Gentleman Scholar

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Source: motionographer.com

Gentleman Scholar, a fairly new design firm based in Santa Monica, CA, is composed of filmmakers who focus on commercials, short films, and commercials. They have an interesting portfolio with a variety of styles. I found this example on motiongrapher.com. It's based on the Count on Sesame Street and visually is very stimulating. It plays off the lines and geometric shapes of numbers. It was interesting to see how many shapes evolve and change in the small space of time between numbers being counted down. Check out the Gentleman Scholar site for more examples of their work. Below is another interesting video they created for the American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Awareness campaign:

PESfilm

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This is one of the many awesome animations created by PESfilm. This artist uses regular everyday items and uses them in very innovative ways. Pik-up sticks become spaghetti, tennis balls become limes—you will start looking at things a little differently after watching these. They make me want to try to create a similar animation just for the fun of it :)

Notes on Biology

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Source: motionographer.com

This video brings back so many memories of sitting through boring lectures and daydreaming and doodling. It's a fun example of stop motion. I loved the monotone voice used by the teacher and when the teacher calls out the student. It reminded me of Ferris Bueller. The credits at the end of the video are also cleverly handled.

Royale

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Royale is a graphic design firm in L.A. who has a very impressive portfolio with clients such as MTV, Nike, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Toyota, Disney, Apple, FUEL TV, Pepsi, Jet Blue...... Check out their site. The video above is one they created just for the fun of it and sent out for Christmas. They also show some behind-the-scenes images of how the video was made, including the sketchbooks. The cartoon kind of reminds me of Wile E. Coyote. Enjoy!

Catch Me if You Can

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Title sequence: designed by Oliver Kuntzel and Florence Deygas, 2002

I love everything about this title sequence. The film is based on the true story of Frank Abagnale in time period of the sixties. It catches the color and the styles of that era perfectly. I found it interesting the the images of the people were created with hand-carved stamps and then animated on paper by hand. These images were then beautifully paired with computer-generated writing and backgrounds. The type is integrated into the background and is always grounded to the top and bottom of the frame. Also, the sequence never stands still. In reference to the title, there is constant motion with people moving and lines drawing. Finally, the soundtrack by John Williams is the cherry on top. It brings forth notions of movement, mystery, and sounds of the sixties.

For more info about the making of this sequence, follow this link: art of the title

Immersive Garden

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Source: 2011 Webby Awards Nominee

This is the website for Dilshan Arukatti, an art director based in Paris who specializes in interactive and motion designs. His website is quite beautiful to look at and within it, he has a demo reel of his work. I liked how each page in his website grabs your attention with an evolving image, followed by a quote, and lastly the information pertinent to that page. It's interesting how the designer used a very small text size but it seems to compliment the design so well that you find yourself wanting to lean in to read it. His website shows off his skills thereby making it unnecessary to use a lot of text. He summarized his skills in two sentences. In this case, the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" describes this designer perfectly.

Rebirth of Gaea - Flowing Meditation

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Source: motionographer.com

This is a personal project by Jesse Michael Newman created as a gift for his wife and kids. It is amazing! Completely created in Aftereffects, it shows the endless possibilities one can achieve with this application. The video seems long, but please keep watching. Incorporated within the video is a breakdown of the layers and examples of how they were manipulated. It is fascinating to watch how many images he used to cut and paste into his tapestry. The finished project is actually a print, but he prefers to create in Aftereffects. After watching this, I can understand why.

Newsies on Broadway – TV Commercial

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I stumbled upon this commercial when researching for our own theater commercial projects. I love how it shows the use of still images to create a "movie" by using the Ken Burns effects and turning 2d images to 3d. It also includes a little stop action. I found it fascinating watching black and white images turn to color and pop off the page. I can't wait to try some of these techniques!

The Royal Castle

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Source: Stash, An online video library of animation, VFX, and motion design

This animation starts with a line drawing of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. The line drawing becomes a rotating 3D model. As the model rotates, the years go by and the viewer watches as the castle is damaged, then destroyed in war, and, eventually, money is raised to reconstruct the castle. It is now home to salvaged castle art. The entire video is done in black and white graphics with the exception of the damaging forces which are portrayed in bloody red. Occasionally, years are posted which clearly identify the era of the building's demise. I found the most visual visual indicator of time, though, was the constant rotation of the platform.
One small detail that I noticed is when the artwork is being saved from the bombed building, a truck passes by carrying the artwork and one of the paintings briefly turns to color. This seemed to me to be a beacon pointing out the importance of the Castle and the artwork to the people and why they worked so hard to restore it.

Lonnie Busch

(Click on image to view videos, wait a few seconds and a page will pop up with all of his videos, then choose these to see.)

Source: Workbook 33, 2011

Lonnie Busch is a popular illustrator who also has motion graphics in his portfolio. The two examples I've chosen are 30 second commercials that could possibly have been created in Aftereffects. I thought they were interesting because they are full of movement and preset effects. It seemed an appropriate find for this week since one of the homework questions asked about the dangers of using too many presets. Rules can always be broken and sometimes it works :)

Saul Bass

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While searching for information about well-known motion designers, I stumbled upon Saul Bass who is considered the "undisputed master of film title design." He is also well-known for many logos and film posters.
The first film is for Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Before this film, movie titles were often a still image shown on the stage curtain. This film was shocking because of the animated title. I thought it was interesting because it was so basic—the beginning of a new art.
The second film is for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). I find this style so endearing. I like watching how the "world" is constantly manipulated and new shapes are always forming. It sometimes reminded me of the Pink Panther cartoons.

Brian Stauffer

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Source: Communication Arts, March/April 2010

Brian Stauffer is an award-winning illustrator. His most recent awards include the 2011 Gold Award for Best Cover Illustration from SPD (Society of Publication Designers) and the Editorial Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators 52 competition for 2010. He has done a few animations which I thought were kind of interesting because they are like watching his artwork come to life. I liked the symbolism in the first video—the flowers wilting and disappearing while the camera pans back to show the message on the billboard. The second video gave me hope that someday I will be able to create a video, too.

Zac and Joan

http://vimeo.com/23049755?iframe=true&width=80%&height=80%

Source: Communication Arts Design Annual, The Best Design of 2007

This video was commisioned by KCD Worldwide, a fashion public relations and publishing industry. It features fashion designer Zac Posen interviewing fashion director Joan Kaner. It it very interesting to watch since the main characters are drawings of themselves talking with each other. There seems to be two different styles of animation. One consists of pictures being drawn as line art in front of you and morphing into new images. The other style, with the characters talking to each other, might be "rotoscoping". If anyone can tell me what type of animation is being used, please do. The two styles separate the video into what I call "real" time, and "history" time.
It is animated by award-winning Juan Delcan, a native of Madrid who began his career as a graphic designer but is now primarily a live action director.
This is a link to another recent animation by Delcan: The 13 Clocks

Her Morning Elegance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY

This is one of my favorite short animations. It is a stop-motion music video for Her Morning Elegance and earned a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Short Form Music Video." It was written, sung, created and produced by Oren Lavie. I love how the whole story unfolds around the character while she is sleeping. It's fascinating to watch how the motions you expect to see in an upright position are mimicked while lying down.

YouTube also has a video showing how the film was made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKptYcQuKxc&feature=relmfu