Toolfarm Inspirations: June 2007

Hans Appelqvist's - Tänk Att Himlens Alla Stjärnor

6/30/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Hans Appelqvist's Tänk Att Himlens Alla Stjärnor is a cool animated piece combined with live action directed by Andreas Nilsson. Lots of color, lots of texture and lots of weird sound effects. Okay, the whole video is pretty weird. Weird, but fun.

Via Antville

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Ronin Reel

6/27/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Jim G., one of our fine Toolfarm Forum Experts, IM'd this terrific reel from Ronin. I love reels like this - where they actually do some cool editing and sound effects to make a cohesive demo, instead of just string together an endless assortment of interesting clips. There are clever transitions and cool sound effects with the edits.

Kids, watch and learn.

Labels: Demo Reel

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Eugene McGuinness - Monsters Under The Bed

6/27/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Love the tune and the video has a crazy, strange, animation. My dreams are just like this.

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Alias - Sixes Last

6/20/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Some seriously realistic CG and impressive tracking work by 1st Ave Machine in New York. A slightly higher quality quicktime is available at their website, but it's all Flash so I can't really link to it directly.

I think I will think twice before climbing a tree.

Labels: 3D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Justin Timberlake - Love Stoned

6/19/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The first 2/3 of this video is a freakin' incredible. Tons of interesting waveform effects and a holigram look on Justin Timberlake.

The last 1/3 of the video over white totally blows it for me though. They could've left that part out completely. I guess the adolescent girls want to see JT with his big doey eyes in a closeup standing on some giant white TRON grid, and they're the ones buying the CDs.

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Hours - Ali in the Jungle

6/19/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Hours Music Video by director Jonas Odell of Nexus Productions is beautifully detailed. It really has a Mexican Day of the Dead feel for me with the skulls and flowers and color scheme. The video is really captivating. Odell has previously directed videos for U2, Goldfrapp, some lady named Madonna and commercials for Pier 1 and BMW, so you've probably seen his work many times. That dude is seriously talented.

Via Motionographer

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Airbus - Travel in Peach

6/19/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A cool ad that goes from the depths of the earth to a peaceful sky. Clever. Nice job on the visual effects.

Labels: Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Crowded House - Don't Stop Now (and short CH video retrospect)

6/19/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The A great piece of animation featuring the new single from Crowded House. Lots of 3D layers and green screen work. There are tons and tons of layers and interesting camera angles. The sea monster's innards have that cut out paper look (as featured in the interview with Stephen Watkins.

This is the first single, featuring Johnny Marr on guitar, from their new album Time on Earth, coming out June 25. I am one of Crowded House's biggest fans. I have tickets to see them in Milwaukee in August. Their last studio album was 14 years ago!

Crowded House has a penchant for not only making timeless, beautiful music, but having creative music videos. One of my favorite songs from CH is Four Seasons in One Day from their 1993 album Together Alone. The video is strange and beautiful.

Better Be Home Soon from the 1988 Temple of Low Men album is another great CH video.

Man, is Neil Finn a talented man... easily equal to Paul McCartney in songwriting skills and musicianship.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Bat for Lashes - What's a Girl to Do

6/19/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This video doesn't have many fancy effects, only a few time effects and editing tricks, but it is one of the creepiest videos I've ever seen. Singer Natasha Khan's whispery voice perfectly matches the imagery.

This reminds me of the night when we were camping and three of my girlfriends and I sneaked out of the tent. We were running through the woods and kept seeing dark shadowy human-bear creatures hiding behind trees doing tricks on their BMX bikes, too.

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

A Conversation with Stephen Watkins

6/19/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Aussie designer Stephen Watkins is on the verge of hitting it big in San Francisico.... next week! Before his cross-continental relocation, he took time to chat with me about some of his projects that lead up to the big cross-planet move. We chat about how he experiments with textures and 3D cameras to come up with whimsical, organic compositions with natural movement. He gives a great tip on working with multitudes of layers in Adobe After Effects.

Read the interview now

Labels: Interview

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Stash, the Monthly DVD

6/18/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Stash Media Stash 33 trailer came out earlier this month. Man, this is some seriously cool work. I'm too lazy to re-write the description:

Fun, in all its shades and guises, is the operative word for Stash 33.

For instance: we open the main program with complete bunny-mad chaos from Pleix and MacGuff for Groove Armada, and then trample on through Psyop’s hip-rebel-comedy for Fanta, HSI’s deadpan take on Reyka Vodka, manic pirate/bovine/bicyclist stop motion for Cravendale from Nexus, crazed MTV Asia work from JL Design in Taiwan, Wilfrid Brimo going berserk for V Energy drink, Han Huggebrooge’s unhinged vignettes for Dutch TV, Make’s extremely flammable chipmunks, very curious characters from Curious Pictures for Crunch and we cap it all with a surreal and utterly original bit of action-lunacy about courage, show business and inter-media love created at Supinfocom by Corentin Laplatte, Samuel Deroubaix and Jerome Dernoncourt,,, you get the idea – check below for the full list of contributors.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Demo Reel, Experimental, Film Short, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Salvador Dali commercials

6/18/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Some really bizarre commercials featuring Salvador Dali. The last commercial has some seriously old school motion graphics, but I have to say, the Alka Selzer spot is my favorite. I never thought of the Pink Stuff as artistic.

Via Fark.com

Labels: Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Pigloo Pengin

6/18/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Super cute dancing penguins in an animated music video. Animated penguins are SOOO popular. Happy Feet and Surfs Up seem cute enough, but I really think they need some new ideas. How about singing, dancing aligators or mosquitos? Yeah, probably not so cute.

Labels: 2D, 3D

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Photorealistic CG Water - Scanline Flowline VFX

6/17/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

From Siggraph 2006

Labels: 3D

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

I Am Finn - Hard

6/17/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Cool bouncing LED and multiscreen effects that fly thru 3D space. The singer guy is pretty good looking to, but I have to admit that I thought he was a chick at first. Directed by Phil Griffin.

Via if:mv

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

ST - Debut

6/17/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The band is called st and they're from Sweden. I like the paper cut out style. The video is loads of fun to watch. Directed by Fredrick Karlsson and produced by Rundgang Media. It really is a great video.

Via Antville

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Compositing Seasons to Grow Beer: 'HarvesTED' for Toohey's Extra Dry

6/15/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Studio Daily has a story about the new commercial HarvesTED for Toohey's Extra Dry. Animal Logic is the company behind the visual effects. They discuss how they created the effect of seasonal change.

It's a pretty weird commercial, but I love weird.

Labels: Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Fanfarlo - Fire Escape

6/14/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A simple idea with a grid of colorized videos that flip to reveal trading cards. Each band member dies and their square goes gray.

Via if:mv

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Unklejam - What am I Fighting For?

6/14/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Check out this supacool video for What am I Fighting For? directed by Saam. There are some terrific lighting and particle effects as well as some water effects, which I can't tell if they created them live or with effects.

Via Antville

Labels: Movie Trailer

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

CSS - Alcohol (Plus Director Interview)

6/14/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Directed by Jared Eberhardt, the new CSS video is super cute with stop-motion bunnies getting wasted and passing out. It's got an organic feel and is very clever. I give it 5 stars.

Read the interview with Eberhardt at Vidology

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Designer//Slash//Model

6/13/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

"Design can change the world. You just need the right plug-in." That is Toolfarm's mantra! I guess it's catching on. Awesome.

You've probably seen Designer//Slash//Model by now. It's been on several blogs and list-servs. I'm hopping on the bandwagon a little late. It's very clever and very well done and contains some very hunky men and some lovely ladies. It's a mock documentary about a group of models who are also artists and they talk about their craft. Do they create beauty because they're beautiful or are they beautiful because they create beauty? Haha.

Make sure you check out the whole site. The behind the scenes of Chaz are especially funny with some nice Photoshop work at the end.

Labels: Documentary

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

They Might Be Giants - With the Dark

6/08/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Freakin' awesome stop motion from the always entertaining They Might Be Giants.

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Photosynth demo

6/08/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is some amazing new technology from Microsoft that will connect images from around the web to create multidimensional images that you can zoom in and out to unbeliable closeups and detail. You have to watch the video to really understand what that means. It's impressive stuff.

Labels: Documentary

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Polyphonic Spree - Running Away

6/05/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

70,000 still images. No, I didn't count ;-)

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

London 2012 Olympic Brand Animation

6/05/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

There's been a lot of talk about the London 2012 fugly logo on the AE-List. No one seems to like it. No one in the entire world. I had some earrings with that shape and color when I was in 7th grade. They turned my earlobes green.

I actually like some of the London 2012 Brand animation. It's dynamic and colorful and there is some nice examples of tracking and masking. It's very well timed too. But in areas it looks like 1982 puked in the pool. If you have epilepsy or are bothered by flashing video, you might want to refrain from clicking the link.

Trish Meyer posted an interesting slogan for the 2012 olympics to the AE-List: Here's a new slogan: "If you thought that steroids were bad, wait until the triangles get you...London 2012"

Note: The link was taken down after only 2 hours! Maybe they're rethinking the whole design! I'll keep looking for another video online and link it back up. Sorry.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Kitchen by Nick Wnorowski and Nick Lareau

6/04/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The footage does look like a student project and is not very well lit, but the stop motion animation of the LEGO men is really well done and is pretty funny. The Lego guy tunneling into the burger bun is awesome! I enjoyed it very much. Nice work, Nicks.

Labels: Stop Motion, Student Work

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

A Conversation with Matthew Collings

6/03/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

June is 'Creativity Month' at Toolfarm and we're kicking it off with an interview with Matthew Collings, a musician and videomaker living in Iceland. Matthew talks to me about the creative process and visualizing music and we get into a pretty deep conversation. We discuss synesthesia and Matthew tells me some very interesting techniques to give video organic noise and feedback effects.

Read this Toolfarm exclusive interview with Matthew Collings

Labels: Interview, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Jack Penate - Torn from the Platform

6/03/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Torn from the Platform is a slick video with paper cutout puppets with a video face tracked onto it. This is definitely one of the cooler videos I've seen in the last couple of months. The video is directed by Tim Pope, who did the 'Don't Panic' and 'Trouble' videos for Coldplay and the film Minema Cinema in 2004, which is another that you don't want to miss.

Via if:mv

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

All My Friends - Franz Ferdinand

6/03/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is an odd video. It's interesting to watch and there are definitely some interesting use of effects... lots and lots of effects. Lots of masks and some kaleidescopic effects. I'm diging the time remap effects. The video by Anna McCarthy and it's a cover of an LCD Soundsystem tune. Is this the official video? Anyone know?

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Architecture in Helsinki - Fumble (Unofficial)

6/01/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A pretty impressive piece from Gill Biddle and Ross Phillips, second year animation students. They used After Effects and Flash, with stop motion and live action footage.

Via Antville

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion, Student Work

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Ariston Aqualtis - Underwater World

6/01/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This absolutely gorgeous underwater ad won Best-in-Show of the Grand Clio. I love the fish-scarf. Clios are the biggest award in advertising, if you're wondering.

Via Gizmodo:

Labels: Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring by the Sea

6/01/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This video for It's Getting Boring by the Sea has some nice polariod pictures that are replaced with video. You know there had to be lots of tracking involved with that! Yes, we've seen it before, but this one makes use of some faux depth of field effects that work really well and the splashy colors are cromulent.

The song is rockin' too. The sound reminds me a bit of Elastica.

Labels: Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Fratellis - Black and Blue Eyes

6/01/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Black and Blue Eyes is the latest single from the Fratelli's, who I'm sure you'd recognize their song from the iPod commercials that came out last year.

This video is a 3D animated cowboy adventure is an excellent piece! Those chickens at the end had me rolling on the floor. Directed by Jon Yeo and John Sunter.

Labels: 3D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

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