Flying V, a new collaboration between 2008 Supinfocom alumni Clément Soulmagnon & Gary Levesque, has created a short film titled Virgile. Following a shy guy named Virgile who desperately tries to impress a gal by being everything other than himself, Clément and Gary display their prowess for everything a successful short film needs. From original concept to final composite this film would make Supinfocom proud, especially considering that they are only one year out from creating the extremely successful short films “Gary” and “Yankee Gal“.
Apart from being impressed by these french youngsters kicking ass and taking numbers, I’m also intrigued by the fact that this film was entirely produced at Wizz Design. During a year in which financial survival has the edge over creativity, it is uplifting to see a company put their own dime into a short film. When all the competition is churning out “money jobs” a few solid investments in creative can jockey companies into better positioning when all the economic turmoil is over.
I know most of you are thinking, “not another kaleidoscope video.” Well yes, it is. However, I’m posting this as proof that a process, even as tired as the kaleidoscope effect, can be pushed back into relevance. It fits right in with his growing body of work that explores pattern, composition and meticulous planning.
Rather than leaning on this stock After Effects plug-in, David has a crafted an intricate structure of visuals that directly connect to the effect he is using. Take a moment to examine some of the detail and synchronization in the effects shots and you’ll see the great attention to detail that must have gone into the pre-production of this shoot. If every idea has been done, just do it better…
The release of this one slipped under my radar, but hopefully its new to many of you as well.
For the release of Audi’s new Economy Drive, Ne-o and BBH, London use the analogous form of a bulb to represent the energy saved by the car’s engine stopping when it does.
This black and white piece is packed with stunning cinematic moments as well more human vignettes that fit with Ne-o’s past work. I personally love what they’ve done with the shadow-play on the environment. It’s an added visual layer that really pushes the theme of light to the next level.
I think all directors should be animators first, because you really can take the imagination to become something tangible, something you can hold in your hand, and say, “Can you see this? No? Well, I can.” And then you make that, make that happen.
Marco Iozzi updates his portfolio with some major goodies. Marco is an awesome CG artist and look development specialist that has worked with many top studios, such as Psyop, The Moving Picture Company, and The Mill.
Marco Iozzi has a great passion for his craft and it shows through his dramatic visuals. He has a nice combination of film and commercial projects in his portfolio, yet despite the variety of projects on Marco’s site, the final product of each piece looks amazing. To top it off, his photography and cg breakdowns are nice contributions to his heavy arsenal of work.
Just looking at his online material left a thirst to find out more about the man behind the portfolio. I tracked down Marco, who was cool enough to share some of his career experiences in a Q & A session with Motionographer:
Unveiled at Comic-Con last week in San Diego, this teaser scene for the forthcoming Tron Legacy movie from Walt Disney Pictures looks incredibly hot. With Joseph Kosinski at the helm, the film promises to be, at the very least, a visual spectacle worth the price of admission.
We’re working on getting more information about the production. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: We’ve been cleared to share that Digital Domain, with whom Kosinski has worked on many projects in the past, handled the visual effects for this sequence.
I have to admit that I was wary of reviewing Hollywood Camera Work’s Visual Effects for Directors. When the package arrived, I groaned. Seven DVDs. All about visual effects. “Great,” I thought. “When I get bored, I’ll watch paint dry instead.”
How wrong I was.
VFX for Directors, it turns out, is actually fun. Although densely educational, the material makes sense—and more importantly—it feels relevant to the art of digitally enhanced storytelling. Every chapter had me saying, “Oh, so that’s how that works.”
Over the last year or so, we’ve seen a lot projects involving the projection of video onto architectural structures. The most interesting of these are films that actually take the contours of the building into account, creating perceptual tricks of scale and encouraging viewers to think of the buildings as malleable structures.
To get the full effect, it helps to think about the experience of being a visitor to one of these structures—rather than simply viewing them as web video. Go full-screen, if you can.
555 KUBIK
Ubranscreen teamed up with art director Daniel Rossa to create whimsical deconstructions of the Hamburg Kunsthalle.
Tetragram for Enlargment
Collective Apparati Effimeri took a minimal approach to their projection on the Malatesta Castle Verucchio.
Rama Allen, Designer; Shawn Fedorchuk, Editor; Matthew Mulder, Creative Director; Morgan Henry, Main Title Producer; Camm Rowland, Designer; Ryan Gagnier, Designer Making of and case study on Digital Kitchen’s site
Taking Chance (HBO)
Michael Riley, Title Designer; Dru Nget, Title Designer; Dan Meehan, Animator; Bob Swensen, Main Title Producer
When the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) announced the formation of a new chapter, AICP Digital, we wondered what impact that might have on motion graphics, animation and visual effects studios and freelancers.
Thanks to Motionographer’s Bran Dougherty-Johnson, we set up an interview with AICP President and CEO Matt Miller and President, Commercials Division and Executive Producer of Digital Domain, Ed Ulbrich, who has helped make AICP Digital a reality.
If you’re not sure whether or not this is relevant to you, don’t worry: it is. As Ulbrich says in our interview, “This should be of really critical importance to the individual, because their quality of life and their livelihood and their pay indirectly is determined by that relationship between these design companies, these animation shops, these visual effects studios, these web development houses—and the relationship with their clients.”
Many of our questions about AICP Digital revolved around rising issues regarding labor practices. “Labor is one of the great ticking time bombs of the motion graphics and design world,” says Ulbrich. “And it’s [about] getting the companies to have awareness of their obligations under the law and employees understanding what’s appropriate.”
Check out the interview here. It’s also available through iTunes, along with our other podcasts.
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Alphabetical @ACNE Films directs Change Perspective, for Saab’s 9-3X. It’s not your mother’s car commercial. An interactive version can be accessed here.
Andrew Li injects a little fun into the typical architectural visualization project with “Take Note”, a proposal for a new mixed use urban development in Salford Quays, near Manchester.
Put on your party hat, because this year, After Effects turns sweet 16. Celebrate the software that’s grown up before us by watching the official After Effects 1.1 Demo Reel (1993).
The Best Is Back. Christopher Lee, character illustrator extraordinaire, updates and overhauls his web presence with exceedingly creative and finely tuned motion design art and illustrations.
In Artificial Paradise, Inc, Belgian director JP Frenay forecasts an eerie future for humankind in this experimental film that is glowing with CG polish and abstract imagery.
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