For their curtain call at the end of a brilliant four-spot performance for UPS, Psyop conjures a world that’s comparable to the cardboard-carved spectacles from previous spots that we know and love. Watch the other UPS spots: “Gladiator” / “Circus” / “West”
In “Storm”, color and texture become mnemonic devices triggering our emotional sense of UPS. The look, partly in credit to agency Doner, has moxy: It’s adaptable, engaging, and has held strong throughout the duration of the campaign.
We’re presenting an in-depth three-part interview with three of Psyop’s crew, complete with making-of videos and process imagery. Stay tuned for the other two interviews soon.
A special thanks to Lead Animators Jordan Blit and Pat Porter, as well as Technical Director and Project Lead, Tony Barbieri, for coming aboard the S.S. Motionographer amid the spitting rain and gusty winds of work and deadlines.
It now culminates in a battle of the best, champions vs. champions, with the final 2009 tournament event: the first-ever Cut&Paste Global Championship.
Showcasing the talents of 48 competition winners in 2D, 3D, and motion design, from the North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific regions, the championship event will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Friday, October 16, 2009.
The Global Championship will present the same three competition formats that Digital Design Tournament 2009 has featured throughout the cities on its global tour: 2D, 3D, and motion design.
When:
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Doors open: 7:00pm EST
Show starts: 8:00pm EST
Where:
Hammerstein Ballroom @ Manhattan Center Studios
311 W. 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
About a week ago, we posted the trailer for “Logorama” by H5. As it spread across the globe, it’s been gaining steam and hitting the festival circuit in a major way.
On that note, we’re delighted to bring you a in-depth review of this piece by Mark Webster (journalist, writer and occasional sound designer). He’s a very knowledgeable and all-around stand-up fellow and we’red please to have this guest contribution from him. Thanks Mark!
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the new animated film, Logorama created and directed by the French design collective, H5. Its particularity, as we all know by now, is that not only does it star the evil killer Ronald McDonald, who is pursued by a bunch of fat Michelin Men cops, it is indeed a film created entirely from logos.
Backgrounds, characters and props are all an incarnation of the pervasive commercial sign, the untouchable symbols of the industrial and financial powers. The film has already been well received by the select few, picking up an award this year at Cannes, screened at onedotzero in London recently and set for a number of international tours in the cultural sector. The particularity of Logorama is of course its road to possible success. It’s fresh, provocative and for some, utterly daring. But the burning question remains. Why the hell did they make a 15 minute animated film using only logos?
Bologna-based street artist, Blu, has recently collaborated with David Ellis to push the ambitions and [sculptural] dimensions of his last hit, MUTO, with this latest hypnotic piece entitled COMBO.
As an artist who has made an international name for himself with his motion-paintings, this likely match seemed bound to happen between Ellis and his Italian peer. David brings his delicate illustrative sensibilities to Blu’s playful ingenuity, which includes physically breaking through walls to create his cast of characters, in this ten-day creation.
Much like in MUTO, the use of thoughtful, immersive and often unexpected sound-design adds another thick layer of narrative depth.
Paris keeps rocking the front page with this new spot from El Nino’s directing-collective, NoBrain, for Grenelle via TBWA, Paris. NoBrain, with the support of Circus VFX, transforms industrial landscapes of France into greener counterparts to promote environmentally-centric development throughout the country.
A few years ago now on one of my many internet safari outings, I remember stumbling upon an animated gif of what I now know was a Cat Piano. Fascinated by this demonic instrument of evil, I delved into it’s history to see what I could unearth, thinking to myself “This would make a great idea for a animation some how”. However, unlike the extremely talented directing duo of Eddie White & Ari Gibson, I left it at that. And I’m extremely happy that they perused their idea! What we have here is a wonderfully dark tale narrated by none other than Nick Cave. A truly great animation short that you can’t help but become engrossed within it’s world and enjoy every moment.
You can also find the cat pianos potent influence in the recent Coke Yeah Yeah Yeah commercial, with Calvin Harris.
Sean Pecknold (aka Grandchildren) is back with a new music video inspired by Jan Švankmajer, Hospital Brut, 60’s magazines, and Tintin books. I’m loving the joyful harmonizing vocals matched with the retro color palette and signature whimsical stop-motion animation. Style frames courtesy of Pecknold after the jump.
If you love typography, look no further. Handmade by students and faculty at Brigham Young University (BYU), the opening-title for the 5′th annual Typophile Film Festival, is a bona fide type de force. Uniquely inspired by the 5 Senses, the designers stir up a theme that describes how sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch inform human creativity. Like a game of dress-up, each of the senses is visually fitted in it’s own swathe of tactility – thumbing their nose at squeaky-clean CG, and relying entirely on raw materials. Its means are thrifty, but in scope, ambitious. The result is authentic.
Naturally, the common denominator is typography, and like a buffet of sorts, there is something here for everybody. From sans serifs to scripts, the contrast of typefaces are strung together so cannily that the graphical mishmash makes you feel like you’re staring into a bowl of alphabet soup. Devoid of superficial extravagance, the whole piece has a sense of frugality about it; an economy of form, that with such wide eyed (student) endeavors , makes you feel warm and fuzzy, or genuinely, proud to be a designer. Easily, that’s as good as it gets.
True, that for all its inherent qualities, a piece of such prudent and exceptional means is sure to inspire. False, that for all its inherent, accessible qualities, a work like this is a piece of cake. Frankly, in the nature of great work, the many designers who created this opening title made it look easy. In honesty, this piece is a labor of love, and born from the passion, grunt work, and elbow grease of Brent Barson (Creative Director, Faculty member), and over a dozen young designers. The team made a conscious decision to avoid CG, and in turn, conceive a work on the flip side of high-end. When the dust settles, the effect, with all the Astroturf, Play-Doh, and Jell-O bouncing typography, is unabashedly innocent, and playfully inviting; coming home to what Motion Graphics used to be all about; pure, unadulterated fun.
Like a bat out of hell, Asif Mian laces up, and breaks away with ReRun. Hatched straight from the lab at 1st Ave Machine, ReRun is an abstract film with a nitty-gritty fusion of cinematography and top-notch CG. While not overly conceptual, the film follows a slum-dwelling basketball player who weaves through the streets of a desolate ghetto. In his wake, and with every passing step; a shoe is left behind in suspended animation. Amid the course, the ball dribbling night-walker takes a spill, and with him, one by one, the trail of shoes come crashing down. Brushing himself off, the main character rises, and so too do the shoes. With the shoes now serving as a path, the man soldiers on, and continues along his shady trek of personal discovery.
Undeniably, ReRun is an odyssey of visual and audio. The Sound Design of the film is particularly electronic, with an ebb and flow that chauffeurs the narrative along at a fluctuating tempo. The visual, or CG for that matter, is done in good taste, and does not overshadow the plot, however ambiguous in nature it is. With its world premiere at OneDotZero_Adventures in Motion 2009, the film will fit snugly into the catalog of hits for both 1st Ave Machine, and Director Asif Mian.
Adam Avilla and Tony Benna are a brand new directing duo out of San Francisco. This great stop motion spot using yarn for Gravity Mobile is their first release as co-directors.
Oh My God! This just looks mind-blowing. Terry Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus opens here in the UK in a couple of weeks. If you’re NOT a fanatic like myself, and therefore DON’T mind watching already-released segments of the film, you can go here.
Get it off your chest. Take part in The Peace Rant Project. Download footage or shoot your own, create your own interpretation of the rant and add it to the library.
