This Idea Is Not Working by Henrique Barone

After we were initially sent Henrique Barone’s stellar short, This Idea Is Not Working, our jaws hit floor. We immediately wanted to share it with our  Motionographer readers, so got the engine warmed up and put things in motion. Then, something happened: we found out it’s a student piece. Jeepers! We scratched our head and weighed the options. Of course, we do have our Students section and although you can find it there, we were so impressed by Barone’s animation skills that we had no choice but to give it some love in our Main section. One thing we never want Motionographer to become is a place where only big-studios reign supreme and the little guy (you, me, us, etc) has no shot to shine. And not to gush, but it’s rare to find animation so inventive, polished and well-timed—let alone, a student piece. Did we mention it’s hand-drawn?

After you watch This Idea Is Not Working, be sure to check out a wonderful step-by-step breakdown that the artist put together here.

Bill Maher’s ‘Irritable Bowl Syndrome’ by Fraser Davidson

Earlier this week, we posted Fraser Davidson’s slick, type-driven animation, Irritable Bowl Syndrome: an infographic piece inspired by a cutting excerpt taken from Bill Maher’s book, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” With the Superbowl only 10 days away, once again, sports fans and advertisers become unlikely bedfellows. In the spirit of this great, hard-hitting American tradition, we’ve upgraded the piece to our main section and chatted up the artist for a little Q&A. Enjoy the foxy animation and witty social commentary.

Q&A with Fraser Davidson on Irritable Bowl Syndrome.

ManvsMachine: More4 Rebrand

ManvsMachine created this lovely rebrand for Channel 4′s More4. The logo morphs through a series of flips, folds and reveals, reflecting the range of content on the channel. It works as both a punchy onscreen element and as a series of “flippers” in real-world art installations.

Credits and Making Of

Plenty for AXN LatinAmerica

I recently stumbled upon “Criminal Minds,” Plenty’s latest addition to their repertoire.

I love the way they united analog and digital by using a 3d subject with hand-painted typography. They definitely achieved the controlled-chaos look that this piece needed to convey.

Check out Plenty’s site for a very thorough breakdown of their process.

The DMCI: Fox Classics

No need to say a lot: These IDs from DMCI for Fox Classics are all about great transitions and beautiful, clean designs. Can you guess all the classics?

Also watch The Epics, The Classics and The Greats.

Credits

Psyop for IBM

All In The Cloud

Ahead of Demand

Split Second

To say that Psyop has it down pat would be an understatement. In this latest batch of spots for IBM, Psyop rolls out a trifecta of pure goodness. Each piece is so well crafted as to stand alone, but together they showcase a range — both creative and technical — that few studios can rival. It’s true what they say: Good things come in threes.

UPDATE: Psyop sure keeps us on our toes! We didn’t want these slick, new spots they created for Old Navy’s Funnovations campaign to slip by, so check them out here: Grandmabot, Cozyscope, Bootologist, and The Perfect Pufferizer.

Onesize: Ericsson CES 2012 Keynote Film

Just when you think Onesize can’t outdo themselves, they do. In their most recent efforts, the gang teamed up with agency Jack Morton Worldwide and Ericsson to promote the company’s vision of The Networked Society. The piece is a fully CG animated film to be screened during Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg’s Keynote at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. Onesize elaborates on the creation of the film:

We liked the concept very much and started developing style frames immediately.  We followed this by delivering an animatic in one week which was approved by JMW and Ericsson before production commenced. The animatic was very helpful because some of the final shot framings and camera motion were copied exactly from the animatic.

The film was to be split into three sections — fixed line (the past), mobile (the present) and The Networked Society (the future). Each section was designed in a slightly different style by Reinier to symbolize key moments in Ericsson history. We took this opportunity to design an info-graphical 3D look within an abstract environment of diorama-style rooms and spaces. We selected motion designers for each specific section to take on the task of the modeling, animation, lighting and rendering. We completed the 3500px wide and 1500px high film within six weeks, working with five animators/designers and music company Echolab.

CREDITS

Dougal Wilson: Lurpak “Lightest”

I’m loving this colorful, catchy reminder to eat your vegetables. Wieden+Kennedy, Blink, and director Dougal Wilson create a visceral rainbow of food and food experiences for Lurpak spreadable butter. Fantastic contributions from editor Joe Guest and art director Andy Kelly. Not to mention the essentialness of the song and sound design. The red cabbage stop-motion is stunning and the thoughtful little touches like the rainbow of products at the end hint at how much care went into the production.

Credits

Lynn Fox: Mercedes Benz “Thanks, Airbag”

Blink’s Lynn Fox and Jung von Matt create this captivating ode to airbags for Mercedes Benz.

Also check out Fox’s Killer Moves, another experiment with time, space, and moving vehicles created for Teen Road Safety.

VFX by Electric Theater

Credits

Blur Talks: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Titles

If you haven’t seen Blur’s opening titles for David Fincher’s rendition of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, now would be a good time to climb out from under your rock and check them out (above).

In addition to listing the top-billed talent in a film, the role of a good opening credit sequence is to mentally prep the audience for the ensuing film. In that regard, Blur’s titles are an exemplary specimen — perhaps the best from 2011. When the final frame flickers past, your heart rate will have doubled and your pupils will have fully dilated. Consider yourself ready.

Blur’s Tim Miller was kind enough to give us some background on the titles and share some making-of videos with us. Make sure to read on past the jump for all the goodies.

I don’t typically think of Blur as a designer of film title sequences, but it seems you guys are making a push to be regarded as much for your design chops as for your animation skills. Is that a fair assumption? What’s the plan?

We’ve always had an inhouse design group, it’s just not a large as the animation/FX side. So we’ve always been in the game. As for movie titles, I would say this was more a project of opportunity than part of some uber-plan. We’ve done other projects with Fincher in the past, and we have several on-going film development projects with him. For what David had in mind for this title, we were just a natural fit.

But with that said we would like to capitalize on the work. We enjoyed the process, and we like to mix it up and do different styles of work. So hopefully there will be other opportunities for us like this. It’s nice to do something that doesn’t have a big explosion, aliens or gunfire for a change. Though, of course, we love all that stuff!

More details and making-of action after the jump