBH
Creative Directors: Nick Kidney, Kevin Stark
Creatives: Maja Fernqvist, Joakim Saul
Producer: Olly Chapman
Music: “The Car Song” Woody Guthrie
Production Co: Co-produced by Passion Pictures + 1st Ave Machine
Co-directors: Aaron Duffy (1st Ave), Russell Brooke (Passion)
Creative Director: Arvind Palep, (1st Ave)
Producer: Belinda Blacklock, Anna Lord
Exec Producer: Serge Patzak (1st Ave), Michael Adamo (Passion)
Animation: Passion Pictures

Posted on Motionographer

1st Ave. Machine: Audi ‘Unboxed’