Hasta La Motion!

Jul 31

Ne-o Lights Up the Night for Audi

Posted in: audi, b&w, bbh, black and white, bulbs, General, live action, ne-o, stink, vfx

The release of this one slipped under my radar, but hopefully its new to many of you as well.

For the release of Audi’s new Economy Drive, Ne-o and BBH, London use the analogous form of a bulb to represent the energy saved by the car’s engine stopping when it does.

This black and white piece is packed with stunning cinematic moments as well more human vignettes that fit with Ne-o’s past work. I personally love what they’ve done with the shadow-play on the environment. It’s an added visual layer that really pushes the theme of light to the next level.

Client: Audi UK
Title: Economy Drive
Product: Audi
Agency: BBH
Creatives: Paul Yull & Adi Birkinshaw
Stink Producer: Juliet Naylor
DOP: Joost Van Gelder
Editor: Tim Thornton-Allan @ Marshall Street
Post: The Mill

Posted on Motionographer

Jul 28

Tron Legacy: Teaser Scene

Posted in: feature film, General, joseph kosinski, trailer, tron, vfx

Unveiled at Comic-Con last week in San Diego, this teaser scene for the forthcoming Tron Legacy movie from Walt Disney Pictures looks incredibly hot. With Joseph Kosinski at the helm, the film promises to be, at the very least, a visual spectacle worth the price of admission.

We’re working on getting more information about the production. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: We’ve been cleared to share that Digital Domain, with whom Kosinski has worked on many projects in the past, handled the visual effects for this sequence.

Posted on Motionographer

May 19

The Cast of Firefly is Back! (as stickfigures)

Posted in: funny, tv, vfx, visual effects

Every web-nerd’s favorite comic strip xkcd just wrapped up a 5 part series called “The Race” featuring stick figure likenesses of Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau and chock full’o inside VFX/Sci-Fi geek humor. It’s laugh out loud funny. if your into that sort of thing.

(LINK) to Part 1

Share and Enjoy:

May 16

Perrier “Melting” and “House of Saddam”

Posted in: Architecture, General, melt, vfx, water, wax

If you haven’t seen Ogilvy & Mather Paris’ Perrier “Melting” spot on the interw3bs yet, you will. It’s one of those projects destined for viral stardom. And for good reason.

Frédéric Planchon (Academy Films) did a great job directing the project towards a satisfying finish.

I’m not sure who handled the vfx, but they’re spot on. (Any help with further credits would be great.) La Maison did a beautiful job on the CG. Thanks to Todd Akita in the comments for this link, which sheds a little light on the fluid simulations at work in the spot.

Red Bee: “House of Saddam”

I can’t help but also share an earlier project here, a promo from agency Red Bee for the BBC “House of Saddam” series.

The vfx (handled by Finish) for “House of Saddam” are much less ambitious and on a smaller scale, but they serve the spot well enough.

It’s the application of the melting concept in the second spot that wins me over, though. It perfectly encapsulates the rise and fall of Saddam’s empire—from stately confidence to embarrassing meltdown. The house of wax metaphor sticks with you well beyond the last frame.

Thanks to Denny Tu for bringing “House of Saddam” to my attention.

Posted on Motionographer

May 15

How To Do Every Visual Effect Ever (Pretty Much)

Posted in: 3d, compositing, howto, techniques, tips, vfx, visual effects

Smashing Magazine has posted a list of Best Tutorials For Cinematic Visual Effects. The post links to 62 techniques ranging from the 007 Intro to Meteor Crashes. So this one post contains all the knowledge you would need to make a tent-pole VFX feature or start your own effects boutique. Right? Seriously, if all this information was available to me when I got started, it would have been much harder to impress people by showing them a chrome sphere on a checkerboard.

(LINK) to the full post

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Apr 30

Gravity: Pelephone “Canons”

Posted in: General, happy, live action, surreal, vfx, war, yarn

As a follow up to their previous spot for Israeli telecom company Pelephone, Gravity teamed up with director Eli Sverdlov on another spot full of charm and cheer for agency Adler Chomski & Warshavsky/Grey Israel.

Like “Other World,” “Canons” is reminiscent of director Rupert Sanders‘ penchant for magical realism, but with a decidedly campy twist. The saturated visuals and grin-worthy denouement suggest an alternate reality of storybook proportions, the kind of place that could just as easily fit in a snow globe as it could in your imagination.

I like that level of approachability for something so surreal. It’s a difficult thing to master in 60 seconds of airtime.

Posted on Motionographer

Apr 14

Retro-Hack – The Gallerie Abominate

Posted in: 3d, history, vfx, visual effects

Nowadays aspiring your visual effects artists have a lot a resources that weren’t available in the old days (like 1990-2000) Fancy modeling,animation and rendering tools had yet to hit the market in large affordable numbers not to mention the lack of decent CG training on-line or otherwise. One side effect of all this is that the bar is set so high that something that was once a staple of the industry is near extinction.

I’m talking about truly awful imagery created on a computer.

There was once a digital shrine created to hold those works that had transcended from just bad to sublime. It was called The Gallerie Abominate an offshoot of Richard Morris’ Maya resource site.

It was a place you could always count on for a laugh and to gain small comfort in the fact that there was always something out there worse than what you you were doing. The archive hasn’t been updated since 2001 but it’s still worth more than a few chuckles.

LINK to The Gallerie Abominate Archive

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Apr 13

“3d Guy” Blows His Stack

Posted in: 3d, funny, vfx, visual effects

Ever get sick of being referred to as a “3d Guy”? Well if you have you may enjoy an open letter rant posted on cgpov.com. It’s got some gems including.

Please do not ever again refer to us as “3D guys, THE 3D guy” or the particularly nauseating “3D Guru”. It’s dismissive, degrading, and just sounds f**king dumb.

The fun continues from there.

LINK to the whole rant

(via Eric Alba)

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Apr 07

Look Ma, I’m King Of The Nerds! – My Fringe VFX Interview

Posted in: filmmaking, techniques, tv, vfx, visual effects

The folks over at Sci Fi Scoop were nice enough to interview me about the effects work I’ve had the pleasure of working of for J.J. Abrams’ series Fringe. Not only did they write up a nice little piece, but also posted a recording of parts of our conversation along with a nifty slide show. Check it out, and try not to get too mesmerized by my droning vfx blather.

LINK to the full Fringe article

Share and Enjoy:

Mar 06

Five reasons why Japanese Spider-Man is better than regular Spider-man

Posted in: funny, history, vfx, visual effects

Japanese Spider-man fights giant half-dinosaur-half-robots from space
Japanese Spider-man’s “Eyes sparkle with a flash of anger” (according to the theme song)
Japanese Spider-man rides a kick-ass dirt bike
Japanese Spider-man can summon a giant robot Spider-Man from it’s underground hangar using his web shooter
Japanese Spider-man’s giant robot shoots out an awesome Spider-Man race car from it’s chest for Japanese Spider-Man to ride around in

’nuff Said

(via io9)

Share and Enjoy:

Ne-o Lights Up the Night for Audi

Tron Legacy: Teaser Scene

The Cast of Firefly is Back! (as stickfigures)

Perrier “Melting” and “House of Saddam”

Red Bee: “House of Saddam”

How To Do Every Visual Effect Ever (Pretty Much)

Gravity: Pelephone “Canons”

Retro-Hack – The Gallerie Abominate

“3d Guy” Blows His Stack

Look Ma, I’m King Of The Nerds! – My Fringe VFX Interview

Five reasons why Japanese Spider-Man is better than regular Spider-man

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