Lobo for Zune

lobo_zune01.jpg
Now I know this isn’t the first Zune related post we’ve made here at Motionographer towers, far from it. But before you groan, close your browser and go and do some work (God forbid) this is a Zune project with a difference…

Zune have charged Brazil based mograph impresarios Lobo with the task of creating this film which will be pre-loaded and live on every new Zune purchased, from here on in.
“The goal of the animation was to express the experience of sharing through innovative design and irreverence. When you give, it will eventually come back to you”, so stated by Lobo’s press release.

When i first saw this, i wondered whether it missed some of the eclecticism and anarchism i tend to associate with Lobo’s work. In short, i never know what to expect from them. And i love this about them. But then it struck me: Here’s a piece that has to speak to all consumers, in all markets, transcend all language barriers and communicate the essence of what Zune stands for. Now that’s a huge ask, and i think Lobo have pulled it off in fine style.

On my first viewing I ‘got’ radio, music, sharing and connectivity. And i think this pretty much sums it up (Please anyone let me know if I’ve missed any finer points of the intended messaging).

I think this project and the whole Zune venture sums up the huge leaps of faith (and cash) Microsoft have been willing to motion graphics and its ability as a medium to communicate their message. And that’s good news for all of us…

Thanks to Armando for the tip!

About the author

Simon Robson

/ www.knife-party.net
Live in London with my girlfriend Emma. Animation director with Nexus Productions. Moving to Sydney for a while in October. Likes: anything that dings my creative dong, sushi, spongebob, crap Saturday evening TV, White chocolate, Muai Thai. Dislikes: Plagirism, PNAC, cleaning up my cats' sick.

10 Comments

Noideaisoriginal

DOPE! I also ‘got’ the message(s) on the first watch

ochyming

HUG?
Money buys anything, even free willing.
But that is not a bad thing!

Marc B.

Thanks for the post Simon. I’m a big fan of lobo. And it’s sorta painful to see this, because i know how great their work usually is. This here is a disappointment in many aspects.
I wish i’d be cheering though. Maybe i can just try to be slightly constructive in my criticism.

The design and animation looks unusually cheap to lobos standards. The 3d and animation looks like off the shelf models with ambient occlusion and the timing and pacing itself is random and chaotic. It’s mostly just generic looking 3d models moving through space. And it’s mising anything that could be called innovative or carefully crafted. More like a student piece from many years ago.
Could it be that there wasn’t enough money so they let their juniors run on this one?

Good luck to lobo though.

iline

You know, this is standard-fare motion graphics – as in the past three years graphic trends amalgamated into one spot.

It’s nice – and none of this looks particularly easy – but if you were to raid the 3D asset archives of any of the top three mograph houses, I’d bet you could conjure up similar. It looks like the kind of client-pleasing pitch that I’d submit if I was asked to work for Microsoft with relative creative freedom.

RaptorRed

I agree with the above two posts. This is boring. The design is trendy but not even cool. Just elements of cool. The 3d stroke flying around seems to have poor timing and poor fades and animation.

The eagle animation is stiff and lifeless. Further more I’m pretty tired of seeing solid 3d animals that glow or something in these things. Stardust and Psyop did it much better and they were prettier and felt like glittery pretty creatures. This is just dead. Like a zombie. Again another element of tried and true cool.

Unoriginal and technically underachieving.

barret

wow – is this a sign of the end of the days? A Lobo spot being criticized!

It would be really nice to know a “insider” view of the project – someone from Lobo could comment on creative freedom, execution idea, and stuff like that. As commented, despite of looking good it still looks too average for Lobo standards. Remember the old DuPont project? That’s the Lobo we all know.

freebertbrown

and what’s with that big farting trumpet thing?

sc

the framerate on this looked higher than usual…anyone else notice that???
like maybe 40 or 60, or variable…is that even possible?

tits

“have been willing to motion graphics and its ability as a medium to communicate their message.”

And what message is that?

Based on this current promo I don’t see any message or idea, besides the usual cliched images of customers enjoying products, and wait for it….a hawk riding on a sound wave. Thats so brilliant!

THA_DON

sc… maybe you are smoking a little early today? but i would say 47 frames per second?

after watching this twice i am still wondering who did this? could it be lobo? wow.

tits: birds that fly out as the camera swoops by for no apparent reason is the in thing, been for a while, look at Superfad’s target thing, and stardust’s gold/green presidentti thing. dare you look at where this particular species of bird made one of its first debuts… psyop’s bombay. its as if its this one bird thats made a career move to mograph. your lucky he is not carrying a camera or leaving a trail of wispy, magic butterflies with golden dust sprinkling and twinkling in the light for good measure, although this one did get the vector trailing/leading ribbon.
dont hate, appreciate.

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