Toolfarm Inspirations

Nim's Island Title Sequence

5/06/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Imaginary forces creates a whimsical paper cutout style open sequence for Nim's Island.

Labels: 2D, Film Short, Movie Trailer

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

4/29/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Check out Sita Sings the Blues, a feature length animated film completely done by a single animator in her home. I was reading about this at Wired.com, who describe the film as " two parallel stories: the ancient Hindu epic the Ramayana and the breakup of Paley's 21st-century marriage. It does so through four distinct styles of animation, a 'greek chorus' of Indonesian shadow puppets and wildly imaginative musical interludes that use authentic 1920s blues recordings to link narratives 3,000 years apart." Intrigued?

It was mostly animated in Flash but some was scanned and animated in After Effects. Read the Interview with Nina Paley at Wired.com.

Labels: 2D, Film

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Best of BBTV animations

4/28/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Watch and enjoy:

Labels: 2D, 3D, Character Animation

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Bucktown USA Rubik's Cube Animation

4/25/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

By Dan Parker Moore. I don't know much about the video, but it's really cool.

Labels: 2D

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

BBC 4 Medieval Trailer

4/09/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Directed by James Price/ Strange Beast for BBC 4's upcoming series on Medieval Britain. Layers, layers, so many layers! The music, by the way, is Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" using all medieval instruments.

Thanx to Dru for passing this one along!

Labels: 2D, Television

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The Knife: "We Share Our Mother's Health" by Motomichi

4/07/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Motomichi's recent work for the Swedish band "The Knife". Motomichi has a signature style- clean, Flash-based animations in black, white and red (note- often graphic in nature/may be disturbing to some viewers).

Motomichi's work also includes live video/animation mixing along with print, installation and design work. Check out his portfolio at: motomichi.com.

Labels: 2D, Flash, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

MyToolfarm Red Giant NAB Contest Entries

3/28/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Red Giant/MyToolfarm NAB Contest submission was officially over earlier this week and we had several terrific entries. Because of a problem we had with our uploader, the entries were also collected via another method, so this is not every entry unfortunately. This will give you a good cross-section of what was entered and if the winning entry is not in this bunch, we will put it online. There were about 24 entries in total. There are some super talented designers and motion graphics artists out there. I was blown away by some of the entries.

For a video to qualify, they must use Trapcode Form or Magic Bullet Looks. The first place winner will receive a trip to NAB and present their project at the Red Giant Booth. The first and second runners up will receive software.

The official winners will be announced next week. The list below is in the order they were submitted from newest to oldest and is no indication of the winners.

I should also note that the star ratings are not accurate if you view at MyToolfarm, so please ignore them. I think they work fine, but I wonder if someone has come through and given them all low marks just to be funny. All of these videos deserve higher ratings than they've received. I'm going to look into this.

Symantec NetBackup Product Launch

Submitted by Mark Jeschke

Veritas Backup Exec 10 Event Opener

Submitted by Mark Jeschke

Tori Amos Greenscreen Contest Submission 2007

Submitted by Mark Jeschke

Freedom Fall (Clip)

Submitted by Erik Candiani

Ryan Wheat Motion Graphics Demo

Submitted by Ryan Wheat

Penny and Ashtray

Submitted by Axel Roessler

The Field Scene

Submitted by Pericles Lewnes

Mumbai Central

Submitted by Alexander Snelling

Besuch der Holztiere

Submitted by Axel Roessler

Labels: 2D, 3D, Demo Reel, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, MyToolfarm, Student Work

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Psyop/Adidas Zheng Zhi

3/21/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is the second spot in TBWA China's campaign for the 2008 Beijing Olympics by Psyop. Gorgeous work- I like the pencil drawing/hand drawn look.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Commercial

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The New Pornographers "Myriad Harbour"

3/20/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Check out "Myriad Harbour" by Directors Johanne St-Marie and Mark Lomond of Fluorescent Hill. Here's an excerpt from an interview at FEED's site:

"Because we had so little time in that shoot, we couldn’t afford the time to have them act out anything. So I shot Jo as the body double for Neko and Kathryn in the band, and shot my friend Richard as the body double for all six guys.

Then I redrew all the bodies in different sizes and clothes, and attached all of the heads I drew. The mouths are stop motion photographs of my mouth and Jo’s, then drawn and in-betweened and composited into the mix. We went completely paperless for the whole process, and drew everything in Photoshop.

I kept the colour to a minimum and played with three or four combination. I had gone further with the colour combos, but it made the faces unreadable in the really short scenes."

You can view more of Fluorescent Hill's portfolio at: www.fluorescenthill.com

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The Blue Seeds- Lost and Delirious

3/06/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This dreamlike music video features a nice mix of traditional animation and VFX; directed by Stephane Fournier.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Gnaritas Monstrum by Seth Kendall

2/29/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Seth Kendall's Gnaritas Monstrum is an award winning video... awarded in several film festivals around the U.S. It's pretty darn impressive stuff.

Labels: 2D, Student Work

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

A History of Evil by Ole-Magnus Saxegard

2/28/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is "Animated Documentary-Mockumentary about Evil in western civilization from Ancient Greece to present day." It was animated frame by frame in Flash and composited and textured in After Effects. It was designed and animated by Ole-Magnus Saxegard as a student project. It is lots of fun. I really thought it would end with Dick Cheney ;-)

Labels: 2D, Documentary, Film Short, Humor, Student Work

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Music Video "Blackbird" by giraffentoast

2/26/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This mesmerizing video was created by giraffentoast for Michael Fakesch. They took a simple costumed character and built a mountain of effects and distortions around them- it's a really unique look.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Mirrormask- a VFX treat

1/21/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Designed and directed by Dave McKean, Mirrormask is stunning and chock-full of visual effects. Dave McKean is one of my favorite artists, and I was excited to see the film retained much of the look and feel of his work.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Movie Trailer

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Genki Rockets - Heavenly Star

12/26/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The name Genki Rockets serves them well; this has to be the happiest song of 2007. This is a drawn style (could they have used Digital Anarchy's ToonIt?). There are lots of particle effects, which are always great, and lots or rainbows. I want to visit this world.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Vitamin Water - There's Something in the Water

12/01/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Another goodie via Jim G. Old school hand-drawn animation combined with the hands drawing them. They interact, it's neato, you buy Vitamin Water. The circle is complete.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Animation Procreation Contest Video

11/28/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This ad for an animation contest is awesome. The song is catchy and the animation is fun and clever. They give some good advice too.... don't skimp on audio. This really makes me want to enter! The deadline is January 8, 2008.

Labels: 2D

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Work of Cyriak

11/07/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Cyriak sounds like the name of a magician to me, and he is.... a magician with Photoshop and After Effects! Cyriak is a freelance animator in Brighton, UK. His website bio is very funny:" Hello, I am Cyriak from 100 years into the future, where I have been exhumed and sent backwards in time via cyberspace in order to welcome you to the unabridged contents of my brain-damaged imagination." He's unbelivably creative. Jim G. passed his stuff on to me. Jim is in the know.

Check out two of his amazing animations.

Moo!

The cow DNA is mindblowing! A screen shot just doesn't do it justice.

Beggin' - Frankie Valli video re-mix

This is just cleverl The mutant head in the vortex.... wow. This is just disturbing and oh, so fun to watch.

I never thought Frankie Valli sounded like the guy from Maroon 5 until now.

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Experimental, Humor, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Pangs - Fighterplane

10/27/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Fighterplane is a beautiful, complex video with lots of layers and nice lighting effects. I love how they composited the video and flat art layers. Nice camera moves too. The video was directed by zeroh. The song is great, too. All around, it's awesome.

Via Antville

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

500 Years of Female Faces - Morphing

9/16/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Beautiful.

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Yet another edit of the retro-futuristic motion logos

8/29/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Chris Zwar posted this gem to the AE-List today. It was on the front page of Digg, so you may have seen it. Oh, the interwebs... such a place of sharing.

And Ken Broomfield posted this link to the NBC logo from 1971, which I think is rather beautiful.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Bjork - Inocence

8/08/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This video was one of 10 finalists in a contest to make the Innocence video. This one is by Dimitri Stankowicz. I don't really know any thing about the video or artist, but it looks amazing.

Bjork - innocence by dimitri-stankowicz
Uploaded by dimitri-stankowicz

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Luscious Life - Patrick Watson

8/01/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A gorgeous video with lots of texture, paper cutouts and grunged up film effects and a bit of 3D. It was directed by Gabriel Coutu-Dumont, a multi-diciplinary artist from Montreal.

Patrick Watson's voice and style reminds me a bit of Jeff Buckley.

Luscious Life

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Labels: 2D, 3D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Ovation TV - Shine Studios

7/31/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

My former student, designer/animator Dru Nget, has hit the big time. Shine Studio, where he's working, has recently finished the network branding package for Ovation TV. Dru did a lot of work on this project and it's great! Watch the Ovation TV video.

Here is a press release about the project if you're interested.

Anyway, I'm very proud of Dru and wish him the best with his career. Awwww.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Television

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

What Barry Says

7/31/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is one that was posted back in 2004, but it's really good. They seem to move this link daily, so let's hope this BBC link is solid!

Note: New Link: What Barry Says, "an unapologetic criticism of US Foreign Policy and the Project for the New American Century."

Swarm Films' Jim Birchenough says that he was recreating the look of a propaganda poster. Very well done, even if you don't agree with the message.

Labels: 2D

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Country Trouble by Axel and Ellen

7/30/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Axel Rossler and his girlfriend, Ellen, are really into country music and they're both from Frankfurt, Germany... not exactly the hotbed of country music that one might think of... maybe Frankfort, Kentucky! When I think of music in Germany (okay, I know I'm totally dating myself here), I think of the Scorpions' power ballad Wind of Change or Madchen by Lucilectric, which was sooo popular when I was in Dusseldorf in 1992. Or, worse, David Hasselhoff! Ahhh, what do I know about music in Germany... not much at all, obviously. I'm so sad.

Okay, back to the reason for this post. Country Trouble is an incredible stop motion piece, created with hundreds of photos and 3D layers in After Effects. They took lots of photos at Axel's house. Axel said, "There must have been 400 layers or so, haha.. but I like the fact that After Effects still works great, even with tons of layers."

After finishing the house, they took photos of themselves in front of a green screen. Axel adds "organizing the horse was a little bit complicated over here". They took the green screen photos into AE, keyed them and made them 3D layers. They used the AE camera with some wiggle added to it and finished with some color correction.

So, yeah, it's all stills! I really thought the dance scene was video and they used a posterize time effect to give it the look. That dance sequence, what can I say? Wow! It's wunderbar.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Life and Music by Trey Parker

7/26/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Jim G. IMd this link to me. It's definitely created in the South Park style, but instead of the crude humor we're so used to seeing, this is a Buddhist take on life, with the teachings of Alan Watts.

Labels: 2D, Flash

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Stephanie Dosen - Only Getting Better

7/20/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Stephanie Dosen as a ghost. There are some 2D animations tract in, but it's the aparitions that I'm enjoying the most. The video was directed by Soy Un Caballo, which if my high school Spanish classes taught me anything, it taught me that Soy Un Caballo means I'm a horse. Someone has some self-esteem issues... or they really are a horse.... a very talented horse who can composite ghosts and hand drawn birds.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Great Northern - Home

7/20/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is a really beautiful music video! It captures the imagination and has adept use of 2D/3D and compositing. I love the dreamlike quality and layering. The zoom in and out is very cool... I like it better than the effect used in the recent Norah Jones video. Directed by Josh Forbes. Animation Directed by Matt Smithson.

I really liike the song as well. I've never heard of this band, but ya know, I'm digging it. I just Hype Machine'd them and found lots of tracks to listen to.

Via if:mv

Labels: 2D, 3D, 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

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

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

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Inspirations Archives

Inspirations

Symantec NetBackup Product Launch

Veritas Backup Exec 10 Event Opener

Tori Amos Greenscreen Contest Submission 2007

Freedom Fall (Clip)

Ryan Wheat Motion Graphics Demo

Penny and Ashtray

The Field Scene

Mumbai Central

Besuch der Holztiere

Moo!

Beggin' - Frankie Valli video re-mix