May
17
John Adams vfx
Posted in: 1Visual effects break-down for John Adams.
May
17
Star Trek designer Neville Page
Posted in: Star Trekdiv xmlns=http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtmla href=http://www.vfxworld.com/?atype=articlesid=3984Creature Designer Neville Page Talks Star Trek/a, at VFXWorld./div
May
16
A portrait of True Blood’s return.
Posted in: American TV, hbo, six feet under, true blood, Videos: TV
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If there’s one thing I love more than a good cast photo (like the cast of the Sopranos on a boat, or the cast of Scrubs.. also on a boat), its a good cast promo.
Full or overly symbolic references and imagery, its the kind of stuff you can only get away with when your playing outside the bounds of the shows usual narrative (or at least a dream sequence) and quite frankly no one does it better than HBO.
Take for example the series return of True Blood, set to the Bob Dylan track “Beyond Here Lies Nothing” is a beautiful moving portrait, open to intrepretion of what we might be able to expect from the latest instalment of the vampire thriller.
Another show that was rampant in there use of seasonal teasers was Six Feet Under, watch some examples after the jump.
Season 5, featuring the song “Breathe Me” by Sia.
Season 4, featuring the song “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone.
Season 3, featuring the song “A Rush Of Blood To The Head” by Coldplay.
May
16
Perrier “Melting” and “House of Saddam”
Posted in: Architecture, General, melt, vfx, water, waxIf 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.
May
16
May/June Events Roundup
Posted in: calendar, community, events, General
Photo by Victoria Peckham
There’s a lot going over the next month. I’ll try to round up a few of the relevant events here. Stay tuned for a full-fledged calendar feature soon.
May 20th: Forget The Film, Watch The Titles! (Los Angeles)
Coming up this Wednesday the 20th at the Billy Wilder Theater in LA, Flux and Forget The Film, Watch The Titles! have organized a fantastic lineup of title designers: Jamie Caliri of Duck, Danny Yount of Prologue, Karin Fong of Imaginary Forces, Garson Yu of yU+co, and Kyle Cooper of Prologue. Wow.
May & June: Cut & Paste Asia
Cut & Paste is currently on its Asian tour. Hong Kong was last week; coming up are Shanghai (05/23/09), Tokyo (05/30/09) and Sydney (06/06/09). Also make sure to put the Global Championships on June 20th in NYC on your calendar.
May 21st-30th: LOOP (Barcelona)
LOOP is a multi-day event that includes a festival, a fair and a conference within the field of video art. And it takes place in one of my favorite cities, Barcelona. Sounds like a great way to spend a few days.
June 16th-18th: Promax|BDA North America (NYC)
This is a must-attend event for many of you, and this year looks really strong. Confirmed speakers include Robert Redford, Bob Saget, John Maeda and Ralph Steadman, among many others. (Little ol’ me will be doing State of Design on June 17th in Grand Ballroom, if you want to stop by and say hi.)
June 18-19th: Sonar (Barcelona)
Sonar is “Barcelona’s International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art” from June 18-19. This year’s lineup is a tour de force of musicians and DJ’s accompanied by visuals and installations from around the world.
Know of more events?
Send ‘em my way! I’m working on a calendar feature for the site, and I’d love to start harvesting stuff now.
Now get out there and mingle!
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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May
15
Tiger Beer by Octobor
Posted in: 1Tiger Beer Sieges New York, London and Paris. Three nice spots by Octobor.
May
15
Sesso e banconote
Posted in: Animazione 3d, banconote animate, character animation, Commercial, Featured, Gods of Design, Motiongraphics, optix, Stranieri, texture designUna “romantica” storia d’amore in un mondo fatto di banconote. Devo dire che la prima volta che l’ho visto ci sono rimasto di stucco. Guardare per credere. Lo spot, tutto realizzato in 3d con un alto livello di texture design, è stato creato da Andreas Pohl e Petra Delitsch. Prodotto da Steffi Beck E Tobias Ziegler presso lo studio tedesco Optix. Sul sito ci sono molti esempi di ottimo design video.
Credits
Animazione 3D: Markus Geerts (capo), Michael Gottschalk, Florian Weyh, Marc Goecke.
Compositing: Marcel Lemme, Daniel Brylka.
Agenzia creativa: Grabarz & Partner.
Creativi: Fedja Kehl e Paul von Mühlendahl.
May
15
Prologue: OFFF 2009 Titles
Posted in: events, General, offf, portugal, title sequence
Prologue’s Ilya Abulhanov designed and directed this title sequence for the 2009 OFFF festival in Oeiras, Portugal.
Starring a mysterious cast clad in para-military gear, the sequence feels like the pre-amble to a guerrilla warfare strike in the not-so-distant future. The quirky costumes and desolate landscapes are the real focus here, mixing elements of Half-Life, Star Wars and the Mujahideen. Ilya does a nice job balancing the sparse cinematographic compositions with solid type and understated graphics.
As always, HECQ delivered an outstanding soundtrack that extends the ambience of the visuals and builds tension throughout the project.
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