Hasta La Motion!

Speaking of POV’s and interesting twists — Minneapolis’ design/animation powerhouse, Make, goes all out in almost every medium for their new Palm Springs Short Fest Program Opener.

A seemingly happy couple is doing everything in their grasp to have a moment of peace when we quickly realize that they are on set and about to be transformed into a barrage of animated likenesses.

The characters are willed by the indecisive hand of their director, who seamlessly shifts them from worlds of live-action, 3d, 2d, cel and claymation. This gets very messy for all involved, resulting in a stylistic mash-up. This piece’s flawless execution and transitions push it the next level.

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It was no surprise when I learned the new spot for The Beatles: Rockband was directed by Pete Candeland of Passion Pictures, director of The Gorillaz music videos and done the past two Rock Band openers (1 & 2).

The illustrations and designs are gorgeous, the transitions are seamless and the piece builds momentum to the very end. Not only does the energy of the piece build, but so do the complexity of the animation techniques themselves. We start off in an illustrated, cut out world and wind up in a fully immersing Psyop-esque jam fest. By the end of the video I had to keep rewinding to catch all the references.

Enjoy.

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Sometimes a great project comes your way, and you know you’ve just got to do it—budgets and deadlines be damned. That’s how London studio The House of Curves must have felt when Grasshopper Films and agency TBWA tapped them to create this showstopper for Zurich’s Europride gay festival coming up in June.

The House of Curves’ Andrew Daffy tackled quite a few tasks for this labor of lust: editing, previsualization, modeling, animation, lighting, compositing and even co-writing the lyrics with director Richard Hickey, who maintained a pitch-perfect balance between magic and kitsch throughout the spot.

Watch “Pufff” a couple times to catch all the subtle interactions with the physical space and the transformations of the objects surrounding the sleeping couple.

Just to prove that Andrew (who looks like a cross between John Cusack and Seth McFarlane) was fully committed to the spot, he even dolled himself up in drag for a little character research. Head over to the theater page for all the action, and keep your eye out for a making-of podcast from The House of Curves.

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If Jack Black did a modern rendition of the Yogi Bear cartoons I watched as a kid, it might come out something like Buck’s hugely ambitous “Unbelievable Song” for Coke Zero and Wieden+Kennedy.

The spot was actually completed well over a year ago, but it was shelved until recently, when it was allowed to air in Brazil.

Don’t miss the beautiful (and frequently hilarious) concept art on Buck’s project page.

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Psyop crafted these two grin-worthy fairy tales for the California Milk Processor Board and agency Grupo Gallegos: “Sad Princess” and “Medusa.”

This is a study in the art of narrative compression. Each spot feels like fully realized fairy tale—and yet nothing is rushed. From the lush mattes to the tiny dancing mouse at the end of “Sad Princess,” each frame feels like a pitch board packed with detail.

Psyop apparently had some serious creative leverage in how exactly to illustrate Gallegos’ scripts. Says Creative Director Marco Spier:

We had a lot of fun coming up with the possibilities of her wrath. And thinking about how to transition from her tender little tear drop-into wreaking havoc on the town’s men, before turning into a tumultuous ocean, in a legendary storm, all in 2.3 seconds.

One technical note: Scrub through the snakes-to-hair transformation at the end of “Medusa.” While a cross-disolve might have done the trick, the snakes are actually morphing into hair. Despite not registering on a conscious level, labor-intesive details like that are what separate Psyop from the herd.

Watch “Sad Princess” and “Medusa”

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