Matt Ward

While I'm not wild about his music after he hooked up with Zooey Deschanel, this song from M. Ward's latest album "A Wasteland Companion" is pleasant enough and its got a cute music video to boot. There's some real neat design going on here.



The director, Joel Trussell, also did this rad commercial for the video game I'm currently trying to get through -- Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Saturday morning Assassin's Creed cartoon anyone?

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.

Andy Bruntel tells it like it is.

today, i thought a change of pace was in order



how about a few animated music videos? i've been a fan of this music video for a while since my friend Dan introduced me to it. its a pretty big accomplishment technically and the song propels the animation forward. i've always wanted to do some kind of a quality pixilation, i've dabbled in it, but this particular video is pretty fun -- its not smooth. it purposefully keeps that jumpy stop-motion feel and uses it as an asset. it comes off of 2005's Face the Truth album by Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement) & The Jicks. direction by Lana Kim and Andy Bruntel.



Lana and Andy both work for an outfit called "The Directors Bureau" along with Roman Coppola, brother of Sophia Coppola and son of Francis Ford. together, Bruntel and Coppola made this fun short on the history of the color red...some details may not be entirely accurate...



Bruntel on his start with the company:

"I interned for Mike Mills and then started doing animation and FX for other directors at the Bureau. The video reps gave me a chance to write on a few low budget projects which just sort of cascaded into more work. I didn't officially become a part of TDB until after my video for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy."

and finally, here's a video for Rilo Kiley he co-directed. its got some really interesting design elements. i really like the psychedelic ending that looks very handmade -- is it bead animation? i'm not sure, but it sure looks neat.



his advice on "making it":

"Keep making work and focus on establishing an original voice. That term is thrown around so much in L.A. but I think it still holds value. Also, making one outstanding and original video / short film / spec commercial is worth much more than having a long list of mediocre work. Keith [Schofield] had some great advice if you're primary focus is getting yourself into a commercial position. "

fast blog

here's a music video that defies definition of exactly what style it is -- i think its perhaps best categorized as a hybrid between cut-out and 3-D stop motion puppet animation. regardless, its a fun and technically impressive romp by Frenchman Victor Haegelin (represented by Partizan) for Caravan Palace.

CARAVAN PALACE - Jolie Coquine
Uploaded by wagramlabel

Haegelin also did this identification for a French radio station that can best bedescribed as Pes meets Fast Film...if that makes any sense. its really quite beautiful.

Nova Le Grand Mix - Jazz
Uploaded by 917mn

speaking of which, Fast Film is essential viewing for the animation connoisseur, so here you go. it involves using film images from one film...with film images from another film. all on paper.

a little bit about the making of the film:
"In a technical sense, it meant that individual images were taken from various films or printed out, and then these printouts were folded into various figures. The objects were then assembled in various arrangements and a background was added so that four, five and up to 30 different films are visible within a single shot. That was the idea behind Fast Film. The challenge was to combine found footage in a meaningful way. The content and perspective of each image must match, but the individual shots must also fit together and tell the story, and do that extremely quickly. Applied to literature, that would be like taking individual sentences that rhyme from all of Shakespeare’s plays and using them to write a love poem which tells its own story. In that sense Fast Film is a journey through film history and at the same time a new film which is created in the heads of the audience members. In my opinion the fun thing about Fast Film is that everyone sees his or her own personal memories. Everybody has certain stimuli which trigger specific reactions, or recognizes certain actors or directors immediately. Suddenly the viewer is watching not Fast Film but his or her memory of the film from which the image was taken. I think that, when watching it, the audience switches back and forth in their heads between their perception of Fast Film and their perception of the films it references, so that everyone sees a completely different film."



check out Virgil Widrich's website for more info.

this is where i live

here's a stunning stop-motion short by London-based Asylum Films completed in just three weeks for 4th Estate's 25th Anniversary -- its a whole city through different parts of the day where everything is made out of books (and their insides). its a technical marvel -- done with a homemade dolly no less.


This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

here's another animation from the guys at Asylum. this time its a lego music video -- its no Michel Gondry, but its very well done.


Black Ghosts - Someway Through This from Asylum Films on Vimeo.

super epic blog party 2009

Paul Robertson has mastered 2-D 16-bit side scroller animation. its his chosen art form. he's become an internet sensation over the past few years, in large part due to his first major release -- Pirate Baby's Cabana Street Fight 2006. i remember seeing this at Spike and Mike's a while back and it got the most rousing audience response by far.

he's a 2-D video game animator by day for Game Boy Advance and DS games like Contra 4, Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus, and SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature From the Krusty Krab. though he's not too proud of the work he's done in the industry,
"It's always just been a job to me as I've usually just worked on projects I didn't care about," its been the main source of his income and has fueled some incredibly detailed and well done shorts like no other.


because of the shorts he's done, he's gotten offers for music videos and commercials in the same style. this particularly kinetic one works pretty darn well for Architecture in Helsinki's Do the Whirlwind off 2005's In Case We Die:

Architecture In Helsinki - do the w... -
Uploaded by zectarien

this next music video for "Devil Eyes" by Qua is probably my favorite and most affecting animation by Robertson. its about a simple friendship between a cat and a panda until a visitor from outer space comes to play.



here's a commerical for Syke, an energy drink for gamers. its got parodies up the yin yang, see if you can spot all the references:




finally, if you have the time for his latest 12-minute epic -- 2008's Kings of Power 4Billion% -- its quite a ride. its essentially a tricked out run through of a game that never existed. if you loved 16-bit sidescrollers that made no sense, then this is your holy grail...

on Vimeo.

and if you can't get enough of the 29-year Australian animator, be sure to check out his awesome blog where he posts his art and animation-related materials often as well as his myspace, where he has plenty of animated gifs to keep you busy.

let's call this...not quite safe for work day

if you can't tell by the still below, this video is a tad NSFW.

but its got some of the most unique animation of the last year -- of censorship bars. David Byrne talks about the genesis of the song here

The BPA - Toe Jam Featuring David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal
Uploaded by TheBrightonPortAuthority

the music video was directed by a one Keith Schofield, a commercial and music video director that seems to specialize in this kind of rotoscoped animation. err make that directed by a three Keith Schofield -- its a directing collective comprised of Keith Haverbrooks, Eric Schoman & Jeff Mayfield. earlier this year, their promo for the Italian fashion design house Diesel's 30th anniversary party took the internet by storm. Schofield makes some 70s porn much safer for work...


Diesel SFW XXX - Watch more Free Videos
this was probably one of my favorite animations of the year -- its just so darned inventive.

finally, a completely safe for work video...you've probably seen it. the "Flatheads" Axion commercial. its very well done. if not entirely inspired.

It's Oh So Quiet!

John Kricfalusi made a name for himself in animation first working with Ralph Bakshi on the Rolling Stones music video for Harlem Shuffle and on the revival of Mighty Mouse (until a "coke sniff" scene animated by John K was latched onto by religious groups who eventually forced a cancellation). he's perhaps best known for his creation of Ren & Stimpy and founding his production company, Spumco. he's mostly retired from television (he created the world's first Flash animated series online in The Goddamn George Liquor Program in 1996). he shares his amazing insights on classical animation on his website each week here.

here are a couple of less famous videos he's produced. the first is a commercial for an online company called Raketu he produced in early 2007. his poses are always stellar and his character designs, always attractive (even the ugly ones look terribly alive).



this next one is a music video he directed for Bjork in 1995. Bjork and John K don't seem like they would make a great pairing (she reportedly was a huge fan of Ren & Stimpy), but the contrast between the two styles makes for a great and very surreal video with both computer and hand-drawn animation along with composite live-action footage that all seems to gel with each other

BJORK-I MISS YOU
Uploaded by pierrot77

It's a White Winter

i'm off to the snow for a few days, hopefully i'll be able to get my hands on a computer to update a little, but in the meantime -- here's one of the musical surprises of the year, at least for me. Fleet Foxes are like a cross between My Morning Jacket and a gospel choir. and Sean Pecknold (his brother is in the band) has done a very simple, very well executed, and souful stop motion rendition of "White Winter Hymnal."

White Winter Hymnal from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

and just in case you didn't have enough of yesterday's "Peace On Earth," here's MGM's Hanna and Barbera 1955 remake entitled "Good Will to Men." its got the benefit of sixteen more years of modern warfare -- and its much more polished -- but i prefer the original, which seems just a bit more subtle i guess. the cartoon was lavishly filmed in Cinemascope and produced again by Fred Quimby, who would retire the same year, it was nominated (like Peace on Earth was) for a short subject Oscar.


enjoy!

don't mind if i do

Leerone - Care For Some Whiskey [Official Music Video] from Hank Friedmann on Vimeo.

here's an ambitious, yet quaint stop-motion/live-action composite music video from animator Hank Friedmann. my favorite part is when she's dancing with the troll-like creature at the end, as if swinging while holding hands -- the background blurs and creates a seamless effect. according to Hank himself, he used Shake to composite everything and used the blue screen method to shoot Leerone and key everything out. very effective.

i caught the ASIFA screening of Tales of Despereaux last night with Sara at the DGA. not expecting too much, i think it was enjoyable -- if confused in both tone and protagonist focus -- who's story is it? the style, however, is very nice and has a great storybook quality to it. its much better than the usual animated fare from studios other than Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks. the story behind the production, apparently, was not a happy one, as reported on Cartoon Brew a few months ago. the original director Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville) was fired, but claims his designs were still used without proper credit.

to continue my reporting on video game animation as well, i present you The Secret of Monkey Island...in five minutes...in German.

ive seen plenty of movie recaps in flash in 30 seconds to 5 minutes, but this is a first -- the pretty faithful retelling of an adventure game. there's an english version, but its just not as fun. a while back there was a movie in the works based on the series, that Steve Purcell did some concept art for.