2D

Hedgehogs

The two-minute short for wildlifeaid.org.uk is about the declining population of hedgehogs in Great Britain. While the demise of the beloved hedgehog is concerning to me, especially since they have dropped from 30 million to 1 million since 1950, I really want to talk about the wonderful animation quality of the video. Directed by Kris Hofmann with Illustrations by Sandra Dieckmann, the animation is a really nice blend of 2D and 3D techniques that creates a really unique and memorable look for the short. Being memorable is exactly what a PSA needs to do, and Wildlife Aid with the talented crew they hired to produce this have done just that.

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It’s Going To Be A “Heart Winter”.

I’m not a fan of McDonalds food, but you have to hand it to their advertising. It’s usually top notch, and they do hire the best. McDonalds AOR Leo Burnett hired BUCK to produce the new animated TV spot for the McCafe line of hot drinks. Directed by Ryan Honey BUCK blends 2D and 3D animation seamlessly in the 30 second spot titled “Heart Winter”. The spot features nicely stylized, but not overly cute character’s clever transitions between scenes, and a fluid animation style all set to a jangly happy tune.  It’s hard not to like the look of the commercial, even if you aren’t a fan of McDonalds.

Executive Creative Director: Ryan Honey
Executive Producer: Maurie Enochson
Associate Creative Directors: Jenny Ko, Steve Day
CG Supervisor: Doug Wilkinson
Producer: Billy Mack
Production Coordinator: Kaitlyn Mahoney
Storyboards: Morgan Schweitzer, Vincent Lee, Marcus Park, Susan Yung
Design: Jenny Ko, Yuki Yamada, Susan Yung, Gunnar Pettersson, Ken Gunn Lee, Joe Mullen
Cel Animation: Kendra Ryan, Kyle Mowat, Eric Cheng, Laura Yilmaz, Craig Yamamoto, Ben Conkin, Song Kim
AE Animation & Compositing: Nick Petley, Simon Ekstrand Appel, Anthony Madlangbayan, Zach Eastburg, Esteban Esquivo, Jake Portman, Ariel Costa
3D Artists: Wing Lee, Florent Raffray

 

Balls!

“Remember when we used to have fun with simple stuff? I do, let me introduce you to my friends BALLS!” David Pocull

I posted this fun little animation because it is, simply fun. It’s a nice little bit of animation work from a gifted designer, animator, and motion graphics designer. If you have the time, click through and check out the rest of his work.

Friday Inspiration. “Tussilago”.

Talk about a great look. This 13 minute film from  has it. There is really solid blend of 2D, and 3D animation with live action footage, animated stills, and graphics. The film is in Swedish, but it is subtitled so you can follow along with the story. I have to say I ended up watching it a couple of times, and I found myself pausing the second time around to actually read the subtitles. On the first pass it was just to easy to get lost in the look of “Tussilago”. In the post before this I talked about the kind of crew you sometimes need to get a short film produced. The credit list to this is below the film, and it is a perfect example of how complex making even a short film can be.

Directed by Jonas Odell
Produced by Linda Hambäck & Niklas Adolfsson
Interviews by Richard Dinter
Director of Photography Per Helin
Music Martin Landquist
Sound design Fredrik Jonsäter
Production manager Malin Marmgren
Hair and make up Rebecka Rissanen
Animation Per Helin
Marcus Krupa
Johan Sonestedt
Martin Nyberg
Susanne Sturesson
Mikael Lindbom
Jakob Bastviken
Lindor Tidäng
Kaspar Christophersen
Produced by Filmtecknarna F. Animation AB in coproduction with Film i Väst and Sveriges Television AB, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, Andra Lasmanis and Nordic Film and TV fund.