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

Bachelor Pad

Society of Illustrators 48th Annual of American Illustration, 2006, p338
Illustrator: Dan Sipple

The designer's "assignment was to create a hip, modern, masculine card [for American Greetings] featuring an African American male" using an assigned palette of colors. I like how the designer was able to pull off the design with minimal detail by using subtle textures. The strie painting behind the man is just enough to separate him from the wall. The textured lanterns, chairs, and patterned floor add visual interest and rhythm. The solid white pants are the focal point and the negative shape of the pants seems to create an arrow pointing to the man. The lanterns hanging directly over the man in combination with the stripes in the wall give the appearance of light raining down on the subject further enhancing the focal point. Finally, the lone orangish-red square hanging alone on the right side of the wall is the final detail to balance the image. Oh, and, of course, you can't deny the importance of the glass on the table. It adds ambiance to the scene and sets the mood. The glass says "it's time to relax and chill out."

Seasons in the Sun

Society of Illustrators 48th Annual of American Illustration, 2006, pp244-245
Illustrator: Andrew Selby

This illustrator creates entire landscapes with simple geometric shapes and limited color palettes. His work is interesting because the more you look, the more you see. I love the illusion of hills and how each drawing has a feeling of perspective created with the bottom of the illustration appearing to be closer. Both illustrations create perspective by size with objects in "front" being larger in proportion to objects at the top of the drawing. Notice the pumpkins larger than trees and the fox larger than the horses. The autumn image also has a road which appears to wind toward the "back" where it eventually disappears in the horizon. Even the ground appears to be flatter in the front with the shapes becoming more rounded and then pointy, indicating hills turning to mountains, as your eye travels upward. The final clue is the cloud shapes at the very top.
Another detail I enjoyed is the illustrator's buildings. None of the buildings are squared. They seem to lean every which way furthering the concept of hills and uneven ground. The combination of the misshaped buildings and curvy shapes create an inviting, interactive atmosphere enticing the viewer to stop and gaze for a while.
As for color, the illustrator's limited color palette very clearly indicates which season each image represents. The limited use of white creates added interest and breaks up what would otherwise be monotonous image.

The Capuleti & the Montecchi

Society of Illustrators 48th Annual of American Illustration, 2006, p239
Poster illustration, Illustrator: Rafal Olbinski

This poster was created to promote the opera The Capuleti & the Montecchi based on the story of Romeo & Juliet. The illustrator introduces a clever solution to showing the two "star-crossed" lovers being torn apart by their respective families.
One's focus is immediately drawn into the faces and the strong negative space between them. Your eyes naturally follow the zipper downward to the ropes attached to the zipper which continue to pull your attention downward toward the message. The symmetry of the two groups of men pulling and the way they span the writing seems to enhance the message by framing the text. I like how the men dressed in business suits bring the classic tale to modern times and how the men's body language reinforces the idea of pulling your attention downward. Furthermore, the perspective type treatment creates more visual stimulation and interest to the design.
The concept of "star-crossed" lovers is introduced with the faces being formed in the sky and the eyes of the lovers looking upward to the stars (or heaven). I am wondering if the idea of the two halves being torn apart from the top down like a curtained backdrop is representative of the biblical account of the temple veil tearing in two from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus' death. Is the darkeness of the heavens that is revealed symbolic of the darkness that descends upon the families upon the lovers' deaths?

Halloween Magic

Society of Illustrators 46th Annual of American Illustration, 2005, p327
Book Illustration, Illustrator: Greg Couch

Tonight is the night when pumpkins stare. And all cats are black and a flying leaf looks more like a bat.

The illustrator's goal was to depict "Halloween as a magical night...filled with danger and delight...and there is always a full moon."
I like the eerieness the illustrator creates with the dark colors, shadowy figures, and the faces that seem to be peering out from everywhere. The moon, the bat, the Jack-O-Lanterns, the houses, and even the tree appear to have faces looking at the children. The trees around the houses hint at reaching hands and hair. The floating leaves create eyes and a nose on the enormous, glowing moon while an exaggerated-sized bat creates a gaping grin. The size of the bat hints at how large the children would perceive the bat to be.
This image brings back memories of a racing heart as a child when I would trick-or-treat with my friend and the wind would make things rustle and the light from street lamps would cast long shadows and the doors to strangers' houses appeared menancing. A time before parents stayed with their children and you only went to homes of people you knew. It was a time of full-sized candy bars, apples, and Mrs. Warren's large homemade popcorn balls. Ahh....the memories.

Portland International Film Festival

Society of Illustrators 52nd Annual of American Illustration, 2010, p192
Illustrator: The Heads of State

The first two things I noticed about this design were I couldn't read what the filament was spelling and the color choices seemed odd. Light bulbs are warm objects and this design has a cool undertone with its choice of colors. So I ask myself why isn't this bulb yellow and what does it spell? This forced me to look further to read the small print and see the threads of the bulb are created from a film strip. Aha! (The light bulb goes on in my head!) And, now, I think "clever."
I like how the illustrator grabs your attention with the filament and pulls you down to the print for details. The way in which the film strip leads off the paper and how the type follows it adds extra visual interest by creating a little tension.

Snow Cat

Society of Illustrators 49th Annual of American Illustration, 2007, p279
Illustrator: Richard Goldberg

The assignment was a secular "winter holiday" greeting card. The image is from the illustrator's memory of his black cat Satan who would chase snowflakes in the lights at night. (I thought the cat's name ironic, especially since I consider every "holiday card" is actually a Christmas card in disguise.)
I like the playful, artsy nature of the card and how the snowflake the cat captured is the one perfect flake in the illustration. It appears the cat is admiring his find. The way the cat reaches for it, the direction of the cat's eyes, and the undefined white dots in the background lead the viewer's focus to the one distinct snowflake. That one flake is the clue to this being winter, and the playfulness of the cat reminds us that winter can be fun.
And what about the C shapes in the design—the shape of the cat's body and the resulting negative shape? Is this the illustrator's underlying effort to imply C is for Christmas? Hmm...
Actually, my very favorite part of the illustration is the artist's initials. I love his letters, especially the "g". It reminds me of an upside-down exclamation mark and feels like the last period on the last page of a long book — There!