tween

So today marked my first day of post-employment/pre-school life. It was incredibly busy. If I keep this pace up during my whole two-month stint before school starts, I’ll be thoroughly burned out before I ever step foot in a classroom.

I have a plan for the next few days. I’m going to make at least four posts as well as unveil a super-secret project that we’ve all been working on. It will be an exciting week, my friends. So very exciting.

Ted Gore: Tread
It is my great pleasure to present Tread, the portfolio site of Ted Gore. Mr. Gore’s reel shows off some diverse, polished work with excellent pacing. (I also love the Cake song he chose for musical accompaniment.)

Make sure to watch the excellent Diesel piece in the Motion section of the site.

Thanks to Mike Tello for the tip. And yes, I realize that spiritform and I both posted Tread. I didn’t realize it when I made the post, of course. I think Mr. Gore can deal with the double-shot of Tween love.

flipclips
Okay, flipclips are surprisingly cool. I know what you’re thinking. You just went to the site, and you’re like, "What? Dude, come on."

But seriously, they’re really neat. The company sent me a couple free booklets based on the first few seconds of my Creative Commons video, and I had a blast flipping through them over and over. They’re low-tech, tactile and remind me of being a kid. (I’m pretty sure my first animation project ever was a flipbook of a stick figure getting his head chopped off.)

Given the place of flipbooks in the ancestry of animation, these would make pretty clever promotional items, no?

All right, all right, moving on…

Vincent Scotti: Trailer Park Unicorn
An interesting film title deserves interesting credits, and I think Vincent Scotti’s opening sequence for "Trailer Park Unicorn" certainly delivers.

Although I have no idea what the movie is about, the title sequence’s enchanting imagery, velvety palettes and Sigur Ros-ish soundtrack win my attention. I’m not wild about the type used for the credits (both the typeface and the scale), but I could probably be convinced that it was a good design decision if the movie maintains a children’s story vibe.

specimen
Lastly, check out French studio specimen. Their strongest work is in their Commercials area, but be careful viewing these ads in the office. A few of them can be rather racy (by our prudish American standards). Don’t miss the Volvic series; the animation and compositing in those are beautifully done.

Ted Gore
First time hearing about this guy. Nice looking stuff in his reel… just the piece of Cake (tee-hee…) I needed for my birthday. A tasty combination of film, design, motion graphics, 3d animation, and illustration. Love the hand-held camera work. great use of space. Very inspiring.

Thanks Ventilate for the link.

News in from Transistor Studios. Excited to hear one of my all time favorite motion artist / designer in the world, Nando Costa, is joining forces with James Price and Siamon Chow (who’s looking for an animator by the way) in New York. I also read Anders Schroder will be directing the 2006 Ultimate Fighter graphics package for Spike TV. Can’t wait to check that out… remember last season?
+ view ufc_main.mov
+ view ufc_octagon.mov

A Dj/Designer friend of mine just sent this kick-ass simple little spot to me. Love the concept… check it out!

Thanks MRC!

Film and Visual Effects work by Independent Director, Toby Wilkins over at Case Sensitive Films.
Nice work man!

Thanks for the heads up, Brukas.

This is my last week with my current employer, and it’s been incredibly busy. Combine that with my trip to Savannah last week and there’s hardly been any time left for Tween, which is a real shame. There’s a bunch of good stuff in my inbox, but I can only post a few items now.

I guess as Tween grows (and it is growing pretty fast), we’re going to have to be more and more selective about what we post. In a way, that’s exciting. We’re pulling from a growing pool of resources, and that promises to bring more interesting and/or unusual work your way. But it’s also a little sad. I don’t like not posting news, but it’s the nature of this blog. We have to be selective.

Okay, enough of my neurotic rambling. On with the action…

HUE: Love Me Butch
I don’t know of many Malaysian studios, and I know of even fewer Malaysian emo bands, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to pass along word of HUE’s recently completed promo for Love Me Butch’s "Hollywood Holiday." (You may need to be patient with the download. If you have trouble viewing it, let me know, and I’ll talk to HUE about hosting the video here.)

The video stitches together some familiar mograph elements but with an organic flow that nicely complements the band’s angsty vibe. I also dig the moody, autumnal palette with its rich jewel-toned accents.

New England Job Opp
I’ve caught wind of a job/career opportunity with Boston-based creative agency Fort Franklin that sounds pretty interesting. Here’s the official write-up that I requested from them:

"New England based entertainment and marketing firm seeks motion and interactive design wunderkind. Great taste, style, organization and proficient knowledge of Shake, After Effects, Maya, Creative Suite, Flash, etc. Please contact Chris Jennings at 617-728-0037 or send digital portfolio to jennings9900@mac.com. EOE."

It sounds like they’re looking for a motivated individual with the talent and drive to get the agency’s motion graphics arm pumping so they can break out of a traditional agency model and do some interesting stuff. I don’t think knowing the specific apps above is crucial as long as you have comparable skills and can prove yourself with a strong portfolio.

If I wasn’t heading back to school, I wouldn’t be telling you about any of this, of course. I’d be applying myself.

Craig Hubbard: Reel

A couple weeks ago I was lurking on the mograph boards when I happened upon the the "rough draft" of Craig Hubbard’s reel. Well, he got it all polished up, and he’s built a clean site to house it and some other nice work. Take a look.

Renascent: Devil’s Drug and Mercedes
Pop over to the motion graphics area of Renascent for a couple new pieces in the Motion section: 1) the opening titles for "Devil’s Drug," a documentary about crystal meth, and 2) a stylish countdown sequence for Mercedes.

Yes, there’s more. Am I going to post it now? No. But I will soon. Stay tuned, my friends. Soon, I will be happily unemployed, drifting through a two-month haze of pre-school euphoria before classes begin in late March and all hell breaks loose.

Normal Natural Creative Director, Lance Sells updates Motherland with new work and a new reel!

Holy cow, am I behind! I had to work my ass off this past weekend to get a project done, and I’ve been as busy as ever the rest of this week. What’s more, I’m leaving for Savannah tomorrow morning to find a place to live this coming March. So here I am, trying to do the impossible: make a large post on Tween that catches us all up. I know some of you really don’t like these multi-posts. I apologize, but I see no other way.

Now, into the fog we go…

After Effects 7
Our man on the street, the inimitable Shaun Collings, pointed out to me very early Tuesday morning (2:36 am, to be exact) that After Effects 7 is now available for purchase. The "See it in action" piece on Adobe’s new features page is a pretty good introductory look at the app, including coverage of the overhauled graph editor and updated UI.

I took a gander at the PDF entitled "Why Flash users should consider After Effects." The only points that really focus on the direct relationship between Flash and AE have to do with Flash’s new support for alpha channels in video. When combined with AE, this obviously opens up some pretty interesting opportunities. AE can now pump out FLVs, too. I hope Adobe and Macromedia (which I guess are really the same thing now) put their heads together about ways that Flash and AE may form a tighter, more meaningful relationship in the future. This is a good start, though.

One thing I’m curious about: Who actually uses the canned effects and animation presets? These kinds of features were also a big selling point for Apple’s Motion, but I just don’t understand the appeal. Presets are the motion graphics equivalent of clip art, no? I know you can tweak them to suit specific needs, but… well… I don’t know. They always end up looking like something I’d see in an ad for a local car dealership.

7th Annual First Boards Awards: Deadline Friday
I feel like a bit of an asshole about this one. I got word about the 7th Annual First Boards Awards several days ago, but I’ve been too busy and self-absorbed to realize that the deadline is this Friday. So here it is, an almost-too-late-but-not-quite reminder to get your shit turned in. The Broadcast Design and Motion Graphics category is only a year old, which in my world means you’re odds are good for making a name for yourself.

Check the site for details. (And my apologies, Rae Ann.)

Transistor Studios: New Work
Transistor’s Studio’s James Price is in the midst of directing a large-scale campaign for VH1’s Celebreality. This first spot looks like it was as much fun to direct as it was to concept. I’ve been playing a lot of Paper Mario lately, and the fantastical setting the actors have been inserted into is strongly reminiscent of Petal Meadows. (Does anybody know what the hell I’m talking about, or have I so thoroughly immersed myself in this video game world that I can no longer communicate effectively with real people?)

Transistor also recently finished a CG-intensive open for LA Rush through MTV Europe. Check it out here. Word on the street is that Transistor will be pumping some more work in the coming months. I’m looking forward to it.

Mograph: Tronic Interview
The badasses at Mograph interviewed the badasses at Tronic and made a badass story. I’m a sucker for thoughtful designers, and Vivian and Jesse are about as thoughtful as they come. Definitely a good read.

Crap. I’m out of gas, people. I have more up my sleeve, but it’ll have to wait. A comfy bed and an early flight are calling me, and I must abide. More soon…

Hello all-

BDA has planned a series of cocktail events open to the entire broadcast design community (not just Promax/BDA members) over the next few weeks. The first one kicks off THIS Wednesday in NYC where we’ll be previewing (and giving away) a revolutionary new motion graphics software application. Sorry for the late notice but we’d love to see you all there!

Event dates:

New York
Wednesday, Jan. 18th 6:30 – 9pm
FuelRay
68 W 3rd St, West Village NYC

Followed by:

Miami
January 26th

Los Angeles
January 31st

Chicago
February 2nd

If interested in attending the New York event, please call or email asap to:

Linda
310-789-1553
Linda@promax.tv

Panasonic: Capture the Motion II
Last April, I raved about a beatiful abstract piece Lobo created for the Olympic-inspired "Capture the Motion" series of films sponsored by Panasonic. In preparation for the upcoming winter games, Panasonic has commissioned five more films for "Capture the Motion II." (Click the Short Films button in the lower right corner of the interface.)

My favorite piece by far is Hilton Tennant’s "The Little Battle" (40 mb QT or streaming Windows Media). All of the films are light-hearted and tinged with surreal elements, but with an animation style reminiscent of Psyop’s "Anthem," "The Little Battle" is visually the most interesting, I think. (Hilton, by the way, has recently signed with The Ebeling Group.)

Bran Dougherty-Johnson: Grow Design Work
Grow Design Work (a.k.a. Bran Doughtery-Johnson) has a bad ass reel. It’s actually kinda two reels in one, with a cross-section of his work undertaken at various top-notch studios followed by a collection of stuff he did with Brand New School.

Luminescene
Luminescene is a nice VFX news source that’s currently featuring interviews with Alastair Hearsum (Head of 3d-departament of Glassworks) and William Bartlett (Head of Inferno department of Framestore CFC). Put it on your radar.

More Reels Than You Can Shake a Stick At
We’ve added several more reels to Spiritform’s 2005 Reels Roundup (see post below for more info). My advice: bookmark the page. Next time you hit a wall, click a reel at random and wait for inspiration to come pouring into your eyeholes.

Happy New Year! (Bet your tired of still hearing that, huh?)

Last year was probably one of my favorites for countless reasons, but the one i’ll be reminiscing about today is the year of the most incredible motion graphics i’ve ever seen. And thanks to those risky-hip networks, zines, and sites like this, we are able to soak in all that inspiration until our pupils are pruny.

If you are not inspired, then you are atleast (in some way or another) stimulated by the constant flow of ideas, live-action living in vector worlds, mind-boggling sound design and editorial, a little Trapcode here and there. Whatever the case may be, are the results of several talented individuals working together or solo. Pushing their art and craft to the next level using various tools (made by other talented individuals), traditional and digital. Multi-tasking and rendering like there’s no tomorrow. All for the love (and expresso).

This is a collection of reels to celebrate those individuals and studios that brought motion graphics to the level it’s at today. One of reasons why we are working to bring you a new special little feature on Tween. Don’t ask, it’s a surprise… all I can say at this time is that we need your help gathering up those reels! I’m pretty sure there are quite a few out there I’ve missed. So, if you don’t see it here… leave a comment or email and we’ll be sure to add it to the list.

Thanks for your support!

And thanks newstoday for hosting some of these.