Judges included Chris and Trish Meyer from Crish Design, and Elaine Montoya and Becky Padilla of the motion group; motion.tv founders. There were over 70 entries from around the globe. The caliber of work was outstanding, which made it extremely difficult for the judges to narrow down to 10-top finalists.

The awards show took place live on motion+connect, Tuesday December 20, 2011 at 7:00pm MST.

The winners and finalists are listed below. 

1st place: Carbon Capture Part 1 – Daniel Gies

2nd place: Squanderpus – Lisa Poje

3rd place: An Introduction to Snails – James Clark

4th place: Answear.com – Unlimited Fashion Store – Mateusz Metelski (Media Ambassador)

5th place: Keep Walking – Noelle and Joy Vaccese (Twins Are Weird)

6th place: The Pack A.D.’s Haunt You – Michael Roberts

7th place: Barcelona 2020 – Ernesto Porto (Ernex)

8th place: Wuerschum – The Meaning of Innovation – Marc Böttler (Motion Fruit)

9th place: Selling Detroit – Nicole Novak

10th place: Ellen’s American Eagle Times Square Billboard – Jonathan Winbush

Happycamper, the Scandinavian, multi-functional, design driven Motion Design duo was awarded the China Mobile project in August of 2011 and we were very excited to get the opportunity to work with a Chinese agency and client. The idea was to produce three spots, a 60 second and two 30 second variations, for their Wireless City-services.

In mid-November they finished everything and the spots aired on December 1st in China.

Their vision was to create a unique world of happiness and warmth by mixing physical miniatures with CG-characters.

They worked out the concept for all the characters with help from talented artist Vaidas Bagonas. The final models were done by Milford.

The displays play a vital part in all the spots. In order to make them blend in with the very analogue feeling, the happycampers gave them a clay-ish, handmade look.

The Animatic

The Shoot

“In September we went to Bristol, UK for a 5-day shoot at the Bottle Yard. We filmed all the background plates including houses, trees and all other inanimate stuff. It was awesome to see the talented artists of Codsteaks work on creating all the small props. Almost like being a little kid again.

It was a truly terrific crew to work with and the catering made us never wanting to leave!” said Andrés Rosas Hott Founder/Director/Creative Director

Watch the China Mobile spot on motion.tv

CREDITS

HAPPYCAMPER

Director: Andrés Rosas Hott
Director: Robert Rosén

STINK

Executive Producer: Daniel Bergmann
Executive Producer: Desmond Loh
Producer: Giles Johnson
Production Assistant: Ni Ding

OGILVY BEIJING

Associate Creative Director: Yun-Sheng Tu
Group Account Director: Li Yu
Associate Creative Director: Gang Ye
Art Director: Jiafeng Wang
Producer: Jing Li

CODSTEAKS

Art Director: Matt Sanders
Project Manager: Renae Cronin
Managing Director: Sue Lipscombe
Art Dir./H.O.C: Paul Drake
Prop/First Aider: Louise Vergette
DoP: Fred Reed
1st Assistant Director: Toby Sherborne
Music & Music publisher: Sharon Chin from Two AM

MILFORD FILM & ANIMATION

Executive Producer: Johan Gustafsson
Production Manager: Martin Widö
VFX Supervisor: John Roxenhed
Model Supervisor: Jonas Moberg
Light Supervisor: Robert Krupa
Animation Lead Artist: Tim Van Hussen
Lighting Lead Artist: Hannes Drossel

Animators:

Antonio Deiana
Martin Joas
Jonas Forsman
Martin Haglund
Christofer Brandtieng
Onni Pohl

Modeling/Texturing:

Daniel Axelsson
Daniel Bystedt
Gustav Tell
Kristian Mårtensson
Kenneth Nyman

Lighting:

Daniel Holmgren
Stefan Lagerstam
Simon Rainerson
Damir Filipovic

Rigging:

Gabriel Pettersson
Serena Tripepi

Compositing:

Victor Sanchez
Ilia Negrescul
Jonathan Harris
Marcus Krupa
Fredrik Höglin
Samuel Schulthess

Match Moving:

Sebastian Ekman
Ilia Negrescul

Broadcast design & animation studio motion504 recently teamed with NBC-owned network, Chiller, to create a comic-book-influenced promo for the upcoming movie, “Remains,” based on the graphic novel of the same name by Steven Niles. The movie premieres on Chiller on December 16th.

Niles’ “Remains,” Chiller’s first original film, journeys to Reno, Nevada where a horrific blast has turned the locals into the ravenous undead. A group of remaining humans takes refuge in a vacant casino and fights a losing battle against the undead, who grow steadily stronger, smarter and more aggressive by the minute.

“We came to motion504 with a very rough edit and asked them to design a visual treatment for the trailer,” says Brian Everett, Chiller Design Director. “The goal was to connect to the story’s (graphic novel) origins, while at the same time capturing all the visceral action the film has to offer. On a rather tight timeline, they created an animation toolkit that’s slick, textural, and really helps elevate the footage. Being that ‘Remains’ is Chiller’s first original movie, it’s been great to collaborate with the team at motion504 and develop a piece of communication that’s both scary and stunning.”

To stay true to the movie interpretation, motion504 Creative Directors Scott Wenner and Amy Schmitt hand-sketched detailed frames from the film itself. As they were illustrating, motion504President / Creative Director Andrew Reynolds began creating animatics and tests, building the sequence simultaneously to accommodate the short timeline. After refining the edit, the three then animated the scenes, giving life to the piece by adding movement and distortions to the environments and zombie characters.

To stay true to the movie interpretation, motion504 Creative Directors Scott Wenner and Amy Schmitt hand-sketched detailed frames from the film itself. As they were illustrating, motion504President / Creative Director Andrew Reynolds began creating animatics and tests, building the sequence simultaneously to accommodate the short timeline. After refining the edit, the three then animated the scenes, giving life to the piece by adding movement and distortions to the environments and zombie characters.

With the short turnaround time, motion504′s hands-on approach worked well, with Reynolds posing as a zombie for a number of the shots, and Schmitt and Wenner using their own hands for reference to create elements.

Dozens of pencil sketches were scanned and colored in Photoshop. Animation was executed in After Effects, using a wide variety of techniques to give life to each scene.

Watch Remains on motion.tv.

Credits
Project Title: “Remains” promo

Client: Chiller
VP Creative Director, Chiller/Syfy: James Spence
Creative Director, Chiller/Syfy: Shea Pepper
Design Director, Chiller/Syfy: Brian Everett
Writer/Producer/Editor, Chiller/Syfy: Dan Frome
Project Manager, Chiller/Syfy: Bill Ikin

Broadcast Design & Animation Company: motion504/Minneapolis, MN
Creative Directors: Andrew Reynolds & Scott Wenner
Illustrator: Scott Wenner
Animators: Andrew Reynolds, Amy Schmitt & Scott Wenner
Executive Producer: Eric Mueller

Tools: Photoshop (initial coloring), After Effects (animation)

About motion504

motion504 is a broadcast design, effects and animation studio specializing in the art of motion. Featuring the talent of senior-level creative directors, designers and animators, the company works for TV, film, music and advertising clients.

With its open studio space, motion504 is built upon the idea of collaboration through communication, critique and contribution amongst its artists and clients.

For the new campaign for Hertz’s Gold Plus Rewards membership, Superfad bathed cities, cars, flowers, and Hertz’s new mascot Horatio in the gilded hue.
 

 

Superfad previously worked with DDB New York on a previous Hertz spot that introduced Horatio in a cameo: This time the agency decided to give him a starring role in “Gold Is Better” a spot also marks Hertz’s first fully animated commercial in twenty years. To expand on the character of Horatio, Superfad went through extensive development to capture both his swagger and his charm.
 

 

A charm that is further added to by the voiceover talent of the inimitable Owen Wilson. Superfad Creative Directors Kinda Akash and Brian Drucker created a friendly, clean look to the Hertz world that is bursting with life, while the 3D team devised a style based on simple geometric shapes. The result is a vibe that’s pure sunshine.
 

 

Watch the video on motion.tv.
 
Credits:
Production Company: Superfad
Creative Director: Kinda Akash
Creative Director: Brian Drucker
Designer: Sarah Ancelmo
Head of CG: Todd Peleg
Technical Director: Jin Lin
3D Animation: Matt Parent, David Dam, Will Robertson
Compositor: Jim Forster
Producer: Dina Chang
Head of Production: Nicole Stevens
Executive Producer: Geraint Owen

For client Hasbro, Gravity has produced a stunning, action-packed, 30-second animated spot which brings the “Battleship Live” board game to life. Gravity produced the spot through agency UPROAR! Zviah Eldar, Gravity CEO/Chief Creative Director, and Bob Samuel, Gravity’s CMO/Executive Producer, made the announcement. The Battleship LIVE spot was part of a larger package that Gravity produced for Hasbro and UPROAR!, which also included spots promoting “Monopoly LIVE” and other products.
 

In the Battleship LIVE spot, we see a fast paced aerial view of a fleet of battleships as they come under attack by a squadron of fighter jets. Seamen onboard the ships retaliate to the attack by firing missiles against the invading air force. Explosions abound as an enormous tower suddenly emerges from the sea, shooting red lasers at the enemy aircraft.
 

Said Samuel, “Almost everyone here grew up playing the classic ‘Battleship’ game, and now, many of us play it with our kids! So the opportunity to work on this spot was exciting right from the start. The fact that this assignment allowed Gravity to create some really kick-ass photoreal military animation was more than enough for us to embrace this terrific project.”
 

Gravity’s Creative Directors Harry Dorrington and Yuval Levy led the team. Dorrington, also Director of the spot, said, “Our goal with this spot was to provide a visceral, highly realistic piece of animation that would serve as a ‘call to action’ so that viewers will visit the website to learn more about the modernized version of this classic game. Viewers will be intrigued and excited by this new twist on the traditional Battleship – which is now electronic and features a massive control tower. We depicted one naval force challenging another in this piece, keeping the fun of the traditional game intact, while notching up the excitement to a new dynamic level. We initially provided our clients with start frames and treatments to help bring this spot to life, and we ultimately delivered a feature film-style reference to the animated battleships, jet fighters, and turbulent seascape within the narrative.”
 

Says Levy, “We wanted to make a strong visual connection for the viewer here, between the classic Battleship board game and today’s modern era videogame play. To do so, we took a videogame cinematic style approach, depicting to our viewers that playing this famous game is still as exciting as it’s always been, but now that it’s been updated and modernized with an electronic tower, the imagination of the player is now even more heightened than in the past. Perhaps our biggest challenge in the spot was to create the CG water and water simulations, presenting the clash of these two massive naval forces in a hyper realistic way. To us, this spot is comparable to a movie trailer for an imaginary film – it presents the buildup to a dramatic war, with the viewer wanting to see how the action will ultimately play itself out in the end.”
 

UPROAR! Chief Creative Officer Erik Nelson said, “We enlisted the help of Gravity to deliver triple AAA video game quality animation for the newest innovation from Hasbro – the LIVE game tower. This new way to play face to face has been built into two of Hasbro’s biggest brands, Monopoly and Battleship. Our challenge was to get kids, tweens and teens to choose this new evolution of board gaming over the vast array of digital gaming options. To make the challenge even more difficult, we were burdened with a lean budget and a tight timeline. The concept was to bring the fantasy of each gaming experience (Monopoly & Battleship) to life in CG, and then introduce the new, all-powerful LIVE Tower to disrupt the action. The result would show the dynamic new gameplay the LIVE Tower adds to each game.”
 

“Harry, Yuval, Russ and the entire team at Gravity delivered in spades,” Nelson continues. “The end product was truly beautiful animation with a very unique look. Our goal of appealing to our target by playing in the visual world of video games lent an authenticity to Monopoly and “Battleship Live” that I believe is sure to drive sales. We are looking forward to the holiday shopping season to see how LIVE performs at retail. Win or lose, UPROAR! will most definitely be working with Gravity again in the near future.”
 

Adds UPROAR! Creative Director Dan Lombardi, “When we approached Gravity’s Bob Samuel about its this live gaming project, we had three issues…1) Timing, 2) Budget and 3 Quality for the Timing and Budget. The Gravity team took on the challenge and never looked back. UPROAR!’s goal was to create a new vision for classic board games like ‘Battleship’ and ‘Monopoly,’ and show how these games are evolving for the next generation of board gamers. Gravity brought an energy and enthusiasm to the project that matched our own.”
 

He adds, “From the first pitch materials to the final cut, Gravity went above and beyond, and never failed to impress. Plenty of obstacles were thrown in their path, yet the Gravity team kept its focus on moving forward and turning out the best commercials possible. When the project started out behind schedule, Gravity forged ahead and continued to churn out top quality animation. Without their commitment and focus on the big picture we would have never been able to have the success we’ve had.”
 

“Harry, Yuval, Bob and the Gravity team brought a ‘can do’ attitude to the project, and a sense of optimism that kept it moving ahead, on time, and on budget. And the results are stunning. We couldn’t be happier with the final output,” Lombardi concludes.
Watch the Battleship LIVE spot on motion.tv.
 

Credits
 

Client: Hasbro
 

Agency: UPROAR! Dallas & New York
Erik Nelson, Chief Creative Officer
Dan Lombardi, Creative Director
Mark Mazut, Creative Director
Mindy Miller Berg, Amy Shore, Agency Producers
 

Production, Visual Effects & Editorial Company: Gravity, New York
Zviah Eldar, CEO/Chief Creative Officer
Harry Dorrington, Director/Creative Director
Yuval Levy, Creative Director
Russ Dube, Producer
Karen Bianca Bisignano, Head of Production
Bob Samuel, Executive Producer
 

Music & Sound Design: Amber Music
Sound Design: Andy Brannan
Composer: Eugene Cho
Music Supervision: Mike Perri
Executive Music Producer: Michelle Curran
 

About Gravity
 

Gravity is an international visual effects, design and brand communications company with proven expertise in three integrated divisions: Features & Television, Commercials, and Digital. With 250 talented professionals across offices in New York, Los Angeles, Connecticut and Tel Aviv, the company is a widely renowned generator of high-end visual effects, creative content, motion graphics design, animation, branding, and digital strategy.
 

The company’s clients include Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Entertainment, HBO, Paramount Pictures, The Weinstein Company, Dimension Films, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Verizon, Pantene, MGA Entertainment, Carlsberg, Kmart, and Braun. Gravity’s recent feature film credits include “Tower Heist,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love”, “The Adjustment Bureau”, “Arthur”, “The Other Guys”, “Salt”, “The Reader”, and “Ghost Town.” The company’s television credits include HBO’s “Bored to Death”, “The Sopranos”, and “Sex and The City.”
 

Gravity has offices in New York and Santa Monica.

And rightfully so! This self-proclaimed 53 year-old man (now going on six) pays tribute to one of THE coolest cartoons ever to spin up the imagination of many a kid growing up in the 1960’s.
 

Roger painstakingly recreates the JQ cast as “3D” characters for his stop-motion opening titles tribute. 
 

This post focuses on the character design for Race, an intelligence operative assigned to protect Jonny after his mother died. Race could fly all types of aircraft, was adept in many forms of self-defense, and was a weapons expert. The Quests held Race in high regard and treated him like a member of the family. 
 

Clearly, Race looks totally different in these two shots yet we know with certainty that it’s Race because of his ever present red flap shirt, even though it occasionally changed into a T-shirt, sometimes in mid-story.
 

Fun fact: According to the documentary about Jonny Quest, the Hanna Barbara animators were not very proficient in drawing human form and had trouble following master artist and JQ creator Doug Wildey’s reference drawings. The HB animators were far more comfortable with stretchy, rubbery characters like Yogi and Boo-Boo. Thus, Race was Race, as long as he had white hair and a red shirt. So we have to decide which “look” to settle on for Race.
 

To start his version of Race, a generic soldier action figure that had a fairly “clean” head was located. His hair line was too high and his nose and eyes would have to be altered during sculpting.
 

Since the neck and body were less than desirable to Roger, he used a separate body to make Race complete. It didn’t matter that the head and body were different colors since they both would be painted later.
 

Super Sculpey was applied to his head to extend his hair line down onto his forehead and to areas on his face to chisel his cheekbones, widen his jaw and added a clef chin.
 

Race’s eyes are colored black with a felt tip pen. Though they will be painted over later, the original eyes looked very realistic and were distracting to Roger during the sculpting process.
 

Here’s the final ‘generic’ version of Race.
 

View the video on motion.tv.
 

Roger will be talking about his Jonny Quest project at motion 2011.
 

Check out his amazing comprehensive ‘making of’ documentation on his website.

nailgun* (known for their deft touch with sports related show opens and packages),  had previously worked with ESPN branding their coverage of all four grand slam  tennis tournaments however, according to nailgun* Creative Director Michael Waldron, this assignment was different.

”The packages we did for ESPN was specific to the ESPN brand,” Waldron says. ”This package had to have its own look, but yet feel right for the many networks that it aired on. The USTA had a package that had been on the air for quite some time, but they wanted to start fresh, which they left it up to us for the most part. The only specific was that there had to be the flaming ball logo, no people so that it could be used for both ATP events and WTA events, and use the familiar blue green hard courts.”

Set to a driving hard rock soundtrack, the new US Open Series show open begins on a shot of the deconstructed USTA logo, as a fiery tennis ball passes through the elements, seeming to come to a rest as the logo appears to coalesce, before hurtling towards the North American territories where the tournaments take place.  The ball personifies the sheer power and prowess one expects to find in the US Series as it takes us through various states of power play before resolving inside the USTA logo.

”The tracking shot of fiery tennis ball was the most intensive in the sequence,” Waldron notes. ”We wanted to convey the speed and power of the modern tennis game. We wanted to be very cinematic in our approach so we made sure that there was a sense of scale. We also played with the speed of the action. Having slow motion sequences with fire is not easy. Fire is not very fluid so it looks choppy when you slow it down, but we came up with a great solution.”

That solution involved the creative use Adobe AfterEffects, Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as 3D animation software Maya.

”Creating hair in Maya is very processor intensive so we ended up making two animated tennis balls — a close-up ball and a distance ball so that way the close up ball was super detailed while the distance ball was much lighter for rendering,” Erik van der Wilden, nailgun*’s Director of Editorial + Animation adds. ”Just the sheer scale of the project was challenging, but so was making the look work, not just for the USTA, but for their broadcasting partners as well. It was very tricky but they all loved the new package and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

Watch the show open on motion.tv.

About nailgun*

Founded by Michael Waldron and Erik van der Wilden in 2003, New York-based nailgun*, is a collaborative of artists — designers, writers, photographers, editors, producers, animators, filmmakers, illustrators, strategists, painters — who’ve come together to create unique visual solutions for clients that include ESPN, HGTV, Spike, VH1, E!, Versus, TV Land, Universal Channel,  Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, Publicis, McCann-Erickson NY and Ogilvy & Mather.

Creative Credits:

Client: USTA

Project: Show Open/Packaging

Production/Animation/Design: nailgun*, New York

Creative Director/Director: Michael Waldron

Director of Editorial + Animation: Erik van der Wilden

Senior Producer: M. Shane Dolly