cgnews

Bicoastal creative production company Stardust Studios recently produced a set of wondrous new brand ads for the New York Stock Exchange via Minneapolis-based advertising agency Fallon. The campaign’s three animated spots, consisting of a :60 entitled “Portal Universe” and two :30s entitled “Brand Products” and “Brand Listings,” debuted on Sept. 17 during ESPN’s broadcast of Monday Night Football (MNF), and will continue to air during MNF and other high-profile broadcasts into November.

“We’ve done a lot of work with Fallon before, including last year’s New York Stock Exchange listing spots,” said Stardust’s founder and creative director Jake Banks. “This year, to take the campaign in a new direction, Mike Gibbs and his team wanted to create an epic, three-dimensional, metaphorical world for all these different offerings from the New York Stock Exchange, like futures, bonds, equities and options. They wanted this really interesting take on the content… not straight 3D, not ultra- realistic… a little bit of stylization and lots of visual surprises.”

“Because Stardust had already done extensive work for NYSE listings commercials, their familiarity with the brand’s vision really gave us a jump start on this project,” said Gibbs, Fallon’s group creative director. “Credit goes to the client as well for understanding the need to stand out visually, especially in the insanely cluttered financial category.”

Banks also explained that everyone in Stardust’s Santa Monica and New York studios contributed during the project’s early phases, before he and senior art director Kinda Akash combined their efforts with other members of Stardust’s staff to see the campaign through.

To lock-down the specifics of the visual storytelling, creatives from Stardust and Fallon collaborated extensively. “The worlds created were clearly very abstracted,” Akash explained, “so we had to make sure they were also conceptually strong – so that knowing nothing about Options, or everything about them, you would understand the metaphor of the never-ending drawers exchanging calendars. We worked very closely with Fallon’s team to really tie the graphics and story together, maintaining the feel of an epic journey throughout.”

The first step of Stardust’s production workflow was to make a pre-vis of the entire spot, laying down basic placement of objects in scenes and exploring camera moves. Next, animators and modelers mapped out each world with low-resolution basic models, and completed models were swapped-in as animation progressed. “Compositing was our final step, and we spent a lot of time affecting the straight CG, giving it a more dreamlike appearance,” Akash added. Given the complexity of the scenes, Akash also explained that a team was put in charge of monitoring the renders. The team used Photoshop and Cinema4D for design work, Maya for pre-vis, animation, lighting and rigging, and After Effects for final compositing.

“The biggest challenge on this project was the length of the animation itself,” Akash continued. “At the end of the design phase, we had seven worlds that spanned from an outer space scene and an underwater world to scenes high above the clouds… all to be addressed in 60 seconds. The whole project became a short film of sorts; we were always going back to the story, trying to strategize against time. In the end, very few things were sacrificed, and we’re all stoked with the final result.”

Along with Mike Gibbs, the agency’s creative team consisted of art director Daniel Burke, copywriter Paula Biondich, head of broadcast Vic Palumbo, producer Amanda Revere, account supervisor Mark Belot and account director Drew Hack. Stardust’s credits include executive producer Mike Eastwood, producers Lindsay Yacura and Amber Ventris, designers 3D artists Joseph Andrade, Brian Broussard, Kyle Cassidy, Chris Eckardt, Forbes Hill, Hai Ho, Robin Roepstorff and Sam Sparks, and online editor Michael Merkwan.

Campaign music was courtesy of Elias Arts, with POP Sound mixing “Portal Universe” and Modern Music handling the final mix for the two :30 spots. The featured voiceover artist is Henry Strozier

About Fallon Worldwide
Fallon Worldwide, one of the world’s most critically acclaimed, creatively driven branding companies, manages the consumer voice of some of the world’s leading brands, including Sony, Nestlé Purina, TIME Magazine, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Asda, National and Alamo Rent-A-Car, and Orange. Fallon Worldwide is a global network of Publicis Groupe, based in Paris, and 500 employees worldwide. The company has offices in Minneapolis, London, Singapore, São Paulo and Tokyo. Additional information can be found at www.fallon.com.

About Stardust Studios
Stardust is an award-winning creative production company, specializing in motion design, animation, visual effects and live- action production. Led by founder and executive creative director Jake Banks, Stardust’s Santa Monica and New York offices continually redefine creativity for commercial, on-air, music video and in-store presentations. Their recent work – including projects for the world’s top ad agencies, brands and recording artists – has earned numerous awards and worldwide editorial exposure. For more information, please visit www.stardust.tv.

Credits:
AD AGENCY: Fallon
CITY/STATE: Minneapolis, MN
GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Mike Gibbs
ART DIRECTOR: Daniel Burke
COPYWRITER: Paula Biondich
HEAD OF BROADCAST: Vic Palumbo
AGENCY PRODUCER: Amanda Revere
ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR: Mark Belot
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Drew Hack

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Stardust Studios
CITY/STATE: Bicoastal, USA
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Mike Eastwood
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jake Banks
ART DIRECTOR: Kinda Akash
PRODUCERS: Lindsay Yacura, Amber Ventris
3D ARTISTS: Joseph Andrade, Brian Broussard, Kyle Cassidy, Chris Eckardt, Forbes Hill, Hai Ho, Robin Roepstorff, Sam Sparks
ONLINE EDITOR: Michael Merkwan

MUSIC COMPANY: Elias Arts
CITY/STATE: Santa Monica, CA
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Jonathan Elias
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ann Haugen
COMPOSER: Christopher “Kimo” Kemp

FINAL MIX: POP Sound
CITY/STATE: Santa Monica, CA
MIXER: Tim West

VOICEOVER ARTIST: Henry Strozier

Popularity: 3% [?]

View Slideshow

Network branding agency Troika Design Group will be launching an on-air rebrand for MHD, the high definition all-music television network that combines programming from MTV, VH1 and CMT. Troika handled creative development, design and production of a 35-second image spot entitled ‘Creation,’ three 10-second IDs, an on-air promotion toolkit and a logo bug system, all based on an elaborate ‘music mythology’ that will be the foundation for network promotions into the future. MHD¹s new identity is set to debut in 2008.

“We loved the collaboration with Troika. They totally understood our vision of showing a mythical place where music is experienced as never before,” said Phil Delbourgo, SVP Brand and Design, VH1. “Rather than rely on the clichés of a high tech medium, they brought it to life with a rich organic palette and beautiful animation that showcased the best of what HD has to offer.”

Troika worked with VH1 Editorial Director Traci Terrill and Senior Writer Beth Wawerna to conceive a series of vignettes that tell how music came to be. Inspired by the Tower of Babel and The Book of Genesis and influenced stylistically by Indonesian shadow puppetry, the MHD package demonstrates Troika¹s approach to branding a television network with character animation and storytelling, and highlights its capabilities working in HD.

The company also wanted to provide viewers something new upon repeat viewings, so lead designer and illustrator Heather Kim incorporated multiple layers of surprising music iconography within the design of the characters and environments. Details include a gazelle¹s headdress made from audio cables, boom-boxes that reveal themselves to be rocks, and a fish-like creature that rides a motorcycle made from instruments. And like Indonesian shadow puppets, these characters have purposefully articulated limbs and artful hand-cut surface designs, and move in a crude, but expressive puppet-like motion.

“Because MHD is broadcast in high definition and in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, this gave us the opportunity to push the visuals and audio to the absolute maximum,” said Dan Pappalardo, Executive Creative Director and Partner, Troika Design Group. “The creative team came up with a concept called ‘Music Myth’ and an elaborate doctrine of mythology explaining the origins of music and its transformative effect on the world; how it energizes and enriches our lives. Then we set out to invent a cast of mythical musical beasts to tell this story.”

In the image spot ‘Creation,’ ogre-like drones, following a great calling, toil day and night to build a monumental tower from discarded music instruments from long ago. In an offering to the gods, one drone hoists an amplifier to the top of the completed tower and raises it to the sky. Suddenly, lightening strikes and the earth splits. Out from the fissure erupts a visual and auditory symphony of creatures that deliver music to the world, transforming it from eerie and oppressive to a strangely magical place full of color and light.

Three 10-second IDs offer glimpses into the genesis of hip-hop, country and rock. In ‘Scratch,’ thunder brings sub-bass into the world, as Egyptian and African-styled birds chirp to the sound of a DJ scratching vinyl. In ‘Fiddle,’ fiddle playing devils spring from the earth and jam in a country music style, while the ID ‘Drums’ shows raindrops inspiring a griffin to introduce rhythm into the world. The ‘Creation’ spot and IDs all close with the declaration, ‘Let there be music.’

The actual production process involved sketching the characters and environments in pencil, then scanning these at 600 DPI and painting them digitally using Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. The painted characters were deconstructed as separate limbs, projected onto 3d geometry and animated using IK (Inverse Kinematics) skeletons. Modeling and animation were done in Autodesk Maya, compositing in MAXON Cinema 4D, and final color adjustment and atmospheric effects done in Adobe After Effects.

About Troika Design Group
Troika is an award-winning design company known for producing memorable visual brand identities. Based in Hollywood, Troika combines a unique hybrid of skills with a team of more than 25 designers, producers, animators, editors and conceptual thinkers who specialize in network branding, promotional and advertising campaigns, and show packaging.

Founded in 2001 by industry leaders Dan Pappalardo, Mark Bohman and Chuck Carey, Troika is one of the premier providers of strategic design and creative production for television. The company¹s approach to design is clever, thoughtful and focused, delivering standout concepts while remaining faithful to a client¹s brand ideals. Troika has worked closely with top television and cable networks including The CW, FOX, ESPN, HGTV, E! Entertainment, Animal Planet, Food Network, ABC, NFL Network, Fine Living, VH1, TV Guide Channel and NBC Sports. For more information, please visit www.troika.tv or call Robert Blatchford at 323.965.1650.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:
VH1 Brand and Design: Phil Delbourgo
Director of VH1 On-Air Graphics: Dave Perry
Design Director, VH1: Jim Fitzgerald
VH1 Editorial Director: Traci Terrill
Senior Writer: Beth Wawerna

Troika Design Group
Executive Creative Director: Dan Pappalardo Lead Designer / Illustrator: Heather Kim Original Concept: Michael Mikulec Executive Producer: Holly Eddy
Producer: Neil VanHarte
Producer: Robert Bateman
Animator / Compositor: Maziar Majd
Animator / Compositor: Craig Stouffer
Character Animator: Ben Hendricks
Designer / Animator: Huy Dang
Design Assistant: Mindy Park
Design Assistant: Marc Juon
Animator: Mark McConnell

Music
Composer: Rob Cairns

Popularity: 3% [?]

View Slideshow

Framestore NY was a first port of call for the J. Walter Thompson agency and its Oscar-winning team headed by director Barry Levinson with cinematographer Bob Richardson. The creative group asked Framestore NY to act as a virtual architect and limitlessly extend the set to create the look of a vast and glowing retail environment.

With the aim of re-energizing the legendary Macy’s brand, the lively, comedy-driven campaign features a spirited rush to put on a great show for Macy’s customers. From the start, a Framestore NY visual style was locked in to highlight exclusive star designers including Martha Stewart, Mark Ecko, Russell Simmons, Tommy Hilfiger, and Kenneth Cole as well as celebrity brands such as Sean Combs, Jessica Simpson, Usher, and Donald Trump.

The crane shot for the opening and end shots of the Macy’s spots had to be transparent and allow Levinson and Richardson as much creative freedom as possible while shooting. The practical set of the atrium was built having a ground floor and mezzanine floor (that was suspended) but extending only 16 feet deep. To create the vast Macy’s store that existed in the minds of Levinson and the agency creatives, the set had to tracked and extended by the team at Framestore NY. In addition, the designer boutiques existed on a 60X60 set, with no walls or ceilings. Framestore’s challenge was to integrate these areas in a continuous seamless visual, giving the viewer the sense of being inside the store.

“Barry Levinson’s team wanted Macy’s to appear as a grand store that was never-ending,” says Framestore NY senior producer Laney Gradus. “Framestore was selected to bring the concept to life.”

This was done via 3D set extension, as virtually everything beyond the small practical onstage set was built in CGI to look real. 3D Technical Director Jenny Bichsel pointed out, “Everything beyond 10 feet above ground level to the mezzanine was nonexistent and there were no walls anywhere. Virtually everything beyond the basic set had to be built in 3D.”

Lead Flame Artist Maryanne Butler says, “It was important to give Barry and Bob unrestricted freedom to shoot on set. That required more work from our end but it was the most vital work of all.” Framestore NY collaborated in-depth with Levinson during the filming and took extensive visual notes on display cabinets, the designer areas and the set itself.

Bichsel continues, “Vast amounts of reference photography were taken. We built and designed our own detailed set in 3D and extended it to what appeared to be at least two hundred meters beyond the physical set.”

All told the Macy’s spots took two full months for Framestore NY to wrap.
Elemental duties included deep prep into 3D tracking (Matchmover Pro) matched to onset camera action. Preliminary texturing was done in Adobe Photoshop. Several weeks of production focused on modeling, final texturing, and lighting (Autodesk Maya) of a vast library of Macy’s objects that included complex walls, displays, furniture, mannequins, racks, and track lights. Equally important was the 3D art direction led by Bischel.

In the end, the Framestore NY visual stamp fills every spot in the Macy’s campaign and is basic to its success. But it’s not the kind of vital work that calls attention to itself. In fact, Framestore NY’s many achievements were invisible.

Such “invisible” results are rare praise and a sign of a task well executed within the visual effects trade. Butler says, “When people look at our visual effects work and say things like ‘what did you do’? It’s the highest compliment that can be paid in our industry.”

ABOUT FRAMESTORE CFC
Framestore CFC was formed in December 2001 through the union of two of the most creative and dynamic companies in the industry: FrameStore and The Computer Film Company (CFC). The company is now the largest visual effects and computer animation company in Europe, with over 30 years of combined experience in digital film and video technology.

www.framestore.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

View Slideshow

Released last month in the US and on 24th August in the UK, 1408 is a chilling tale of a spectacularly inhospitable hotel room, based on a Stephen King short story. The Lorenzo di Bonaventura production is directed by Mikael Håfström and stars John Cusack. The cinematography is by Benoît Delhomme, who returned to Framestore CFC for the film’s Digital Intermediate.

After his daughter died, Mike Enslin (John Cusack) became obsessed with the paranormal, particularly the ‘other side’. But after years of being a writer and investigator on the subject he has found nothing and is a hardened cynic about the supernatural. Then he hears of a possible subject for his new book – Room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, New York City. Mike is determined to prove that the rumours surrounding the room are fakes by staying in the room himself. He cannot be dissuaded – though even the hotel manager, Mr. Olin (Samuel L Jackson), tries to warn him off. Mike is having none of it; that is, until Room 1408 shows him its true colours…

1408 is the third film that cinematographer Benoît Delhomme has lensed and brought to Framestore CFC, with the company previously supplying the DI on The Proposition and Breaking and Entering. Delhomme – frequently joined by director Mikael Håfström and editor Peter Boyle – spent much of a three week period perfecting the film’s looks at Framestore CFC. He worked, as before, with Framestore CFC Senior Colourist, Adam Glasman.

“It was an interesting project,” says Glasman, “Because of the narrative constraints. All but a few minutes of the film’s action takes place within this one room – though the room itself undergoes quirt a few changes. Benoit’s lighting took care of much of the atmospherics, but together we were able to develop this in the grade.”

“There are three basic different looks for Room 1408,” Glasman continues, “Firstly, the ‘normal’ one, which is how the room starts out and what it reverts to periodically throughout the film. This is quite warm, apparently lit by the numerous lamps and lights around the room. Secondly, after the heating malfunctions the room grows hotter and hotter, and for this we warmed up the grade somewhat. Later still, it first rains then freezes, so we enhanced the lighting change with a cool blue, desaturated look. We were also able to enhance particular shots – for example, there’s a scene where the room has been burned and wrecked, and there are golden beams of sunlight shining through the ceiling. I was able to desaturate the room and also bring out the shafts of light, complementing the lighting.”

A re-shot ending meant additional grading work and a lot of reconforming for the Framestore CFC team – but that’s all part of the room service!

1408
An MGM release of a Dimension Films presentation of a Lorenzo di Bonaventura production.
Director Mikael Håfström
Cinematographer Benoît Delhomme
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura

For Framestore CFC
DI Colourist Adam Glasman
Producer Maria Stroka
Additional Colourist Brian Krijgsman
Conform Editor Stuart Nippard
Scanning and Recording Manager Andy Burrow
Scanning and Recording Dan Perry, Jason Burnett, Joseph Hoare, Veronica Marcano, Jimmy Saul
Editorial Donna Smith
Data Operators David Johnston, Rafiqur Khan , Simon Wessely
Retouch and Restoration Louie Alexander, Adam Hawkes, Aaron Lear, Nick Stanley, O’Dean Thompson
Film Mastering Engineers Kevin Lowery, Yan Jennings
Digital Lab Engineers Jerome Dewhurst, Ian Redmond, Eric D’Souza
Executive Producer Jan Hogevold
Head of Digital Lab Ben Baker

www.framestore-cfc.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow

Method Studios recently joined the marketing blitzkrieg surrounding the release of Microsoft’s Halo 3, collaborating on a remarkable new set of spots that bring a whole new ‘look’ to one of the world’s most popular combat games via T.A.G/Mc Cann Worldgroup. Directed by MJZ’s Rupert Sanders, Method collaborated very closely with the production company on a massive diorama, populated by more than 1000 figures sculpted by master modeler Stan Winston. The spot aired September 16, 2007.

The flagship spot, “Believe,” is a surprisingly graceful, almost dream-like ground-level tour of a battlefield frozen in a moment of a time – a “memory museum” diorama depicting a brutal battle.

These are not CGI animations or screen shots of the game; this is a real, hand-sculpted diorama, but as the camera moves through the suspended carnage, we see an eerie level of detail: explosions caught in mid-detonation, weapons firing into flailing bodies, faces frozen in expressions of fear, determination, and agony. The effect is emotional and almost hypnotic, successfully depicting the truly immersive world that is Halo’s trademark experience.

“Microsoft and T.A.G/McCann Worldgroup came to us with the concept of the diorama,” said CG Creative Director Laurent Ledru, “and Rupert moved the idea along. He wanted to do something very moody, to try and get emotion out of these figures, where typically you wouldn’t feel too much emotion at all. The thought was to do something epic, very cinematic, and the fact that nothing moves, except at the very end, makes it even more powerful. It’s really not what you expect from this kind of advertising.”

How They Did It
Rupert and VFX Supervisor Cedric Nicholas knew that the key to making this project work would be in the planning and previsualization of the complete shoot, from the design of the diorama through the final shot sequence. “Technically,” Cedric said, “it was pretty straightforward, but we had to think about everything in advance of the shoot.” So the Method team worked with Halon to previsualize the entire spot in CG.

“We built a complete CG environment in 3D before the real thing was started,” Laurent said. “We decided where to put the streets, how many buildings and figurines and tanks and explosions to have. By the time we locked it down, we knew how many figurines we needed, what kind of poses – everything that would be needed to go into the fabrication phase.”

The size of the diorama itself became a major issue. Normally, constructs like this are the size of a large tabletop or sandtable, and the figures are no more than an inch tall. But that small scale would have limited the amount of detail that could be achieved. “It couldn’t be done with one-inch figures,” Cedric Nicholas said. “Instead an oversized diorama was created, 30 feet long and 40 feet wide, and the figures were eight inches tall.” New Deal took on the task of building the set and it was there the diorama was shot in a room that was 75 feet long and 60 feet wide. Ultimately the set and motion control rigs completely filled the space, with barely enough room left for the crew.

“From the beginning, the intention was to have the viewer think this was an ‘old-fashioned’ diorama, only to be surprised by the level of detail and emotion in each figure,” said Laurent. “It was about scaling. Rupert wanted to have the feeling the figures were one inch tall but overly precise, so the diorama was shot with a maximum depth of field, so you have the feeling that the figures are much smaller than they really are. Instead of thinking you’re looking at a 40 foot diorama, you’re looking at a 10-foot one.”

The figures themselves needed equally close attention so master modeler and puppeteer Stan Winston and his artists hand-built each of the diorama’s 700 to 1,000 figures. To add an even greater level of realism, Winston’s team used scans of individual human features for each face. “All the marines’ faces are scanned from real people,” Laurent said. “You’re going to see Rupert Sanders’ face many times in the spot, as well as Agency Creative Director Scott Duchon, MJZ Producer Laurie Bocaccio, and production supervisor Alan Scott. To add even greater on-set flexibility, Winston’s team fully or partially articulated many of the foreground and midground figures.

The final, carefully planned shoot involved massive bluescreens that went all the way to the ceiling, the huge diorama itself, and two separate motion-control rigs – an eighteen-fot rig on one side, and a 12-foot rig on the other. The shoot itself was done extremely slowly – 1 fps — and with painstaking attention to detail. Some of the long zoom/dolly shots that appear in the spot actually took more than 30 minutes each to complete.

Ultimately, the crew laid off 48 different shots in a shoot that lasted three days; the entire project was completed in less than three weeks. “The only way to make this work is to be 90% ready when you actually shoot it,” Laurent said. “If you do less on the prep and more on the post, that’s when you tank.”

In the final analysis, there is a small amount of CG in the final spot. “We have a couple of the Marines with real eyes, to give them a little bit more depth,” Laurent said. A few reflective light effects on helmets and visors and a CG grenade were added in post as well, and the soldier’s head that appears at the very end of the spot was animated, to give it a more realistic movement. But the dreamy impact of the spot overall is achieved through the hyper-realistic look of the miniatures and the diorama itself.

As far as the Method team was concerned, the real triumph of “Believe” was not the use of any new technology, but the flawless combination of many techniques and talents. “What’s unique in this project is what has been used to make it happen. All are techniques that are known and have been used on many projects, but we drew all those things together. Apparently that has never been done before,” Laurent said.

Microsoft was very pleased with the final re-imagining of the Halo world – so much so that they packed up the diorama and took it home. “It’s been cut into parts and transported,” Laurent Ledru said. “I believe they plan to display it – maybe not entirely, but in bits and pieces.”

To view the spot please visit: www.methodstudios.com

ABOUT METHOD
Based in Santa Monica, California, Method is a visual effects artists’ studio specialized in the production of digital imagery for commercials, feature films and music videos.

More information may be found at www.methodstudios.com.

Credits
XBox Halo “Believe”
Airdate: September 16, 2007

METHOD
VFX Supervisor: Cedric Nicholas
Lead 2D Artist: Cedric Nicholas
CG Creative Director: Laurent Ledru
2D Artist: Jake Montgomery, Sarah Eim, Kyle Obley
3D Arist: Sean Durnan, Matt Wheeler, Chi Wei Hsu, Chris Smallfield
Jr. 2D Artist: Ryan Raith, Zach Lo
Jr. 3D Artist Matt Longwell
Shoot Supervision: Cedric Nicholas
Producers: Luisa Murray, Lisa Houck
Pre-Viz: Halon

AGENCY: T.A.G/McCann Worldgroup, San Francisco
Executive Creative Director: Rob Bagot, John McNeil
Creative Directors: Scott Duchon, Geoff Edwards, John Patroulis
Art Director: Nate Able, Tim Stier
Agency Producer: Hannah Murray
Copywriter: Matt Bunnell
PRODUCTION CO.: MJZ
Director: Rupert Sanders
Executive Producer: Lisa Rich, David Zander, Marcia Deliberto
DOP: Chris Soos
Producer: Laurie Bocaccio
Miniature Landscape: New Deal Studios
Miniature Figurines: Stan Winston
Production Designer: James Chinlund
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Andrea McArthur (Peep Show, London)
Assistant Editor: Paul Plew
Executive Producer: Cristina DeSimone, Liv Lawton
Producer: Tricia Sanzaro
Telecine Co: C03 Colorist: Sean Coleman
Music Company: Stimmung
Performer: Mike Lang
Composer: Frederic Chopin
Composition: Prelude in D flat Major, Op. 28, No.15
Audio Post: Lime Studios
Audio Mixer: Loren Silber

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow

Element, the creative-driven design boutique led by Creative Director/Partner John Yu and Executive Producer/Partner Paul Goldman, recently created a series of super-graphical interstitials for London Live, a weekly music show seen on the recently launched on Mojo HD, the new high definition music channel seen on the iN Demand Networks. The show will feature the talents of such artists as My Chemical Romance, The Killers, Amy Winehouse, and Badly Drawn Boy, among many others. Element incorporated some creative use of the Mojo HD logo, combining vibrant graphics and live action music video footage into a treat for the senses.

“Mojo is a new channel and they were after a trendy, young audience and wanted a strong, stylistic look,” explains Yu. “We took some of our favorite music videos and dressed them up graphically, using a somewhat neutral color palette, but exuding a cool look together with the bold and integral presence of the Mojo logo. The result is a visual language connecting the music and the channel.”

Each interstitial opens with the Mojo logo, rendered in a different bright color and against a flat black background. As the shot widens out, the logo proves to be just one of a multitude of identical logos, collectively forming a hand held microphone. As the microphone turns and points toward the viewer, we are smoothly transported into a world featuring a single, simply animated musician displayed in rudimentary colors. Backed by the beat of their song, the animated figure becomes a live action character in a snippet from a popular music video. Returning to the animated world, the Mojo logo transforms into the initial two letters in “London Live.”

“To get the specific style we were after required a seamless, yet rhythmic transition from animation and live action, it had to be very precise. It ended up being quite time-consuming. We pride ourselves on determining our clients’ specific needs and finding the best designers and design solutions for those needs. Our working philosophy is to be as flexible and diverse as possible, according to our client’s interests.”

About Element:
Founded by Creative Director John Yu, and Executive Producer Paul Goldman (also Ear Goo Music founder/creative director) Element specializes in conceptual motion graphics, for advertising, television and multimedia. The company’s current work includes a campaign for Verizon Business services (on-air, print, online), VOOM, In Demand Network and insert graphics for ABC Sports presentation of Super Bowl XL.

www.iamelement.com

Click Here to View the Video

Popularity: 3% [?]

View Slideshow

Writer and Director Michael Cahill called on international animation studio LAIKA to create a special dream sequence for his film ‘King of California’. The film stars Michael Douglas as Charlie, a former mental institution patient, whose return home throws his daughter’s life into chaos. Charlie’s daughter is played by Evan Rachel Wood.

Cahill required LAIKA to produce the animation utilising the woodblock technique and to illustrate the delusional state of Charlie’s mind. LAIKA’s Creative Director Kirk Kelley, who directed the sequence, said “We used as our inspiration the brilliant and quirky work of Terry Gilliam. We also tried to extend the film’s dark humor into the animation, while maintaining the feel of the printed page coming to life.”

The result is a stop-motion piece that travels through a medieval Spanish village teaming with pests, torturers and heretics. The entire scene is made up of many layers of action, but centers around a paper cut-out version of the character Charlie.

The film is due for release worldwide throughout September 2007.

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow