Motion Design

This Panda is Dancing

Remember life before your smartphone, tablet, and social media? Yeah I know, it’s kind of hard to imagine not being constantly connected anymore. The video below from Max Stossel & Sander van Dijk is a poetic send up about how we have all become addicted to that piece of tech sitting in your hand right now, or waiting to be retrieved from your pocket as soon as you put down whatever tech you are looking at now.

The video itself is great. A nice live action short with really well thought out graphics that have been motion tracked to specific source points in the frame. Solid editing and post work really help to polish this, but the real meat is in the message. A message with a direct call to action at the timewellspent.io website. The blurb before the video pretty much sums up what they are about.

Today apps and media compete in a race to grab our attention. Join a movement to:

  • Live better with more empowering settings for our media and devices.
  • Change incentives so media competes to improve our lives, not get eyeballs.
  • Invent new interfaces that help us to make room for what matters.

A poetic short film by Max Stossel & Sander van Dijk:

In the Attention Economy, technology and media are designed to maximize our screen-time. But what if they were designed to help us live by our values? timewellspent.io

What if news & media companies were creating content that enriched our lives, vs. catering to our most base instincts for clicks?
What if social platforms were designed to help us create our ideal social lives, instead of to maximize time-on site and “likes”?
What if dating apps measured their success in how well they helped us find what we’re looking for instead of in # of swipes?

As technology gets more and more engaging, and as AI and VR become more and more prevalent in our day-to-day lives we need to take a look at how we’re structuring our future.

Time Well Spent is a movement to align technology with our humanity: timewellspent.io

Director, Co-producer, & Visual Effects: Sander van Dijk: sandervandijk.tv

Writer, Co-producer & Lead Actor: Max Stossel: maxstossel.com

Production Company: Yacht Club Films

Director of Photography: Conor Murphy

Color: RCO

Music & Sound Design: Wesley Slover –

Steadicam Operator: Kyle Fasanella

Graphic Artist: Aaron Kemnitzer

CG Artist: Joseph Pistono

Visual Effects Assistant: Chelsea Galen

Roto Assistant: Regina Morgan-Munoz

Lead Actress: Crystal Lee

Advertisement

Territory Studio’s UI Design for Guardians of the Galaxy.

In the world of film production and CG effects, there is a separate world  of motion designers that craft user interfaces for on screen displays. They are a unique group of individuals that craft high-tech, or LoFi looks for the film industry from scratch. What they uild has to be unique, creative, convincing, and blend with the overall look and feel of the film. In many ways, these teams are creating another character for the actors to interact with. When it’s done right, it can be absolutely mesmerizing. This work is complex, involved, highly detailed, and time consuming to produce.

For Guardians of the Galaxy, Territory Studios produced a multitude of screens for the entire movie. They developed everything from dancing particle systems, to unique type faces that are used in the on-screen displays. Below is a sampling of some of the unique UI systems they created, along with a show reel of the total. The link above takes you to Territories site, where there are a number of still frames that really highlight the quality of the work they did for this movie.

The MIll, “D&AD 2014 Title Sequence”.

Over the last two decades, the quality of desktop created 3D animation and CGI work has grown by leaps and bounds. The animation below was created by the Mill for D&AD’s opening title sequence. It was built in Cinema 4D, utilizing physics simulation and manual animation methods to achieve the working components of  the rube Goldberg Machines. Not only was it created using desktop software, it was done with a small crew of animators and editors, which is another tribute to just how far computer generated design has come in the last couple of decades. This is really nice work with solid editing, sound s=design and animated sequences tying it all together. For full details on the process of how this was made, click the link above.

Design & Animation Studio: Mill+
Executive Producer: Luke Colson
Producer: Oana Anghel
Design Director: Nils Kloth, Douglas Bowden
Senior Art Director: Douglas Bowden
3D Lead: Oliver Harris
3D Artist: Matt Whitewood
2D Artist: Nils Kloth
Audio Track: Angell Sound

It’s All In The Details. LAIKA/house for Jose Cuervo Tradicional.

LAIKA/house and a crew of more than 60 created “History in a Bottle”, the sixty second spot below for  Jose Cuervo Tradicional. Working with McCann New York they have created a bit of magic here. I say magic, because when you watch the spot you have no idea just how much work went into the final production. That is why I included all the behind the scenes footage as well as the making of video below it.The production on this spot is truly epic, and it is the definition of “you get what you pay for”. More often than not, when working on any kind of video you are asked to create something spectacular with a less than spectacular budget. LAIKA/house pulled out all the stops on this and it shows. Hat tip to Jose Cuervo for going big budget and hat tip to LAIKA/house for such amazing production value in the finished spot.

Credits:
CD.Director: Kirk Kelley
Executive Producer: Lourri Hammack
Executive Producer: Jan Johnson
Producer: Julie Ragland

Production Coordinator: Jenn Catalino
Production Assistant: Megan Sweigert
Creative Director: Kirk Kelley
Art Director: Alan Cook
Character Designer: Michelle Lin

Production Designer: Christopher Appelhans
Concept Artists: Huy Dang, Kristy Kay-Jones, Joyce Lee, Michelle Lin, Manddy Wyckens
Matte Painters: Jenny Kincade, Manddy Wyckens, Stephen Bodin
Storyboard Artist: Fred Fassberger
Character Fabrication Lead : Katie Mello
Set/Prop Fabrication Lead: Rob Mechior
Sculptors: Christy Becker, Julianna Cox, Kameron Gates, Tony Merrithew
Moldmaking: Matt McKenna, Mattzilla Duron
Character Painter: Sara Neiman, Jessica Bronk
Costumer: Margaret Meyer, Elodie Massa, Jessica Rogers

Set/Prop Fabrication: Greg Boettcher, Mattie Bowden,Brian Capati, Lisa Chung, Ans Ellis, Gary Logue, Paul Mack, Katie Mello, Chris Ohlgren, Matt Perna, Alison Potvin, Daniel Strong, Emma Van Halsema, Andres Piedrahita

Set Painter: Richard Brian Capati, Leigh Jacobs
Scenic Painter: Loren Hillman
Wrangler: Elecia Beebe, Morgan Muta, Sarah Frechette
Production Assistant: Jaime Ginesky, Annarose Williams, Alex Webster
Art Department Manager: Erica Johnson

CG Lead TD: Terence Jacobson
Previs: Kameron Gates
Modeling: Allan Steele, Josh Tonnesen
Texture Artist: Josh Tonnesen
Lighting Artist: Frank Ritlop

VFX: Karl Richter

Director of Photography: John Nolan
Animator: Chris Ohlgren
Motion Control: Josh Livingston
Gaffer: Jake Hauswirth
Rigging: Rob Melchior
Grip: Brandon Lake
Stage Manager: Erica Johnson

Production Assistant: Annarose Williams
Editor: Michael Corrigan
Flame Artist: Rex Carter
Smoke Artist: Leif Peterson
Tape Op: Dino Coons
Post Production Manager: Cam Williams

Live Action Production Company: LAIKA/house
Director: Kirk Kelley
Executive Producer: Lourri Hammack
Producer: Elliot Freeman
Director of Photography: Eric Edwards
Production Designer: David Sicotte
Live Action Set Construction: Department of Art

Company: McCANN NY- Erickson
City, State: New York, NY
Global Creative Chairman: Rob Reilly
EVP, Chief Creative Officer: Thomas Murphy, Sean Brown
SVP, Group Creative Director: Mat Bisher
ACD/Art Director: Vi Loung, Nic Howell
ACD/Copywriter: Colin Iisley
Copywriter: Sarah Lloyd, Mike Howard
Director of Integrated Productions: Nathy Aviram
Sr. Producer: Jessica Coccaro
Executive Music Producer: Peter Gannon
Music Producer: Mike Ladman
Client Lead: Elwyn Gladstone
SVP, Gr. Account Director: Lauren LaValle, Matthew Rakow, Rachel Heiss