Otis Senior Show

 

Otis is having their Senior show this week. If you are in the area you should swing by and check out the new recruits. Here are the dates and times:

THURSDAY May 10 – INDUSTRY NIGHT
6-9pm

FRIDAY May 11 – OPEN TO PUBLIC
6-9pm

Otis College of Art and Design
9045 Lincoln Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 90045
Parking is free.

New HP Campaign: A “Twist” on the Old?

Eight VFX teamed up with director Olivier Gondry to create a three-spot campaign for HP. The first spot in the series stars fashion designer Vera Wang, and it’s been getting some serious airplay lately.

Goodby, Silverstein and Partners/SF, the agency behind the campaign, is obviously building on the success of their previous “Hands” campaign (which featured beautiful design and animation executed by Motion Theory). But there’s a degree of separation in this new spot that I think detracts a little from the spontaneous acts of personal expression implied by the “Hands” approach.

Instead of the talent directly manipulating the objects of their creativity, this new approach leans towards celebrities watching over tableaux that seem to be created by someone else. Each scene seems prepackaged, in a way; all the talent needs to do is pull on the right doohickey or push the right button. (Maybe that’s also indicative of HP’s approach to personal computing?)

The scenes are clever, though. My favorite is the self-referential commercial-within-a-commercial moment. Very Gondry. (Both Michel and Olivier.)

Technically, Eight VFX did a smashing job. Their sense of scale is perfectly consistent, which really bolsters the impression that you’re witnessing little universes play out on a table top. They seem to have great chemistry with Gondry, opting for a little less whiz-bang slickness in favor of practical effects and straightforward live action compositing when possible.

Full credits in this press release.

Ember

Ember is Shane Zucker’s and Jason Ett’s Venice based studio with some very slick work to show off. Their website showcases a very refined style through some solid projects they have produced for such high powered clientele as Microsoft and Madonna. Ember has also done some work for a few of the well known motion graphics studios like Brand New School.

Both directors of this studio have great talent and experience and it will be interesting to see where this studio goes.

Ember

DSPRWXXIII

Despairow is the alias for Joshua Harvey. A true young gun in this industry, Harvery designs, directs, illustrates and has a wide breadth of knowledge in the 3d and animation world. He is currently a technical director at Psyop and has had some part in many of their most respected projects.

His site gives us a view into all the things he does at Psyop and personally on a daily basis, which is a frightening amount of work. He seems to have a different task for every job that he works on, and from the looks of the spots, Harvey does them all very well.

It’s always great to see the people behind the powerhouse that is Psyop.

DSPRWXXIII

Current TV: Graphics Reel and a Call for (Talented) Help

The good people at Current TV put up a reel of their graphics work in hopes that they can attract a totally BA designer to come work for them. (More details here.)

I’m posting partially to help with them with that, but mostly I think their reel is great. Current’s design aesthetic is a tasteful blend of Swiss/International graphic design with the trends of the day—an appropriate choice given their audience of educated 15-30 year olds. (I totally pulled that demographic out of my butt.) I’m also a big fan of most of their typographic choices. Clean, simple and understated.

Love Sport

Love Sport is a series of 10 films by Grant Orchard, a director at studio aka for QOOB.tv. Pictured above is Sumo. Hilarious. They are nine more to enjoy: High Diving, Ping-Pong, Basketball … each of them are great. And the titles. Yum! Really nice work on this.

Danny Yount

Danny Yount is an award winning designer who is currently a creative director at Prologue Films. He has a keen eye for typography, and the extensive list of major main title sequences on his site proves it. He designs with a great sense for story and with just the right amount of playfulness to keep his designs from being too serious.

His reel is certainly worth seeing and then starting over and watching again. He cut it together with impeccable timing to the music that keeps you entertained throughout. A very hard task to achieve, and from the looks of it, he does it with ease. Prologue is lucky to have him on board.

Danny can also handle a camera, check out his photography for some quality imagery.

sixteentwenty

Stop-motion goodness from Jared Eberhardt

This stop-motion music video for the Brazilian-based band, CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy), uses good ole’ analog motion graphics. Fun character concepts, nice set designs and super-fun typography. I would drink some alcohol with them.

3erMundo

A Barcelona based animation/design firm with alot of playful work. Their animation for Cinemax, which is reminiscent of the tin doll look David Nicolas used for the Super Furry Animals video, “At Least It’s Not the End of the World”, is certainly worth a look-see. They also show off their ability to venture away from motion with some fantastic traditional illustration work and character designs. Nothing like a few drawings of long necked llamas to start the week off right.

3erMundo

via Feed

Vox Studios is David Viau

Vox Studios is the freelancing front for creative director David Viau. David’s motion work is silky smooth, and his boards are highly polished gems. His projects are fueled by chromatic and compositional balance, resulting in visuals that feel controlled, but not too tight.