PlayerGrid Animation

We had a lot of fun working on a, animation for a new social media site PlayerGrid. They cater to parents and families with children involved in sports, providing simple applications to stay in touch with other parents and coaches with calendar updates and a unique photo album.

The video only lives on their website for now. So, please check it out!

www.playergrid.com

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Busta Rhymes ‘why stop now’

we recently helped out n1on with vfx on a bust rhymes music video, featuring chris brown and directed by hype williams.

our section: 1:18-1:28 – busta in front of the club – and picks up and shakes it.

green screen key, modeling, animation, lighting, rendering, compositing.

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Gotye

i was recently turned on to a great band ‘gotye’. got hooked on his hit single with ‘kimbra’ “somebody that i used to know” – which has an awesome video. it’s very simple with one scene and two characters but it is endlessly entertaining. Not only because of how great the song is, but the visuals are well done. there’s also a little stop-motion and pixelation involved. take a look:

 
i heard the song a few times and i liked it. although it wasn’t until seeing a ‘walk off the earth’ cover that made me really get sucked in; purely by the fascination with their video. the entire band plays the ‘gotye’ cover with one guitar. all of them on one guitar.

 
while that rendition is really good, it only made me like the original song and video all the more. I think what i’m captured by is the amount of feeling that is put into the original video. the way the characters act. you can feel what they are going through. it’s very subtle but also very effective. this is lost in the cover version.

in hopes of arriving at a point, all this turned me on to gotye’s other video which are just as creative and artistic as the aforementioned – and all animations! kick ass. here they are, in order of my favorite.

being such a “cartoon modern” fan of course this video finds itself at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

keep on keepin’ on gotye!

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animated music video premieres on mtv

while searching mtv’s most recent music video premieres i found 3 animations.

1. the ready set “hollywood dream”

i am even less a fan of the animation as i am of the song:

 
 
2. mayday parade “oh well, oh well”

not a fan of the song, not a fan of the animation. although the illustration is very good. also some good effects with lighting.


 
 
3. Cage the elephant “aberdeen”

i really like this video. love the style, and the ambition of a well done stop-motion piece. excellent.

 
 
 
not animation, but a great video and great song also found on mtv’s page:

foster the people “don’t stop”

 

feels a lot like beastie boys “sabotage” from director spike jonze

enjoy.

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we’ve been busy!

the closing months of 2011 made for a very busy time for the suspended crew. we’re pleased to unroll a few projects over the next couple weeks as well as an update to our work page.

first we’d like to make a special thanks to Square Planet for taking a long distance chance on our team. together we produced the redbox movie awards, released at the end of 2011. it was an intense timeline, but a ton of fun to work on.

there is currently only one place to view the animation – at redbox.com/movieawards

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Mcdonald’s Print ads

Mcdonald’s has run some pretty cool print ads in Finland offering wide coffee seascapes.

 

The Large Coffee campaign was developed at DDB Helsinki, Finland, by creative director Vesa Tujunen, art director Jukka Mannio, copywriter Vesa Tujunen, account director Jarno Lindblom, graphic designer Antti Salminen, print producer Kirsi Pärni, account manager Pia Eiro, with photography by Marjo Tokkari retouched atFake Graphics.
via the inspiration room

these ads riding the coattails of some other pretty cool Mcdonalds print ads in Finland, like this one.

A minimalist approach focusing solely on the product with very little copy. something akin to the kind of print ads we see from apple.

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Disney meets YouTube

In an attempt to compete with Apple iTunes google has added hundreds of movies from Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks. You can rent the films now on YouTube

to get a more in-depth story go to appleinsider

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Mecenator

we really like this animation “Mecenator” created by Alex Mamaonto.

nice smooth animation, great use of color and continually engaging to watch.

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AppleTV – TV Everywhere Solved?

I saw a TiVo headline today that caught my eye, “TiVo Ends Subscriber-Losing Streak”.  What prompted me to click on it was not because of the headline, but because I haven’t seen anything newsworthy from TiVo in a while (subs up, net revenue down–again, nothing too newsworthy).

However, all the way at the end of the page was a small paragraph that should have been the real headline:

“And here’s more speculation about that iTV that Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)’s developing. Jefferies & Co. Inc. analyst Peter Misek believes Sharp Electronics Corp. is tweaking its TV production line in Sakai, Japan, to accommodate the Apple device. He thinks the line could be ready for commercial production by Feb. 2012, setting things up for a possible mid-2012 product introduction. (See Jobs Bio Confirms Apple Television Plan .)”

There’s been much speculation about the next evolution of AppleTV, more so after the replayed quote from the Steve Job’s book, “I cracked it!”

The blurb from Light Reading Cable gives us more insight at what might be at play here–Sharp, or even other TV manufacturers–are adjusting their production line for AppleTV.  This supports the theory that the next gen AppleTV will not be a TV–contrary to what a majority of the rumor mills are spewing out.  Apple’s TV hobby will continue to be a set-top box.  Now, more importantly, Sharp is changing their TV to support AppleTV, and if this is true, then Apple’s hobby now becomes a real business.

The implication here is pretty major.  Is Sharp creating a TV to fully support and integrate AppleTV’s set-top box?  What if Sharp combines two TV inputs so that the Apple OS now runs along side with input 1 or your cable-in input?  This integrated experience could be the holy grail that the TV Everywhere evangelists are searching for–offering a device that combines and curates broadcast with broadband content.

This solution solves many problems, from Apple’s challenge with cable operators and network contractual agreements to the numerous and growing number of over-the-top services causing more and more fragmentation.

Imagine a TV where you can use a TV guide deigned by Apple to find programming or access iTunes and Netflix all seamlessly, without switching inputs on your TV.  Now, throw in a search and discovery application to find content on both broadcast and broadband, you begin to streamline the video media consumption user experience.  Layer in Siri, and the TV user experience not just evolves, it explodes…and the way people consume TV programs and over-the-top video content finally hits the sweet spot for people.

Again, this is just me speculating, but if it’s true, Apple can add TV to all the other industries they disrupted.

Read the Light Reading Cable article here: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=214984&site=lr_cable&f_src=lrcabledailynewsletter

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our new business cards

We finally got in our new business cards.

double mounted paper to give it a heavier stock. foil printed in glossy black and each one is hand stamped.

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