Giovanni Braggio: Animation Tutorial Part 1

Intimidated by character animation? Don’t be! Giovanni Braggio shows you just how easy it is.

Hat tip to Danica Perry.

Blur: League of Legends Cinematic “A Twist of Fate”

It’s getting very hard to stand out in the world of game cinematics. But somehow Blur always manages to pull it off.

Case in point, “A Twist of Fate,” Blur’s trailer for League of Legends, the multi-player battle game from Riot Games. Each vignette in the trailer pumps up the action from the previous vignette, culminating in an over-the-top battle royale that even the most jaded consumer of game trailers can appreciate.

Podcast: The Collective

Ash Thorp has been busy. In addition to banging out amazing design and illustration work, he’s launched a podcast, The Collective.

The third episode, featuring Danny Yount, just launched. Other episodes include GMUNK and Anthony Scott Burns as guests. Check them out below.

Two hits for Oreo, each with its own twist

Chances are you’ve seen either one or both of the Oreo “Wonderfilled” spots that have been burning up the interwebs.

The :90 anthem was directed by Martin Allais with animation by his own animation shop, Studio Animal. (Not to be confused with the Korean studio by the same name.) It’s a tour de force of 2D character work, packed with cute moments of hesitation and punctuated by charming type.

The :30 version by Royale uses a 3D/2D technique similar to their Christmas short, The Bell Ringer.

The chronically catchy tune was penned by Martin Agency creative director Dave Muhlenfeld and performed by Owl City.

NOTE: This post was updated to correct the studio attributed to the :90 spot.

Credits

Bradley G Munkowitz: Oblivion Screen Graphics

Joseph Kosinski’s latest feature, Oblivion, releases today in the US, and with it comes an impressive onslaught of screen graphics directed by Bradley “Gmunk” Munkowitz.

Like the work he directed for Tron, Munkowitz’s design for Oblivion is brimming with details. Munkowitz and his team oversaw the production of assets for scores of contexts, including an interactive light table, cockpit elements for the “Bubbleship” and HUD elements for various equipment and weapons in the film.

The briefing for the Graphic Language stressed functionality and minimalism while utilizing a bright, unified color palette that would appear equally well on both a dark or bright backdrop.

The function was to reflect the modernized sensibilities of the TET Mainframe computer and would assist the characters with the key components of their duties on earth; be it the monitoring of all Vitals on the ground using Vika’s Light Table, or the various diagnostics in the air using the Jack’s Bubbleship.

For good measure, the team also designed and animated all of the HUD UI for the various machines and weaponry in the film cuz they could, establishing a consistent graphic language that rendered all the interfaces with a loverly cohesion rarely seen in them massive-budget Sci-Fi productions.

Lagoa Launches, Blows Minds

I was invited to the beta of Lagoa.com (then called TeamUp) several months ago, and even in that early stage it blew my mind. As I toyed with a test scene, I couldn’t help feeling that I was staring into the future of CG — or at least a very interesting aspect of its future.

So what is it?

At it’s core, Lagoa is a cloud-based, photoreal CG renderer. In the simplest possible terms: You upload a scene from your favorite 3D package, hit render and watch the magic happen. With incredible speed, Lagoa produces photoreal imagery in seconds.

(more…)

“Marvel” by BlackMeal

Paris-based Blackmeal loves Marvel so much, they decided to make an homage to the company’s 74-year history of creating inspiring characters and telling thrilling stories. We asked Blackmeal a little bit about the project:

Quick Q&A with Blackmeal

Was this a project for a client? Or did you do this purely out of love for Marvel?
It was just purely out of love for Marvel.

It looks like it is mostly traditional animation. Is there any CG involved? If so, how?
It’s hand drawn (frame by frame), but we cheated for some characters: Ironman, Cyclops and the end title were created in 3D (Maya).

Was it difficult figuring out how to portray all of the Marvel characters? How did you design each of them?
No, it was easy. We started with a basic idea: The world of Marvel can be explained with simple shapes.

Thomas Lecomte (animation supervisor) is amazing. He chose 11 characters and wrote a screenplay in a few days. After that, you cannot really explain … it just came naturally. Marvel inspires us.

What is your favorite moment of the spot? Why?
Our favorite is without doubt, the first explosion. This is where it all begins.

Credits

Design and animation: Thomas Lecomte
Art direction: Vincent Ben Abdellah
3D composition: Mael François
VFX: Donald Simonet
Editing: Matthieu Colombel
Sound: Mooders

Tip o’ the hat to Will Adams.