Adam Bizanski and the Amazing Technicolor Stop Motion Music Video Coat

Born in Haifa, Israel in 1983, Adam Bizanski has already made a name for himself in the music video world by sculpting and creating worlds out of stop motion for some of the most popular indie bands of today. his award-winning 2005 video for The Shins' "Pink Bullets" put him on the international map:

"I didn't really have any expenses to speak of. The materials are really simple.
The figures are made of paper and wood and the background is a bulletin board
made of cork on which I scattered grass from models," Bizanski, 22, relates.
"But from my point of view, the hardest thing was the uncertainty about
whether the band would like the clip I made for it."

The Shins - Pink Bullets from Adam Bizanski on Vimeo.

i really like the simple and effective character design of the cows. they're endearing and sad at the same time. Adam's 2006 video for Wolf Parade's "Modern World" takes his style and goes a bit further.



the replacement mouths really jump out at you, like at points in Coraline, but in here its really part of the whole design and style that Adam's set up. the undulation on the piano is one of my favorite parts. the eyes look like they're done in after effects, though I may be wrong. it took him about a month and a half to complete.

Wolf Parade - Modern World from Adam Bizanski on Vimeo.

more recently, he's been taking on commercial work including this bizarre puppet-based Huggies "Little Swimmers" advert:

Critter Crunch...who says puzzle games have to look like crap?

Toronto-based indie video game developer Capybara Games has been busy whipping up some amazing visuals for their primarily puzzle mini-games. originally, they were making these for downloadable content as well as for nintendo ds and iphones -- but they've ported their game "Critter Crunch" in all its full HD-glory to the Playstation 3. at $6.99, this game has made more of an impact than its $50+ bretheren with reviewers and gamers alike:

“You might not normally expect a lot of visual flair from a puzzle game, but Critter Crunch will ruin you on this. It sets a new standard for graphics in the genre and is simply one of the best looking games on PSN. Luckily, it also has the gameplay to back up the looks.” IGN

Critter Crunch PSN Debut Trailer from Capy! on Vimeo.

in addition to the fun though limited character animation, their backgrounds are really exquisite:



check out their official trailer here:

Critter Crunch - A BARF IN THE NIGHT - Launch Trailer! from Capy! on Vimeo.

The 2nd Year Blues

i'm currently trying to storyboard some new film ideas for my 2nd year film (though i'm still in the laborious process of completing that darned first year film that seems to get longer and longer). last year at PROM, perhaps my favorite 2nd year film was that of classmate Sijia Luo. its a beautifully designed and animated short that follows a young kid explaining exactly why he was late to the teacher. the backgrounds were done in gouache and i believe the animation was done in Flash.



i can't wait to see what she does this year! enjoy.

How Novel!

since 2003, Screen Novelties has quietly become one of the most unique and inventive stop motion boutiques in Hollywood with minimal crew and lots of ideas and expertise. you are already probably familiar with the commercials and shorts on their reel -- they were also the animation directors on Robot Chicken and Moral Orel at one point.


just this past Annie awards they were nominated for their Rotofugi spot.



and the news that their short Monster Safari, originally pitched to networks for a TV show, was picked up by The Henson Company for feature film production, still in stop motion, and directed by the guys -- Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh, and Chris Finnegan, was well publicized and well received by the film and animation community.

i was interested to check out some of their lesser known stuff (or at least spots i hadn't seem before). here's an advertisement for The Offspring's last album "Splinter" that's a collaboration between Tawd Dorenfeld and Screen Novelties:


and while i can't say i'm a fan of the music, the animation for The Junior Varsity music video of "The Sky!" is very energetic and impressive:




they also animated the logo at the end of this mostly CG/live-action spot for career builder that played during the Super Bowl in 2008:

Edison & Leo

Stop motion features, in the history of animation, have been few and far between. Until very recently, you could count them on one hand. Maybe a foot too. However, in the past year or so, there seems to have been an explosion of stop motion animation -- independent stop motion feature animation at that. Adam Eliot's Mary & Max has been playing at festivals around the world, Tatia Rosenthal's $9.99 has been wowing audiences in theaters, and, of course, Henry Selick's Coraline made a respectable showing with a big push from Focus Features earlier this year.



Now, we have Canada's first stop motion feature to look forward to -- Edison & Leo. The voice of Leo, Gregory Smith, explains the film as such: "It is about a character named George Edison, who is loosely based on Thomas Edison, and his relationship with his son, Leo. His son is accidentally electrocuted as a child so he son grows up as Electric Boy. He can't touch anyone without electrocuting them, and that is sort of the set up for these zany, crazy adventures that follow."



the animation released thus far looks beautiful. this clip seems to place the movie, perhaps surprisingly, in Disaster: The Movie type of territory in a way, but with much more mannered movements:



finally, Sylvie Trouve's animation reel is stunningly beautiful and contains a bit more animation from Edison & Leo with a character moment between the two leads:

Sylvie Trouvé animation reel
Uploaded by trouves. - Independent web videos.

Whistling is in Again!

i'm not a big fan of Flash-based limited animation, but here is, I think, an economic way to do an animated video without losing any concept or value in the process. its stylized and interesting -- even if the movements are heavily tweened in the computer.

laptop wars

I don't get the title. Claymation or Halogram? It seems pretty clear this is an ad either way and done well. Also, I can't wait for the new macbook pro's to come out. My brother has been eyeing the 13" entry level one for a while.