Meindbender Duplicates for Cartoon Network

Meindbender Animation Studio in Sweden has really done a nice job for Cartoon Network. They’ve reproduced stop motion-like animation with a real clay feeling—but with all the advantages of CG.

The Duplicator Series was animated in Maya and rendered with Maxwell Renderer using HDR’s Rendernet. Check out the series on Meindbender’s site or individually here:

The Duplicators
Evolution
Audition
It´s Magic
Push The Button

Some background information from Meindbender’s Olov Burman:

In 2007 we released an animation test called Rabbit vs Football. This film got quite a lot of attention on the internet, and one the companies that contacted us was Cartoon Network. We were at that point looking for buyers for a film called Gifts for Greta.

Cartoon Network bought this as a Christmas ID short film, and it ended up winning awards in Promax/DBA Europe and world awards. Cartoon Network then ordered 5 more ID shorties, and we started working on the “Duplicator Series.”

We put together a small but dedicated crew of world class CGI artists and got to work. After several months of hard work we completed the production. We hope you enjoy the films.

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Elastic/a52: Honda “Boxes”

Elastic/a52 releases another colorful component of the Honda Accord Crosstour campaign for agency RPA.

Directed by Andy Hall, “Boxes” builds on the lively minimalism of “Instruments,” with transitional moments powered by the expansion and contraction of nested squares that look like Albers paintings on acid—neon-lit and full of kinetic possibility.

The rendering in this series reminds me a little of Smith & Foulkes’ work for HP. Both worlds are full of chunky, stylized forms and almost tangible streams of color—worlds I’d like to spend some time in, if I only knew how to find them.

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Old No. 7

Brand New School shows once again that they’re the masters of seamless transitions in this moody monochromatic piece for Jack Daniel’s. It’s the first spot of a three-spot campaign, so we’ll be looking out for the next installments. Full credits on the Vimeo page and BNS’s site.

Challenge Your World : Video Challenge Winners

The Challenge Your World 2009 “Video Challenge” winners were announced during the Challenge Your World live event, “Rendez-Vous 09″ in Montreal. “A Better Tomorrow” (directed by Nicholas Bentley) took the Jury’s Choice award, while Digital Kitchen Chicago’s Natural Re-sasters (helmed by Aaron Becker) won the People’s Choice vote.

In keeping with the overall goal of the Challenge Your World Video Challenge, both pieces tell an interesting tale about bettering our future though new and fun innovations.

Be on the look out for the next CWY contest, Idea Challenge.

UPDATE:
High Res. QT of Natural Re-sasters

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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.
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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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