Indeed, Twenty120 has come to pass. Not long ago, screenings for the festival went underway, drawing in artists across the board, and cooking up a body of work ranging from abstract animation to live action.
For those oblivious to the event, Twenty120 is a stockpile of 20 independent films that each span a length of 120 seconds. Rid of any professional constraints, artists were given full creative license, but posed to frame their work around this year’s theme, “In The Age of Opulence.”
While we at Motionographer where pleased at the overall quality from all the works, we where especially impressed by Wrights of Spring (Bryce Wymer, Daniel Pernikoff), OPRÉ (Justin Harder), and Fatty Wants A New Toy (Jon Saunders, Tony Barbieri).
Encyclopedia Pictura has struck again! The directing trio recently finished a personal animation entitled, “How Will You Create the Universe?”, inspired by the creature evolution concepts put forth by the video game Spore. Using that idea as a spring board, Encyclopedia Pictura explores what would evolve from a world if they were gods (as well as ask the viewers what they would create through verse). While creating a Universe can be hard, Encyclopedia Pictura puts all the odd pieces together just right to make a quirky, lush world that is unique to their vision.
Their sculpted style has evolved itself with the help of CG masters Tippett Studio, who brought their highly detailed designs to life. Tippet may be one of the few studios with the ability to take this style and intricate design and make something that even better looking then the stills. This animation could have easily looked like cgi trying to be claymation or borrowed from other more trendy 3d styles, instead Encyclopedia Pictura and Tippet created something brand new.
Enjoy.
EDIT: We discovered that this was in fact originally created a year ago for a Spore ad campaign that was ultimately killed. Kudos to Encyclopedia Pictura for taking the initiative and finishing this project. Shame the client couldn’t conceive what amazing attention this spot would have given their brand.
London-based directing collective, Mini Vegas, not only works on animation projects; they also do computer programming and run their own art gallery. To bring all this together, they took the programming experience they gained from working on experimental projects, such as advanced beauty, combined it with their design and animation skills and forged it into a real-time virtual version of a physical gallery space.
In this installation-like piece, the user can interact with sound driven sculptures of several forms. There are old friends like metaballs, particle systems, simulations and more. Those generative 3D elements make up the nice, rainbow-coloured, neo-futuristic shapes we all love so much.
This is all based on a custom made software architecture with quite some nice technical specs such as 60fps playback, dualcore, GPU based, OpenGL and FFT to drive the graphics from the audio — all the nerdy acronyms you want.
With computer hardware becoming increasingly faster, the final conclusion would be to completely scrap the traditional workflow of rendering in passes and just do everything in real time. Computer games already go that route, with impressing results. It will be very interesting to see this technology merging into the animation sector.
Dublin-based directing team, D.A.D.D.Y., has once again laid there quirky hand on an unlikely brand. In association with Mother, London and Blink Ink, they’ve created four fake, animated PSAs for the “British Biscuit Advisory Board” (Rocky Biscuits) to promote safe biscuit-eating practices.
Both the characters and copy are rendered with a classic, dry British wit. Here’s all four of the films: Temp Storage, Quality Control, Opening Education & Meal Health.
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Different is a gorgeous new film by Alchemy in Toronto for the Girl Guides of Canada and agency john st.. It features stop-motion animation of paper-cut out characters with terrific lighting and inventive transitions from scene-to-scene. I found it a real joy to watch. The ultra-cute character design and illustrations are by noted illustrators Nathan Jurevicius and Andrea Kang via Lunch.
Explore by Hayley Morris is another film for Girl Guides that combines stop-motion, paper animation and cel-animation into a sweet, personal narrative that encourages girls to get outside, and to interact with each other and turn off their televisions. The playful, craft-filled world is both tactile and charming. Nicely done!
More films at the Girl Guides Online Film Festival site here.
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Keith Schofield continues to battle it out with structure in his latest video for Lenny Kravitz & J.U.S.T.I.C.E, “Let Love Rule” via El Nino Productions. When a film ends, Keith’s is just beginning. The end-credit sequence becomes the bed for a tale in which the scrolling text becomes the main character’s antagonist.
As with several of his other recent internet sensations, “SFW: Diesel XXX” and this other XXX joint for the BPA (feat. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal), format becomes the concept itself.
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Minneapolis broadcast design & animation studio Motion504 coined the main titles for the AICP Show, The Art & Technique of the American Commercial, by paying a visit to a dark and unassuming steampunk-style type foundry. In the manner of Victorian craftsmanship, the title sequence introduces each reception sponsor through the invented art of “moving type” by the means of various 19th century widgets.
Opening at the storefront of the fictional Verne Bros. Kinetic Type Company, the title ushers in a cinematic tone, as inside, we meet the elderly protagonist. At the crack of dawn, working fervently, the man opens the shop for business. While the operations of the shop remain a mystery, kinetic type gadgets curiously come to life. Jingling and rattling, the inconceivable gizmos introduce the names of each AICP reception sponsor, one by one.
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MTV has found a good thing, and they’re sticking to it. For the third year in a row, they’ve tapped LA-based Prologue to create the graphics package for their colossal Video Music Awards show.
Directed by Ilya Abulhanov, the condensed sans-serif type and annotated landscapes of the VMA 2009 package build upon the look Ilya established for the OFFF 2009 titles. In the VMA 2009 package, though, the landscape is alive, modifying itself in subtle but surreal ways.
Gigantic telescoping streetlights and strings of gondolas adorn the familiar skyline of New York City, creating a panoply of mechanical transformations that seem to be a literalization of Rem Koolhaus’ vision of a “delirious New York.” Ilya’s split-screen moments create dizzying multiplications of the city, piling density upon density.
I’m reminded a little of Rob Chiu and Chris Hewitt’s titles for Offf New York. Ben “HECQ” Lukas Boysen did a masterful job sound designing both projects, creating a wild mix of tension and wonder that is driven as much by pockets of poignant silence as it is by the tightly controlled cacophony of the city.
Check it out here.
Not so long back, commercials for seats of higher learning were composed of shots of the less scruffy bits of a campus, where clean-cut bright young things sat cross-legged on the grass sipping lattes and trading opinions on Nietzche and nebulas. Or maybe there’d be a chemistry lab shot of eager lab coated nerds heating up bubbling potions in test tubes. Either way, higher education commercials have never offered mographers the chance to flex their Wacom honed muscles, until now…
Blackfish, charged by Ogilvy & Mather have created a storming romp through a bizzarist’s take on life after graduation from HEC (Apparently Europe’s no.1 business school). From first person perspective we watch as our hero burns a trail through the job market, vanquishing all that stands in his way, all within a blown-up musical-esque stagescape.
I love this spot because it essentially pokes a lot of fun at the very thing it’s advertising without denigrating it in any way. We arrive at the end of the spot having sold malls to martians, proving that for HEC graduates the sky is no limit! The film also assumes that aspiring business students must have a cracking sense of humour, which is something I was thus far un-aware of…
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1st Ave Machine’s colorful alter ego, SpecialGuest, presents a new spot for Zune HD. This spot is Vinicius Costa’s commercial directorial debut with SpecialGuest, following his fantastic short film earlier this year.
From Vinicius: “For this spot I decided to represent high definition in a different way using light, contrast and colors.” No doubt! As with his other work, there’s endless playful, loving details lighting up the environment around them – hopping notes on the turntable, the mixing board faders amidst the vinyl records, the sonic mountains, the dimensionality of the other worlds through the Zune window, to name a few.
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