Commissioned by agency Cummins Nitro, Australia’s XYZ Studios created this stunning new :30 spot for “Australian Grown” to introduce their new logo and kick off a national campaign.

As usual, XYZ Studios did an exceptional job. The camera’s soaring movement through a fully animated native Eucalyptus tree, filled with a multitude of meticulously placed and animated produce, is truly engaging. The whole spot brims with life, getting the message across in a clear and entertaining way.

Here’s a few words about the project from XYZ Director Tim Kentley:

“Growing from the simple idea of following a seed from germination through to maturity the concept literally sprouted and grew branches. The first challenge was creating an animated tree that was both natural and controllable. On top of this the tree needed to grow realistically! The solution called for propriety scripting, and a lot of technical work and lateral thinking from the 3D team: we were choreographing over 19,000 animated leaves!

Every aspect of this animation had to be in sync for the spot to work. The look of the tree and the produce, their animation, the camera move, the backgrounds, everything was inter dependant, as it had to work as a single shot. One shot is not the easiest way to tell a story, but it is a very rewarding one - it makes the evolution of the tree constantly engaging - a lot of people comment that the 30 seconds passes very quickly”

“Australian Grown” is on air in Australia at the moment, with CG imagery also output for a press campaign.

Watch QuickTime

Credits

Director/animator Yoann Lemoine under Wanda Production brings us this whimsical animation for French children’s TV station Tiji. What I love about this animation is its nod to children’s book style illustration and storytelling. Each moment is ripe with painterly texture and small wonders like the Yeti parents pushing their sled bound child down the mountain as the balloon floats by.

All these style and animation decisions hold true to the wonder and imagination of children and I am sure this spot will have every child in France yearning for more. I can just picture kids biting their nails in fear of the delicate balloon popping as it faces all these dangers on its journey skyward. I only wish that in the end we could pull out to see the myriad of balloon’s actually creating the wonderful colors of the galaxy.

Impactist never fails to surprise me. Their latest project is a poetically disturbing mash up of two occasions that seem diametrically opposed:

Injured veterans from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have two days with which to recognize and celebrate their lives. Like all of us, they have a birthday, but special and unique to them, they also have an “alive” day which commemorates the day they were injured and had their lives nearly extinguished in the theater of war.

Observing these two important days, we combined, shifted, and restructured them conceptually. Without being overly graphic or unduly exploitive, the use of the simple head bandage and claustrophobic setup hint towards a more internal injury like those emotional injuries that are not as easy to recognize and diagnose as physical trauma.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Like much of Impactist’s work, this one lingers for a while after the last frame has been played.

This project was created as an ident for shots DVD magazine. All visuals and audio were created by Kelly Meador & Daniel Elwing.

This new Sony Ericsson advert from Parasol Island directed by Steve Scott is a colorful romp through a buffet of typography and illustration styles. The imagery nods at record sleeves of yesteryear but in an aesthetic mode that is squarely in line with the trends du jour. It’s a fluid bit of eye candy that holds up to repeat viewings well.

Maybe it’s simply a ploy to distract consumers from the upcoming iPhone release, but there has been a veritable flood of mobile phone spots over the last few months. Most of them are forgettable edits of dramatically lit CG product shots paired with a litany of features. This Sony Ericsson spot definitely takes a different tack, but I wonder if it’ll stick. Time will tell.

Credits

This latest in-house project from Trollbäck+Co challenged designers Tetsuro, Peter, Anna, Paul, Emre, Christina and Tolga to create short films that capture the semi-conscious thoughts they have as they drift from wakefulness to the realm of sleep. They ponder diapers, train rides, Trapcode’s Form plugin and clowns interrupting a perfectly delightful outing at the beach—among many other things.

It’s not often that a studio pulls back the curtain and lets each of its designers say something in their own voice. It’s fun to see the wide variety of approaches to this challenge and then go looking for echoes in the rest of T+Co’s work. I’d love to see other shops do something similar.

Since their epically rad animation for Flaunt and Diesel, there’s hasn’t been much news from LA-based Royale, the studio formed by ex-Exopolis CD Brien Holman, animation superhero Jayson Whitmore and EP Jennifer Lucero about a year ago. But they’ve been busy, and the first of their fruits is this Jet Blue campaign for agency JWT.

There’s more to these spots than you might catch at first glance. In addition to the fluid interplay between live action and graphics, the spots are bubbling with little details: typographic nods to Metallica, a Cupid arrow piercing the heart of a lover and wisps of smoke from Mr. Hot Stuff’s thumbs, to name a few. But more important than these details is the consistent look and feel of the design and animation that echoes the preexisting print work and unites the campaign.

Royale promises there’s more work coming our way soon. Stay tuned for details.

Credits