Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Culture » Animation

SubWars Animation by Beijing-Based Sean Soong

Alex Mathers — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:36:31 +0000

Beijing-based animation student and illustrator Sean Soong has created this engaging and gruesome short animated film that comes with a message that many of us who use urban subway systems can relate to.

We like the strong characterisation and gritty texture to the piece. We look forward to more from this talent.

Jeremy Kool’s ‘The Paper Fox’, Digital Characters Growing into a Children’s Story

Philip Dennis — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:04:38 +0000

Jeremy Kool’s series of digital characters are part of a project that has been recently gaining a lot of momentum. The work with the working title, ‘The Paper Fox’ started from a small personal project, beginning with just the fox.

Jeremy enjoyed it so much that he decided to expand it into a children’s story, teaming up with his sister, who is an already published fiction writer.

Not one to just sit on the idea, he was proactive with getting it off the ground, using the community fund-sourcing website, Pozible. Not only has he already exceeded his funding goal, but the project has been feature all over the place, including in Digital Arts and 3D Artist magazines. He tells us more about the actual creation of the characters and we get a sketchbook peek.

To create a character: I start with a lot of reference. I scour the web for different angles of the animal I’m creating. I collect photos, diagrams, skeletal images (where applicable) and study them. Then I take these and simply sketch over them to break out the main forms. Once this is done I take my sketches into Maya 2012 and build them in 3D.

One of the most challenging things about the paper animals is keeping them simple, it’s very easy to get carried away with details. The more detail, the less they look like paper. Simplicity is key.

Once the character is built, I apply some paper textures which convey extra detail and give those lovely paper crinkles and folds.

Finally, after I’ve tweaked the model and textures and I’m happy with the character, I go about manipulating the creature in an interesting pose and rendering it out!

The Shins: ‘The Rifle’s Spiral’ Stop Motion Animation Directed by Jamie Caliri

Alex Mathers — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:47:37 +0000

Jamie Caliri and team have created a fascinating gothic style stop-motion animated music video to accompany Portland-based band The Shins’ recent track: ‘The Rifle’s Spiral’. We really like the creative use of materials in the piece, that includes playing cards, rough paper, string, clay and playing cards. Enjoy!

Clever ‘Where Things Come From’ Animated Short from Hardy Seiler

Alex Mathers — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 09:29:29 +0000

Enjoying the beautiful clean animated short from Hannover-based Hardy Seiler. He created this as part of a degree project for a fictional educational television programme. Particularly striking is the inventiveness of each new segment of the film. We hope to see more of this guy in the future!

Sci Fi and Fantasy Characters and Gifs of Darwin Yamamoto

Alex Mathers — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:57:59 +0000

I’ve been recently following the fun updates of personal illustrations and short animated gifs of Darwin Yamamoto. I’m always intrigued with the cool stuff he comes up with, especially the things inspired from his love of playing video games.

As a former designer at Microsoft Bing, currently working at Google, his work is executed with a clear sense of design too. Can you recognise any of the characters in the profiles?

Animation Studio Buck Short Film for Oxfam and Goodbooks

Alex Mathers — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:07:33 +0000

LA and New York-based graphics studio Buck have created an extremely fresh-looking ‘Fear and Loathing’ inspired animation for Oxfam promoting the charity: ‘Good Books’.

We love the colour choices in this, not to mention incredible motion design that makes up a very well crafted piece.

Traditional Poncho Designs Meet 8-Bit Retro Graphics in Plenty’s Intense Video

Philip Dennis — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:56:39 +0000

Using cutting-edge techniques, art and motion direction company, Plenty bombard our senses with this wonderful, visually intense opener for an IDN magazine DVD. 3D projections are used to make patterns dance around in neon vibrancy as shapes seem to morph and disappear in front of our eyes.

The Plenty team had to work within a tight time frame and encompass the issue’s themes of mappings, projections, 8-bit and pixels. They decided to blend the themes along with their own inspirations from poncho designs and ancient indigenous graphites to create what they called a Latin American cocktail.

Using a 3D realisation of a single pixel as their base, they wanted explosive colours working to a great rhythm. They tell use more about the company.

Mariano Farias and Pablo Alfieri, Plenty’s owners, have been in the market for about 10 years. In March 2010 they joined forces and created Plenty, an art and motion direction company based in Buenos Aires and they put together an elite team integrated by designers, illustrators, 2D animators and 3D artists that allows us to work with different techniques that go from hyper-realistic 3D to stop motion and traditional animation, and anything in between.

Although at the beginning we focused on TV Branding (worked for FOX, MTV, AXN and LIV among others), we now want to expand to the advertising market. We have walked our fist step with Schweppes, Vodafone, Chandon, Bic and Doritos, and there’s a long way to go!

Danae Diaz’s Caffeine-Fueled, Delicate Animated Illustrations

Alex Mathers — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:13:28 +0000

I’m really liking this beautifully crafted animation from illustrator Danae Diaz and animated by Benjamin Karré entitled ‘Caffeine’. The film’s thin line work and isometric perspectives make it very delicate and a pleasure to watch, with a cool and very appropriate soundtrack.

Erwin Kho’s Fantastical Digital 3D Illustrations

Philip Dennis — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:18:41 +0000

This wholly modern fantasy world was created by Rotterdam-based Erwin Kho as part of the exhibition, ‘Far from Fong’, which presented work by six Dutch/Chinese artists in relation to two pieces by fashion designer Fong-Leng. We like the contrast of the soft pastels against the sharp, geometric edges of his 3D digital designs. We find out more about how he constructs his work and how this project came about.

“The image depicts the trials and tribulations of a lonely sea-drifting iguana and his avian companion. A storm launches them from their home island into the open ocean and through the currents they end up influencing life and eventually the course of evolution itself on distant islands.”

“For my illustrations, I use a low-polygon look which was inspired mainly by 3D video games. This is all done in Cinema 4D. Most of the objects are drawn manually point-by-point and then connected with polygons. I could also start from geometric objects, but I’ve found it more difficult to achieve a free look that way.

For the coloring, I use simple materials that mostly consist out of a color and a specular channel. By using polygons selections (C4D geeks will know what this means), I can isolate parts of an object and give them a different color/material, which is perfect when you need, for example, rings around a tree trunk or spots on an animal’s skin.”

“Also, some minor Photoshop color tweaks are applied on the final render, to really bring the image to life.”

Line Drawings to Colour Animation: ‘Tiji Colour’ by Akama Studio

Alex Mathers — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:07:02 +0000

I stumbled on this wonderful animation sequence by French animation studio ‘Akama‘, based in Paris. The opening few sections made me think of ‘colour by numbers’ painting as a child, and has got me itching to get drawing and painting again. Hopefully this short video will inspire you too.