My God, It’s Full of Stars

It’s Thursday. You probably need a little pick-me-up to get through the week. How about this epic polychromatic music video that Buck has just directed for the Bravery?! Featuring geodesic spheres, tetrahedral pyramids and more lens flares than you can possibly comprehend, it’s sure to fix your late afternoon need for glowing, rainbow-filled sci-fi psychedelia.

Q&A with Buck and Credits:

By and By by the Snorri Bros.

By and By is a new video that the Snorri Brothers directed for Lay Low, a fellow Icelandic artist. Using a simple visual motif that transforms everyday scenes into something recognizable, but totally different than what we’re used to seeing, the video features the first time use (that we’re aware of) of the Mini-Planet technique with timelapse live-action sequences shot around the world. The Snorri Brothers answered a few Questions for us about the making of the video.

Edit: A commenter alerted us of his own video using the technique to equally impressive and trippy effect here. Thanks Tak! As we mentioned this one was the first we were aware of, but I’m sure there are more out there, too …

Q&A and video

The Father

The Father is a new short film by Sticky Monster Lab, a collective of three artists from Seoul, South Korea. Presented in a split-screen format as if it is the pages of a book, it simultaneously tells the story of a father and son growing up and getting older, struggling with the pressure to succeed. The Father project also takes the shape of an actual book, poster, and vinyl figures of the main characters. Sticky Monster’s ongoing characters, The Monsters, also populate more of their work – including an epic sci-fi short The Monsters and The Runners for a little shoe company from Oregon.

HunterGatherer’s Signature Series for Fuel

HunterGatherer is the latest artist to be commissioned by Fuel TV for one of their award-winning Signature Series IDs. The new stop-motion spot is inspired by the idea of synthesia, with music transformed directly into the spare and graphic visual style of Todd St. John. Bright, stimulating and very impressive.

See more pictures and read a Q&A with Todd St. John about his process here.

Yellow Cake

Yellow Cake is a new short film by Nick Cross, an Ottawa-based animator who has worked for everyone from Nickelodeon to Spumco over the course of his career. He calls Yellow Cake a “lamentable tragedy mixed full of pleasant mirth.” Animated in Flash, with digitally painted backgrounds, the fine-tuned muted color palette, retro-styled animation and the symphonic, almost saccharine, music all work to lure you into a tale of adorable blue creatures who spend all day baking and then eating their own delicious yellow cakes. But soon the tide turns, and Nick’s film explores a modern parable of terrorism and war, addressing our own attention span in a devastating way.

You will remember that way back in 2003, Yellow Cake Uranium was one of the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Iraq allegedly possessed. Watch the film first, then read on for more with Nick Cross.

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New Work from Birdo Studio

Check out these three recent projects from the Brazilian Birdo Studio:
Sempre Livre is a poppy, colorful Flash animated spot that was made in just 2 weeks for agency Samurai. Birdo, designed, directed, animated and handled the script as well and said they’re “proud to be able to make a commercial for sanitary napkins completely free of blue liquids!” Amen to that.

Pode Acreditar (You Can Believe) is a fun cel-animated music video, with comical and fantastic drawings appearing over the live-action shots of Marcelo D2 and Seu Jorge. In concept, it can be compared to the D.A.N.C.E. video, the Kid Cudi video or any of the many VH1 and MTV promos like this one from Click 3x that have used the same idea. Yet the personal drawing style and execution here don’t make it seem derivative at all, after all, it’s just a technique and a process.

Finally, the 33rd São Paulo International Film Festival is a collaborative project directed by Amir Admoni with characters designed by the world-renowned graffiti artists Os Gemeos. Birdo handled character animation for the festival opener.

Three cool, new, diverse projects from a small and very capable character animation studio. Fly high, Birdo, fly high!