2009 Motion Graphic Census: Who, What, Why and How

Do you ever wonder how many people actually work in the Motion Graphic Design business? Do you ever think about where they might live and work? Do you ever wonder what kind of salaries they make? How they charge their clients? How many projects they do a year? If they do work in advertising, short films, visual effects, or music videos? And what kind of software they use?

We do.

That’s why we’ve created the 2009 Motion Graphic Design Census, the first-ever salary survey for professionals in Motion Graphic Design, Animation, Visual Effects and Film-making. This survey is designed to count everyone in the industry—from owners to interns, producers, designers and animators. The online survey will be hosted at Motionographer for the month of December. We’ll then publish the results in 2010.

We plan on continuing the survey as a yearly effort in order to track salary, rates, and other relevant issues. We’d love to get the entire Motion Design community to participate, to give us a full and realistic overview of the entire profession.

Please follow the link and fill out your information, which will remain completely anonymous. Then sign up for our mailing list to get the results of the survey in 2010.

If you’re wondering why you should spend 10 minutes or less filling this survey out, here are some reasons:
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Givin’ Up

Lifelong Friendship Society crafts an existential allegory of angst for One Eskimo in a new music video, Givin’ Up. With a finely tuned color-palette, minimal illustration style and expressive animation, they tell an emotionally charged story of an abstract character that journeys through puzzle-like scenes of conveyor belts, revolving doors, and an ever-changing landscape of new challenges. Is it a game? Is it work? Can he keep going? Will he just give up? The two-man team of Creative Director / Designer Travis Spangler and Animator Sid Seed made quite a strong short film for One Eskimo, responding to the emotion in the song and coming up with a cohesive vision that fits its mood of melancholy and frustration.

Martin Allais, ARD & ZDF “Caveman”

Boolab director Martin Allais created this ingenious spot for German TV channels ARD and ZDF portraying the history of mankind (or most of it) in just over 60 seconds.

Inspired by prehistorical art and ancient cave paintings, the spot aims at promoting the channels’ wide information services, which is beautifully achieved by portraying key points of our history: prehistoric hunts, the fall of the Berlin wall and finally, globalization, while passing through the discovery of fire, the Golden Ratio, Da Vinci and even Nero along the way.

The project involved a lot of thinking to come up with such a condensed script as well as custom-made animation techniques to achieve the desired aesthetic. The whole package for ARD/ZDF also involves two 15″ teasers and a quite interesting interactive online game.

Watch “Caveman” and the teasers

I caught up with Martin to find out a bit more about the project, here is what he had to say:
Q&A with Martin Allais

Future Film Festival 2010

“Martin Fierro” by Liliana Romero and Norman Euiz, winner of Lancia Platinum Grand Prize, 2009

Motionographer is putting together a special showcase for the 12th Future Film Festival this January 26-30th in Bologna, Italy. Mark it on your calendars!

Bavaria Beer “Drop”

Amsterdam-based agency Selmore selected Matthijs van Heijningen (Bonkers) to direct this epic tale of a water drop’s lifelong mission to join his breathren as a pint of Bavaria Beer. While the denouement in chuckle-worthy and nicely paced, the real replay value comes from the lush CG work from Eight VFX. Each scene is fully realized and full of nearly tangible depth.

As an aside: the concept reminds me of a bit of a photo-realistic retelling of the oft-admired Guinness “Dot” spot from Psyop and agency IIBBDO Dublin.
Credits

Review: Gangpol & Mit “Faits Divers”

My first introduction to French duo Gangpol & Mit (Guillaume Castagne and Sylvain Quément) was through their music. It wasn’t until recently that I learned they are as involved in the creation of animation as they are in concocting their unique blend of electronica.

Their latest DVD, Faits Divers (Pictoplasma Publishing), is a collection of 18 audio-visual offspring from Gangpol & Mit’s collaborative relationship. According to Pictoplasma, “Guillaume emails some graphics to Sylvain, who then composes a melody and sends it back – or Sylvain coughs up a tune and has Guillaume translate it into animated worlds.”

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N.A.S.A: Tom Waits and Kool Keith “Spacious Thoughts”

BoingBoing Video brings the N.A.S.A. goods again, this time featuring Tom Waits and Cool Keith, with visuals by Montreal-based Fluorescent Hill (previously featured on Motionographer for their 2008 New Pornographers promo). SCAD professor Jacques Khouri also lent a hand modeling and rigging the 3D star of the project.

Read the interview on BoingBoing.

Shilo: Under Armour “ColdGear, Lindsey Vonn + Dick’s”

The creative forces of Shilo strike again, this time to simulate extreme cold weather conditions for Under Armour, with Dicks Sporting Goods as the testing grounds.

With the goal of promoting Under Armour’s ColdGear product line, Shilo enlisted the talents of its growing creative arm, We Make It Good, and its creative director, Clayton Vomero, who co-wrote the spot’s script with Shilo Creative Director Andre Stringer.

Stringer and Vomero built a narrative around a Cold Abuse Simulator, which tests ColdGear under harsh downhill ski racing conditions. Two-time World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn, one of the most successful American ski racers in history, was enlisted as the ultimate test subject.

To film the action of Vonn facing the Cold Abuse Simulator as realistically as possible, Shilo’s crew found a factory location in Los Angeles and worked with Vonn for two days, filming her on a jostling rig before a giant apparatus that simulated the conditions she’d face on the mountain.

Seemless vfx integration and a solid storyline makes this a campaign to keeps your eyes on. Be sure to check out the making of video via the ski channel, as well as more behind the scenes production stills, courtesy of NBC Olympics.

Flairs – Truckers Delight

I wouldn’t exactly label this as highbrow, more like highfun! It’s pretty crazy and leans heavily on the raunchier side of life. Directed by Jérémie Périn.

Definitely NSFW, but probably worth getting fired for!

Elastic / A52: Honda Accord “Instruments”

Design and VFX team Elastic/A52 rock out for Honda Accord in this highly colorful CG jazz spot, as they show off how much hidden space the new Accord Crosstour really offers.

Appealing to a younger, musically-minded target market, its aesthetic and general concept hits a home run. Design-wise, the palette is alive with energy and pop and the beautifully animated characters have a unique look that works an interesting transitional device.