Hasta La Motion!

Apr 21

Impactist: Parallelostory

Posted in: character animation, General, love story, physics, retro, science, space

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

Apr 02

The Lost Tribes of New York City

Posted in: character animation, funny, General, interview, new york, Stop-motion

As someone who has an intense love-hate relationship with New York, this sweetly animated film from Andy and Carolyn London tugged hard on my heartstrings. It’s a simple concept: Interview New Yorkers and then animate objects in the city to match their personalities. The result is a compelling short that helps me see the city—and its people—in a new light.

If you like this, you might also like Aardman’s candidly charming Creature Discomfort animations.

Via Laughing Squid. Thanks to Todd for the tip!

Posted on Motionographer

Mar 06

David O’Reilly: Please Say Something

Posted in: character animation, Experimental, General, ireland, narrative, short film

If you keep tabs on our Quickies, you saw fans of David O’Reilly’s “Please Say Something” pleading with us for a more detailed look at his amazing short film.

Motionographer community, you’re right. It’s a brilliant piece of art, and we’re glad to hoist it up and interview the man himself.

Unlike Octocat (O’Reilly’s output under a teenage pseudonym), Please Say Something is a sinister story of love. Characters shuffle between states of consciousness, explore O’Reilly’s common theme of absent love, and live in a crudely rendered world that feels simultaneously empty and lush.

Doing what other people don’t is how O’Reilly rolls. Narrative risk-taking, boldness in aesthetic simplification, and self-imposed creative rules lead to epic creation. PSS is strange, insanely original, and some of the most authentic storytelling you’ll ever see.

Read our interview with David O’Reilly here.

Posted on Motionographer

David O’Reilly: Please Say Something

Mar 04

Smith and Foulkes: Comcast “Sing-a-Long”

Posted in: 3d, cable, character animation, General, hand drawn, web

comcast-sing

For a series of four spots, Nexus Productions‘ Oscar-nominated directing duo Smith & Foulkes built a campy world brimming with detail and color for Comcast and agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners:

(I recommend starting with “Hi Def” and “On Demand.”)

Re-playability is key. These are going to be blasted into homes over and over for months to come, so I appreciate that Smith & Foulkes and their team of unsung heroes spent so much time and energy adding in little bits for me to discover on each viewing. (That also gave interactive studio Unit 9 endless fodder for developing the companion website.)

The Kimya Dawson-esque soundtrack is either wonderful or wretched, depending on personal tastes, but it was a big factor in Smith & Foulkes’ creative process:

It was really the music that first attracted us to the Comcast project. With this as our starting point we thought it would be fun to create a world where the whole community lives to the rhythm of the music. We decided there would no cuts and the environment would be totally isometric.

That isometric approach reminds me of eBoy’s legendary illustrations, which were undoubtedly an influence on the team. But that’s not to take anything away from the outstanding work that illustrator/character-designer Chris Martin did on these spots. He brought his own unique style to bear on this project, softening the precision of the isometric perspective with his hand-drawn charm.

Adam Smith and Alan Foulkes both made cameos, by the way. See if you can spot them.

Credits

Title: ʻSing-a-Longʼ
Client: Comcast
Duration: 1 x 60″, 5 x 30″

AGENCY
Creative Director: Jamie Barrett
Group Creative Director: Chris Ford
ACD/Art Director: Stefan Copiz
ACD/Copywriter: Paul Charney
Copywriter: Andrew Bancroft
Producer: Ashley Sferro

PRODUCTION
Director: Smith & Foulkes
Executive Producer: Chris O’Reilly & Julia Parfitt
Producer: Isobel Conroy
Art Director / VFX Supervisor: Fletcher Moules
Illustration & Character Design: Chris Martin
3D Animation & Compositing: Nexus

LIVE ACTION PRODUCTION
c/o Bright Pictures
Exec Producer: Rudy Callegari
1st Assistant Director: Todd Lent
Director Of Photography: Ueli Steiger

INTERACTIVE PRODUCTION
Producer: Pip Malone
Interactive Director: Tim Dillon
Production: Nexus

Posted on Motionographer

Smith and Foulkes: Comcast “Sing-a-Long”

Feb 26

Nathan Rocks

Posted in: 3d, character animation, Chips Ahoy, General, nathan love

“Rocky” is the second of the two spot Chips Ahoy campaign by Nathan Love. If you missed “Oz”, check it.

Unlike “Oz”, Rocky is character heavy, which is the life water for these guys. It also sports some artful 3D- lighting and shading. Straight up dandy.

“We’ve been in love with the Chips Ahoy campaign since we saw the first spot back in school. It was a huge honor when Kraft and DraftFCB approached us for the project,” says captain of the Nathan ship, Joe Burrascano. “They came to us because of our passion for bringing great characters to life.”

CLIENT
Client: Kraft

AGENCY
Agency: DraftFCB
EVP Head of Production: Paddy Giordano
Producer: Michelle Carman
SVP / Managing Director: Patricia Messeroux
EVP Executive Creative Director: Sandy Greenberg
EVP Executive Creative Director: Terri Meyer
SVP / Creative Director: Gerald Cuesta
SVP / Creative Director: Howard Ronay 
Senior Business Manager: Jennifer Rubin 
Account Supervisor: Kelly Megel
Assistant Account Executive: April Blackmon
Music Producer: Gregory Grene 

DIRECTOR
Director: Nathan Love
Executive Producer: Mike Harry
Producer: Derrick Huang
Creative Directors: Joe & Kate Burrascano
Character Design / Storyboards: Brad Johansen
Editing / After Effects Lead: Chase Massingill
After Effects: Mike Milyavsky
Animation Leads: Jeff Lopez, Dan Vislocky
Animators: Kevin Phelps, Ryan Moran, David Han
Character TD’s: Sean Kealey, Ylli Orana 
Lighting & Rendering Lead: Mats Andersson
Texture / Lighting / Composite Artists: Sylvia Apostol, Denis Kozyrev, Anca Risca
Modeling: Tony Jung, B.F. Tsang, Luis E Perez
FX: Mothana Hussein
Pipeline TD’s: Sarah Elizabeth Clemens, Jesse Clemens, Jessica Monteiro
Scratch-Track Foley Artists: Nicholas “the Biggant” Dratch, Michael Impollonia, Chase Massingill, Fayna Sanchez, Kate Burrascano 

SOUND
Voice-Over Talent Chip: Max Casella
AVO: Paul Spencer
Witch (Oz): Harriet Carmichael 
Reporter (Rocky): Brad Abelle
Adrian (Rocky): Talia Shire
Music Composer: Mark Isham
Sound Lounge: Tom Jucarone
Manic: Producer- Becca Smith
Flame Artist: Johnny Starace
Pirate Toronto: Engineer- Chris Tate

Posted on Motionographer

Nathan Rocks

Feb 06

Head Gear Animation: Milk Dots

Posted in: Canada, cel animation, character animation, General, milk, stop action, super short

What better to accompany our previous post about cookies than a post about milk?

Way back in 2007, we posted a Quickie for Head Gear Animation’s fantastic 5-second spots for the Dairy Farmers of Canada and agency Due North. Well, Head Gear’s added to their collection since then, and it’s definitely worth taking a few seconds (literally) to enjoy them.

Each spot—or “dot”—is a tightly packed joke told in a dizzying array of styles by Head Gear’s directors. David Gee (Writer) and Shawn Wells (Art Director) of Due North did a bang-up job writing these nuggets. Some of my favorites:

…but really, check out as many as you can. Oh, and in case you’re wondering who aced the sound design for the spots, that was Head Gear, too. Nice going!

Posted on Motionographer

Head Gear Animation: Milk Dots

Feb 05

Ahoy, Nathan Love!

Posted in: character animation, character design, Chips Ahoy, General, nathan love

The Chips Ahoy Cookie Campaign has long been based on creative kookiness and comedic timing. Who best to execute this vision?

Look no further than Nathan Love, where you’ll find a hodgepodge of toys, pornified coloring books, melted baby dolls and gilded pipes (the plumbing kind, of course). A true blend of creative chaos and total genius.

Marching to the beat of their own drum, and charged with replicating Oz and the classic cookie character, Nathan perfectly synthesizes the old stop motion campaign with new advances of 3D animation, kicking personality and style up a notch, while maintaining the hand crafted look and feel.

And the animation? It’s Nathan Love, duh. Keeping with the classic, Cookie enters the house of Auntie Em as a bounding mess of emotions- an effortless task for Nathaners.

Some of you will scoff at the swap from stop-mo to CG. Fear nothing, friends. Cookie is in good hands, for the gang at Nathan is the real deal, a conglomerate of crafty artists and well, talented storytellers.

Stay tuned for Cookie part two, blazing the motion trails very soon.

CLIENT
Client: Kraft

DIRECTOR
Director: Nathan Love
Executive Producer: Mike Harry
Producer: Derrick Huang
Creative Directors: Joe & Kate Burrascano
Character Design / Storyboards: Brad Johansen
Editing / After Effects Lead: Chase Massingill
After Effects: Mike Milyavsky
Animation Leads: Jeff Lopez, Dan Vislocky
Animators: Kevin Phelps, Ryan Moran, David Han
Character TD’s: Sean Kealey, Ylli Orana 
Lighting & Rendering Lead: Mats Andersson
Texture / Lighting / Composite Artists: Sylvia Apostal, Denis Kozyrev, Anca Risca
Modeling: Tony Jung, B.F. Tsang, Luis E Perez
FX: Mothana Hussein
Pipeline TD’s: Sarah Elizabeth Clemens, Jesse Clemens, Jessica Monteiro
Scratch-Track Foley Artists: Nicholas “the Biggant” Dratch, Michael Impollonia, Chase Massingill, Fayna Sanchez, Kate Burrascano 

Posted on Motionographer

Ahoy, Nathan Love!

Jan 20

Happy New End!

Posted in: 2d, apocolypse, character animation, General

French collective Bonzom (Passion Paris) celebrates the impending end of the world in this happy-go-lucky short. Riffing on B-movie posters from the bronze age of sci-fi, “Happy New End” blends hilarious writing and voiceover work with a campy cast of characters and a fantastic flair for details.

The premise—and the rapid succession of sight gags—reminds me of the old Tex Avery cartoons I adored as a kid that proposed how various technologies of the future would “improve” our lives. Bonzom’s put their own twist on that time-honored tradition, and they deserve their own cheers for a job well done!

Posted on Motionographer

Happy New End!

Jan 13

Capacity: Cartoon Network Rebrand

Posted in: 3d, broadcast design, character animation, clone wars, General, los angeles, minimal, pokemon, rebrand

LA-based Capacity proved their ability to think big and follow through with their breakthrough NBC rebrand back in 2006. Since then, they’ve been kicking out ambitious projects with consistent attention to detail and huggable charm.

The latest jewel in their crown is a massive rebrand for Cartoon Network built around Noods, blank Dunny-esque figures created by the crew at Kidrobot. Props to CN for dreaming up such a clever, collaborative concept.

Capacity’s CN montage starts off in a minimal white space but builds in complexity and vibrancy as more characters, environments and seasons are introduced. My favorite stretch is the Halloween segment, with its moonlit figures and cute sight gags. I also love Yoda reducing General Grievous to a puddle of paint—a clever way to deconstruct the underlying concept of the rebrand.

The frenetic soundtrack (also created by Capacity) tinges the entire montage with a playful 8-bit tone and moves things forward with a cheery optimism befitting such a grand undertaking. Nice job all around!

Posted on Motionographer

Capacity: Cartoon Network Rebrand

Jan 07

Smith & Foulkes: Stop, Look & Listen

Posted in: 3d, character animation, department for transport, General, nursery rhymes, psa, uk

This one nearly slipped by the radar. “The Boy Who Didnʼt Stop, Look & Listen” is the first installment in a three-part series for the Department for Transport THINK! Child Road Safety campaign in the UK.

Leo Burnett set up the series for success by penning “Tales from the Road,” an eerie set of nursery rhymes that show kids what might happen when basic safety rules are ignored.

In the hands of Nexus Productions’ Smith & Foulkes, the stories become painterly visions that are one part children’s book illustration and one part nightmare. They walk a fine line between quiet and creepy, crawling under your skin in the process.

Says Smith & Foulkes, “We wanted these commercials to act as a pause in a child’s TV viewing, holding the gaze of the immobile injured characters almost painfully long as a contrast to the hi-energy multi-coloured frenzy of your average childrenʼs programming break.”

Pay attention to the little details, like the quivering crutch as the boy reaches for his ball or the subtle dimensionality of the vignetting during camera moves. It’s all beautifully realized down to the finest detail in typical Smith & Foulkes fashion.

Stay tuned for parts two and three of the series. They’re worth the wait.

Client: Department for Transport
Title: ‘The Boy who didn’t Stop, Look & Listen’
Length: 1 x 40″
Production Company: Nexus Productions
Director: Smith & Foulkes
Executive Producers: Chris O’Reilly and Charlotte Bavasso
Head of Production: Julia Parfitt
Producer: Melody Sylvester
Production Assistant: Denise Abraham
Character Designer: Mustashrik Mahbub
Project Lead: Mark Davies

Further credits from Leo Burnett:
Executive Creative Director: Jonathan Burley
Creative Directors: Guy Moore and Tony Malcolm
Copywriter: Christopher Birch
Art director: Caroline Rawlings
Planner (creative agency): Nick Docherty
Media agency: Carat
Planner (media agency): Laura Braithwaite
Editor N/A – animation
Audio post-production: Anthony Moore @ Factory
Exposure: National television

Posted on Motionographer

Smith & Foulkes: Stop, Look & Listen

Hasta La Motion!

Impactist: Parallelostory

The Lost Tribes of New York City

David O’Reilly: Please Say Something

Smith and Foulkes: Comcast “Sing-a-Long”

Credits

Nathan Rocks

Head Gear Animation: Milk Dots

Ahoy, Nathan Love!

Happy New End!

Capacity: Cartoon Network Rebrand

Smith & Foulkes: Stop, Look & Listen

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