BIG LG - Large capacity machine advertisement

Michelin Comercials

Google Chrome

http://samhilldesign.blogspot.com/2009/07/launch-arcology.html

Found this image on a blog, (linked above) I really like the look of it and how it ties in to the piece I am doing and its futuristic feel

http://frozenflower.net/?month=5&year=2008

Wallace and Gromit - Aardman Productions

In this Wallace and Gromit short, the duo have started a new bread baking business. While business is booming, the film soon changes pace after a dozen local bakers mysteriously disappear. At 30 minutes, this short is the longest of the bunch, yet among the most entertaining.



If you've seen a Wallace and Gromit film before then you know how precise and detailed they are, with this distinct stop motion animation everything has to be perfect, but with Aardman it always is. From the creation of the wonderful cast to the dramatic storylines/plots.

aM Laboratory - ToneMatrix

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

On the site linked above I have found a cool synthesizer sequencer, similar to that of which the pop artist 'Little Boots' uses.

Its a great little thing to play with and is a very good example of user interface that actively gets you entertained as well as producing the intended outcome.

Obscura Cuelight

This unbelievable piece of technology is found at Esquire's Ultimate bachelor pad in New York, I stumbled across it whilst looking for projection animation. The table works by sensing where the balls are located and move and project the 'design' programmed around them.

All in all this technology is just amazing, I've seen this been used practically on channel FIVE's 'The Gadget Show', where using an Infa-Red powered snooker cue accompanied with programing some clever boffin created; the 'player' was able to precisely know where to hit the desired ball and which direction on the table it would travel.

Obscura CueLight from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Things like this just amaze me, the technological advancements that are being created are ridiculous; i never thought that something like this would be around today especially to buy! Stuff like this just makes you think if consumers can purchase things like this then what kind of technology can military etc develop??

Tilt Shift Videos

These below are called tilt shift videos. Although they may look completely artificial, as if the camera man was recording a miniature model of a town/landscape/construction site; in actual fact they are real environments. When I came across this I was stunned as to how this was done but with a special limited depth of field lens and a bit of time lapse manipulation this impressive outcome is created.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

I really enjoyed these and similar others I've seen on the web, they really communicate a cute and wonderful method of video publication. I really wish I could have the means to have a go at one of these, to try and find a picturesque viewpoint and transform it.

Small Worlds - Preview. from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Daniel 'Mirach' Zak

I saw this also amongst the others on the 3Dexportblog, its basically a killer toaster designed and created by Daniel 'Mirach' Zak. I like 3D renders like this because of the manufactured man made robot look it has, I've been looking at similiar stuff to this for a while as I'm thinking to perhaps have a go and try to model something myself.

man made industrial things quite interest me, I enjoy looking at things like this and feel there is some kind of beauty to metals, glosses, mattes and other man made materials/finishes. Don't get me wrong I do like natural, organic materials also perhaps it would be cool if I could combine the two somehow.


http://www.3dexport.com/blog/2010/04/100-impressive-artworks-of-robots/

World War - Vincent Chai

I found this image on a web page listing lots of digitally designed robots and instantly remembered it from one of the post student animations we all saw at the Cornerhouse last year. I remember this so well because we had to vote for our favourite film from all of the entries and I voted for this one as it in my opinion stood out as the best there.


http://www.vimeo.com/1040894?pg=embed&sec=1040894

http://www.vincentch20.co.uk/index.html

It is entitled World War and features a Spitfighter plane attempting to drop a bomb but unable due to a malfunction, the plane get shot at and has to go down. On its way down it transforms into a robot then has to fight another on the ground.

I liked how well made this animation was as it had a lot of attention to detail in the likes of the background with cars, cones, roadsigns. The camera placement was very good also as a lot of contrasting viewpoints and angles were used. Along with this it had some humour to it to, playing off the character as a cheeky hero against a powerful sluggish brute.

Alarm

This animation is all about waking up with the annoyance of the dreaded alarm, repeatedly attacking ones attempts at catching that all important extra few minutes of sleep but in a playful cartoon-like manor. I liked the way this creation was both realistic and cartoony/playful at the same time, creating that bridge in this film was an important key to its success as well as the beauty of this piece.

I watched this with utter astonishment as the attention to detail and the lighting are ridiculous, its a shame that there are no more videos on this vimeo page because whoever made this is clearly a very talented animator and i would liked to have seen more of his/her works.

Water tower projection animation - Laser Bread

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laserbread/4550929865/

I came across this very interesting animation video online a few days ago, it really impressed me and reminded me of when I was projecting my vine animation onto our door in the Door Brief.

I have seen a few projections in my time but this one really caught my eye with its fun and playful environment. I would very much like to try something this scale and hopefully in the future i might.

Stop motion has always been a bit of a guilty plesure of mine, I love to watch it and love to do it, although it take absolutely forever to get even the smallest of shots
the outcome can be truly fantastic as shown in this video below.

Broken Fingaz -Graffiti Stop Motion from Broken Fingaz on Vimeo.

I love how the characters are interacting with the piece as well instead of it just being flat they push its depth and make it more interesting. This interaction of characters and 3D objects appearing to morph out of the piece really gives it charm and it stands out a lot. Most stop motion pieces similar to this only have the visual of the piece itself but with this one they have real objects, people, fire, the cameras especially using flash cuts and jump ins to exaggerate the feel and vibe of the music.

Royal Navy Advertisement

Justice - D.A.N.C.E.

Although the song itself is not the best thing I've ever heard I just love this music video from Justice, it's the connectivity and rhythm throughout the animation which does it for me, i really like the interactions and diversity between the different designed 't-shirts'. I see this as a great viral for people to link to their friends and receiving almost 3,500,000 views others can too.

Exhibition

Here are some photos of the exhibition we finished earlier on today.


This is where the animation will be displayed onto using the data projector kindly lent to us by graham.

This is where the projector will be positioned on aimed at the door.

This is the awesome organic half to the piece that the rest of the guys made whilst i was in New York and working on the animation.


Again from another angle

Stencils retrieved from the environment

This is an image I retreived from NY, I opened it into photoshop and with a few tweaks of the levels, brightness and contrast was able to convert it into this:

now that I have a clear monochrome image to play with I can print this out and then convert it into a stencil via removing the black letters with a craft knife, always get permission from an adult kids.

now that I have removed the Black from the image a stencil is clearly visible, with this I plan on applying a identical layer on the door using spray paint.

Here are some other images I have taken and edited into stencils:

Exhibition Space

So we all went into the exhibition space today, its looking pretty good. the size is comfy a good 10" x
8.5" floor space is plenty of room for what we intend on doing.

Can't wait to get all set up and ready.

New York - Inspiration

Over the 4 days I spent in New York I gathered quite a large range of urban art/imagery.

I used this collection to help partially design the urban door.



The biggest thing I was looking at was ‘tags’, where as the vandals/artists (depending on your opinion) would sign objects, vehicles, walls. These come in a vast array of sizes, colours and styles, much like that a normal person’s signature.





These appeared almost everywhere in some of the more disadvantaged communities I travelled to whilst visiting the city, and I have to admit I like them.









Along my travels I saw a bike locked to a lamppost on the side of the pavement. The way it incoporated both the organic and urban side as one was brilliant.

Animation

For the urban side of the door we have thought of creating an animation that will simulate the Organic/Natural side breaking through to the urban half. Ive been looking at ways to make this animation after deciding that it will be in a vine form growing/spreading across the door.

as shown here in one of Stephen's illustrations:


here is a test for a method i found where as the snake/vine is made from sections following a 'leader' layer. with this, depending on the texture it is very life like. the movement is just to demonstrate a certain bend, it can be moved in any direction.




I was happy with this animation and wanted to improve it so that the final intended result of the vine growing across the door could be achived, however the scale and time involved in making such an animation made this certain method very time consuming. So I trotted on and after a while found another solution, this time perfectly easy, quick and simple.

This method is called a 'Write-on'. It is an effect performed in Adobe After Effects and is fairly simple.

You get an image, in this instance the urban door with vine. Using the pen tool you draw over the lines made by the vines, making sure multiple animation frames are used for the timing. Once done certain choices can be made to 'reveal the layer behind' - being the image of vines.

here is the tutorial I used incase your interested more
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpqT_bzhiA8

Below is what i came up with:



I wanted my animation to standout and look more visually pleasing as it was just the vines growing out from the letter box, I started to wonder how it could be it better and how i could exaggerate it more.

literally like a flash it came to me, how about after the cameras come out from the vines what if i turn the vines into a neon tube light. As if the organic movement has been taken over by the artificial space and assimilated it.

I looked into this and whilst in NY I managed to take a few images of Times Square, which is renowned for its artificial lighting.


through use of key framing I changed the fill colour to a sharp red and then back to the natural green, I played with this and created several flickers to create the illusion of a real neon light. To accompany this i needed some sound, so i searched on the web and found a suitable noise that i could edit.

This sound was perfect but had one problem, it was just too short. I needed something that would last for around 30 seconds and fluctuate also, so I took the sound and duplicated it looping i on top of itself. With this a minute jump was inevitable but, with the flicker of the neon lighting a bridge was created for this sound to become an advantage.


The finished outcome (turn your speakers up):