Compositing

Coldplay’s Up&Up is a visual treat.

I’m not really a Coldplay fan, but I have to give them credit for the video below. Actually I have to give credit to directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia plus their crew that produced it. Coldplay just stars in it. This is a wonderful blend of vintage film, green screen work, CGI, compositing, and animation. If you love Coldplay, turn up the volume and sing along. If you don’t turn off the sound and just watch the visuals. They are pretty captivating, and engaging. In the Vimeo credits, there is a list of artists that inspired the visuals. I have pasted them below the video. Oh, and if you are curious about how many people were involved in making this, click through to Vimeo and take a look at the crew involved.

Inspired by the art of:
Victoria Siemer, Sammy Slabbinck, Karen Lynch, Sarah Eisenlohr, Joe Webb, Jeff Hendrickson, Katie Dutch, Linder Sterling, Kieron “cur3es” Cropper, Beth Hoeckel, Eugenia Loli, Mariano Peccinetti, Shang Chengxiang, Charlie Davoli, Artem Rhads Cheboha, Fran Rodriguez, Felipe Posada, Jay Riggio, Ser Sinestésico, Marina Molares, Merve Ozaslan, Julien Pacaud, Angelo Vazquez, Terry Ringler, Djuno Tomsni, John Stezaker, Richard Hamilton, Hannah Höch, and of course Rene Magritte.

Behind the Scenes of “Fable”.

By now most people have seen or read about the ads that were featured on Super Bowl Sunday. While there wasn’t anything all that mind blowing, there were some spots that really entertained, one of them being the Mercedes-Benz Tortoise and Hare “Fable” commercial for the AMG GTS.

Both the commercial and the making of are below. It’s the making of/behind the scenes video that interests me. When I first saw the spot, I thought the entire piece was CG. I had no idea that there was any live footage blended in. Since all the animals are CG I simply figured the car and the environment were digitally created as well. I was wrong. When you watch the behind the scenes video, you see just how much actual footage was blended in with the digital components, and its really pretty impressive. Director Robert Stromberg and his crew did a masterful job of creating a visually stunning spot for Mercedes-Benz.

The Juggernaut, “Generations”.

The two videos below from the Juggernaut show the finished work the Toronto based group produced for Kettle One, along with the making of video. While the making of is short on details thanks to no narrative, the film does show how they put this together. The result is an interesting blend of old school pen and ink work, letter press, CNC routing, green screen work compositing, and footage shot on a drone. It’s a nice blend of old school and new school art and animation techniques. I can’t imagine the time it took to put this together, and how much pre-visualization had to go into it. Really nice work.

The Helvetica Watch.

I know a lot of designers that hate Helvetica. I also know a lot of designers that love Helvetica, and respect it’s timeless qualities. I fall into the latter group. Watch maker Mondaine has introduced a new watch that champions the font, the designer. The video was produced by Frame Eleven and depicts the story how the world famous typography made its way to the wrist. This is a really nice blend of live footage, 2D and 3 D animation.

Oh and if anyone is interested, you can get me this watch for Christmas.

Creative Director: Marc Haas
Director / Art Director: Oliver Aemisegger
DOP: Silvio Gerber
Inhouse Producer: Livia Hächler
3D animation: Fabio Quaggiotto
Motion graphics / 2D animation: Oliver Aemisegger
Edit: Cyril Käppeli
Sounddesign: Cyril Käppeli