sticky monster lab

smooth, morbid and on point are how i would describe sticky monster lab. this korean design trio knows how to tell a story with a dash of sordid. all of their shorts are very thoughtful and soft on the eyes. the fact that they cover nike and pre is the persuasion i needed to start a love affair with their motion graphics.

naturficial

I had to watch this a few times, which tells me i should probably remember this one.
A very nice clip taken from an evironmental the environmental ski film All.I.Can, the thing is just awesome in so many ways. the stage, the performance, the LCD sound system.


JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.


i guess i love outdoor sports in gentle track-pan frames or maybe it's the music, i'm not sure, but this clip does remind me a lot of this danny macAskill masterpiece.



and also a little of the valparaiso cerro abajo in chile.

I blacked out for sec, what happened?

K. so i got sick of watching cool videos and graphics and decided to try and learn more about their creation first hand. sorry for the absence, though i know that that apology is entirely self directed it needed to be stated for manners sake. in love with interactive media, i tried to build my first website www.beachvolleyballmarketinggroup.com. horribly inefficient domain name yes, but i was asked to author the book only after the title had already been published. though, a fun experiment and education into the world of flash programming and action script 3.0 interactivity, it soon became obvious that the ship had no pilot, or rather, the pilot had no map. i'm sure it's a lot like the early engineers at NASA felt when they slaved over building early space craft only to watch them be inherited by a rowdy chimpanzee with a belly full of banana pellets... after a long over do "fuck this", i've since moved on to explore more about 3d animation and the software and render engines used to create them... when i can produce something that i suppose worth sharing i'll be sure and do so here. so far my efforts haven't merited a chimpanzee to pilot nor have i earned nary a banana pellet for my early efforts... and good thing my fascination isn't fueled by paltry fruit calories.


so i announce my return to the planet of video art with a fresh perspective and hopefully a little more insight. and keeping with the nasa theme, let's use this video serve as metaphor as to what can be seen when explored.





Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 
28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 
2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km. 
All credit goes to them. I intend to upload a FullHD-version presently.

HD, refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised, deflickered, cut, etc.
All in all I tried to keep the looks of the material as original as possible,
avoided adjusting the colors and the like, since in my opinion the original
footage itself already has an almost surreal and aestethical visual nature. 


and if you're as confused as i still am about what the hell exactly the auroras are, even after a not so quick wiki sesh. i got you covered with this quick education.





and a quick p.s... the music and graphics were produced by a norwegian named 'per byhring' who did the music for this wing suit vid below. and you might know how much i like wing suite vids.

simple math

prolly my favorite indie band. really... can't wait for the album next week.

buckle up for this one. i'm not sure how anyone can get two things so right on. music video, heavy left and right and nothing cheap and nothing wasted. amazing...

the incident

love the twists here. the character animation is brilliant. great to watch.

love like life but longer

a blind guy and a nun walk into a bar...



i just like watching this. it's so well done and even thoughtful. for an low budget independent short the sound and picture are perfect. muy nice.

downhill sk8

living is going for it.

RIP justo.










Hello. The idea behind this shortflick was to give the viewer some surreal insight into the mind of professional downhill sk8ter Erik Lundberg. He starts his day by waking up in Encinitas California. After a nutritious breakfast he begins a journey on his bike in search of a sick hill where he can be free and lose himself by sk8ting it before the sun sets. While biking to this hill he daydreams about the time he lost his balance at 70mph from a crack in the road in Brazil, along with losing the final race to Mischo Erban in the US Nationals.

class notes

this reminded me of how i would spend my high school algebra class BASIC coding F menu "choose your own adventures" on my TI-85 and laugh at all the stick figure violence. if only i knew how many binomials i would later have to "foil" out in my adult life... talk about regrets.

kim holm

just saw some neat stuff out of norway. motion designer kim holm working for toxic, a creative design company out of oslo.








typically scandinavian techno and some played out deer footage. i see a lot of it out there, but none like this. oh my god, these deer know when to get really muddy.


and this title sequence for insomnia elecronic music festival. sorry no deer.

troublemakers tv

some creative comercial spots that i like from an allstar team of designers collectively called troublemakers.tv
check em out.




Troublemakers.tv is a production company based in Paris that represents a new generation of directors who use live action, 2D and 3D animation to create innovative imagery for commercials and music videos.

oden

an incredibly compelling 6 minutes of film. be warned, probably going to cry a little.



this got me good. or maybe i was really tired, but this wide open narrative leaves you exposed. for good reason it won vimeo of the year.

still

just a few very different presentations with captivating stillness and subtlety.

free fall

some wingsuit basejumping. this is probably really boring, but somehow, through the magic of film these guys make it look kind of exhilarating.

travel

i love travel. it's complete reinvention. i love how there are countless possible destinations on this planet that have been quietly developing themselves from their modest origins to the richness they are at the moment you are introduced to them. setting foot abroad for the first time is having all of your faculties flooded by centuries of distinct and refined culture. euphoria for a curious mind.

these are some spots for EF language school that i thought nailed the feeling of discovery abroad.

simple shots and elegant fonts is all.

hermanos ingleses

belgian electronic duo
  hermanos ingleses have a nice thing going here.






wonderland does sound a little like miura by metro area.... wonder if there's some influence there?

uncontacted tribes

i thought these were really interesting videos.  uncontacted tribes recently being filmed. it's insane to think about these people and how remarkable it is that they've remained isolated in such a small and completely accessible modern world.

recent views from an airplane over brazil. check how big their feet are.


a little documentary about uncontacted tribes from 2008


want to know more?
i love how there is still to this day a private island in the indian ocean with people that defend it with spears and arrows, and we know so little about them. crazy to think about...

the civil wars

an amazing set by one of my new favorites the civil wars. definitely nashville easy listening.
sweaty haunting southern harmonies. the second video starts with 20 years, a good place to start if you only got time for one song. got a while? treat yourself and listen from the top. their sophomore album barton hollow was released last week.

sketchy

some animations that i grouped for their sketchbook feel.








some beauty


some cool


some interesting

mindrelic

some very thoughtful timelapse images from mindrelic. they're done with a canon 5d, single rail dolly system and a little post pro panning. the slight tracking and HD cameras give these a huge cinematic quality.
muy bueno.



NYC


CALI


WstrnNY

love sigor ros with this...

they all remind me of the coachella video from last year...

alex romano

architectural visualization artist jorge seva better known as alex roman may be the greatest independent CG artist alive. from madrid he's just another example of how the spaniards constantly do it right.




mind you every single frame in this is done with over the counter software.
3ds for modeling, adobe for the details and camera work and vray for rendering.
all done in a month and a half. again, nothing in this is real. it's all CG. crazy.


check out more about how he does what he does here. spanish though...

korb

KORB is a freelance based VFX and design company founded by CGI director Rimantas Lukavicius. Working along with the other freelancers and companies KORB specifies in visual effects, motion graphics and mixed media projects. KORB has been bringing ideas to motion and backwards since 2005.

a couple of my favorites from korb...





and here's his showreel from 08



his use of CG liquids is most impressive.

fotograph attraction

some short narratives on attraction that i came across recently. each done entirely in photograph, except the first one, which still counts because it feels like it should be framed and hung on a wall. an amazing accomplishment.

they resonate beautifully their individual messages.


spy films also has credits in yeasayer's ambling alp and O.N.E videos. and i sorta like yeasayer.

to me they all capture the spontaneous power of fleeting relationships. from a glance, to innocent indulgence, to realization. each experience however long (seconds, hours, days) is such a rush and life is full of them. the more imaginative the more intense.

vital

some music for a friday night.
this is a trailor for Vital's upcoming EP. i'm pretty sure it's done with AE, trapcode particular, and some solar flares. works so well. the song is "Saying" which is also posted in full below.





sick visuals and a huge space of sound. me gusta soo hard.

cutout animation

a pair of really cool animations that remind me of PS's cutout filter.

fashion lights

smaller projections this time. me really gusta these a lot.
another solid case for projector art. if you liked the
  buildings
you'll prolly like these too.


kinda like my ole L.A Gears.


real nice audio visual coordination here. feels like drugs to me.


lights and music on my mind courtesy Swedish electro artist mille.

white lines

a few examples of some interesting 3d white lines interacting with 2d video. so simple with AE, but very nice.


an ambitious little Greek robot working with some white lines like Greek robots do.


created for the AICP southwest awards. the depth and ambiance added by the blurring and vibrating of these simple white lines and 2d text make this what it is. the animals are cool, but not as well executed as the labeling in my opinion.

memo akten

www.willakenzie.blogspot.com/2011/01/memo-akten.html



make sure you watch before you read on. for me the best part about this was the delayed revelation of what it actually is. i love this concept, but the execution is beyond imagination. so well done. his words:

When the clip starts, you probably won't recognize a human shape at first, but your eyes and mind will be searching, seeking mental connections between abstract shapes and recognizable patterns, like looking for shapes in clouds. You'll be questioning what you see, is that it? is it sitting? is it crouching? is it kneeling? Then all of a sudden, it'll be crystal clear. Then you'll try and keep it in focus, following it as it moves around, tracking each limb, using the motion to construct an image of the parts you can't see. It'll fade in and out of clarity. At times you'll be clinging onto just the tip of it's hand swinging round, trying to identify any other recognizable parts. You might see another arm or leg and grab onto it, fighting not to lose it. Then it'll be crystal clear again, and then all of a sudden vanish, literally in a puff of smoke, and your eyes will start searching again.

i can't imagine what this could be if the audio was woven into the visualization and not just an overlay. maybe like this video he did for depeche mode.


his site has a lot of neat live interactive concepts like this one.



and check out a live set he did for OKGo (RE:member them). nuts.

projections

some of the best examples i've seen of building projections.



On the site of a thousand years of violent history, ACDC were pitted against Iron Man in a ground breaking architectural projection mapping project.  The front facade of the Great Keep at Rochester Castle, was brought to life using the latest in 3D animation techniques. This onslaught of the senses, saw the castle confront it's ultimate challenge. Warping, morphing, spewing and collapsing before the audiences eyes. Let there be rock!




Battle of Branchage.
Architectural Projection Mapping @ Branchage Film Festival 2009




AntiVJ presents:

SONGDO
an audiovisual performance, August 2009
New Songdo city, South Korea.


i'm thinking about renting a square in holland somewhere, building a tower with a DJ and projecting on all four sides of the square. i imagine i will either melt and evaporate from sensory overload or just throwup on myself and have to leave.

particles

when i first saw Esteban Diacono's particle generation i had no idea what i was looking at. 




and 22 year old VFX artist Matthias Muller, makes his a little more vibrant.









these would be sick as stills, but the elements of music and motion synchronization give these clips a very powerful physical context. they're like illuminated ink drops with sensibilities. watching these justifies my autistic tendency to only be able to slowly add creamer to my coffee. i always have to watch it. the thinner and more contrast the better.

so...

when i watch this, i can only wonder if these guys aren't completely depressed by the massive waste of time their project was by today's standards. it's insane how their thousands of combined man hours is today almost worthless. the illusion they created has nothing but antique value and is easily be outdone by anyone with a macbook, some CS5, and an afternoon off. i can only hope that this at least got them laid in 1982. it's crazy what we're able to do now almost 30 years later.


PIXELS by Patrick Jean from ONE MORE PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

it's fair to assume that in 30 more years, "Pixels" will also be a punchline from 09. "how was that cool?"