Fx and Mat: IOC “All Together Now”

Nexus Productions’ directing duo Fx and Mat put their powers to use for the International Olympic Committee and agency Coler & Weber United in “All Together Now,” a beautifully rendered tale of titanic Olympians literally pulling the earth’s geography together into a neo-Pangea.

Like their work for the Royal Bank of Canada (through Parisian prodco Mr. Hyde), “All Together Now” uses soft lighting and a rich palette to evoke a sunny, feel-good vibe reminiscent of Art Deco’s happier imagery. The contours of the characters remind me of Tamara de Lempicka‘s hefty but friendly human forms—just without all the sitting around and pouting.

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Mass Animation: A Guest Rebuttal

Back in July, I scribbled out a diatribe against Mass Animation, a Facebook-supported competition to create a CG short film by crowd-sourcing the animation to thousands of animators around the world. (See trailer above.)

While most of the Motionographer regulars agreed with my points against Mass Animation, not everyone felt that spec-work competitions like Mass Animation are a bad thing.

To help flesh out the other side of the story, we got in touch with Alexander Micah Snow, Mass Animation participant and then animation student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. We edited his response for length, but left it otherwise in tact.

Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments.

Read Alexander Snow’s guest rebuttal…

Helen Clemens: Eskimo Joe “Losing Friends Over Love”

Plaza Films’ Helen Clemens directs a curious odyssey for Eskimo Joe’s “Losing Friends Over Love” music video. The project’s gentle ambiance is shot through with streaks of tension, creating a compelling narrative arc within a claustrophobic world.

Animated by Pete Commins (Partizan), the video’s faux stop-motion feel, electro-mechanical props and use of room-based vignettes remind me a little of the classic Super Furry Animals “It’s Not the End of the World” video (created by David and Laurent Nicolas), but “Losing Friends” has a look-and-feel all its own, driven as it is by the innocent exploration of the lead character.

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Ubisoft Montreal Annual Convention Opening

You know how it is. Everything is calm. The pace, relaxed. Maybe you’ll write a little email to your mum, letting her know how special—

BAM! The shit hits the fan. Demands on your creative powers are being made from some shadowy force on high, and you jump into high gear, riding that familiar blend of adrenalin and caffeine that all creative workers know too well.

That experience is brilliantly encapsulated by this opening for the Ubisoft Montreal Annual Convention. Conceived by Greg Barth and Noé Sardet under the direction of Emmanuel Sevigny, the project is a stop-motion ride through the creative process from conceptualization to delivery.

Favorite moments: the error message during the blender sequence, the post-it note reading “Find money and weapons” and the elegantly executed end-tag.

The sound design, created by Ubisoft, really pushes this to the next level (as all good sound design does), exaggerating the action and creating striking contrasts throughout the project.

Similar projects from others:

• DM-I-Tegning (Thank You)
• Deadline (Bang-yao Liu)

Alex Roman: TheThird&TheSeventh

Some philosophies of aesthetics enumerate seven primary art forms derived from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s “Lectures on the Aesthetics” and the writings of film theorist Ricciotto Canudo: architecture, sculpture, painting, dance, music, poetry, and cinema.

The order is disputed, and architecture is sometimes shuffled to the third position, as it was by aspiring filmmaker Alex Roman for the title of his breathtaking work in progress, TheThird&TheSeventh, an artful combination of photorealistic architectural renderings and stylish CG cinematography.

In Roman’s able hands, the combination is undeniably poetic. His reverence for light borders on transcendent, and his attention to detail is inspiring. We caught up with Alex for a little background information.

Read on for our interview with Alex Roman…

Friday Mix: Alex Moulton “Time Traveler”

It’s Friday. Your aching brain machinery needs a little lubrication, some sonic petroleum to rejuvenate your synapses.

We’ve got just the thing. Lovingly mixed for Motionographer by Expansion Team’s Alex Moulton, “Time Traveler” is a feel-good journey through sine waves, black holes and the fourth dimension.

This is our first ever guest DJ mix. If you like it, let us know. Maybe there’s more where this came from…

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Download the mix from File Dropper

Track list