Toolfarm Inspirations

Nokta

3/15/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

It's a bit dark, I'd highly recommend you watch it full screen. Truly amazing- RealFlow used for fluid simulation?

"Nokta (Dot) is an abstract film project which is an improvisation of organic pieces while considering themes like power, chance and luck. I also wanted a perspective that can be subjectified by viewers."

Labels: 3D, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Best Animated Short film Oscar to H5- Logorama

3/07/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Winner of Best Short Film Category at the 2010 Oscars goes to H5, a collective of directors

"Spectacular car chases, an intense hostage crisis, wild animals rampaging through the city... and even more in LOGORAMA!"

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

OK Go- This Too Shall Pass

3/04/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

OK so no visual effects here (if there were it would ruin the whole effect!), but this is too fun not to post to inspirations. This insanely huge and complicated Rube Goldberg-esque device was built by the band over the course of several months. One camera take! I wonder how many times they had to go through this to get it to work flawlessly.

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Gorillaz- Stylo

3/02/2010 • Permalink • 3 Comments •

Gorillaz have gone full CG and continue to break ground on new video "Stylo"- a compositing and vfx masterpiece. New album "Plastic Beach" will be out March 8/9th US.

Labels: 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

WeWereMonkeys: Land of Talk- It's Okay

2/15/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

WeWereMonkeys: Land of Talk- It's Okay

WeWereMonkeys: Land of Talk - It's Okay from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson (WeWereMonkeys) Music video for Land of Talk's "It's Okay".

WeWereMonkeys Demo Reel 2009

Demo Reel 2009 from WeWereMonkeys on Vimeo.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Galileo by Ghislain Avrillon

2/12/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Galileo from Ghislain Avrillon on Vimeo.

A really beautiful example of style/melding of textures with vector art using Flash and After Effects. Animated in Flash, composited in After Effects, and edited in Premiere. Love the soundtrack and audio fx too!

Labels: 2D, Character Animation, Experimental, Flash

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Honda Accord Crosstour Commercials by Elastic

2/04/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I've really been enjoying this series of funky, stylistic commercials for the Honda Accord Crosstour. Here's the full lineup so far! See more of Elastic's work at http://www.elastic.tv/

Honda Accord Crosstour "Squirrel"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Squirrel" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Honda Accord Crosstour "Snow Trip"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Snow Trip" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Honda Accord Crosstour "Instruments"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Instruments" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Honda Accord Crosstour "Boxes"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Boxes" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Labels: 3D, Character Animation, Commercial, Experimental

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

32 More Fantastic Demo Reels for Inspiration

2/01/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Our friend Topher Welsh has done it again- 32 Fantastical Demo Reels is a stunning roundup of visual eye candy inspiration featuring a wide range of styles and talent.

View All 32 Entries Here at AEtuts+.

GKASTER Motion Demo Reel

GKaster Reel may 2009 from gkaster on Vimeo.

Steffen Knoesgaard Showreel 2010

Steffen K Showreel2010 from Steffen K on Vimeo.

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Sherlock Holmes Credit Sequence and Interview

1/22/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Art of the Title Sequence has recently posted an interesting article on the opening and end credit sequences for Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" produced by Danny Yount/Prologue.

"The sequence creative director Danny Yount, a self-taught Emmy-winning designer/director produced main titles for Six Feet Under and The Grid while at Digital Kitchen. He currently resides at Prologue Films and has created titles for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man and RockNRolla."

Check out the entire entry and interview at The Art of the Title Sequence.

sherlock holmes

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

night lights Interactive Installation Art Building

1/12/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Unique interactive outdoor installation art, great example of collaboration.

night lights from thesystemis on Vimeo.

"In this installation YesYesNo teamed up with The Church, Inside Out Productions and Electric Canvas to turn the Auckland Ferry Building into an interactive playground. Our job was to create an installation that would go beyond merely projection on buildings and allow viewers to become performers, by taking their body movements and amplifying them 5 stories tall."

More information and story/background can be seen at http://www.yesyesno.com/night-lights and Vimeo.

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Installation, Interactive

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Ctrl.Alt.Shift Film Competition Winner: 1000 Voices

1/07/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Ctrl.Alt.Shift is a movement for a new generation fighting social and global injustice. These films were made by members of the community to raise awareness of issues they care about.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift Film Competition Winner: 1000 Voices from Ctrl.Alt.Shift on Vimeo.

"A verbose and politically correct bureaucrat gives a lecture to a group of teenagers on the merits of the UK's efficient and humane asylum system, whilst meanwhile, in the same building, detainees, imprisoned indefinitely in different 'Removal Centres' across the UK, leave messages in vain on an abandoned telephone answering machine in the ministry basement. Their messages detail the horror of the life that they have escaped due to conflict." Written and Directed by: Tim Travers Hawkins More Info.

Labels: Competition, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Sholi- All That We Can See

12/21/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Sholi - All That We Can See from Zeek Earl on Vimeo.

Directed by Zeek Earl. The official music video for Sholi "All That We Can See" from their self-titled album.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Vincent- an Early Stop-Motion by Tim Burton

12/17/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Created in 1982, this is one of his first stop-motion films- interesting to see themes and styles have not changed much!

Labels: Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Retro, Stop Motion, Tim Burton

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Trapcode Test - Adam Wozniak

12/09/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is just pretty.

Sound/Vis Test from Adam Wozniak on Vimeo.

After Effects.
Trapcode.
Broadcast 2000.

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

"Apples" for City Harvest by The Mill

12/08/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

An interesting use of the iPhone and CG to highlight the amount of wasted food disposed of in NYC on a daily basis.

Making Of by The Mill, explaining the intricacies behind matching a virtual camera move to an iPhone camera Full Story

Labels: 3D, Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!) 2009

12/03/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Giant robots invades Montevideo! A short movie directed and animated by Fede Alvarez on a shoestring budget of only several hundred dollars. (Probably not factoring in his actual time to make this...) Hollywood quickly took notice and offered him a bigger budget.

http://www.aparato.tv/

"Alvarez ended up signing with CAA, Anonymous Content and attorney Karl Austen the week before Thanksgiving and entered immediate talks with Ghost House after bonding with its principals, which include director Sam Raimi."

Full Story on www.heatvisionblog.com.

Labels: 3D, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

N.A.S.A. "Spacious Thoughts"

11/25/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A new music video from the N.A.S.A project: "Spacious Thoughts," featuring a most-interesting combination of Tom Waits and Kool Keith, directed by Fluorescent Hill. Excellent animation.

Read the interview and "making of" post at Boing Boing.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Reel Inspirations from Topher Welch at the Aetuts+ Blog

11/20/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Topher Welch has recently compiled a list of 41 compelling demo reels for your viewing pleasure. Some older, some newer, but all very attractive. "Wow... it took forever, but I'm here to bring you more demo reels then ever before! Maybe you are hurting for some graphics ideas, or just need to whet your inspiration palate? There's no better way to throw away an afternoon. Enjoy!"

Joost Karngald Reel

Tony Hudson 2009 Reel

The Mill 2009 Reel

Mathieu Gerard

Thanks to Topher for scouring the interwebs and putting this together! These were just a couple that jumped out at me, but you can browse the whole list at Aetuts+.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Duelity by Ryan Uhrich

11/11/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Duelity from Ryan Uhrich on Vimeo.

An interesting juxtaposition of different styles and concepts/content! "Duelity is a split-screen animation that tells both sides of the story of Earths origins in a dizzying and provocative journey through the history and language that marks human thought." Visit Duelity.net for more information.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Chew Lips "Seven" Video Featuring Trapcode Form

11/01/2009 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Cool music video featuring Trapcode Form, depth of field.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Tom Fun Orchestra- Bottom of the River

10/19/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Makes me think twice about what I'm throwing away in the garbage!

Tom Fun Orchestra-Bottom of the River from trunk animation on Vimeo.

Director: Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney
Producer: Richard Barnett
Production company: Trunk Animation
Compositing: Andy Hague, Alasdair Brotherston
Animation: 2D: Anna Benner, Timothy McCourt,
Alasdair Brotherston
3D: Patrick Krafft

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Chop Cup by :weareom:

9/30/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A bit of trippiness for your humpday.

CHOP CUP from :weareom: on Vimeo.

Design and Direction :weareom: - weareom.com
Lighting by David Lee - davidleedop.com
Production by studioset - studioset.tv
Post Production by :weareom: - weareom.com
Sound by Alin Flaidar - studioset.tv
Starring Vlad Grigorescu - vladgrigorescu.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43038809@N02/

Making of coming soon

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

"The Seed" by Johnny Kelly

9/30/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

"A two-minute animated voyage through nature's life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed.

The film was kindly funded by Adobe, made using their CS4 range of software. It was produced at Nexus Productions and features a soundtrack by Jape. It was made using a mixture of stop motion papercraft and 2D drawn animation."

Making of video:

Making of 'The Seed' from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Full credit list available on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Retro, Stop Motion

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Moby: "Mistake" Interview at Wired.com

9/16/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Via Wired Magazine: "One of the nice things about the demise of the music business,” says Moby, sipping tea at a sidewalk cafe in downtown Manhattan, "is that a big production doesn't matter any more. Like in 1998, it seemed the criteria for determining the worth of a music video was how big the production was. Now the only thing that matters is the idea." -Moby

Read the full interview at Wired.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Stop Motion

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Monsters: 091 Tourists

9/16/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Monsters: 091 Tourists from Volstok Telefunken on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Electric Car- They Might Be Giants

9/11/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Making of Video:

Directed/created by the crew at Tiny Inventions.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Interset open. by Alex Mikhaylov

9/02/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Interset open. from Alex Mikhaylov on Vimeo.

View Alex Mikhaylov's profile: http://www.behance.net/AlexMikhaylov

Labels: 3D, Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The Forest by David Scharf

8/30/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Forest from David Scharf on Vimeo.

"Antonia is a 12 year old girl. She often has daydreams, in which she wanders of in to a magical far away forest, were she hides from the problems of the real world. One day, however, her father takes drastic measures and she has to face a decision."

Watch with subtitles, the-forest.de

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Gorgeous Sand Animation

8/14/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

let yourself feel. by Esteban Diacono

8/11/2009 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Esteban Diacono has created a gorgeous experimental video for classical musician Olafur Arnalds' Ljosio (there's lots of double byte characters in that word, but I think you'll be able to find the track). He uses Trapcode Sound Keys and Particular v2 to create this organic look.

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

555 KUBIK- Facade Projection

7/27/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

"How it would be, if a house was dreaming." This is absolutely amazing.

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Tron Legacy Trailer

7/27/2009 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Tron Legacy Trailer:

HD Download Here: http://www.flynnlives.com/media/video/0xendgame.aspx

Original Tron Trailer (1982):

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Experimental, Film, Movie Trailer

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Street Tests with Trapcode Particular v2

7/22/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Amazing use of Trapcode Particular v2, excellent tracking.

street tests from Najork on Vimeo.

Want to give it a try? Download a free trial here!

Labels: 2D, 3D, Experimental

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Yellow Sticky Notes by Jeff Chiba Stearns

7/21/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Director and animator Jeff Chiba Stearns was controlled by sticky notes for 9 years. He went through 2300 sticky notes and brought them to life. Wow. I love the morphing and animating of the content on the sticky notes. Amazing.

He's half Japanese (just like my daughter), and an advocate for HAPA, hence, his site hapanimation.com. HAPA is Half Asian People's Association, a worldwide organization for people of mixed Asian ethnicity.

Comments from the director:

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Video Games by Musclebeaver

7/13/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This is a bizarre but awesome history of video games from Pong to Pac-Man to Super Mario and to a bunch of games that came out after I stopped playing. It's pretty funny stuff and very well done. The Pong sequence is too long, in my opinion, but stick it out. It really picks up at the end of Pac-Man. Musclebeaver says:

Every game character in this prologue was reinterpreted, redrawn (...one pixel at a time), and animated frame by frame. First I drew every animation step of all characters with the smallest sized (1x1) pen in Photoshop at 72 dpi. (without bicubic interpolation). Then I composed everything in AfterFX. There were a lot of issues I had to cope with to keep the detailed REAL pixel look/ratio.(e.g . scaling, camera and motion blurs...)

NSFW! Scene of Mario humping Lara Crofts leg and she's enjoying it!

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

3D Video Projections by NuFormer

7/11/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

NuFormer, a Dutch multimedia agency, created these amazing 3D video projections on transparent screens. Very impressive, especially the shattering effect that make the buildings look as though they are crumbling apart.

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Installation, Technology

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Trapcode 3S Training Trailer

7/01/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Is it arrogant to put our own stuff up here? Nah. The training will be out in early July. Here's a promo piece I put together for it, which uses Professional Video Templates Pictures Flow Template and features music from the band King Tut. Thought you'd like the artistic approach to the promo. I listen to a lot of electronic music, so yes, the audio is supposed to be like that. :-)

Find more videos like this on MyToolfarm

Watch it in HD at YouTube or Vimeo

Labels: Commercial, Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Fleet Foxes: Mykonos

6/23/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Form Troopers Bubblegum

6/15/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A gorgeous and well-executed sample of Trapcode Form by Form Troopers (pops).

Link via Peder Norrby

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Civilization by Marco Brambilla

6/12/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Flashback Friday: Retro Computer Rhapsody

5/22/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

If you have a "computer graveyard" in your post house or studio where your old equipment goes to die, this may be of some inspiration to you. I'm looking at mine now, expecting them to wake up suddenly and start playing Symphony No. 9. It's a bit disturbing actually.

"What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?) Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound, Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar, 8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass, 3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong, HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals."

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short, Flashback Friday, Music Video, Technology

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

"Sorry I'm Late" Stop Motion Animation

5/21/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Samsung Hummingbird LED Commercial/ 1stAveMachine

5/11/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I know it's been out for awhile, but I saw this a few nights ago and was really impressed- just gorgeous CG work by 1stAveMachine. Their site is worth a look, the homepage features an interesting folded cardboard and cell animation "Unbox the Box" for Audi.

Labels: 3D, Commercial, Experimental, Technology, Website

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Moby and David Lynch: Shot in the Back of the Head

5/05/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Bryum & Kapok; by Overture

5/04/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

How to Make a Baby

4/27/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A fun stop motion with unique editing. I can show this to my 6 year old instead of explaining the "real" method! (via Twitter)

Labels: Experimental, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Minilogue: Six Arms and One Leg

3/16/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Organic, textural landscapes that slowly unfold and grow. Very surreal and dream-like. Design and animation by Rob Zohrab/ Hinge Design.

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Bars &Tones by André F. Chocron

1/20/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A fun and clever animation, made entirely in Final Cut Pro, to the song Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He did an amazing job timing it to the music. It is just so darn happy.

Bars & Tones from André F. Chocron on Vimeo.

Link via Thom Birks.

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Human Tetris by Guillaume Reymond

1/18/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Some fun use of stop motion. I have played a lot of Tetris in my life and I am wondering how difficult it was to choreograph this (master)piece. If it were me, I'd play a bit and do a screen recording and match that. He does a nice job of speeding it up at the end.

The guy singing the theme really helps to tie the whole "low-tech" theme of the video together. Very clever.

I will challenge and beat any of you at Tetris. Yes, I am that good. :-)

Thanks, Natsuki Kato for the link.

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Flashback Friday: Frank Film - Frank Mouris (1973)

11/28/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Ken Broomfield mentioned this on the AE-List earlier in November and I thought it would be a perfect submission for Flashback Friday.

This animated short features two intertwined soundtracks, produced by Tony Schwartz. In one, Frank reads is autobiography and in the second, he lists words beginning with the letter "f." The visuals include an animated collage of photos that Frank had cut from magazines and arranged by theme. I was born the year this came out, but the soundtrack reminds me of Radiohead's "Fitter Happier".

From Wikipedia: ."The movie won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Animated Films. In 1996, Frank Film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'."

Labels: Experimental, Film Short, Flashback Friday

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants.

11/23/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Directed by OneInThree uses the Droste Effect, a la MC Escher. It's a super cool effect but it did make me a little dizzy. A bit of variety thrown in would've improved the trip for me.

Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants. Dir: OneInThree from OneInThree on Vimeo.

Here's the Droste "Clap Your Brains Off" video from the Mexican band, Somos Machos, which uses the same mathmatical effect. I do like this video a bit better than the first (and the song for that matter).

"Clap Your Brains Off" Mexican Droste Videoclip from Frank Beltrán on Vimeo.

And here's the Making of Droste "Clap Your Brains Off" video, with an explanation of the effect. It's like string theory to me. My mind goes numb after 8.2 seconds. Some of the explanation is in Spanish, so it helps if you habla Espanol.

Making of Droste Videoclip "Clap your brains off" from Frank Beltrán on Vimeo.

Via AE Portal News

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

I Am Eboman

11/03/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Now THAT is some incredible editing!

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Minilogue - "Animals"

9/25/2008 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

A Conversation with Pericles Lewnes, Director of Loop

9/18/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

LOOP is one man's journey into a senseless world of bent time and elastic reality- a world where he finds that the sanity he seeks is the insanity he's lost. Michele Yamazaki of Toolfarm interviews Pericles Lewnes, Director of Loop, about the stylistic techniques used in the film- and the meanings behind them.

Check it out!

Labels: Experimental, Film, Interview

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants by OneInThree

9/05/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

With My Good Eye Closed by Vince Ream

8/11/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The AKA's- Dead Flowers Forever by Transistor Studios

6/13/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Transistor Studios created this music video for the AKA's from concept to completion. It has a very unique look and feel to it, not your typical "let's put a film look on it" piece. Film negatives are intertwined with black and white op-art graphics, split screens and shaky camera moves- really nice work, with a 6 week turnaround!

Labels: Experimental, Music Video, Retro

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

I Met The Walrus

6/05/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Blu: MUTO- a wall-painted animation

5/30/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Apple Music Video

5/11/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Talk about low budget, but this had to be very time consuming. The song is 'Again and Again' by The Bird and the Bee. I'm not sure if this is the official video, but it's
very clever. Mac geeks will totally appreciate it (and the rest of you geeks as well).

via Signal vs. Noise

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Lux by Richard Lainhart

4/26/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This was posted to the AE List by Eugene Pak. Richard's description "An abstract HD film animated in After Effects. The soundtrack, 'The Beautiful Blue Sky', is a realtime electronic synthesizer improvisation for Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum." It's purdy.

LUX from Richard Lainhart on Vimeo.

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

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

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

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

Chicago Motion Graphics Festival Highlights/ Best of STASH

1/21/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

In case you missed it, here's a few of the highlights from "Best of Stash 2007" at MGFest08.

Microsoft Zune Ad by Fulltank.

Music Video: Faithless-Music Matters by Micros Image.

Coca-Cola Happiness Factory- The Movie by Psyop.

Labels: Character Animation, Commercial, Experimental, Film Short, MGFest, Music Video, Television

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

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

500 Years of Female Faces - Morphing

9/16/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Beautiful.

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Dynamic Painting by San Base

8/28/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

San Base is a contemporary artist originally from Russia who now lives in Canada. He has perfected a program to generate algorythms that move elements in a painting fluidly to come up with a dynamic picture. I could look at it all day. Read more about the technology behind Dynamic painting. Wouldn't that be nice at your next soiree.

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Content Aware Image Resizing

8/27/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The rescaling and removal tools are mindblowing. I wonder if Adobe will buy this technology and incorporate it into future versions of Photoshop? One can wish.

Labels: Documentary, Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Near future roto tool

7/17/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

They say that this is easy but it looks a bit complex to me! It's a new node-based interactive system for cutting out objects in the foreground of video, being developed at the University of Washington.

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

HBO Voyeur Project

7/09/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

HBO Voyeur Project is about a twisted and interconnected stories in an apartment building. More fun than drag queen puppet bingo.

Labels: Experimental, Television

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

Expressions After Effects

5/26/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Now this is the kind of stuff I'd like to post more often! The information is all in French, but the Babel Fish Translation tells me: Original creation for the "Book of the designer" on After Effects (ED Eyrolles). Workshop 06 based on the expressions. The tutorial is in the book. Very cool effect!

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Nightcrawler X Men Effect

5/18/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A cool effect made in Adobe After Effects. I wish the lighting were a bit better, but I really like the effect. So, how do you think he did it?

Labels: Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Peter, Bjorn & John - Up Against the Wall

5/08/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Up Against the Wall is one of the stranger videos I've seen. Watch a guy getting food thrown at him over and over, then see it mirrored as the edit is repeated. Then, see it with other men get food Cap'n Crunch thrown at them. Then, confetti. Are these men Peter, Bjorn & John?

Anyway, the video credits Martin Arnold's technique.

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Missing Persons - Surrender Your Heart

4/25/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

By reading this blog, one might think that the only thing I ever watch are music videos. In the 80s, that was entirely true, with a break once in a while to watch Silver Spoons or Family Ties! Here's a blast from the past from one of my favorite bands from the 1980's, Missing Persons.

Surrender Your Heart was done by Peter Max with a PaintBox. I used to use a PaintBox back in the day. Sadly, I never did anything this cool... mostly just worked with corporate logos. Yay. Well, ya have to start somewhere.

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

KJ Sawka - Montreal

4/25/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

This music video, Montreal for Seattle electronic artist KJ Sawka, is beautiful and creative and is the absolute definition of eye candy. Director/animator/designer/editor: Clay Lipsky. There's an interview with Lipsky about the making of the video at ShotsRingOut.com.

I got a kick out of Lipsky's equation for music videos:

final cut + photoshop + illustrator + 3D (cinema 4d or MAYA) + After Effects - sleep + coffee = video

(Via BoardsMag)

Labels: Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Floris: Metalosis Maligna by Microbia

4/10/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

Floris: Metalosis Maligna, which came out last year, is a scary documentary slash short film about medical implants gone crazy. There's lots of cool 3D and some stellar compositing and tracking work. The man with the metalosis maligna, with his body being replaced by "metal tissue" and the stop motion portions are really impressive. Wow. I'm blown away.

The Dutch duo called Microbia, Floris Kaayk and Sil van der Woerd, produced this amazing piece.

Labels: 3D, Documentary, Experimental, Film Short, Stop Motion

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Tyger by Guilherme Marcondes

3/24/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Awesome X-Ray Plate Video

3/18/2007 • Permalink • 2 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Contribute to Toolfarm Inspirations

3/09/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

YMO - Computer Game/Firecracker (PV)

3/03/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Labels: Bizarre, Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Did you create this amazing video?

3/01/2007 • Permalink • 2 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The Animation Show presented by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt

2/28/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

"Year of the Fish"

1/18/2007 • Permalink • 1 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Lobo Skank One Song

1/04/2007 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Lobo Skank One Song is an amazing and beautiful conceptual piece from the Ebeling Group. Now that is some serious tracking (Boujou, maybe?) There are playful 3D elements sprouting throughout the environment and a sweet piano soundtrack. Those must be some extraordinary headphones.

Labels: 3D, Commercial, Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Don't Die Ding! "Carol of the Bells"

12/25/2006 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

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

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Ugly Pictures and Man vs. Magnet

10/06/2006 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Justin Cone at Motionographer posted this hillarious and violent video of the Battle of Famous Album Covers. The spot was created for Fluid Battle of the AdBands in NYC. I can't imagine how much time this must've taken!

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Music Video

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Onesize Demo Reel

8/09/2006 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Onesize is a production studio in Delft, The Netherlands and I gotta say, this one blew me away. It's the Onesize 2006 Demo Reel. They're taking styles and techniques that have been done before and put a new interesting twist on them. The result is mindblowing! Seriously cool stuff.

They've done work for MTV, KFC, Nike, Vans, Mitsubishi and others.

(Note: This file link says temp, so please tell me if it gets moved and you get a broken link. That happens sometimes, to my dismay.)

Labels: 3D, Demo Reel, Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Nicholas C. Raftis III Demo Reel

8/06/2006 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

I like to get some variety up here by featuring projects from big post houses, cool student work and some interesting techniques and styles that I've never seen before. This one came via Charlie Forbes, one of our Toolfarm Forum Experts.

Nicholas C. Raftis III, a fellow Michigan artist, is a video/audio artists create inherently fused synaesthetic animations and music, via programming generative systems in Max/Msp/Jitter by Cycling 74. I have no idea what that means, but the result is really interesting and fun. His work deals with abstractions of space and reality.

He has performed live music and video under the pseudonym "OOO" at numerous large scale electronic music shows, alongside notable artists such as Juan Atkins, Wu-Tang Clan, Jimmy Edgar, Richard Devine and more. He has done interactive audio/visual installations, published albums of music on many record labels, and screened films in festivals worldwide.

This is Nicholas' Demo Reel. I would like to point out the twisting effect on the city scape and the cool graffiti effects. Very cool, indeed.

Note: Link to video fixed. Sorry.

Labels: Demo Reel, Experimental

Posted by Michele Yamazaki