Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” the reboot of the classic science TV series helmed by Carl Sagan that aired in 1980, should be required viewing for all of us.

In “Cosmos,” artful visual effects and elegant motion design inform and delight in equal parts. Animation is as essential to the success of “Cosmos” as the lovable hosting talents of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

All-Star Team

With executive producer Seth MacFarlane behind the show and a 13-week run on Fox and National Geographic, the creators of “Cosmos” are going toe-to-toe with primetime. The premiere launched opposite AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and ABC’s heavily promoted “Resurrection” and still managed to rake in an impressive 8.5 million viewers.

Brannon Braga, co-executive producer and director, is no stranger to space drama. He co-wrote “Star Trek: First Contact” and executive produced all of the Star Trek series after the original.

Co-directing from behind the camera is DP Bill Pope, best known as the cinematographer for “The Matrix.”

Then there’s Rainer Gombos, visual effects supervisor of “Game of Thrones” fame. VFX shots themselves have been handled by a who’s who of facilities including Framestore, BUF, Tippett Studio, Atomic Fiction and Montreal’s Mokko Studio.

Not too shabby.

The Title Sequence

The title sequence (seen above) is as thoughtful and jaw-dropping as the show itself.

Created by BBDG (Shaun Collings and Curtis Doss), the opener oscillates between the cosmic and the microscopic, the tangible and the ethereal. Like the show, the sequence uses the power of metaphor to draw parallels between the mysterious grandeur of the universe and the grand reality of our everyday lives.

cosmos-title_0000_a
cosmos-title_0005
cosmos-title_0004
cosmos-title_0003
cosmos-title_0002
cosmos-title_0001
cosmos-title_0006_b

Character Animation

The animated sequences produced by Kara Vallow (with whom MacFarlane has a long working relationship) and Six Point Harness are an alternative take on the live-action based historic segments from the original “Cosmos.”

In an interview with Geekosystem, Vallow explains the reasoning behind using animation:

Seth [MacFarlane] thought that [using live action for the historic segments] was going to be prohibitive in this incarnation of the series, because viewers are much more sophisticated now than they were then in terms of historical time periods being recreated by Hollywood. We’re attuned to seeing big budget period movies and costumes and stuff, and in the original series they were done very low budget.

I don’t think they thought that viewers were going to accept that now, and they didn’t have the time to do a big budget Gosford Park type imagining of the narrative. So, it was Seth’s idea to do those in animation.

Watch it online

Full episodes of “Cosmos” can be viewed on the official site and on Hulu.


Or if you’re feeling lazy, watch the first episode here.

Kim Taylor: A Living Moss & Celestial Dynamics


Two animations by London-based Kim Taylor, whose works often explore the imagery of science and nature.

Posted on Motionographer

Time Lapse of the Milky Way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How To Feed The World

How To Feed The World is a 9-minute film directed by Denis van Waerbeke for an exhibition called Bon Appetit at a science museum in Paris. It’s mainly aimed at kids aged 9 to 14, so the tone is slighty educational, but the inventive graphics and energetic animation keep the tone light and funny, while also illustrating a serious situation.

Much like Jonathan Jarvis’s excellent Crisis of Credit Visualized, it takes a complex problem and clearly explains the issues while also showing viewers a solution using easily digestible (if you’ll pardon the pun) graphic system. Take a look!


Credits:
Directed by Denis van Waerebeke
Co-written with Sabrina Massen

Design : Montag

Animation : Juliette Hamon-Damourette

Sound Design : Ruelgo

Voice :
Michel Elias (french)
Mark Jane (english)
Andrea de Luca (italian)

CSI team:
Dorothée Vatinel,
Maud Gouy,
Manon Courtay,
Alisson Boiffard

CSI Producer :
Sabrina Massen

Produced by Montag

Posted on Motionographer

Impactist: Parallelostory

For most people, the concept of an infinite number of parallel universes that encompass every possible outcome for any given situation brings to mind notions of impossibly long mathematical equations that describe our reality in the soulless terms of math and science.

For Portland-based Impactist, it brings to mind love.

“Parallelostory” uses charmingly simple illustrations to weave an inter-dimensional tale of attraction. As always, Impactist (a.k.a. Kelly Meador and Daniel Elwing) created everything in this short, including the music. It perfectly sums up their hand-made aesthetic and delightful sensitivity to color and form.

QuickTime version available on the Impactist site.

Thanks to two if by see for the nudge.

Posted on Motionographer

Get Educated! Watch Documentaries!

SnagFilms is a new site dedicated to sharing documentaries. The have hundreds of titles you cans stream for free. Pretty awesome! You can sort by topic or channel and they have tons of good stuff from Super Size Me (if you somehow missed it) to Heavy Metal in Baghdad…

Start watching.

hmib_press_kit

Radiolab: Visual Experiment 01 “Parabolas”

This one’s definitely not for everyone, but for those of you out there (like me) who are massive fans of the WNYC show Radiolab, you’ll be pleased to know that they’re apparently playing around with visuals, too.

Their maiden voyage, Parabolas, was directed by Will Hoffman with Derek Paul Boyle as the DP. Tim Hecker’s “Trade Winds, White Heat” provides a beautiful sonic backdrop.

Strap on your headphones and settle down for a meditative experience.

For the uninitiated: “Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Each episode is an investigation—a patchwork of people, sounds, stories all centered around one big idea. Radiolab comes out in seasons of 5 shows, and today is heard around the country on over 150 stations.” You can also listen to Radio Lab as a podcast.

Posted on Motionographer

Radiolab: Visual Experiment 01 “Parabolas”