David Ochs: “Who’s Hungry?”

Our friends over at Cartoon Brew posted this gory re-telling of Hansel and Gretel from first-year CalArts student David Ochs. (It’s fairly bloody, so if that’s NSFW, you’ve been warned.)

David won the Peer’s Pick award at the CalArts Character Animation Producer’s Show 2009, and with good reason. While the sketchy animation style is well executed for a freshman student flying solo, it’s the story that pulls you through this short.

Let’s see what David does for the rest of his undergraduate career and beyond. Should be fun to watch!

Via Cartoon Brew

Digital Kitchen relaunch

Digital Kitchen channels its inner beast for their recent relaunch (Thanks, Jimmy!)

Going Nitro

Last week, you may have noticed some downtime here at Motionographer. I’m glad to say that those times are behind us, and we are now running on Media Temple’s drool-worthy Nitro server.

Yes, I’m giddy. Giddy like a schoolgirl.

So what happened?

Ever since we killed Tween and launched Motionographer back in early 2006, our traffic has been steadily climbing. Last week, we hit 75,000 pageviews in a single day. That’s pretty incredible.

Unfortunately, it pushed our server to its limits. In addition to running waaaaay too many WordPress plugins (I lost count after 20), I’d made some earlier customizations to the server’s configuration that finally caught up with us.

(mt) to the rescue

Given this scenario, most hosts would simply shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey, it’s your problem. Deal with it.” But once again, Media Temple swooped in to save the day. Over the phone and via email, they worked through every detail with me to make sure everything was running smoothly.

And they’re still on the case, monitoring the server, watching for rogue scripts to rear their ugly heads and keeping in touch with me at every turn. My sincerest props to Ryan Afdahl and his crew for their help. They’ve been amazing.

Joel Trussell creates Mr. Wobbles Nightmare

Joel Trussell has blended his unique style with live-action fruit for Kid 606 and made a nightmare smoothie.

Perrier “Melting” and “House of Saddam”

If you haven’t seen Ogilvy & Mather Paris’ Perrier “Melting” spot on the interw3bs yet, you will. It’s one of those projects destined for viral stardom. And for good reason.

Frédéric Planchon (Academy Films) did a great job directing the project towards a satisfying finish.

I’m not sure who handled the vfx, but they’re spot on. (Any help with further credits would be great.) La Maison did a beautiful job on the CG. Thanks to Todd Akita in the comments for this link, which sheds a little light on the fluid simulations at work in the spot.

Red Bee: “House of Saddam”

I can’t help but also share an earlier project here, a promo from agency Red Bee for the BBC “House of Saddam” series.

The vfx (handled by Finish) for “House of Saddam” are much less ambitious and on a smaller scale, but they serve the spot well enough.

It’s the application of the melting concept in the second spot that wins me over, though. It perfectly encapsulates the rise and fall of Saddam’s empire—from stately confidence to embarrassing meltdown. The house of wax metaphor sticks with you well beyond the last frame.

Thanks to Denny Tu for bringing “House of Saddam” to my attention.

Kristof Luyckx Drops A Fun Reel For 2009

Kristof Luyckx Drops A Fun Reel For 2009

May/June Events Roundup

Photo by Victoria Peckham

There’s a lot going over the next month. I’ll try to round up a few of the relevant events here. Stay tuned for a full-fledged calendar feature soon.

May 20th: Forget The Film, Watch The Titles! (Los Angeles)

Coming up this Wednesday the 20th at the Billy Wilder Theater in LA, Flux and Forget The Film, Watch The Titles! have organized a fantastic lineup of title designers: Jamie Caliri of Duck, Danny Yount of Prologue, Karin Fong of Imaginary Forces, Garson Yu of yU+co, and Kyle Cooper of Prologue. Wow.

RSVP for free admission

May & June: Cut & Paste Asia

Cut & Paste is currently on its Asian tour. Hong Kong was last week; coming up are Shanghai (05/23/09), Tokyo (05/30/09) and Sydney (06/06/09). Also make sure to put the Global Championships on June 20th in NYC on your calendar.

Cut & Paste website

May 21st-30th: LOOP (Barcelona)

LOOP is a multi-day event that includes a festival, a fair and a conference within the field of video art. And it takes place in one of my favorite cities, Barcelona. Sounds like a great way to spend a few days.

LOOP site

June 16th-18th: Promax|BDA North America (NYC)

This is a must-attend event for many of you, and this year looks really strong. Confirmed speakers include Robert Redford, Bob Saget, John Maeda and Ralph Steadman, among many others. (Little ol’ me will be doing State of Design on June 17th in Grand Ballroom, if you want to stop by and say hi.)

Full Promax|BDA schedule

June 18-19th: Sonar (Barcelona)

Sonar is “Barcelona’s International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art” from June 18-19. This year’s lineup is a tour de force of musicians and DJ’s accompanied by visuals and installations from around the world.

Sonar site

Know of more events?

Send ‘em my way! I’m working on a calendar feature for the site, and I’d love to start harvesting stuff now.

Now get out there and mingle!