I saw this one up at Motionographer. Very cool piece. Mayan space robots? It could happen.

Labels: 2D, Movie Trailer

Funny stuff and cool animation.

Labels: 2D, Humor

Not sure if I posted this one when it came out in January 2008. It's a video for the French band Oldelaf and Monsieur D. The video was directed by Stephanie Marguerite and Emilie Tarascou.



Just for fun, here's another animated video for the band. The song is called Nathalie )mon amour des JMJ). I have a feeling this is not an official video but a fan video (but I don't read French all that well).

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Stop motion paper animation by director and animator Sean Pecknold along with artist/illustrator Jesse Brown for Fleet Foxes. After Effects was used to finish the final sequences.



Making of video:



"Our last 4 weeks stitched together. Mainly timelapse of setting up each shot."

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Retro, Stop Motion

Video installation art created by Crush with artist/director Marco Brambilla for the elevators Standard Hotel in NYC. Reminds me of a Bosch painting! Made up of over 400 video clips, it takes visitors either up to heaven or down to hell depending on which way they are going in the elevator. Pictures and Q&A with Brambilla and Crush.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Experimental, Installation

Fun stop-motion animation assembled on a gym floor. Visit the film's site to view the making of, complete with set and animation tests. Created by Blink Productions.

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short, Stop Motion

Shot In The Back Of The Head from Moby on Vimeo.

Video by David Lynch, music by Moby. So yeah, it’s going to be weird, but how interesting is that combination??? Creepy hand-drawn animations with disembodied heads to a track from Moby’s upcoming album, "Wait For Me".

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Music Video

I love the static watercolor textures in this animation....

Bryum & Kapok 03: A Lilt from Overture on Vimeo.

Part three of a series. Check out Overture's site for details, the full story, and to see more lovely work.

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Website

End credit sequence of "The Days" by animator Josef Lee, inspired by early Kung Fu comics. The Days, a a Singapore gangster drama, is being noted as one of the first films from Singapore that uses motion graphics extensively.

Interview with the director, Josef Lee/Mojo at The Submarine Channel.

Labels: 2D, Film, Interview, Movie Trailer

Evan Sussman's film short, Escape, is a fantastic voyage into a freedom from the stresses of modern life. It is a contender for a $30,000 prize from The Doorpost Film Project. If you like the film, please vote for it!

Evan, can you give a quick synopsis of your new film short, Escape?

Sure, Escape is the story of a couple that has reached their limit to the violence and hatred in our world. We follow them through several seasons and one big idea that just might get them back their freedom. I worked on that synopsis for awhile with my wife. It's ingrained in my head now.

You're the writer, producer, director on the project. How did the idea come to you?

Like all ideas, I'm not sure where it came from exactly, but I do know it was inspired by my wife. At the time she was my girlfriend (we just got married in September of last year). I think I came home from work late one night and I walked in to find her very upset, and crying about what was on the news. It wasn't one story in particular, but the whole picture: floods here, wars there, killings here... If you sit down and take in a whole news broadcast, it can be extremely depressing.

Oh, I completely agree. Totally depressing. I don't watch the news much anymore either. After 9-11, the newscasts changed. So, do you avoid TV now?

It's funny, I do avoid it, even though it's through television that I make most of my living. Actually, I've talked with a lot of people in the "industry" (sorry, I hate that word) who feel the same way. If I'm watching anything, it's most likely going to be a movie. I've especially fallen in love with documentaries lately. HBO On-Demand is a great place for that, but Netflix is the best invention ever, especially if you have an XBOX.

I love Netflix, too!

The reason I avoid watching television, specifically American news programs, is because they are so sensationalized nowadays. I remember watching Tom Brokaw with my mom while getting ready for dinner when I was growing up. She is still in love with him, by the way, but the reporting wasn't as bad as it is now. Fox, MSNBC, all of them... it's more News-tainment, if that's a word, than anything. Switch over to the BBCA and you'll see the difference between American reporting and reporting in other countries.

The worst part, and most saddening, is that there are terrible things happening all around the world. I think what has the potential to make someone so upset is that, from the outside, it all can seem so silly. In Iraq, in Palestine, in everywhere, the majority of people just want to live their lives. They want to work, try to be successful, have a family and take care of them. The bigger violent issues, they can't help but be wrapped up in, are always controlled by few, but end up effecting so many. It's crazy to me that so much of your life is determined by the lottery of where you are born. We are very fortunate here in America that a lot of the terrible things aren't happening in our backyard. That doesn't mean it takes away from our empathy for the people stuck in it though.

I think that's the main idea of the film. I believe that the majority of people stuck in the middle of bad situations would go somewhere else if they knew they could be happy, keep their family safe, and leave all this fighting and waring to someone else.



Can you talk a bit about the workflow on the film? You mentioned that the backgrounds were created in Flash and composited and animated in AE.

Sure, my first studio job was as a part-time assistant editor at Soup2Nuts animation studio. They're a Flash-animation based studio in Watertown, MA. When I started work there, my background was entirely in live-action and I knew a little bit of After Effects. They didn't use After Effects at all when I started! So I told myself, "I'm going to make myself a position here by introducing AE." I did, with a lot of reluctance from some of the producers at the time, but now After Effects is a part of every production's budget and has become a terrific creative tool for the directors and animators. It was through my 4-5 years of working at Soup, eventually becoming the head of post-production, that I gained the experience of utilizing Flash and After Effects together. Now that Adobe owns them both, there are some amazing things you can accomplish.

When I first started to build the scenes for ESCAPE, I was determined to export all the BGs and elements from Flash as .SWF files, retaining the vector information. Where that does work much of the time, once you start creating complicated 3D scenes with vector art, After Effects gets confused and crashes a lot. It was a very frustrating learning experience. What finally worked was to just export the Flash images as large PNGs with alpha information and then build everything out of those. The vector stability is something that Adobe still needs to work out.

We're all of your elements hand drawn? That must have taken forever!

First of all, I want to say that the amazing backgrounds and props were created by Steven Young. He's an incredible talent not only at design but his own writing and ideas. We met and discussed how I pictured everything, then he went and created these ridiculous backgrounds. When I saw the rocket all put together for the first time I just started laughing, I thought it was so cool looking. His art direction really helped to make ESCAPE look so special.



There are a few reasons I choose to do the backgrounds in Flash. One of them being because of where the film takes you. It would have been impossible for me to pull that off on my shoe-string budget otherwise. And I was able to accomplish camera moves I never would have been able to without a crane or something. Plus, I knew it would look cool and give them film a unique tone. My favorite films are the ones where directors have made strong visual decisions. The look of a film is so important in creating the mood and tone. And that's why we watch movies isn't it? To experience an emotion or be taken somewhere new? I get so frustrated when I see a movie that is shot in a boring way. You have all the choices in the world on how to shoot a scene, make it something interesting.

Another reason why I used drawn backgrounds was to make the locations and age of things unspecific. It's the same reason I choose to go without dialogue and make the clips on TV vague. I was considering using shots of President Bush, Katrina, Al Queda kidnappers with masks on etc... But the moment I looked at footage like that, I decided against it. I didn't want to make a propaganda film. And I think the idea I was trying to convey could be applied to any era.



You make some serious use of 3D layers. I especially love the big pullout at the end. Will you share your technique?

A lot of experimentation. That shot took me about a week or so of playing around. Getting the camera speed right was very time consuming. Also, when the camera goes from the landscape to seeing the moon etc, that's when it switches from 3D to 2D. There are a few times in the film I had to do that - especially in the apartment. Sometimes when Joe would walk in, his feet would go through the floor, so those scenes have the keyed footage of him and his girlfriend in the film in 2D. Just about every other time we see them though, they are in 3D and therefore casting shadows and effected by lights. It helps so much in terms of making them feel a part of the scene.



The use of light, shadows and reflections also gives it an organic feel. Really nice.

Thank you! That has always been a goal of mine in After Effects, especially in terms of using After Effects with animation. A show I worked on a long time ago at Soup2Nuts was the first season of an Adult Swim series called Assy McGee. It was about a hard-boiled cop who was just a butt with legs - very high brow stuff. The style was very much like a comic book - detailed and realistic, but stylized. It was with that show that I felt the freedom to play with lighting, coloring, etc because it matched the theme. I wouldn't have felt the same freedom with a Saturday morning, educational cartoon. You have to match the feel of the show.

I ended up creating one technique, if you want to call it that, which I thought brought a cool feeling to the show. I made sure every location had a different overall color tone. So at night, the outside was blue, during the day a washed out yellow. If they were inside a place with florescent lights, I would tint things slightly greenish, and if inside a more natural setting, I would go with brown. Take an adjustment layer and apply the hue/saturation effect. Set it to "colorize" and go crazy with the color and saturation. Go over the top with what you think would work. Then if you bring the opacity of that layer down to somewhere between 15% to 30%, you get a nice overall color to the scene. It's an easy, quick way to change the mood of a shot. I used a lot of tricks like that which I'd learned in my years as an animation effect-artist. I feel almost embarrassed saying it. It's not like it's some big trick or something, just an easy thing...



A lot of people probably don't know about those type of little tricks though, so it's nice of you to share it. I also love the organic movements of your elements, such as the junk in the trailer and the movement of the gears. How did you get your elements to move so naturally? Expressions?

The junk was expressions, yes. Actually, a lot of little things were expressions, like the tree leaves. The wiggle expression is so huge. I wish I was the kind of person who could program and understand how to write expressions more, but I mostly stick with wiggle, creating simple expressions sliders and loopOutDuration. I think, more than anything, I use that expression. It's so great for setting up a few keyframes and setting it to an endless loop. It's especially great for looping videos, like those from ArtBeats or something. The other expression I used was something I found online. It was for making the car's tires roll with the movement of the car. These people who post their amazing expressions online for the rest of us - they are so incredible. The kind of people you find on your site or Creative Cow. I think so many of us owe so much to them for making our work better, at least I do. So, for any of them reading this, THANK YOU!

Let's talk a bit about plug-ins.
Ok.

Your keys look incredible. Did you use Keylight or another plug-in?

Just Keylight. How amazing is that plug-in? The fact that it comes bundled with AE Pro is so great. We shot everything on a Panasonic HVX. The weird aspect ratio adds another element of difficulty.

What sort of particle generator did you use for the smoke and snow?

I don't think too many people will be surprised to know that I used Particular from Trapcode. I think that bundle of effects is really essential for a serious After Effects graphics artist. The way it interacts with the 3D camera is amazing. You can make some truly beautiful stuff with it. Actually, speaking of which, there was a shot I cut from the film where the camera pushes in from the exterior through the window, all the while passing this beautiful falling snow. It was SO hard to let that go, but I had to for the pacing of the film. Making a movie from scratch is a lot of killing your own babies. It can be really tough to let go.



How about the film effect?

That effect I made from scratch, no pun intended. I would be happy to share the project file. There are a bunch of wiggle expressions going on there. One of the inspirations for ESCAPE was the movie "Voyage to the Moon" by George Melies, which was made in 1902. That was the reason for the film effect, as a little homage.

I totally feel the homage to Voyage to the Moon. I was thinking that in the back of my mind.

It also acts as another one of those era-less things. People keep asking me which plug-in I used for that. I guess I did a good job! My advice to anyone starting in this field: always try to make your own "plug-ins" first. You'll save money and learn a lot in the process - not to mention have it to use any time you need it.

Did you learn any good tricks during the production? How long did the whole film take to create?

Oh man, of course. You should always learn something, otherwise you're not pushing yourself. When I was the head of post and receiving resumes from young applicants, I would always get the one that said "after-effects guru" or something. You know what? No, you're not. I promise. I've been working with After Effects for I don't know, 10 years now. I wouldn't claim to be a guru or master. I love it, I can do amazing things with it, but there are so many people out there who know this program inside and out. I'm not sure if one person can really know everything After Effects can do. It's so powerful. Like Photoshop - you know it to the extent that you need to use it. Someone could show you a new use for it that you would have never guessed. It's that kind of a program.

I shot the original greenscreen footage in September of '07 - so over a year? That was with a lot of breaks for paying work. It's hard to find time to do your own thing. But if you love it, you'll make time. It also helps to have someone pushing you, in my case my wife Avril.

The soundtrack is fantastic. Was it custom created for your film?

I'm so glad you asked this question. It was original, it's amazing, and it is all the work of Daniel Koren, an Israeli composer living in New York. We met on an earlier project of mine where he composed a completely different kind of song. I knew that without a doubt he was the guy for this project. But 6.5 minutes is a lot of composing to ask of someone on the cheap, so we decided to barter. I came down to NY and shot a short video for his band at Julliard, in exchange for him creating the beautiful score. His group is called "The Koren Ansamble" and will be hitting the world by storm very soon!

The other music in the piece, "Let's Pretend There's A Moon", is performed by Fats Waller and licensed from Warner Brothers, EMI, and a man named Arthur Hamilton. I knew this song had to be in the film no matter what, but I didn't know where until it was all edited together. Playing over the credit's ended up being a really nice way to end the film. The scratchy recording, the piano - it just fit. And through it I've started a friendship with Arthur, who actually turns out to be the son of two of the song's writers, so it was extra special to me that the idea of the film was inspired by my wife and it was Arthur's parents who wrote the song. It just makes me feel good every time I think about it.

Can you talk a bit about the Doorpost Film Project?

I think the Doorpost Film Project is amazing. Any group that is willing to invest in young directors is okay in my book. This is my first time entering their contest, but so far I'm very impressed with the quality of the site, the integrity of their voting process, and the quality of the work they attract. To get the chance to show what you could do with a real budget would be so incredible. There are some very cool movies in this competition. It's daunting, but I'm just happy to be a part of it.

You look very young in your picture on the Doorpost Film Project page, but you have a really extensive portfolio. What is your secret for staying so young? ;-) Seriously, though, can you give us a quick rundown of some of the work you've done in the past?

Well, thank you! My secret is my goofy boxer, Rufus. He's like living with a little funny old man who makes me laugh everyday. I wish I was able to work him into the movie somehow, but I don't think he would have had fun on set for 10-12 hours.

I have always been told I look young. I'm 28. That picture was taken kind of far away, my wife points out that I'm getting grey hairs everyday.

My first job out of school, aside from driving people around in a wheelchair van, was creating web content for Boston Children's Hospital. I then moved on to Soup2Nuts where I was able to work on some amazing programming. Soup was a great learning experience for me and small enough that I was able to try out a bunch of different things outside of post production. I wrote and created some shorts for PBS's Between the Lions, directed some commercials for Legal Sea Foods (a regional family seafood chain) and created logos and visual styles for shows on PBS and Cartoon Network. It was terrific. Since leaving last summer, I've been out on my own freelancing. I've made commercials for the Discovery Channel at Element Productions, created the look for a new show coming up on Animal Planet and many effects for Discovery channel programming at Powderhouse Productions. I've also been working on a bunch of outside projects, including a promo video for a charitable company out in California called Give Something Back. Freelancing is a tough gig with long hours and a lot of self-promotion looking for that next gig. But right now, I'm loving the freedom of it.

Anything new in the pipeline?

Right now I've got a few things going on, but I'm mostly trying to get a show idea off the ground. It's a nutritional show for children that my friend and business-partner Dave Schlafman co-created. We're very close to an investment, but I doubt I should say anything about it until we know for sure. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks so much and best of luck with the contest. Hopefully we can give you the "Toolfarm Bump".

Thank you!

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film Short, Interview

Motomichi is Tokyo-born artist and VJ now working in Brooklyn. From his site: "the trailer was made to promote "Japan Cuts" film festival by Japan Society. The festival is subtitled as "a film festival that cuts directly into the current Japanese films and brings a slice of Japan to New York City". Check out his work here.

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Film Short, Movie Trailer

Nice layering; use of Magic Bullet, perhaps?

Labels: 2D, Film Short, Music Video

This is a lot of fun! A girl who has never seen Star Wars gives the plot of the 3 original movies and they animate cutouts and tiny explosions in a very comedic manner. It has a bit of a Monty Python feel.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, Humor

A really fantastic animated Russian pop video made with old postcards of Vladivostok. I really like the song, as well.


Oleg Chubykin - "The Tourist" ("The Tourist" , 2007) from Chubykin on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Dark and hauntingly beautiful work from Benjamin Chauvet of Avignon, France.

Labels: 2D, Film Short

Fantastic, mindblowingly cool motion graphics from cyriac, a freelance animator based in Brighton UK. I love the textures and how it just keeps moving! The octopus and undersea life is especially impressive.


High quality version

Labels: 2D, Music Video

The Music Video for "Like I Do" by Minipop. Directed by Andrew Huang. Not too keen on the band itself, but I'm liking the animation style, and thought it was worth a mention. Andrew Huang's portfolio has some nice VFX, installation and traditional art work.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film Short, Music Video

This is fun! Very imaginative animated characters, great tracking work and forced camera blur effects. Directed By Kristofer Ström, VFX by Erik Buchholtz, Varelsen Studios. Worth taking a peek at the high quality version on their site, along with their other recent works.

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

This video is a bit hard to look at depending on your state of mind, but it's a crazy awesome technique by OneInThree- a phenomenon known as the "Droste Effect"; based on the math behind a lithograph created by M.C. Escher.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Technology

A music video for My Morning Jacket created by Mixtape Club. "Mixtape Club drew from an array of inspirations such as the BBC's "Planet Earth", foliage plucked from the streets of New York City, and the work of Russian animator Yuri Norstein. The jungle world was built entirely from elements painted digitally. The finished product is a haunting, seemingly hand-painted, lonely story with a touch of fairy tale sweetness." More of Mixtape Club's work along with higher resolution previews are available on their website.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Character Animation, Film Short, Music Video

"Sea Orchestra" is a whimsical, Hieronymus Bosch-styled commercial for United. The elements were produced by Shy the Sun, a South Africa-based directing team; using hand-drawn textures, computer animation characters and photographs of water, reefs and skies. The elements were then finished by Lung Animation, who did the 3D modeling and final animations.


Sea Orchestra from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Shy the Sun’s founders, The Blackheart Gang, also created this equally awesome and trippy animated short; "The Tale of How".


The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Commercial, Film Short

This one starts out a bit slow but at about 3 minutes in, the effects are amazing. Vince Ream is the director:

I used After Effects for all the animation and compositing. I used Adobe Premiere for all the editing. The most important part was time, and making sure everything I did was what I wanted before moving on.

There's a section with hologram CD covers that rotate around this girl and she touches them and they play. The album and paper effects remind me of the HP ads that were out about a year ago. The giant head effect is trippy too. The tracking and compositing are so well done in this video. Wow. That's all I can say.... wow. So much eye candy, I'm on overload.


"With My Good Eye Closed" 2007 from Vince Ream on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Experimental

Pop-art fun! Warhol would be proud... don't worry, nothing graphic, unless you find bananas to be offensive.

I Like You So Much Better When Youre Naked

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

ORBA SQUARA "GRAVEL" MUSIC VIDEO from LORCANFINNEGAN on Vimeo.

Gravel is the first video from Orba Squara's debut album sunshyness.
"The video was all one steadicam shot with animated/illustrated elements added in using 3D tracking software."- Lorcan Finnegan, Director.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Character Animation, Film Short, Music Video

Could this be more fun? I doubt it. The animation is by Alex Budovsky.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Shine has worked in collaboration with James Baxter Animation and the DreamWorks Animation team of animators, production designers and directors to create the main title sequence for DreamWorks Animation's new film, Kung Fu Panda. The film features some gorgeous 3D animation, along with very slick, stylized 'bookends' for the beginning dream sequence and end titles that are a nice blending of 2D and 3D elements.



I was struck by the very subtle details of the characters, yet the film retained this unique stylized appearance influenced by Chinese calligraphy - along with some great action sequences!

Note from Michele: We'll be interviewing Shine Studio about their work on Kung Fu Panda in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film

Really nice pacing and typography. Plus, a great cause.

Labels: 2D, Typography

Animated by Josh Raskin, illustrations by James Braithwaite. An interview with John Lennon from John and Yoko's Bed-In in 1969. The animation is really clever.

Here's a wonderful film we sneaked in at the end of BUG 07 that I think withstood the crappy sound. It's called 'I Met The Walrus' and although it isn't strictly a music video it features the words of John Lennon and it's amazing so we hoped no one would object to us including it. The story behind it is that in 1969 when John and Yoko were in Toronto as part of their bed-in for peace tour, a 14 year old Beatles fan with a tape recorder called Jerry Levitan knocked on every door of the hotel where he knew Lennon was staying until he found him at which point Lennon was good enough to give him a 40 minute interview. The tape of the interview gathered dust for around 35 years until Jerry Levitan met a young animator called Josh Raskin whose work impressed him sufficiently for him to allow Josh to make a film to accompany an edited section of this Lennon tape. The result was nominated for an Oscar this year but remarkably few people seen it. Enjoy.

Hey, wait... I thought the Walrus was Paul? (Glass Onion - okay, I'm a Beatle geek, now you know).


Via Create Digital Motion

Labels: 2D, Documentary, Experimental

This amazing video is a time lapse of painted graffiti on walls in Buenos Aires. Talk about transforming the landscape! More amazing work and sketches are to be found at the artist's website, blublu.org.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Stop Motion, Website

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

Labels: 2D, Film Short, Movie Trailer

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

Watch and enjoy:

Labels: 2D, 3D, Character Animation

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

Labels: 2D

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: 2D, Music Video

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's an interesting site, with some of the more freakish films that messed me up in my college art history and film courses- all in one convenient location!

The List Universe- Top 10 Most Bizarre Videos

Some of the "classics" from the likes of David Lynch and Jorodowsky are here!

One case in point:



Thanks to Kevin Lang for the link.

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short

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

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

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

Beautiful.

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short

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

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.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

Labels: 2D, Commercial

Very entertaining, simplified cartoon style video from the Welsh band, Los Campesinos. I'm digging the tune. Wales really has some great bands (yeah, I'm talkin' to you Super Furry Animals!)

Labels: 2D, Music Video

This is a really cool animation style and a moving piece with a narrative by U.S. Army Specialist Colby Buzzel. It was featured on "America at a Crossroads". I love the subtle color and use of 2D in 3D space. Amazing work.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film Short

Directed by Jeffrey St. Jules & Adrienne Amato, National Anthem of Nowhere is an interesting combination of rotoscoping and aging effects, and lots of cutouts, with some speech bubbles and misc. other components thrown in. The tearing effect around the guys on the deck is interesting. It's a really fun video.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Sin Destroyers - Gifts to the World was sent to me by Jim G. (aka Apple Jim). His buddy Andy is in the band. The band members are all animators and designers from Brooklyn, NY. The video is hillarious and the band rocks hard... like Iron Maiden hard..., but if you don't feel comfortable with pure blasphemy, you probably do not want to see the video. Just a warning.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Fun 2D animation with live video, plus a great pop song.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Capital is a mindblowing video by Belorussian group Lyapis Trubetskoy, directed by Alexey Terekhov and produced by Cosmos Film.

The singer has multiple faces which reminds me of the Hindu God, Kartikay. He's riding on an animal that morphs from a rhino to a horse to an elephent and several other animals. There are layers and layers of flowers, then world leaders surrounded by guns and liquor.

So many layers and so much movement. So many cosmic zooms, so much rotoscoping. The color scheme is gorgeous.

Coolest. Video. Ever.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Music Video

Jim Geduldick sent me this amazing piece, Trusted Computing, by Benjamin Stephan and Lutz Vogel.

I love the microfilm projector look with the animated tape and other objects in the beginning. This is reminiscent of What Barry Says, but takes it to a whole other level. They have some supa cool transitions and mix the 3D elements flawlessly. I love this piece!

The smokestack graphic looks like Noise Industries logo (are you guys doing some subliminal advertising? ;-)

Labels: 2D, 3D

The Wonder Pets! is an adorable animated series that airs on Nick Jr./Noggin, aimed at the pre-k audience. It was created by the award-winning team at Little Airplane Productions. Toolfarm chats with Jim Geduldick, who is a Senior Editor but wears a lot of other hats in the production of the show.

Gather the kids around the computer and spend some quality family time! Read the interview and see some cuter-than-puppies-wrapped-in-kittens screen shots.

Labels: 2D, Interview, Television

Route through the history for El País is uses that technique that zooms by a bunch of photos with a 3D camera and lots of depth of field and perspective shadows. It was posted by Cocoe Conspiracy Headquarters in Madrid, Spain.

We have quite a few questions about how to do this technique. I can tell you that it will take a lot of time cutting out the photos in Photoshop. There are plug-ins that will speed up the process quite a bit, including Vertus Fluid Mask for Photoshop and the Tools in the Digital Film Tools Masking Bundle for Photoshop. You'll need to break up your images and background into several layers, and paint in your background - at least the parts that will show. The clone tool works well for this.

In After Effects, you'll need to import these Photoshop documents as Compositions and make each layer 3D. Separate them in z-space and then animate your camera. Easy as pie, eh.

Thanks Jim G. for the link!

Labels: 2D, 3D, Commercial

Last Best Hope: A True Story of Escape, Evasion and Remembrance is another example of zooming through 3D space with the camera, through 2D photo scenery. This one has played at film festivals, won awards and showed on PBS. This one will make you say wow.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Documentary

Tyger, a film short by Brazillian Cuilherme Marcondes, is based on William Blake's poem, Tyger. It is one of the most amazing pieces I've ever seen. The tyger is a puppet that maneuvers through Sao Paolo, Brazil, with the puppeteers in black still visable. It's a mix of live action, photographs and 2D and 3D. Gorgeous.

It has the feel of Circque du Soliel for me, beautiful, etherial and with a rockin' soundtrack.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Experimental, Film Short

This video is currently in a discusson thread in our Expert Forum. Really cool video. Lots of great effects.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Music Video

Stranger than Fiction Opening Sequence was done by MK12, who never disappoint with their innovative and clever work. I remember a similar type of effect in Fight Club in the Ikea scene, but tops it.

I have yet to see this film, although it's on my "Want to See" list. This is another sent in by Dru Nget.

Labels: 2D, Movie Trailer

The Awesome X-Ray Plate Video - I happened upon this interesting effect-filled video by Teasider, aka Eran Solomon, an Israeli motion graphics artist who seems to be master of many programs. He uses After Effects, Premiere and Poser to create this great showcase of special effects. This guy is really talented. Check out his other work.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Experimental

Crayola Creativity Central has a commercial for special markers or special paper that only work with each other - in otherwords, if your budding artist draws a full neighborhood on the wall up the stairs... one house on each step... it won't show up on your walls. Yeah, that was me. They tell me that the walls were just painted before we were selling the house. My mom just doesn't appreciate art.

Anyway, nothing amazingly special about the spot, but it's a fun little commercial from Crayola that triggered a memory for me.

(Via | Video)

Labels: 2D, Commercial

We're looking for a few good animators, editors, students or even just fans of visual effects to contribute to this blog. Not HTML skills necessary, but a good eye for the most ground-breaking and rule-breaking techniques and styles out there. We want eye candy! Yes, we do.

Interested? Drop me an email and tell me why you should be considered. You would be expected to make one post per week, but you can post more, as long as they're quality videos. You're welcome to add your thoughts and opinions about the video, too.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Commercial, Demo Reel, Documentary, Experimental, Film Short, Interview, Movie Trailer, Music Video, Podcast, Stop Motion, Student Work, Television, Titles

This gorgeous video link was sent to me by one of my students, Paul, asking about how they created the effect. I tried to dig up more information on the video, but unfortunately, I don't know where the link came from. It was posted to a forum.

So, dear readers, any help would be appreciated. I'd love to know who did it, how, and what sort of software was used. It's so interesting.

Labels: 2D, Experimental

The Animation Show is a travelling animation festival that features some unbelievably cool animations from traditional cell to computer animated. The one pictured to the left is Rabbit by Run Wrake. It's creative, although very violent. Collision by Max Hattler is kalidescopic and trippy Islamic patterns and American quilts mix with the colors and geometry of flags. Collision is an abstract field of reflection. City Paradise by Gaëlle Denis is a breathtaking mix of live action and 2D/3D. (Tomoko arrives to London from Japan and accidentally discovers a mysterious, secret city underground, inhabited by friendly little aliens and a beautiful blossom. After she's found it, everything changes… )

Clip from City Paradise:

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short, Student Work

Unsettling Title Design for The Number 23 Bryant Frazer at Studio Daily (a part of Studio Montly) interviews Michelle Dougherty on Imaginary Forces' Agitated, Blood-Red Vision... the opening title sequence of the new Jim Carey Film, 23.

View the interview and see samples

Labels: 2D, Interview, Titles

I've never watched Stunt Junkies... not really my thing... I just happened to catch the open after one of my favorite shows, Man vs. Wild. The Stunt Junkies open has layers of textures, photos, 3D, and markerboard-style drawings. It's aggressive and hyper and is compeletly appropriate for the theme of the show. Badass to the extreme.

(Via | Watch)

Labels: 2D, 3D, Television

"Goodbye" is the latest video from Asobi Seksu and it's loads of fun! If you haven't heard Asobi Seksu, they're one of those bands with white guys and a Japanese female lead singer. That seems to be a very popular mix these days, but I have to say, I really dig them.

The colorful origami flowers and stars in the "paper insanity world", designed by animator Ryan Bosworth, and poppy song utterly harmonize.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Music Video

This is the sixth in the series of gorgeous commercials for HP, 'Paulo Coelho'. Coelho wrote my all-time favorite book, The Alchemist, so I was so pleased to see this mystical commercial with flowing imagery.

Have you read The Alchemist? It's life-altering, inspiring, simple, poetic, beautiful. This ad is a wonderful representation of the book. Read more about the commercial at the Motion Theory site.

(And, once again, thanks Dru Nget, for sending me the link. Dru has recently read The Alchemist at my suggestion and he was equally inspired and moved by the story. Go read it! )

Labels: 2D, 3D, Commercial

Why does Bill Gates sound like Kermit the Frog? This is cute.

No flame wars please.

Labels: 2D, Film Short

The Master Plan is a political commentary on the power of Google. The graphics are a mix of 2D and 3D and is inspired by What Barry Says.

Its a terrific video and interesting concept, but I do think they're a bit paranoid. Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you, right?

Thanks to Dru for sending this link to me.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film Short, Student Work

This piece comes from Dean Denell at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. I envy students. At hand is a daily task to create for the sake of creating without borders, rules or clients. Especially here, where you'll see a mix of traditional animation, stop motion, clay, and motion graphics. Easily caught up in my "branding" and "image" projects, sometimes I lose focus on the 'fun' part. That's what I see here. I think Dean had fun with this.

Click here to watch the movie.

Labels: 2D, Stop Motion, Student Work

Slide Sundays is a commercial for a dance club in Las Vegas. It was done by a good friend of mine, Dru Nget, while he was at KURO. Dru had only a few breakdancer shots to work with and created the look with masking, Trapcode 3D Stroke and a lot of 3D layering in After Effects.

P.S. Are you hiring? Dru is currently in the market for a new job in motion graphics in Los Angeles. Check out his reel and resume.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

This band totally sounds like Dizzee Rascall, but the tune is catchy as hell (and maybe a bit too vulgar for the kids and the pure of heart) and it will blow your speakers. I'm digging the video. Directed by Bob Harlow and co-created by Tim Cubbitt. Cut out band members over top of graphic backgrounds, lots of depth of field and 3D layering. I have to say that it is a bit reminicent of the Eskimo Disco 'Picture Perfect' video but I like the Hadouken! video a bit more. Hey, I'm a rock 'n roll girl at heart.

Labels: 2D, Music Video, Stop Motion

This is a great animated film that seems to have remained under the radar for some time.

"Potapych" is a great mix of toon shaded 3d, illustration and motion graphics that are seamlessly blended together to tell a great story.

Click here to watch the movie

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film Short

Word on the street is that HunterGatherer infused photographed paper and wood textures with After Effects to create this fun, stop-motion style commercials for AMP Energy Drink. The look is organic, with the textures and cutout style of characters, reminicent of early South Park, but much slicker and loaded with clever details. I love the cool color palette and the use of cameras and depth of field. Amazing work, indeed.

AMP reminds me of Slurm. "It's highly addictive!"

[via | Video (Pops)]

Labels: 2D, Commercial, Stop Motion

YEAR OF THE FISH is an animated independent feature film written and directed by David Kaplan, shot entirely on location in New York City’s Chinatown. A modern-day adaptation of Cinderella based on an old Chinese version of the story, it was shot on inexpensive live-action video that was used as a guide for digital painting in post-production." It's also an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival.

"Once the shooting and live-action editing were completed, the animation of YEAR OF THE FISH began. Following in the footsteps of Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and "Scanner Darkly", the production was shot and edited on miniDV and then rotoscoped in post production to create a high-definition animated feature film."

There are no clips of the film, but there are several screen shots and very interesting production notes and details about the animation process. They used Synthetik Studio Artist to acheive the unique look.

Labels: 2D, Experimental

"A Dream" by Common feat. Will.I.Am is a song from the film Freedom Writers and uses pieces of the Martin Luther King "I have a Dream" speech. The video uses illustrations composited in 3D space with video which give the video some amazing transitional elements. Also, note the transitions from video to poster. A former student of mine showed me this video today and that is the type of stuff he would like to create.

I saw Common at Lollapalooza in Chicago last summer, at least a few minutes of the show. Good stuff.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

AOL Omnibus from James Price and Transistor Studios is a very cool spot that I've seen quite a lot on television lately. Very cool layering and movement.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

via Motionographer

Three Legged Legs always astound me with their amazing animation work (see Humans and Los Angeles Let's Be Friends) and Samurai tops anything I've seen from them.

The animation is gorgeous and full of detail, not to mention cute (girls like cute stuff, what can I say.)

The set up of the web page, with the production still thumbnails and credits is really well put together, plus you can watch an HD version. Blown away... yeah, just a little.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Film Short

Some fun and bizarre Christmas wishes. This is an interesting combination of 2D and 3D with lots of textures. Read more and see it in Quicktime, Real Video and other choices here.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Experimental

I first saw this Intro for the 2005 Midwest AICP Awards at the 2006 Chicago Motion Graphics Festival. I have their wonderful DVD and can watch it in it's full amazingness, but I'm sorry, all I can offer you is this small little window. It's awe-inspiring though.

From Drumb.tv: "Done in my last days at Optimus, this piece was a fun challenge. Trying to puppeteer 3D shadow puppets in a convincing way and still deliver a crapload of logos. I was responsible for the first third of the open, which I did in 3DSMax 7.5. Jeremy Stuart and Patrick Coleman comped it all in After Effects. We shot the paper and the shadowy figures at the end and the rest was either 3D, After Effects, or Flame. My favorite part, KONG!"

Thanks to Seth for reminding me of this cool piece! Better late than never, I guess.

Labels: 2D, 3D

Andrea Giacobbe is an Italian filmmaker and photographer who works from L.A. From his bio: Andrea's photographic work led him into the world of film when the European art/culture television channel ARTE asked him to write and direct a one minute short film for the program "Tracks", which has since been broadcasting weekly for the past twelve years.

I'm digging the wadded paper effects. Very cool. Is this video really a decade old? I can't believe it!

Andrea won awards for his work on Garbage's Push It and has also done videos for Nine Inch Nails and Death in Vegas, as well as Sony Ericson, Coca Cola and Nestle.

Labels: 2D, Commercial, Music Video