Out of Sight

Out of Sight on Vimeo.

So this is a year old, but it’s still wonderful, and I can’t believe it’s slipped through my posting schedule. A trio of Taiwanese students made these as part of their graduation project. Their making-of page is worth looking at, even though the text is all in Mandarin and a simple Google translate of the page isn’t doing a decent job at all. It’s one of the most moving piece of animation I have seen lately … if you’re not touched by this, you may be made of wood!

Recap: Pause Fest 2011

A couple of weeks ago the city of Melbourne, Australia, hosted the very first run of a digital design festival, Pause. The festival covers different aspects from digital advertising to street projections, and gives the Melbourne design community an excuse to network, connect and get inspired. I went along and have now come to share my thoughts on the events I attended and on the festival as a whole.

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Google Doodle: All hail Freddie Mercury!

It’s not live yet for you Americans (you gotta wait till Tuesday, September 6, 2011), but here in Australia, we are already singing along! More info on the video can be found here and here.

Bronte: by Ari & Jason for Gotye

Bronte (official film clip) from Gotye on Vimeo.

One of my favorite musicians, Wally de Backer (more commonly known as Gotye), recently released a fantastic new album Making Mirrors, and along with it, a bunch of great music videos by a number of Australian animators-filmmakers. I’m thrilled to find out that Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment (whom I got to know about through their “Sometimes the Stars” video for another Australian band, The Audreys, and Ari’s co-directed film, The Cat Piano) made one of those. Wally/Gotye is well known for his passion in supporting other Australian artists by collaborating with them. (You might remember Picture Drift’s work for his first hit single, “Heart’s A Mess.”)

The song “Bronte” is about a family saying goodbye to their old dog. Ari and Jason once again created a lush, beautiful backdrop for the story to unfold, as alive and whimsical as the characters that inhabit it. In contrast to “Sometimes the Stars,” the atmosphere is a less stark, but it is just as moving.

Read interview and behind-the-scenes work here…

Terry Gilliam’s cutout animation tutorial

A blast from the past! The youthful Terry Gilliam explaining the methods behind his cutout animations.This has been circulating the interwebs for a bit, and we thought we’d share it with you all. Should be a treat for all you Monty Python fans out there.

Yowie and the Magpie by Dylan White

Been a long time coming, but this delightfully illustrative and darkly comic tale is now available to view in its entirety online, after having toured festivals. I especially enjoyed the constantly pulsating and bubbling white beard of “dad.” Designed and directed by Dylan White, so be sure to head over to his site for more behind-the-scenes info. I enjoyed the click-thru showing the juxtapositions between storyboard images and final style frames. Full credit list on the site and on the Vimeo page here.

Channel 4 Street Summer promo

Update: MPC’s behind-the-scene ‘making of’. Fascinating stuff!

Given the recent riots and looting that’s been plaguing England, I cannot help but post this “Street Summer” promo by Channel 4. MPC London is responsible for the flawless VFX, which is fascinating to watch if you can ignore the highly charged content for a second.

Glancing through the comments on the official YouTube page and also here, I find them to be just as interesting as the video.

Is this inappropriate, done in poor taste? Or is this simply a honest portrayal of the youth culture in Britain now? Does this condone stereotyping or challenge viewers to rethink it? What do you think?

Thanks to Zinnia for the nudge, and our hearts go out to U.K. residents affected by the riots.

Defective Detective

Defective Detective from Cartoon Brew on Vimeo.

Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis worked together to bring us this lovely animated film about a hapless detective’s attempt in catching a serial killer. Gorgeously lit, textured, modelled and designed, it features a combination of 2D and 3D animation and debuted at Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival. It scores a pretty okay rating in the humor department, in my opinion, but the best thing about it is its brevity: A good film usually doesn’t have to go any longer than it needs to. On that note, I’ll shut up now and let you enjoy it.

(Thanks to Greg for the nudge.)

The Resale Right

Le droit de suite (The Resale Right) — VA from Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet on Vimeo (via Drawn).

Time and again I have been moved by the sense of solidarity that comes across from various discussions on Motionographer about protecting the rights of designers and artists (i.e., How do we look out for one another?). This is why when I came across this piece, I simply had to share it with you. It is gorgeously arresting in its simplicity, and informative. It’s been a while since I saw typographical-pictorial animation handled so well. So, enjoy!

According to Pierre, “The ADAGP is the French collective rights management society in the field of the visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, multimedia, etc.). It represents almost 80,000 artists. They asked for a film that explains what the resale right is.”

Directed by Pierre-Emannuel Lyet, and made at French animation studio doncvoila.
Full credit list can be found on the Vimeo page.

Sometimes The Stars: Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment

Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment (Director and Art Director of The Cat Piano–read also our post on that award-winning film here.) teamed up again, this time to bring us this gorgeous music video for the title track of The Audreys’ new album ‘Sometimes The Stars’. The storyline and art direction is simple (you won’t find any glossy eye-popping CG here) which in my opinion makes the end result even more effective, poignant and memorable. According to Ari and Jason, ‘at a basic level it’s about someone suffering from a loss and their journey towards making a connection.’

I caught up with them to find out a few questions about the project, you can read all about it after the jump. But for now, sit back, turn up the volume, dim the lights, and enjoy…

Thanks for the tip, Jayden!

Q&A and Behind The Scenes pictures here

The Lost Thing: Interview With Shaun Tan

First, a word about Shaun Tan. He is an amazing storyteller. His picture books are not only filled with rich, whimsical pictures, but also with stories that stay with you long after you finish reading the last page. Sometimes poignant, sometimes joyful, they are always elegantly pure and simple, yet in that simplicity lies their power. I am not sure if this is an accurate description, but I think his stories are special, because they reach that part of you that still believes in the goodness of other people, of this world, and of yourself.

The Lost Thing is one such story. (Trailer available on youtube, and on the official site). It is about a boy who stumbles upon a bizarre-looking creature, and “…having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notices its presence…”. It first came out as a picture book in 2000, and was made into a short animated film at Passion Pictures Australia. Andrew Ruhermann co-directed it with Shaun, and Sophie Byrne is at the helm as executive producer (full credits at the official site).

After touring the world, winning awards at Festivals like Palm Springs and Annecy, it finally became available on DVD late 2010– something which I have been eagerly waiting for. Pre-production began as early as 2001, and the film was finally completed in August 2009.

Myself and fellow author Jon Gorman both love the story, so we decided to catch up with Shaun to find out what took place in such a mammoth undertaking of turning this beloved fable into that award-winning short.

NOTE: A reader has emailed me with a very good question regarding voice talent. We don’t usually do this, but it was very relevant, so we reached out to Sophie and Shaun once more, and the answer to that (by Sophie Byrne), is now added to the interview below, right at the end.

Read the interview here

Buck for Google eBooks

After much speculations and rumours, Google launches its own eBookstore today. Lots of talk about its pros and cons, as well as discussions about whether this would turn people away from other paperless book formats, such as Kindle, and so on.

But luckily for us all, this is a Motion Design blog, so let’s get to the juicy bits–here’s the spot announcing the launch. Once again Google favours the hand-crafted aesthetic, which I personally think is a smart move. Not only it is in keeping with the rest of Google’s campaign (eg. Chrome), but it also somewhat appeals to consumers like me who prefer the paper to pixel. In addition to saving trees, (although I don’t claim to know the exact carbon-cost advantage of eBooks), this campaign may just be the final push I need to switch to this new way of reading.

Thanks for the tip, Mungo and for the research, Igor!