November: Pictoplasma NYC

This November, Pictoplasma returns to New York City, bringing a colorful parade of speakers, characters, films and art along with it.

Focusing on the art and craft of character design, this year’s lineup of speakers spans the globe, including Geneviève Gauckler (FR), Allyson Mellberg Taylor (USA), BeatBots (JP/USA) and Jon Burgerman (UK). They cover a wide range of media and disciplines, such as illustration, graphic design, game design, fashion, art and robotics. In addition to the conference, there will be four days of events, screenings, installation and other madcap fun across the city.

Get the full details on the Pictoplasma site and register early. Oh, and if you’re reading this, then we want to thank you by giving away one free pass via a random drawing. Leave your name and an e-mail address in the comments below before 12 pm EST Thursday, Oct. 6. One entry per person, please. We’ll announce the winner later this week.

See you there!

UPDATE: Comments are now closed. We’ll announce the winner soon!

UPDATE #2: We have a winner! Congratulations to Waleed Zaiter and thanks to all who participated. Stay tuned to our Twitter and Facebook pages for more opportunities!

Work/Life: From the Comments

Carol Browne

Our recent interview with Ash Thorp sparked an intense discussion here and elsewhere on the web that went well beyond Ash’s personal take on work/life. We thought it’d be a good idea to share some of those comments here.

But first…

Ash’s interview was just that: one person’s voice. We plan on sharing the perspectives of other successful professionals, many of whom have radically different approaches to the work/life issue. We’re also organizing a poll to get your voice in the mix.

The Bigger Picture

No matter with whom you identify in the comments that follow, there is a profound frustration mounting in the field of motion design. It can no longer be ignored or accepted as “just the way things are.” It needs to be brought into the open and discussed in as much detail as possible.

In many ways, this frustration is not new. Visual effects professionals, for example, have been grappling with labor issues for some time now. The Visual Effects Society is striving to define and solve pressing issues, most of which have grown out of the film industry.

A Pimply-faced Teenager

Motion design sits at an awkward intersection of animation, graphic design and visual effects, drawing on the histories and business models of each of those disciplines. As a definable “industry,” motion design is young. Dedicated motion studios and practitioners didn’t arise in large numbers until the early 2000s. Before then, the field was dominated by post houses who sometimes had a few “motion guys” on staff. (This model still persists, but it’s much less prevalent. There are also many more “motion ladies” these days.)

Motion design has its own set of problems, its own unique challenges — not the least of which are defining itself and delineating its boundaries. It’s a lot like your typical pimply faced teenager dealing with the angst of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. During this time, every decision has formative potential, shaping the future of the field in ways that won’t be obvious for years to come.

The Comments

What follows is a sample of comments from Motionographer’s interview with Ash Thorp. We’ve tried to present the full spectrum of perspectives.

rtwerk said:

Cathartic to read his thoughts on balancing life and work. I’m just now making my own transition, adjusting priorities for our newborn daughter. Right on the money.

leonza said:

Long hours are unfortunately a part of our industry, but voices acknowledging this will hopefully shed some new light on how we can balance our personal life and work life. I’d like to think one day my daughter will understand why dad has to pull 12- to 14-hour days.  This art form is an amazing thing, but at what cost one will never know.

Federale said:

It seems a bit extreme and not something to be celebrated without some healthy questioning. In an industry where personal recognition and career come first, before health and family, it’s a bit scary that no one stops to think … what does this kind of thing reveal about the industry?

I keep running into companies that are willing to work their artists to the ground, driving salaries down and pushing for longer days, all because of a career-first kind of mentality.

Read on →

Database Marketing

Back in June 2004, Reason Magazine printed a custom cover for every issue of their magazine (circulation: 40,000). Each subscriber received a magazine with a satellite photo of their neighborhood on the cover, and their home circled in red. An uncomfortable surprise to find in your mailbox, for sure.

More recently, Chris Milk and Google created the interactive musical experience The Wilderness Downtown for Arcade Fire, which utilized HTML5 and Google Maps to put your house directly into the music video.

Hybrid production company B-Reel, who also worked on The Wilderness Downtown, just finished Chaos in Your Town for State Farm Insurance. The experience uses the same “enter your address” starting point to create a customized version of The Mill’s “State of Chaos” campaign. We’ll see if giant robots shooting lasers at your house proves as successful as their last viral hit — OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” music video.

The New York Times article on the Reason Magazine stunt ends with the quote, “What if you received a magazine that only had stories and ads that you were interested in and pertained to you?” Seven years later, we have RSS readers that bring us only the news we want and iPad apps like FlipBoard and Zite. Not so far off.

For custom content, the inevitable next step is not having to type in your address at all. The applications would just read your computer’s IP address or your mobile device’s GPS location and auto-populate their content with the pertinent data. How hard would it be to have your cable box “know” where it is, and have the commercial streaming to your television integrate your Google Map imagery?

We’re curious to hear your thoughts on how successful this technology is as a marketing tool. How about as a storytelling tool? Will it become another expected facet of production (in the same way we’re often asked to produce complementary TV commercials, internet banners and print ads)? Does anyone find it disconcerting to have their data used to market to them?

Signal

Signal, a sci-fi movie about the formation of life and transformation of dead space into the living organic matter. By Maxim Zhestkov.

Work/Life: A Conversation with Ash Thorp

A few days ago, we shared the portfolio of designer/illustrator Ash Thorp. Ash recently finished a year-long tour of duty at Prologue, where he crafted much of the stunning work featured on his site.

In our email conversations, Ash mentioned that while working at Prologue, he commuted daily from San Diego—a round trip of several hours, depending on California’s legendary traffic. This left little time for his wife and child at home, but Ash justified the schedule by thinking of it as his “year of complete potential.”

That phrase struck me. Did the year deliver? If so, now what? How do you shift down from high gear?

I turned these questions to Ash, and he shared his perspective on things. I think a lot of you will relate to much of what he says, regardless of the marital status and number of dependents you claim on your tax forms.

Balance — it’s so damn tricky. Especially for a person like me who is always driven and excited to push myself into change and unfamiliar territory just for the growth and the lesson. That’s living life to me.

Read on →

The Alphabet 2

Allesandro Novelli (of n9ve) directs a “developmental spelling” of the alphabet – an experimental typography video “where each character visually represents the meaning of the word itself.”  Also, check out version one here.

Minivegas’ Twitter Visualizer for F5

Minivegas has taken many forms throughout their existence. Live-action, animation and VFX-driven work was their strength for years. However, they have recently been putting a lot of their creative energy in developing new technologies in the site-specific, interactive space.

Although F5 was almost six months ago, we felt this project definitely deserved some sharing. For F5, they created an interactive installation that visualized images and text from the F5 twitter feed and converted them into abstract shapes. They also made a sound-responsive version that played during the Tanya Morgan performance.

It’s an exciting time to continue to see traditional directors moving into these new spaces. People like Radical Friend, Champagne Valentine and LEGS (just to name a few) have showed an ability to seamlessly transition into this experiential type work as their studio-based predecessors like Imaginary Forces, Digital Kitchen, etc.

that go and Brite Futures: “Too Young to Kill”

That go and Brite Futures’ “Too Young to Kill,” a music video sure to make you look more than twice. The number of scene/wardrobe/makeup changes would make any assistant director cringe!

There are certain moments where the video begins to feel repetitive, but that’s the trick that director Noel Paul used. Just as you begin feel a loop similar to three frames, he adds a twist at the end of each shot. The match cuts are a simple, nice touch that makes this music video interesting from beginning to end.

Adrien Merigeau: Villagers’ “Cecelia & Her Selfhood”

Adrien Merigeau (last seen here with his short film Old Fangs) directs a music video for “Cecelia & Her Selfhood” by the band Villagers.

Elastic: Arrowhead Nature’s Fix

What’s more illicit than bottling water and shipping it across state lines? Just about everything.

But that didn’t stop Elastic and director Andy Hall from casting cuddly woodland creatures as nature’s outlaws in a new campaign for Nestle and agency McCann Worldgroup.

These worlds feel like a perfect blend between Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Traffic. (And now I think we all know why Rudolph’s nose is so red.) Props to New Deal Studios for superb set construction.

Two more videos after the jump!