tween

Sentimental Journey, music video directed by Nagi Noda

DAVEY JONES’ LOCKER 10:37 mins, created by Presstube

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Video Boy the work of Director/Designer Rollo Wenlock

Semi-Permanent logo bump from Charlie Company

Jonathan Cannon: New Work
Great new work on the site of Jonathan Cannon. Don’t miss his nice collection of boards in the "still" section and his experimental/grafitti/art work in "overtime."

The Shining, Revisited
See what some clever editing, a cheerful voiceover and Peter Gabriel can do for Kubrick’s classic, The Shining. (If you’ve never seen the movie, you won’t understand just how hilarious this thing is.)

Helios Design: Video Server is Up!
All right! The guys at Helios have a new video server that’ll they use to host their motion work. First up is the series of ads they whipped up for the Dodge Charger. Stay tuned for more…

Saimon Chow is Back
Maybe it was a bad move to take Saimon Chow off of the Cream O’ the Crop. Maybe I wasn’t thinking straight.

Well Simon’s back on, thanks to the friendly urging of Chris Kelley (who has some pretty nice design work of his own on his site).

Wow, I’ve been hit with a deluge of great emails this week. I’ll do my best to post things quickly, but please understand that I can’t post everything.

All right, on with the show…

VFXY
Lev Kolobov sent me a link to the news portion of VFXY. The site is an attractively formatted presentation of vfx and animation news from several leading sources.

Nicely done, Lev!

Toxic: Oslo Gay Festival
Here’s a clever spot from Toxic Design Studio for the Oslo Gay Festival (also featured in Stash #12). Thanks for the link, Mohd.

Hornet: Honda Civic
Artificially organic, Miro-esque creatures bounce and bob about in this beautifully surreal spot from Hornet for the new Honda Civic. My only crit of this piece (and really I have no right making crits), is that I feel like some golden opportunities for clever transitions were passed up. We instead get simple cuts from scene to scene. But what interesting scenes they are…

Keyframe: Portuguese Motion Graphcis Blog
I don’t understand a word of it, but I think it’s bad ass that Alexandre Sianto Martins created a Portuguese motion graphics blog called "Keyframe." I dig the name, of course, for what good is a tween without keyframes?

Two from Palazzo
Our very own Chris Palazzo, who’s currently camped out in a secret location working on a top secret project about secret stuff, sent word about a couple great spots, one of which I’ve seen before (though I can’t remember where), and another one that was brand new to me.

The first spot is a cleverly written and brilliantly executed spot for Hummer’s H3 from Biscuit Filmworks, Modernista! and Company 3. Let’s hear it for narrative, baby.

The second spot is a frenetic, compositing and animation tour de force from RSA Films, The Mill and TBWA promoting the Sony PSP. (Now that I think about it, I suppose this spot has a kind of twisted narrative path, too…) For a little more information, visit The Mill’s homepage .

National: New Work
National Television has some nice new work up on their site for ESPN, MTV2 and G4. (I really like that G4 spot for… uh… several reasons.)

Thanks for the tip, Paul.

some serious cash and exposure here guys… you only have 4 days, start uploading!
+ Rockstar Games Upload 4

Naomi Nishimura has done some really fresh boards for broadcast and commercials!

totally awesome 3d animation and composting by jacob slutsky! i love your last name too, dude … you are just one tricky little bastard aren’t ya…

Wow, it’s been a crazy week for me. I’ve got my hands full at home and at work, but I’m still carving out a little time this weekend to make a few announcements.

Oh by the way, I’m getting so much email (and hence so much spam) on my regular email account that I’ve decided to set up a dedicated account for Tween: tween@justincone.com. Use it for submissions, questions, comments, etc.

yU + co: Astral Media
I’m always impressed when a studio does something innovative with promos comprised primarily of supplied footage. Take, for example, yU + co’s recent promo for Canada’s Astral Media, in which frames from current movies are broken apart into thousands of instances of an abstract word, like "joy" or "wonder." We then zoom through these constellations of typography and come out the other side, where a new frame is assembled.

It’s a difficult effect to describe (I’m not even sure why I tried), but yU + co pulled it off beautifully.

Framestore CFC: Green Design "Hydrogen"
Despite the narrator’s efforts to lull the viewer to sleep with his cottony voice, this spot from Framestore CFC touting the benefits of a hydrogen economy is still incredibly engaging.

Produced by Mac Mackenzie of Coast films (who apparently do not have a website that Google or I can find), "Hydrogen" is described by Framestore CFC as a "50 second animated documentary." I don’t know about the word "documentary" here; I prefer "visual essay" or even "thoughtful quickie," but the spot certainly stands up to repeat viewing (which is more than I can say for most documentaries, regardless of their length).

Artificial Army: Coheed and Cambria "The Suffering"
Centaurs. Griffins. Hot, half-naked mermaids bathing in celestial light. The only movie with more mythical creatures than Artificial Army’s new music video for Coheed and Cambria is probably the classic 1981 film Clash of the Titans.

So what’s the story behind Coheed and Cambria? A friend of mine at work was talking about them the other day, and from his description Coheed and Cambria sound a little wacky, maybe like Faith No More, but not quite as crazy as Mr. Bungle. Hmm… methinks I’ll go in search of some mp3s…

New Stuff: Nth Degree, Motherland and Stateless Films
Check out Nth Degree. I especially like their hypnotic History Channel spot, "Decoding the Past."

Motherland has some impressive new work up.

And definitely don’t miss the kick-ass animated stylings of Stateless Films (a.k.a. Ben Hibon). I love the way he effortlessly flows between 2D and 3D in all his work. Damn fine stuff.

(Thanks for the tips on the last two, Jon.)

M5: MK12, The Designer’s Republic, Lobo, Rex & Tenant McKay and Caviar

That’s right: all five (or six, depending on how you like to count) of those studios are featured on the M5 site from Coca Cola. Only three videos are currently available, and some of them (all of them?) can be found elsewhere on the wonderful interw3b, but nowhere will you find such pretty housing. The MK12 and Caviar vids also have accompanying behind the scenes spots. Very nice.

(My apologies to Degaull Vang, who told me about this site over a week ago.)

Pure NY
So I can’t decide whether or not to put Pure NY in the Cream O’ the Crop. They definitely have some nice work… but, well… I just don’t know.

Maybe with a couple free drinks from their in-house bar, I could think more clearly. (Click "Our Space" to see what I’m talking about.)

Hypothermik and Visual Art
A few days ago, I posted a 3D animated spot from a studio called Hypothermik. I said I would learn more about them, and thanks to a friendly email, I have!

So here’s the scoop: Hypothermik is a new film production studio founded and owned by Visual Art, a design and vfx company in Stockholm. Hypothermik’s website is coming soon, and I promise to post a link when I get one.

In the meantime, check out the impressive range of work at Visual Art’s site. I really dig this spot for Expekt.com. Oh, and don’t miss their design and 3D reels.

Check out this video essay on trusted computing from Lutz Vogel & Benjamin Stephan.

I like the way this piece doesn’t club you over the head with a radical, red-faced rant. Instead, the main rhetorical device employed is one of instruction. The questions asked are obviously pointed, urging us to doubt the future of trusted computing, but, like the smooth animation and clever transitions, the arguments are handled tastefully. We are led calmly to the water; it’s up to us whether we decide to drink or not.

I’m reminded of other visuals essays, such as The Knife Party’s "What Barry Says" and Green Towel’s "Liberal." Both spots are a little more politically charged than "Trusted Computing," but they share a similar aesthetic.

Kudos to Lutz and Benjamin. Great job, guys!

I don’t have time for long-winded commentary today, just lots of quick news items…

Buck: Nike Battlegrounds
Buck’s new spots for Nike have been making the rounds on the net for a few days, so there’s a good chance you’ve already seen these. They’re worth a second gander, though. Really fantastic stuff.

Hypothermik: Silja
Here’s a beautiful underwater 3D animation for Silja cruise lines from a studio I’ve never heard of called Hypothermik. I’m looking into them…

Submarine Channel
Here’s a new way to get your a/v fix: Submarine Channel. They produce and host all kinds of visual goodness from quirky animations to music videos.

I need more time to explore this site fully, but it looks pretty promising. (Ooh, I just found "Hotel" by Hoogerbrugge. Nice.)

Troika: Fox
Troika has whipped up a sexy smoove on-air rebranding package for Fox. It’s a little on the "safe" side, I think, which is funny considering that Fox is going for an image of rebellion and youth, but it’s flexible and stylish and I think it works quite well.

Sebastian Luer
I’m really digging the rotated text treatment in this piece from designer Sebastian Luer. I also like this interesting text treatment.

1st Avenue Machine: Alias
Start with botany, mix in a little nanotechnology and genetic engineering, add a dash of sci-fi daydreams and maybe you’d end up with something like the creatures in 1st Avenue Machine’s new music video for Alias.

It’s pretty fascinating stuff. I especially like the metallic pine cone creature/plant/thing with the rotating petals.

Here’s an interesting story from the New York Times about Disney’s transition away from traditional hand-drawn animation to full CG films.

It’s funny how technology turns things upside down. Disney went from being one of the most innovative movie studios in the world to being the most reactive, trying its best to keep up with the Jones (a.k.a. Pixar and Dreamworks).

Some interesting tidbits from the article:

“The Incredibles,” the 2004 film created by Pixar, brought in $630 million – nearly as much as Disney’s last eight animated movies.

. . .

“I loved ‘Shrek,’ ” Mr. Keane responded. But the characters, particularly Princess Fiona, looked plastic to him. “Every frame of that film was a bad drawing to me, personally,” he said.

. . .

And at the end of that month Mr. Stainton lobbed another grenade. He told more than 525 employees gathered at a town hall meeting that the studio would stop making hand-drawn movies for the foreseeable future. Those interested in computer-generated animation could sign up for a six-month "C.G. boot camp."

"What I was saying to them was, ‘You’ve got to embrace it or there isn’t going to be a place for you,’ " Mr. Stainton said.

. . .

“We need to show people that we’re back, that we are right up there doing cutting-edge stuff and stuff that is interesting and looks beautiful to anyone,” Mr. Stainton said. “Last year, we had people who came up and said, ‘You know, I didn’t realize that you guys were doing anything.’ Swear to God. People really thought we were out of business.”