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

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

Yes, I was a big fan of HoJo in the early-mid 80s. He was my second concert, after Corey Hart! This video has some pretty stellar video effects for the age. The song was on the Better Off Dead soundtrack, when they're fixing the Camaro. Oh, I love that movie!

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video, Retro

This is an amazing trippy video! It's like QTVR with clothes with no bodies.



Director: Ben Steiger Levine
Producer: Sach Baylin-Stern
Production Manager: Joshua Usheroff
Cinematographer: Christophe Collette

VFX Technical Director/Compositing: Greg Kaufman
VFX Supervisor: Josh Sherrett
Art Director/Wardrobe: Marie-Michelle Deschamps
Art Director/Wardrobe: Perrine Lotiron
Grip/Elecro: Pawel Pogorzelski

Labels: Music Video

WeWereMonkeys: Land of Talk- It's Okay

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

Toolfarm: Can you tell us a little about WeWereMonkeys? What is your history, your backgrounds?

WeWereMonkeys: Davide Di Saro holds a Master's Degree in Fine Arts and Design from The Dutch Art Institute and has exhibited his art works internationally in China, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. One of his works was awarded honorable mention by UNESCO in 2003. Davide has worked as a professional photographer in Italy, and as an Interactive Designer at the Banff Centre.

Mihai Wilson has travelled extensively, picking up inspiration from around the world. He worked as an Animator and Designer for Adbusters Magazine from 2002-2004, developing provocative animations that have had worldwide exposure. In 2004, he co-founded Biro Creative. He has created animations and interactive works for organization such as The United Nations Foundation, Greenpeace and The World Wildlife Fund.

WeWereMonkeys began in 2007 when Mihai and Davide created an insane stream of consciousness stop-motion animation for Malajube's Le Crab, which was nominated for the 2007 MTV People's Choice Video Award. They successfully followed this with the production of a second video for Malajube's Ton Plat Favori, which was featured in the 2008 Independent Music Video Festival. In 2009, WWM's video for Land of Talk's It's Okay was featured in Stash 63 and was chosen as one of The 5 Best Videos of 2009 by TIME Magazine.


(WeWereMonkeys Directors Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson in their New York studio 2009)

TF: How did you begin this particular project- were you approached by Land of Talk with this idea, or is it something you came up with collectively?

WWM: WeWereMonkeys was asked to write a treatment for Land of Talk through Toronto-based production company, The Field. WWM's Producer, Marcella Moser, came up with the idea of Queen Antiope, and then together we developed and wrote the treatment. The video is about Queen Antiope, the last warrior of the legendary Amazon tribe.



TF: Do you typically storyboard your projects out?

WWM: We definitely storyboard, but we're spontaneous and don't like locked storyboards. While producing "It's Okay" we needed a solid plan and an organized shot list because of limited time each day with the horse and rider.



TF: What camera did you shoot with? Knowing that everything would be in slow motion, were there any special considerations or challenges with each shot?

WWM: To fit with the dark mood of the song we wanted to capture the live footage in slow motion. We shot the entire video with a RED at 100fps 2K 16:9 using Nikon lenses. From the open door of a speeding minivan, we shot the horse and rider galloping along side of an airstrip. Davide flew in an ultra-light to capture the aerial shot. To keep the lighting consistent, we shot the horse and rider at 6am every day. The main challenge was avoiding hazy shots due to seasonal forest fires.


(Director Davide Di Saro filming actress Ines Stone and Desi from an ultra-light with pilot Randy Rauck from Raven Aviation)

TF: What software do you use for the compositing and effects? Any 3rd party plugins used for the particle and hair effects?

WWM: We used After Effects for compositing and Cinema 4D to create the animated hair. Plugins used were RE:VisionFX Twixtor, Red Giant Knoll Light Factory, Trapcode Particular and Polygon Studio Light Wrap.



TF: How were the background and environmental elements created?

WWM: The background was matte painted in Photoshop, and the anti-gravity debris was animated by hand in After Effects.



TF: It looks like the main character is the only live footage, with most of the background/ textural elements all being shot or created separately. How did this affect how everything was brought together?

WWM: We shot, edited and rotoscoped the live footage first, and then built the environment around the horse and rider.



TF: You seem to have a great deal of variety in style from your demo reel. Is this due to each member of your team having a design niche of sorts, or based on the needs of each project?

WWM: Variety is key to WWM's work. We love experimenting with multiple mediums; it leads us to new ideas and unique visual outcomes. We are very hands-on; from creative direction, set construction, costume design, photography, illustration, rendering and VFX, we do it all.



(Left: Directors Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson on location with DP, Dominic Schaefer Right: Mihai Wilson and Davide Di Saro getting actress Ines Stone ready for the shoot)

TF: Any current or on-the-horizon projects you're working on?

WWM: WWM is currently working on a music video for Coheed and Cambria.

.

Labels: Film Short, Interview, Music Video

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

Besides the awesomeness of the song and that they've done a great job looking like The Beatles, I'm impressed with how well they were able to recreate the look of early 60's television.



Via Marc Pelletier. Thanks Marc!

Labels: Music Video

Fun with green screen. Is that Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend? Yes, I think it is. Fun song and video. Not the best keying job. One of the guys keeps losing an ankle. Still, I like the studio shots a lot.

Labels: Music Video

Fabulous song and fun video, directed by Jan Urbanovski. Stop motion, tracking, miniatures, Trapcode Particular, and all around quirkiness. I love it!

Labels: Music Video

Yes, I realize it's Thursday but I don't think I'll be updating the site tomorrow!

I LOVE this song and LOVE Kaiser Chiefs. I saw them at Lollapalooza 09 and I was blown away. Best show by far and I was up close. They had so much energy in 90° heat and rain. I had never seen the video for Ruby until today. They just don't play good music videos here and I have cheap cable, so all I ever see is Beyonce and Lady Gaga.

Mathematic partnered with a company called Stink UK and Stylewar of Sweden to create this amazing piece of art for Kaiser Chiefs. It was shot on greenscreen and a miniature city builds around the band. It's a masterpiece for sure!

Labels: Music Video

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

The BossHoss- Monkey Business by Alexandre Jasionowski, animated in After Effects.

The BossHoss – Monkey Business from Alexandre Jasionowski on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, Adobe, Music Video

Happy Chanukah!

Labels: 2D, Humor, Music Video

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

Pomplamoose covers the Earth, Wind & Fire song, September. All of their videos have a similar feel with interesting editing in little windows. Lots of fun.

Labels: Music Video

This short piece is a collaboration between the Decemberists and four filmmakers, Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria,

Labels: Film Short, Music Video

They Might Be Giants teaches you all about the elements with a fun animation, directed by Matt Eller & Bill Morrison of Feel Good Anyway. Eighth grade science was never this much fun.



How Many Planets was done by Colourmovie... how cute is this?! Genius.

Labels: 2D, Music Video

Robbie Williams, my guilty pleasure. Not a lot of vfx, but man, this video cracks me up. Singing cabbages? Nice pull through the rabbit hole in the beginning. Is this on the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack? Parts of the video have that feel. I do like the song. I declare this will be a hit!

Labels: Music Video

This one is best watched full screen. Lots of sci-fi effects and laser beams. Woo hoo! It's a lot of fun and the compositor did an amazing job.... and I dig The Bravery.

I hate that AOL makes you watch a full commercial before the video. Seriously annoying. I'd link somewhere else but AOL has the premiere up today. Boo hoo.

Labels: Music Video

Cool music video featuring Trapcode Form, depth of field.

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

Frank Jonen sent me this video. It sure does look like some Red Giant plug-ins were used, like Knoll Light Factory, along with Trapcode Particular and Form about 2:30 in. Does anyone know who produced the video? I'd love to get some confirmation on the plug-ins they used. This is a very pretty video. It is in HD, so double click the YouTube link to watch in all it's glory.

This song was in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 and this is the entry for Iceland. Wow, all I've heard previously from Iceland is Sigur Ros and Bjork.

Labels: Music Video

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

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

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

Making of Video:



Directed/created by the crew at Tiny Inventions.

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

Shadow Puppet Theatre! This is really amazing work for the band Little Dragon's song Twice. Directed by Johannes Nyholm, who has an upcoming film called Dreams from the Woods. This music video is a trailer or preview for the film. Thanks Sum for the link!

Labels: Music Video

Really cool effects. She's running inside a zoetrope, of course, I probably just ruined the illusion for you. You just have to see it. I hope the annoying ads don't drive you crazy.

Labels: Music Video

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Experimental, Music Video

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

Really nice editing and cinematography. I love the simplicity of the split screen. Watch a better quality video here.

Labels: Music Video

We like to spread our influence in all sorts of places! We're sponsoring a segment on The Good Luck where I'll give Sum, the producer, a couple of links to great new motion graphics on the web. This month the Toolfarm segment is featuring Jib-Jab's awesome Barack Obama video. The show looks slick! It's new, fresh, fun.

The Good Look is a showcase of music, art, video and fashion. Part 1 of the Julune edition can be found here, where Toolfarm has another video pick (Marco Brambilia's Ascension).

Labels: Music Video, Podcast

Yes, the song title sounds like a country song, but it's U2, who always has great videos. This video, no exception, is written and directed by David OReilly and designed by Jon Klassen. David OReilly also did the MIA visuals. I love MIA.

Labels: Music Video

Sometimes simplicity makes the best videos. No visual effects, no 3D renders, just lots and lots of wipes and clever timing. Genius.



Via @aetuts on Twitter

Labels: Music Video

Hibi no neiro means 'everyday sounds'. One of the perks of living in a Japanese household is that I always have a translator! This video is amazing. The timing of the webcams is impressive. Very creative work! Directors: Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura and Masayoshi Nakamura.



Here's another from the band that uses Stop Motion and animated headphone cables. I am very intrigued by the originality in their videos.(

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

The whole thing takes place underwater and has gorgeous lighting.

Labels: Music Video

Claymation animals shot outdoors, directed by the award-winning Eric Power. This is a very cool video and all but is the stop motion overdone these days? What do you think?

Ranger 3 - Sense of Direction from Eric Power on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

I love the beginning of this video, before the song actually kicks in. Sexy ladies with rodent heads in dark and gothic scenery... what is not to love? (Well, the song... but we won't go there.) Directed by Kerry Bellessa.

Labels: Music Video

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

A Conversation with Sum: The Lone Wolf from Michele Yamazaki on Vimeo.

This is a video interview I put together with Sum who recently put out an incredible album with Belief, The Lone Wolf. I learned a lot during the process - you can get audio feedback in iChat even if both parties have headphones on and the speakers are low. This seems to be a bug with iChat. I now have ScreenFlow and for the next interview I will try that out.

Another problem with iChat is that it records only at a small size, hence the background. It did give me some room to put titles though, so it wasn't a huge problem.

I cut the video with Premiere Pro, finally solving my problem with export (more on that in another post, probably a tutorial on how to uninstall your Adobe CS4 apps!) I ran into another problem with Premiere Pro, and that was that if you export with QuickTime, the audio and video can experience sync problem... and let me tell you, I did! The plan was to export with Animation codec and use Sorenson Squeeze because it does such a great job of outputting a high quality video for iPod. Instead, I ended up reexporting through Adobe Media Encoder with the iPod high-quality settings. This video is meant for the web and iPods and no where else. I didn't intend to have a high quality for television or anything, so these settings were okay.

It's funny how a quick project can turn into such a crazy bug filled weekend. I think the interview turned out pretty well, considering the bad echo/feedback. I was able to minimize it in Adobe Soundbooth. Yeah, you should've heard the original, which could NOT be heard during recording. So annoying. Live and learn, right!

Okay, about The Lone Wolf. It is available at iTunes, The Orchard and all over the web and I highly recommend it. It's one of those albums that gets under your skin and you just want to listen to it over and over. I have many sample clips in the interview. I'm not a big fan of hip hop, but this is so different than mainstream hip hop. Check it out! Support independent artists!

Labels: Interview, Music Video

Note: Not Safe For Work (NSFW): Language, nudity, violence (of course, it's all animated and in Spanish!) This is some seriously cool animation. Pretty freakin' amazing work.

Video by Logan, who are most well-known for its work on the Apple iPod Silhouettes campaign. Art by The Date Farmers, aka Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez.



I love this quote: "Ingenious beats + more guest stars than 'Love Boat' + Martian booty dancers = the party album of the year" - SPIN Magazine

Here's the "Mocumentary Making of" video:



Extra bonus: MP3 download: Download Treasure Fingers Epicwave remix mp3 of N.A.S.A.'s "Gifted"

Labels: 3D, Music Video

I've been waiting for this video, and man, the poor kid in this video is probably scarred for life. Lots of cool scary monsters. Such a great song. Make sure you watch the animation at the end of the video. Lots of fun, trippy cell animation.

Labels: Music Video

I heard this song at the DJ booth at Lollapalooza a couple of years ago, before the iPhone and Shazam and I couldn't figure out the musician for the life of me! I loved the psychedelic-electronic sound. Since then, it has been my quest in life to find out the band. A lot of my friends think Pearl Jam is the greatest band ever, so they're no help on music questions like this. I couldn't even google it because I didn't know the title. I was just playing a Pharrell Mix (Sunny Fall Mix) and it was there, on my iPod all along. Shazam to the rescue! (I know, you probably knew the song all along!)

The band is Midnight Juggernauts, a Melbourne, Australia-based band, and now that I have that information, I can finally sleep at night. I need to check out their full catalog.

I checked out the video, directed by Krozm, and it has some crazy futuristic Tron thing going on in a small piece, making it worthy of a post. I love the prismatic shapes coming from the instrument. Krozm has also done vids for some of my other favorites: Cut Copy, Architecture in Helsinki, Van She.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video

On the side I run a music blog and I was contacted about the band Modernage. The music is fantastic, with sort of a Joy Division feel, but with much more warmth and melody. What really struck me, though, was the cool video. I had recently been complaining about how videos nowadays just seem like a way to market a band and there's a lack of art in a lot of music videos. The music video for the song Creatures uses stop motion with wired up stuffed toys. What is also great about Creatures is that the video was created by a band member. I talk with the multi-talented Garcia Freundt of Modernage, musician and visual effects artist.

TF: You did an amazing stop motion video for your band Modernage for the song Creatures. Do you have a background in photography and video?

GF: I've been working on tv and film for about 12 years. I've never been into photography, just took a couple of classes in college, but I'm thinking of buying a still camera but mainly to work more on stop motion.

TF: Have you done much stop motion work? This looks like a huge undertaking.

GF: This is my second project with stop motion. I've always liked stop motion because it is a unique medium. I fell in love with the textures of the environment and the not-so-perfect movements. My opportunity to explore this medium for the first time was last year, when I was asked to develop some Halloween IDs for a TV cable network. I instantly knew that it would be a great opportunity to create a bizarre world... the short length of the pieces - 10 to 12 seconds - was perfect for a first timer using this technique.

Another reason I like stop motion is the fact that you don't have to work with a lot of people. It's kinda like sculpting and painting, it's very different that normal filmmaking. Roberto Vasconcelos, a great DP I love to work with, worked with me on all the shots with the yellow background, but that's the only person I had to work with.

TF: One shot in the beginning that grabbed me was the change of focus from the rocker to the marble. There's a lot narrow depth of field shifts thought the video, actually. Was that type of effect something you pulled off in camera or in post?

GF: That change of focus was done just with the camera. I was using an HVX200. For the stop motion, I just used the feature in which the camera takes only 2 frames each time you press the record button. In that rack focus I was rolling at 24fpsand with one hand out of the frame I was moving the rocking chair and with the other one I was turning the focus wheel. In general, I've always loved a narrow depth of field and using mainly close-ups to tell stories, and it's easier to get a narrow depth of field when using tight close ups.. so it just works for me.

TF:I'm guessing you took large images and did your pans and zooms in a program like After Effects. Can you talk a bit about your post production process?

GF: Almost all the pans and zooms were done with the camera rolling at 24fps. I tried to stay away from moving the puppets while doing camera moves...maybe for the next project.

TF: What type of plug-ins do you like to use? For the film effect for example, did you use a plugin on that or use some other method to achieve the old film look?

GF: For the film look I just put a vignette (to give it a more fairy tale look) and just added some grain to reduce the sharpness of the video.

MY: Nice particles too!It looks like you shot a portion of it over greenscreen too. You really have a lot of different techniques in a single video!

GF: The only 3 sequences with post effects where done with Motion; the first one is the ball going up and turning into a "planet". The second was the pink puppet going up to the planet (the puppet was on a green screen). The last one was a composite the grey puppet looking at the pink one who is in the planet. The star field is a Motion particle.

TF: I love Motion particles. They're so easy to use and so fast. I'll admit, I've only done stop motion work once and it was in college. It didn't turn out too well. I know stop motion can be tedious work... everything must be so precise. Do you have any methods that you use to time things out?

GF: It really didn't take me a lot of time to do the filming, maybe 20 to 25 hours. The post didn't take me that much either, just working on the three composites I described earlier. With stop motion you don't do much editing, because you don't do any coverage - its very time consuming; you just plan every scene and know in you head how it's going to cut. However, the pre-production part was the longest one but to me the most fun - it took me 5 months, working whenever I had a chance; this involved designing and sewing the puppets and building and painting the set. I guess I didn't want it to end because I love doing stuff with my hands.

TF: So, the dolls... did you put wires inside to get them to pose or did you have another technique?

Yes, I used wires. Now I'm actually learning how to make proper dolls with armatures. The dolls I made were very rudimentary, and I had a lot of problems making them stand right or to have controlled movements...it was a bit of a nightmare, but a learning experience.

TF: How long did it take to make the video? Did you learn any good tricks?

GF: Over a period of seven months, working on it whenever I felt like it. If I had worked on it not taking breaks, maybe 20 days for pre-pro, 6 days for filming and 5 days for post. I started working on it long before the song was recorded. For me, like everything I do, it is just a stepping stone: don't make the same mistakes and build on the good things. I learn by doing.

TF: The opening scene reminds me of something by The Brothers Quay? Do you have any influences in your work? That moving potato is very creepy! The "eyes" look like tentacles.

GF: Yes, among my favorites are the Quay Brothers, Henry Selick and the works of czech animators like Jirí Trnka and Jan Svankmajer. I included the potato cause I always like the "eyes" that grow on them. It gives the potato character...

TF: What do you do in the band?

GF: Keyboards, guitars...and the videos.

TF: When you do a video like this for your band, does everyone have input or do you just do what you envision?

GF: I enjoy doing videos for Modernage mainly because I love the music. I love Mario's lyrics because he has a great sense of storytelling. When I heard the track I felt that it would be good for stop motion. I do most of my creative thinking in bed, right before going to sleep, when my mind is in that weird half-sleep state. I developed the main story line in my head and on the next band rehearsal I showed Mario, the singer, the IDs I had done using this technique, to see his reaction and propose to do a stop motion video for "Creatures", since he was the one who wrote the song. After I showed him the IDs, before I proposed anything, he said: "that's exactly what we should do with Creatures!".. and with that I started working on it.

TF: Have you done other videos as well?

Creatures" is the fourth video I've done for Modernage. I've also done one for a band called "Santos Renuentes" and another one for "Union Cell".

The other 3 Modernage videos are here if you wanna take a look:

• 7/9/12 video for Modernage's 7/9/12 from the EP Sirhan Sirhan.
• Bella - The second video-single off of Modernage's debut EP Receiver.
• Four Eleven - The first hit video off of Modernage's 'Receiver' EP.

TF: Thanks so much for the interview. Best of luck with your music and music video careers! I really love your video work. You have a lot of variety in your style and you're so talented in both fields.

GF: Thanks again!

Labels: Interview, Music Video, Stop Motion

Directed by Alexandre Moors and Jessica Brillhart. Here are some excerpts of an interview the directors did for Flavorwire.

Flavorwire: Tell us about the concept behind the video. It has some echoes of Sin City/The Spirit - was that intentional?

Alexandre Moors: Kind of. The label definitely referred to it at the beginning. They liked the black-and-white urban animated style that would fit within the Crystal Method album aesthetic. But, from the beginning, we aimed at taking it somewhere fresh and unique.

Flavorwire: What was the process involved in creating the animated world?

AM: The video came out of the UVPHACTORY studio, and that's kind of what we do there, mixing live-action, 2D animation, and 3D elements - merging all these different components into one world. The trick is to make it seamless. In that way, I particularly appreciate how the live-action (Matisyahu) works within the graphics. He really blends it together and creates this iconic presence.

Jessica Brillhart: Yeah, it was a definitely collaborative effort. Alex and I came up with the groundwork, and then our team of 2D/3D animators and designers took it from there, with us pointing annoyingly at their screens, spewing whatever we thought worked or didn't. I suppose that's an obvious part of the process.

The Crystal Method - Drown In The Now from IgnitionVM on Vimeo.

The Crystal Method's new video, Drown In The Now (featuring Matisyahu) from the May 2009 release, Divided By Night.

Labels: Interview, Music Video

A bit reminiscent of the IKEA scene in Trainspotting, this video has some great tracking and just looks really slick. Directed by Howard Greenhalgh. I saw them in 1998 or so in Chicago and they opened for some band. I really can't remember the headliner. We left about 3 songs in, as I came to see Placebo.

Placebo - For What It's Worth from Placebo on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video

Besides being a fantastically catchy tune, this has some fun 80's style motion graphics which seem like something the Go-Go's might have in a music video. I love the color scheme and the newsprint type dots are great over the green screen footage. This video moves!

Labels: Music Video

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

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

I missed Amadou and Mariam at last year's Lollapalooza, too bad for me. They're blind singers living in France

This is the directors' cut of the animated music video for Amadou and Mariam's 'Masiteladi' featuring M, directed by Aurélia Vernhes, Clement Bolla, and Laurent Gillot. It's a very clever and interesting video. I love the little stick figure man.


Amadou et Mariam Feat. M - Masitéladi (directors' cut) from laurent Gillot on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video

A very cool artsy stop motion music video for the band In Case of Fire. Director Jesse Ewles posted the comment "An interesting fact about 'Enemies' (and the rest of my videos) we took great care to use reclaimed or recycled materials for the props and costumes in order to keep the carbon footprint of the project as low as possible. Also the digital animations that make up the video were assembled on computers powered by wind energy."


In Case Of Fire 'Enemies' OFFICIAL VIDEO from RadarMusicVideos on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

This one has popped up over and over on Twitter yesterday. All effects were done in-camera.



I found the Making of video even more entertaining than the actual music video. Here it is.

Labels: Documentary, Music Video

Somehow I missed this one when it was first uploaded to Vimeo, but its making the rounds on Twitter today. Wow, is it gorgeous. First off, you couldn't ask for a better soundtrack. M83 is one of my favorite electronic artists (I sure hope I see M83 at Lollapalooza this summer!) Second, the visuals work so well with the music. The floating, lushness is captured fully with what looks suspiciously like Trapcode Form.

Directed by David Altobelli
Motion Design by Dan Norton
Additional VFX by Matt Divito


M83 - We Own the Sky from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video

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

Royksopp makes awesome videos... or rather, whoever they hire to make the videos makes awesome videos for them! Happy Up Here was directed by Reuben Sutherland.

This is a treat for the eyes with lots of 3D and organic camera moves, masterful compositing with 3D and live action, not to mention some crazy motion tracking. I love the giant video game look of the space invaders, although I'm suddenly a little dizzy! The song is an earworm too, and in a good way!


Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Labels: Music Video

It's not too often I come across Iranian hip hop. This video was posted to our forum, asking how they achieved the cartoon look. They could have appled Red Giant ToonIt, but it looks like Magic Bullet Looks to me. I love the bright colors and the stuttery cutting. The lightning effect in the hot tub scene is pretty cheesy though.

I will admit my ignorance of Persian culture, except that I've read all of the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi (Perseopolis was my favorite, and her best known). One thing that struck me as odd is the man in drag at the end of this video in the cab and using a putter as a 9 iron. Is it supposed to be funny or couldn't they have a real woman in the video? I am curious, since I really have no idea what Sasy is rapping about.

Labels: Music Video

Could you make a video on less than a hundred bucks? This site, $99 Music Videos site is an interesting concept and some of the videos are excellent. I especially liked the Making of "Modern Day Saint" Music Video

Labels: Music Video

N.A.S.A. "Money" feat. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip from Paul Griswold.

At MGFest09 Chicago, Michele Yamazaki of Toolfarm sat in on Paul Griswold's case study of the music video for the group N.A.S.A. called Money. The video used the artwork of Shepherd Fairey, who is probably best known for his Obama Hope poster, probably the most recognizeable image of the last presidential campaign. The Money video combines Fairey's posters with 2D and 3D animation. It's so visually striking and the creative use of 3D space with the 2D elements is incredibly synchronized. Paul talks to Michele in depth about the video.

Michele Yamazaki: Hi Paul. How did you get involved with N.A.S.A.'s 'Money' music video and with musicians David Byrne and Chuck D and graphic artist Shepherd Fairey?

Paul Griswold: Syd Garon and I have known each other since film school back in the late 80's / early 90's. He had directed an animated hip-hop film called Wave Twisters a few years ago that I had done some animation work on. Squeak E. Clean (aka Sam Speigel) was a huge fan of Wave Twisters and asked Syd to direct all of the N.A.S.A. videos. He ended up directing several of them, while creative directing others. Syd came to me to do some animation on the video "Way Down" and it worked really well. When "Money" came around he told me Shepard Fairey was on board for the artwork and asked if I'd be interested in co-directing with him.


Your co-director, Syd Garon, lives in LA, if I remember correctly. How did you two collaborate so well over so many miles? Can you talk a bit about the software you use to transfer files back and forth?

We use Drop Box for transferring files. Back when I worked on Wave Twisters everything was done by FTP and it was a real pain. Drop Box really makes it easy for us to collaborate over long distances. I use it with a lot of the ad agencies I work with since I don't have to go through the trouble of setting up a password protected FTP site or pay someone to develop a private client section on my web site. Basically it's just a folder on your computer that is "magically" connected to another person running Drop Box. When you put a file in the folder it immediately shows up on the computer of the person you share the Drop Box with. And since each of my clients gets their own folder, none of them can access any files but their own, yet I have access to all of them.

Drop Box sounds really useful. I think I will look into that for myself. Thanks! The video is loosely based on the Bible verse "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil"? How did you work that in with the posters?

Shepard's work is very focused on both the good and evil uses of money, so it was a perfect fit for the video. The hardest part was creating a narrative without injecting too much of our own work. The video was supposed to be a Shepard Fairey video, not a "Syd and Paul make a Shepard Fairey look-a-like" video. We spent a lot of time going through all of his work picking out elements that would convey the overall theme and fit together in a storyline.

Well we had a great song, an enthusiastic music producer who had his own ideas and then Shepard's work to inspire us. It didn't take much for us to go down a road where we were coming up with ideas that would have required us to make totally original Syd & Paul artwork. It would have completely destroyed the concept of bringing Shepard's work to life had we continued down that road.


L to R: Shepard Fairey, Syd Garon, Sam Speigel, Paul Griswold from the Flux Film Festival in LA

Sure. When you spoke at MGFest Chicago about the case study of the Money video, you mentioned that one of the problems that you encountered was that Shepherd Fairey's iconic poster artwork was created vertically and video is, of course, a horizontal format. Can you talk a bit about how you overcame that issue?

That was quite a problem. Most of his designs were in a poster or book format, not the horizontal aspect ratio of HDTV. Since Shepard spends a ton of time composing his work to convey a very specific message, the last thing we wanted to do was destroy his composition. We really worked hard and Syd consulted with Shepard to make sure he didn't feel we did anything to alter the main theme of the artwork.

What were some of the other challenges you encountered while working with artwork that is meant to be posters?

Well, Shepard never designed these pieces of art to be animated, so none of the files were built with animation in mind. Many times we would get an Adobe Illustrator file and could see where the artwork was very much drawn as he was inspired. So there would be a mess of strokes going everywhere. That's fine when you're making a print, but not so great when you want to animate it.

I've encountered the same stray points with client work. I can imagine it would be a thousand times worse with such intricate posters. Can you talk a bit about your technique for bring flat, still artwork to life? You used both 2D and 3D animation.

Syd works in After Effects and he assembled the finished video. I work in Softimage XSI and Eyeon Fusion. We would discuss each piece of artwork and then decide if it needed a 3D move or could be done in 2D. If the shot needed to be 3D, then it meant possibly trying to recreate Shepard's artwork from scratch in a 3D environment. All of the 3D work had to fit the style of the artwork as well, so I had to do quite a few test renders for each piece to make sure the shading and look was correct.

What all does your company Fusion Digital Productions do?

Fusion Digital Productions is a small 3D animation, visual effects and compositing shop. We do everything from 3D product illustrations to effects for feature films. Being in the midwest means we're very cost competitive, but it also means we're not in the Los Angeles mix.

So, you're in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It must be difficult to get high profile work like living and working outside of LA, NY and other large cities.

Absolutely. There's no doubt that living in LA makes a huge difference in day-to-day sales opportunities. However, I also believe talent gets noticed and the web makes all the difference in the world these days. So if you're an artist living in the midwest I don't think you have to worry as much about where you live as you would have a few years ago.

I saw your Tweet that you've got another project in the pipeline with Shepherd Fairey. Is it top secret or can you give us a few details?

Syd Garon is directing it and I'm on board as animation director. It's for the World Wildlife Federation and it's called Earth Hour. We just wrapped up production and it should be airing soon. Shepard worked as creative director for all the artwork for the project and the agency is Leo Burnett. It's very different than the Money video, but still very much is a Shepard Fairey animation.

Sounds very cool. I look forward to seeing it. You do amazing work and I know that people were blown away by the N.A.S.A. video at the CMGF Screening. I know you're really busy, and I want to thank you for your time.

Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview. The project was a blast to work on and I really owe it all to Syd Garon. He's an incredibly talented director and animator as well as a great friend.

More on N.A.S.A.

N.A.S.A. behind the scenes from Paul Griswold on Vimeo.

Labels: Interview, Music Video

Nice layering; use of Magic Bullet, perhaps?

Labels: 2D, Film Short, Music Video

A couple of my Facebook friends who don't know each other shared this video and it's a cool piece of stop motion directed by Israeli artists Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan.

Labels: Music Video, Stop Motion

elrobles just Twittered this video and I don't think I've ever put it up at Toolfarm. I know its not that old of a video, but it has been around for a couple of years. It was directed by Dom & Nic (Nick Goffey and Dominic Hawley). They've done a lot of videos for the Chemical Brothers and Supergrass, and even one for Smashing Pumpkins (Ava Adore). Good stuff.


Chemical brothers - the salmon dance from riko fx on Vimeo.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video

I met Paul Griswold today at MGFest and he discussed his latest project, Money, by the super group NASA. The artwork was all created by renown artist Shepherd Fairey, who is best known for his Obama Hope poster. He showed some behind-the-scenes screenshots of the work. We exchanged cards and I'm going to interview him in the near future about the video. I just LOVE it.

Money (feat. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip)


N.A.S.A. "Money" feat. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip from Paul Griswold on Vimeo.

Video directed by Syd Garon & Paul Griswold, featuring the artwork of Shepard Fairey.



"Money" will be released digitally 12/16/08 and will be bundled with this video and a remix by The Count Of Monte Cristal (aka Herve).



N.A.S.A.'s debut album "The Spirit Of Apollo" hits the shelves 2/17/09 on ANTI-.

Labels: Music Video

David Torno sent me this one. The tracking on this one is insane! I can't imagine how much time and energy went into this video. It's very funny.

Wanted to share another fun music video I worked on last December, it has been released on youtube. A very comical take on the Golden Girls opening title sequence. Isaac Rentz directed, I did all of the visual effects face replacements and elements, Steve Buchanan produced. Hope you enjoy it, it was a fun piece to work on.

High quality

Labels: Music Video

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

"You Might Think", directed by Alex Weil. won Video of the Year at the very first MTV Video Music Awards. At the time, it was one of the first videos to use computer graphics and was considered to be pretty freakin' groundbreaking at the time. I remember when this came out. It was on heavy rotation on MTV when I was 11.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video

This video keeps popping up all over the blogosphere this month. The music video is completely over the top 80s style effects and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. A lot of music videos just don't have the eye candy they used to have. For a while, it seemed like all videos had to have girls with strange makeup from outerspace or another dimension (see Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles and Photograph by Def Leppard).

The video is filled with gratuitous effects and a giant crocodile. This is sort of a Princess Bride meets Willow meets my old boyfriend's hairstyle. Haha. Very entertaining stuff here, folks.

Here's what the LA Times had to say about the video and Peter Kim's opinion on Create Digital Motion.

Labels: Music Video

A little low-budget music video cheese for the holidays... an overload of greenscreen and wacky effects. Genius.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video

This captivating video won the 2002 MTV Europe Award for best music video and the song was also was used in the Geico caveman commercials. An awesome video which is just infographics the whole way through, was directed by Ludovic Houplan & Herve de Crecy of the French motion studio H5.

And if you're wondering, Royksopp is from Norway.


Remind Me from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video