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dotmogo best animation VFX & Motion graphics of 2011 results

January 27, 2012 by Tim Rabjohns | 0 comments

Well we’ve finally compiled all the votes sent in to us by various key figures in UK motion graphics, animation and VFX as well as the dotmogo team and fans of the site. You can see the original post with all the candidates for the categories here

Interestingly some categories were very closely contested and some were complete landslides – It was mainly compiled from the best of what we have had on the site over the year – we are always happy if people want to send in submissions – especially if they were originated in the UK or Europe…

anyway here are all the well deserved winners:

TV branding category: Double G Studios with their T4 Robots

Commercial graphics: Saam Farahmand’s “Machine” for Soulwax

Best TV promo: Red Bee & Elie Zaccour - Art Revealed for the BBC

Best Outdoor Event Graphics: The Darkroom’s Goodwood projections

Best VFX: The Mill’s work on the latest Primeval series

Best Animation Short: Team Cerf’s Meet Buck

Best 2D animation: Sander Van Dijk’s Pausefest

Best experimental graphics: Stuart Sinclair’s Macro Lens Experiments

Thanks to everyone who participated in this poll – we thought it would be fun to let the motion graphics/animation/VFX pros decide who they like best – if you don’t agree, then maybe post a comment…

As I know you are always up for some eye candy and because I included all the videos from the winners in the previous posts – I thought I wouldinclude this amazing outdoor graphics show from Amsterdam’s Mr.Beam:

Made for the 10th anniversary of the Photography Museum in Amsterdam (Foam). The main concept behind the show was initially inspired by the work of the four guest curators (Jefferson Hack, Lauren Cornell, Erik Kessels, Alison Nordstrom) lead by the questioning title: “What’s Next For Photography?”

Credits: Projections – Mr.Beam, Audio Composition – Arjen Jongeneel, Tech: BeamSystems

Momoco – classy Great Expectations & Copelia titles

January 20, 2012 by Tim Rabjohns | 0 comments

Momoco is arguably one of the most prolific UK studios specialised in creating main titles for film and tv. Their body of work includes many main titles for tv shows, such as the crime drama Luther (BBC), the BAFTA-nominated titles for Misfits (E4) and a long list of film titles like Love Actually, Johnny English, Hard Candy and recently The Three Musketeers.

I was watching a spot of telly over Christmas and saw a very classy title sequence for the latest adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectations so I thought I’d find out a bit more…

Tom Bromwich from Momoco told me more: “We follow the birth and death of a butterfly. In beautifully textural 3D, the creature bursts out of the cocoon, unfurling its fragile self into a dark world. As the sequence progresses we see intricate filigree tattooed onto the wings, growing like creeping ivy. Eventually the tattoos start to envelop the entire wingspan, patterns over patterns until the creature is blacked out to an eerie silhouette of itself.

The sequence parallels the lead character’s evolution, and echoes the theme of transformation in the book. The end of the sequence with the deathly black butterfly is more in touch with Dickens’ original ending - where Pip and Estella don’t live happily ever after. However his publisher made him change it – typical eh?

Tom told me it was made primarily with 3DS Max and after effects as a motion graphics piece. However originally they started off with alive action shoot of some butterflies, but it made the feel of the piece a bit “dark”. Hence in the end they stuck to CG animation to have more control.

Credits:Designed & Directed by Nic Benns, Lead 3D Artist: Rodi Kaya, Titles Producer: Tom Bromwich

I also wanted to show you their stunning opening sequence for their very own Copelia project – a 21 minute film which has featured in 10 international festivals.

This multi-award winning dark but beautiful fantasy stars Ralph Brown, Vincent Regan, John Standing and Olivia Williams. I havn’t seen the movie yet – but the opening is very beautiful – and reminded me of album covers made by 23Envelope for the Cocteau Twins on 4AD. There is a handy little montage of that here

BBC Art Revealed Season with Elie Zaccour

October 25, 2011 by Tim Rabjohns | 0 comments

I was recently sent this BBC Art Season Trailer by Elie Zaccour (in association with Red Bee). He had a simple concept of filming the raw materials of painting, ie paint itself, for a season of programs about art and the process of art. As he put it “we can unravel the mystery surrounding painters and their most valuable tool, along with the vivid human responses that can be aroused by various uses of colour, form and light. For example, through the use of light, speed of movement and tone, the colour blue can plummet from the literal freedom and release of a sun-drenched sky to the abstract depths of despair; a bloody red can drown a room with existential angst in the hands of Rothko then, in a heartbeat, soar to being the essence of vitality and passion on the end of another painter’s brush.” This campaign was recently awarded the overall Eyes and Ears special prize for Creation 2011 as well as being in Creative Review and selected as Best In Book (the highest accolade they give) in the advertising category.

Continue reading “BBC Art Revealed Season with Elie Zaccour” »

CG Whiz competition – with chance to work for The Mill

October 21, 2011 by Tim Rabjohns | 0 comments

This is a very cool competition – CG Whiz is back for its third consecutive year and this time it’s bigger and better than ever. With over £20,000 worth of prizes and the opportunity to work with The Mill up for grabs, this competition could provide amateurs and young professionals with a passion for computer graphics (CG) the lucky break they’ve been waiting for.

The top prize for the “Amateurs” category is a 12-week visual effects (VFX) classroom course, either at Escape Studios’ academy in London or Los Angeles, followed by a 12-week placement at The Mill. Runners up will also receive a selection of mentored and online courses and a license of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite for Education.

The top prize for the “Young Professional” category is an Escape Studios ZBrush for 3D Artist online course, a Hewlett Packard (HP) Pavilion laptop and a showreel review by the panel of judges. This category has been introduced this year to provide an opportunity for young professionals with some experience to boost their career development.

Continue reading “CG Whiz competition – with chance to work for The Mill” »

Saudi Football identity by Turquoise

October 19, 2011 by Tim Rabjohns | 0 comments

Recently we were sent this nice looking football sequence called All The Action made for the The Saudi Professional League by Turquoise. This is the main football competition in Saudi Arabia and this season STV sport has, for the first time, exclusive coverage of all the games throughout the entire season.

I had a chat with Alan Lo, creative director & designer of the project to find out how he arrived at this look. He told me “as this is the first year the STV were covering this league they wanted a real impact. The visuals represent a journey throughout the season – starting with the empty stadium.”

To me this is a bit cooler than the typical UK sport graphics because it is a bit more abstract than your average UK sports graphics. This is because the Saudis are very sensitive about showing depictions of people on screen – normally everything is in silhouette. This time player was so treated that it achieved nearly the same effect. I’m not sure why all the words in the background are in English – maybe that gives a more international feel…

He also told me: The visual identity had to be media agnostic to be implemented across television, print and online communications. We developed a graphic language that embodies the explosion of passion from both player and fans.”

Alan was also kind enough to supply a software list for the project:

Photoshop – Artwork on textures, stadium, players
After Effects – for animation and composition with Plexus plug in for the “electric” lines that travel from one scene to another, Twitch plug in to enhance the impact when the camera landed on each scene, and Magic Bullet – for the final grading on each scene, which gives it an extra depth and cinematic feel.

agency – Turquoise, Executive creative director, Gareth Mapp, Design director – Alan Lo, design & animation – Ryan Locke