1st Ave Machine: Panera “Live Consciously / Eat Deliciously”

The Rube Goldberg machine is a reoccurring gimmick in advertising, but before anyone complains about having “seen it before”, take a look at 1st Ave Machine‘s approach for Panera. The circular loop marries conceptually with the daily bakery cycle. There’s beautiful design and craftsmanship throughout the varied kinetic elements. The camera cuts close on details and back wide again rather than restricting itself to the typical “all-in-one-take” approach. They make a very complicated process look effortless.

Credits

The Fox And King: 11Eleven

Melbourne-based The Fox And King (aka Glenn Thomas) created these short scenes for the 11Eleven Project. Like some of the projects cited in our recent How To Make Sure You Can Show Work In Your Portfolio feature, the film’s creative eventually went in a different direction. Though they weren’t used in the final documentary, Glenn does have some lovely portfolio pieces to show off his illustration and animation skills.

The concept behind the videos was to show the time 11:11, at different places in the world. Night time in NYC. Sunrise in Africa. Coffee & Toast in Melbourne. Catching the subway in Tokyo. The last one, titled Home, was meant to be a nostalgic piece, to evoke that feeling of wonder we all use to have as children, before life started and got in the way.

Ewan Jones Morris: Pinkunoizu “I Chi”

Ewan Jones Morris creates an animated sci-fi collage of vintage picture books, retro magazines and old science journals for I Chi by Danish psychedelic band Pinkunoizu. Each frame is printed out on a slightly unreliable inkjet printer to accentuate a stop-motion quality.

Also fun is Morris’s collaboration with Casey Raymond for DJ Shadow’s Scale It Back.

Credits

How To Make Sure You Can Show Work In Your Portfolio

Can’t say Title (confidential) by Sebas & Clim

You’re in the midst of production — the style frames you designed were approved, the work-in-progress animations you’ve sent along to the client were received well, and you’re rapidly approaching the deadline. You’re really happy with how the job looks, and everything is working smoothly. The client is happy, too. This will be a great piece for your portfolio!

But what happens when your client doesn’t want you to use the finished work in your portfolio?
Read on →

Shen Jie: Run!

Shanghai-based Shen Jie explores a series of associations in Run!.

Note: A couple of the associations are NSFW. For those of you sensitive to strobing, be aware that it is used heavily in this film.

Nando Costa: FITC Toronto 2013

Nando Costa takes entomology as a jumping off point for his FITC Toronto 2013 title sequence.

Hat tip to Stash.

Credits

Célia Rivière: Chérie 25 Channel Launch

Célia Rivière directs this sophisticated spot for the launch of Chérie 25.
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.

Eran Hilleli: ING “Numbers”

Tel Aviv-based Eran Hilleli directs a lovely realization of illustrations by The Project Twins. Made with Avi Yani, Or Bar El, Lior Ben Horin, and Ori Toor at XYZ Studios.

Credits

Noah Harris: Google Chrome “Speedbots”

Whimsical whizzing bots directed by Noah Harris and BBH London/Blinkink/Glassworks.

Credits