The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards are in, and although they were announced last week, we thought we’d dig up snippets of each flick for Best Animated Short Film to share with you today. Say hello to the contenders!
Animated Short Film Nominees:
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg)
Barcelona-based multimedia and design studio Tigrelab created an array of immersive visuals for Com Va la Vida: a recent video mapping project on TV3. Making-of here.
Monday, January 30th, 2012 | Comments Off
This Idea Is Not Working by Henrique Barone
After we were initially sent Henrique Barone’s stellar short, This Idea Is Not Working, our jaws hit floor. We immediately wanted to share it with our Motionographer readers, so got the engine warmed up and put things in motion. Then, something happened: we found out it’s a student piece. Jeepers! We scratched our head and weighed the options. Of course, we do have our Students section and although you can find it there, we were so impressed by Barone’s animation skills that we had no choice but to give it some love in our Main section. One thing we never want Motionographer to become is a place where only big-studios reign supreme and the little guy (you, me, us, etc) has no shot to shine. And not to gush, but it’s rare to find animation so inventive, polished and well-timed—let alone, a student piece. Did we mention that it’s hand-drawn?
After you watch This Idea Is Not Working, be sure to check out a wonderful step-by-step breakdown that the artist put together here.
Bill Maher’s ‘Irritable Bowl Syndrome’ by Fraser Davidson
Earlier this week, we posted Fraser Davidson’s slick, type-driven animation, Irritable Bowl Syndrome: an infographic piece inspired by a cutting excerpt taken from Bill Maher’s book, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” With the Superbowl only 10 days away, once again, sports fans and advertisers become unlikely bedfellows. In the spirit of this great, hard-hitting American tradition, we’ve upgraded the piece to our main section and chatted up the artist for a little Q&A. Enjoy the foxy animation and witty social commentary.
Stash is launching a new design conference dubbed Style Frames. The event takes place in Buenos Aires on May 10-11 and will focus on the complex world of pitching.
To say that Psyop has it down pat would be an understatement. In this latest batch of spots for IBM, Psyop rolls out a trifecta of pure goodness. Each piece is so well crafted as to stand alone, but together they showcase a range — both creative and technical — that few studios can rival. It’s true what they say: Good things come in threes.
UPDATE: Psyop sure keeps us on our toes! We didn’t want these slick, new spots they created for Old Navy’s Funnovations campaign to slip by, so check them out here: Grandmabot, Cozyscope, Bootologist, and The Perfect Pufferizer.
Just when you think Onesize can’t outdo themselves, they do. In their most recent efforts, the gang teamed up with agency Jack Morton Worldwide and Ericsson to promote the company’s vision of The Networked Society. The piece is a fully CG animated film to be screened during Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg’s Keynote at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. Onesize elaborates on the creation of the film:
We liked the concept very much and started developing style frames immediately. We followed this by delivering an animatic in one week which was approved by JMW and Ericsson before production commenced. The animatic was very helpful because some of the final shot framings and camera motion were copied exactly from the animatic.
The film was to be split into three sections — fixed line (the past), mobile (the present) and The Networked Society (the future). Each section was designed in a slightly different style by Reinier to symbolize key moments in Ericsson history. We took this opportunity to design an info-graphical 3D look within an abstract environment of diorama-style rooms and spaces. We selected motion designers for each specific section to take on the task of the modeling, animation, lighting and rendering. We completed the 3500px wide and 1500px high film within six weeks, working with five animators/designers and music company Echolab.
You may have noticed that Motionographer Jobs now charges a small $50 fee to employers looking to post a work opportunity on our job board. While the service will remain free for those searching and applying to job postings, we’ve levied this price in order to accommodate our costs as a not-for-profit, all volunteer organization. Still, our primary goal of matching the industry’s best skills with the best opportunities remains and we thank each of you for your support and continued participation in Motionographer Jobs.
Monday, December 19th, 2011 | Comments Off
Psyop for FedEx: The Making of “Enchanted Forest”
It’s been five years since Psyop made their mark on the industry with Happiness Factory — the high flying, CG fable that defined a commercial genre they helped to create. If it’s not broke, then don’t fix it, and once more, the studio plays with the textbook devices that make Psyop distinctively Psyop. In their latest work, magical imagery and a wizardry of craft assure that Enchanted Forest stands shoulder to shoulder aside a long line of Psyop classics. The team elaborates:
We wanted to create a world that is surreal, sophisticated and cinematic where the forest is practical with a blend of CG enchantments. Our desire was to have a poetic interpretation of an idealized forest where everything is alive and has a soul to tell our story of FedEx’s eco-friendly solutions. For this fairy tale, we wanted to create depth and mystery with stylized characters and unique magical vegetation to blend them into this weird hybrid world.
In a Motionographer exclusive, Psyop has offered up a rare glimpse into the enchanting artwork that went into the creation of their most recent gem and sat down for a Q&A: The Making of “Enchanted Forest.”
Nathan Love never fails to deliver. In a style reminiscent of ’60s and ’70s pop art, the gang whips up a playful two-spot package for everyone’s favorite saccharin sweetener, Sweet N’ Low. In Cloud Rainbow and Sun Moon, viewers go back in time to an illustrative style evocative of such psychedelic artists as Heinz Edelmann and Peter Max. The director of the spots, Anca Risca, elaborates:
This project was alot of fun! As a first-timer directing a 2D spot, it was exciting to see it all come together and to be a part of the process.
The first step we took was to visualize the scripts into design frames, which were inspired by (and designed to be cohesive with) Sweet’N Low’s previous pattern-heavy print ad campaign. As we began fleshing out the storyboards and animatics, we brainstormed different ideas for the gags and details of the story. What does a cloud store between his puffs alongside his precious zero calorie sweetner? Sugary cupcakes? A horn or drum set? A lamb or a cloud-shaped sheep? The creative felt very free-form, and with such a well-established brand it was refreshing to do away with the traditional commercial product end tag and incorporate it more into the story.
Music for this project was also a big factor for me — I really wanted to capture the light-hearted feeling that these characters carried, and I thought of laid-back ukulele music as my instrument of choice.
With a dream team of only three, animation and finishing happened quickly and smoothly, after which we all had cake and beer! Yaaay.
This week’s RE:PLAY films come from Alexander Gellner and David Wilson. Fellas, take it away…
ALEXANDER GELLNER – “HOW TO GET IDEAS”
“I was thinking a lot about concepts of creativity and the exploitation of ideas. On the one hand, you can’t really steal ideas, only share them. To make a solution public and enable collaboration, raises the potential of one small idea and things can build on each other. The whole CreativeCommons movement is based on this concept. But in a competitive, entrepreneur driven environment, sharing may not be perceived as the ideal and the value increases by being the sole vendor of one idea/solution. The famous “I drink your milkshake” scene in “There will be blood” finally gave me a visual shorthand for this paradox. I used collage technique instead of my usual lineart, because collage art is unapologetic about appropriating and building on work that other people have made for you. ”
DAVID WILSON – “LIFE AS AN INDEPENDENT ASTRONAUT”
“I didn’t want to start with a blank piece of paper on this one. In fact, I decided to step away from my desk completely and start with some fabric, card, scissors and glue, and I made this space suit. The process of doing and making is very therapeutic for me. Over the few days that it took me to create the suit, I developed the character of who lived inside it. Developing the script and costume side-by-side made a lot of sense to me, and was refreshing to start from a different angle. Ultimately, the life of John Barlow, our Independent Astronaut revolves around the importance of inner peace and finding acceptance.”
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 | Comments Off
F5 RE:PLAY FILMS 03
Another week, another great batch. We have RE:PLAY films from James Copeman & Sam Renwick and Peppermelon with music/sound design from David Kamp. Two wildly different approaches to happiness, but both focusing on singular protagonists who yearn for the understanding of the world around them.
JAMES COPEMAN – “THE TELL TAIL”
“The brief was really open, all it said was “happiness”. It got me thinking about an interview I’d read with actor Christopher Walken a few weeks earlier. In it, he had mentioned his desire to have a tail. ‘It would be so great to have a tail. It would be like.. Look, get back, don’t fuck with Chris today, look at his tail, he looks pissed.’
This got me thinking, I thought how it would be to have a tail that expressed your basic emotions that were subconscious and you couldn’t control it. I pitched this idea to my good friend Sam Renwick, we then sat down and started writing funny scenarios and problems caused by having a tail.The protagonist would struggle with it, and ultimately find happiness in hacking the tail off with some DIY cosmetic surgery. I knew Sam could play the lead character. It was great to get Ed Rutherford on board to shoot it and Caroline Story was really excited about making some prosthetic dog tails. I was concerned about getting the narrative across in under 2mins but somehow it works, and people seem to get it. Sam and I are now working on our next short.”
PEPPERMELON – “fIRST”
FROM PEPPERMELON: “This is PepperMelon’s first approach to classic storytelling, but with the ol’ characteristic pink colors, tweaks and quirks of Garcia’s style…Happiness is to inspire and be inspired; it is the result of connecting with someone else. fIRST represents happiness as something that needs to be shared with someone to actually lift our hearts. True creations, true happiness cannot be achieved while being alone; it is something shared in a crowd, or in twos. Happiness is not about smiling, but about connecting. And, there’s always a first time for all of us to experience this. This is the story…of a fIRST.”
FROM DAVID KAMP: “The piece was a lot of fun to work on, especially since its quite different from my usual musical endeavours. I collaborated with a friend back from my university days. He is a trained Cellist and played the Cello parts on the piece, which i think really brought it to life. I feel like the cello really helps to connect you to the main character and his feelings. An inspiration in that regard was the Cello Theme in Wong Kar-Wai’s great Film “In the mood for Love”. Its been a while that i saw the film, but the melancholic feeling i remembered from that movie was what i wanted to express in my score. The project was a great challenge in the limited amount of time and in between other jobs, but i think the result is a nice little short.”
Thursday, May 19th, 2011 | Comments Off
F5 RE:PLAY FILMS 02
This week, we have RE:PLAY films from Holbrooks, Physalia and Mixtape Club. Another great line-up of talented directors approaching the idea of happiness, joy and synchronicity in clever ways. We’ll let the artists speak for themselves…
MIXTAPE CLUB – “HELLO I LIKE YOU”
‘”When presented with the creative brief, we thought what better way to express our happiness than to distill the essence of our craft, to serve up a creamy shot of artistic espresso? So with this film, we’ve gone back to the basics: the simplest of inanimate objects, and transformed them into a tapestry of playful, choreographed dance for your enjoyment.
The goal here was simply to explore materials, themes, and techniques that have always made us happy – the things that drew us to this crazy art form in the first place. Like music. The whole process started with some simple visual experiments, and using those initial kernels as a starting point, we worked back and forth with our favorite tuneful youngsters, Huma-Huma, to develop the score for this piece. The music and the visuals evolved organically together, with each new version inspiring something in the other. We always find it particularly satisfying to develop the sound as part of the process itself.”
PHYSALIA – “INDUCTANCE”
“Inductance is the making-of for a piece that will never exist, a behind the scenes with no scenes! When faced with the challenge of creating a short under the theme of happiness, we first concluded with Gerardo del Hierro that whether the short was going to overtly address the theme or not, what we really wanted was to enjoy the process. We have always loved to share the making-of’s for our pieces, not only because we usually have fun developing tools that allow us to create them (sometimes in a very masochistic sort of way!) but because we understand as professionals that part of the enjoyment of watching a piece comes from finding out how the hell it was done.
The choice of the device to build came shortly after, spurred by some painful trial-error process and being the colour balls from the F5 logo the last inspiration spark we needed. The video is a document of how the happiest machine Physalia has built to date came to exist.”
HOLBROOKS – “VELO CEREBRUM”
“We wanted to take a dry look at the subject of happiness. To strip down the aesthetics of a smile, literally tearing skin from flesh, flesh from bone, bone cracking away. We wanted to expose the brain and let it reveal the spirituality and enigma of happiness. Of a simple action that makes this person happy in a way that they’d find hard to describe.”
Thursday, May 12th, 2011 | Comments Off
HAPPY F5 – RE:PLAY FILMS 01
We’re very pleased to get this first batch of Happy F5 – RE:PLAY films online. We’ll be sharing three films at a time, one batch each Wednesday. Consider it F5 Wednesdays from here on out.
This first group includes work from Daniels, Kristoffer Borgli and Nomint. Each artist/studio has provided us a peek into the creative process for the work.
Our sincere thanks to all the artists behind RE:PLAY. Commissioned by F5, each team created unique and inspiring nuggets of creative expression. Perfect compliments to all of the other pearls that made up Happy F5 this year.
“RE:PLAY is a wonderful chance to be creative with no boundaries. When given total freedom as a storyteller, we (daniel&daniel) found ourselves battling between a desire to make something meaningful and honest and a desire to make something perverted (which is also in our case honest). Entirely by accident, Puppets became a perfect analogy for our self aware creative process. But mostly it’s lots of butt jokes.”
“There was so little time for the creative process, so the first thing I did was to limit myself. The theme was “happy”, so initially I wanted to do something outside in the sun, but at the time in Oslo there was still snow. Being fed up with snow after a long winter, there was no inspiration to be found outside. But I had seen this Villa drawn by Arne Korsmo, and wanting to film there for a long time. Also I had just watched the documentary “L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot”, which led me to buying a Slinky toy. So I limited myself to write something about a Slinky-toy inside this Villa. The main theme is about a resourcefull young woman, not being able to have fun, even though she has all these material posessions. It’s not untill she is in an extreme situation where she can connect with her feelings. Slinky made the day after all. Thank you DP Jon Gaute Espevold, my friends the actors, the Norwegian Foundation for Design and Architecture and the post production team at Storyline Studios!”
“When we where asked to make a video about happiness, we decided that we should take it from the very beginning, when it first appeared in the world.
We find happiness to be a very serious matter, definitely worthy of an awesome deity like Mahahula, an ancient gigantic infant rodent born from an alien space traveling seed that crash-landed on primordial earth. We wanted to depict happiness in all its glorious complexity: obscure, hard to find, huge and colorful. Is it more of a constant personal pursuit or is it a fortunate offering by others?
Mahahula came about with the sole purpose of spreading joy to the world, only there was no one around to hear her say so, as this was a long-long time ago. As we speak, she might or might not still be around warming our hearts for eternity.”
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 | Comments Off
Ned Wenlock: “Apache” for Danger Beach
Watching Apache is like riding a merry-go-round of revolving visuals. With each part building upon itself in steady rotations, the piece reads like a narrative. Directed by illustrator Ned Wenlock, alongside character animator Rodney Selby, Apache is a Wild West inspired music-video for indie rock band, Danger Beach. Through a looping tale of time and travel, the characters assume several modes of transportation, only to be defeated by the modern metropolis.
Read our exclusive Q&A with Apache director, Ned Wenlock, here.
Let’s just address F5 from the heart. It’s been a little over a week and we still can’t get it out of our heads. Ping-pong between the speaker sessions, re:play films, installations, drinks, the massive balloon logo, and above all…the atmosphere.
From Friday morning forward, you brought warmth and curiosity to Roseland. You engaged with each other and the world-at-large. You helped build a village of inspiration that will live far into the future.
Judging from what’s been said, what’s been written, what’s been posted…you also walked away with something new. It could have been an appreciation for artists you just discovered – or those you already knew. You might now be working on a project through a different lens with some new friends. You may have lifted one of the pinatas and have it there, staring at you while you read this. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that came from the festival.
And you got the spirit of F5 from Day One. The minute that Buck’s titles rolled, it was clear that this was like no other conference before. We had puppets, peacocks and robots — DJ’s, VJ’s and MC’s — severed goat heads and happy face avatars — banjos and turntables — a laser harp — and countless perspectives on the creative process.
As Kid Koala finished his set with Moon River, the beauty of our collective spirit was fully awake and you all stood as one – until the balloons fell late on Saturday. The dreamers and the doers came out. And your smiles said it all. Thank you from the bottom of hearts.
(Our countless thanks to Buck and music/sound design team, Antfood, for an incredible title sequence that brought down the house and set a new benchmark for the future of titles. Basil and Noodles are the new mascots of F5! Check out the full version — and photos from the event)
With the lead-up to F5 taking up so much of our time at Motionographer, we were admittedly led astray and almost (keyword: almost) let a piece of stellar quality slip between the cracks. But as they say, better late than never.
Last month, Psyop released a piece unique to its typically CG pipeline and something that —on YouTube alone— has already garnered over 5 million views. In Plain, for Greek dairy company, Fage, Psyop was forced to rethink it’s pipeline when they discovered they would only be allotted two short weeks of post-production time. By approaching most of the shots in-camera and integrating CG only when absolutely necessary, the team of artists rose to the challenge and created a piece that is not only hauntingly beautiful, but a testament to their ingenuity.
In an exclusive Q&A with additional behind-the-scenes artwork, we caught up with Psyop to find out exactly how they did it. Check it out here.
Ben & Julia (meet them here) have been busy so now you can feast your eyes on the contradictorily named pieces Nothing To Celebrate vs la Fête de l’Anim in Lille. Oh, right, and also the third one, last but not least Yo Gabba Gabba feat Biz Markie. Enjoy.
The latest installment of the PBS’s excellent “Off Book” series highlights the art of film & TV title design, featuring interviews with Peter Frankfurt, Karin Fong, Ben Conrad, and Jim Helton. Check out the full series on YouTube or Vimeo.
Stash
