cellphone caprice

i really love the music to this animation. there are a lot of synesthetic sequences that are really neat. i also just like the choreography of the characters, specifically the lonely pig that flips its phone open waiting for her sweet pork to call her. it's smart and quite telling of our dependency on cellphones and how it affects everyday living.

take on me - literal music video

i love this music video, even without the funny dub. who doesn't?

Sia "Soon We'll Be Found"

This is the music video for Sia's "Soon We'll Be Found." It uses sign language to tell a narrative and does so using about 3-4 different visual styles. But the core theme to keep them unified is the basic idea of sign language: using shapes (particularly the silhouette) in motion to convey thoughts and emotions. They really found great ways to capitalize on the silhouette and negative space, with the movements breathing life into them, to create a really beautiful video. This is what Sia said about it:

The movement and expression just appears, to ignorant-hearing-me as a dance… a beautiful, emotive dance. But the real beauty is that, hidden in these perfect shapes, is communication.

Basically: It's pretty. I like the song too.

They're Really Into Hair

I don't know if the name of this band is pure gimmick or pure awesome, but I dig some of their tunes either way. They're called "Natalie Portman's Shaved Head"....(wtf??) and they have not one, but TWO songs dedicated to hair. Here's one below (may induce seizures btw):


natalie portman's shaved head - sophisticated side ponytail from thatgo on Vimeo.

You can check out their myspace page here. You can find their beard song there.

suburban kids with biblical names

these nerds are on repeat.
they sound like magnetic fields + jens lekman. it's music i would i like to write.



there is something fascinating about those subtly subtle pans. i like.
it's also worth it to listen to these:
loop duplicate my heart (uber nerd song)
trees and squirrels
seems to be on my mind

(time to eat taro ice cream!)

beangrowers - not in a million lovers

this video is kinda like the dude that took a picture of himself for like.. 20 years or whatever and buck's want2bsquare piece. but i think it uses the technique in a really smart way to get the song's point across. it lies in their design decision to simulate real photos from different times and places.. and men. i especially like the lip syncing.

"Like It Or Not" - Architecture in Helsinki

So you think stop-motion animation is hard eh?

Well how about stop-motion embroidery? The stitching and re-stitching of threads over and over for one measly frame of animation. It might be just me, since I'm not very good at sewing, but this has probably got to be one of the most tedious (but definitely beautiful, charming, and well-executed!) types of stop-motion I've ever seen. I definitely need to give props to the embroiderer (embroiderist?)...I take back all the whining I've ever done about claymation.

The last video to be made for the 'Places Like This' era... 'Like It or Not' was painstakingly stitched by The crew at Mathematics (who made the AIH clip for 'Debbie'), directed by Josh Logue and interpreted from a coconut concerned psychedelic love fantasy emanating from the stream of consciousness of Cameron Bird.

Architecture in Helsinki - Like It Or Not from helsinkids on Vimeo.

"True Affection" - The Blow

Here's a song Chris sent me. It's a cute, mellow synthpop song, with wispy vocals and a simple beat. Kind of reminds me of Freezepop's low-tempo songs. Except with less synth, more Casio.

As far as song content goes...I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves. The video itself reminds of my Animation Basics class. Lots of simple, low-budget stop-motion and puppetry. I'd be thrilled to be the squid that nabs that cupcake.



P.S. Speaking of Freezepop, here's a classic song about everyone's favorite "boy" (whatever he is) known as Phillipe. (HUGS!)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

EDIT #1: Because I want to spread the love, and because you (dear, slow reader) missed the boat on this fabulous musical, it is still online at WhedonTube.com. But you should still support creativity by getting the DVD (apparently the director's commentary will be sung!).

EDIT #2: If you've already watched the episodes, but can't get those catchy songs out of your head, the official soundtrack is coming out later, I believe. But if you absolutely need your fix NOW, I'm sure there are streaming-quality rips available for download somewhere.

During the Writer's Strike 2008, Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Firefly fame) got bored. So instead of twiddling his thumbs and worrying about his next paycheck, he decided to get creative. He made a short series of low-budget video "blogs" chronicling an aspiring supervillain, Dr. Horrible; his crush from the laundromat, Penny; and his (douchebag) superhero nemesis, Capt. Hammer.

What makes this different from any other internet video blog is that it's a musical. Also, did I mention that Neil Patrick Harris is the main character? The series is posted for free on the Dr. Horrible website for a week; after that, it gets taken down and is available on iTunes or DVD.

And in case you were too slow, here's a trailer to whet your appetite (or to salt a wound).

"House of Cards" - Radiohead

Here's something for the smart (and savvy SIGGRAPH!) crowd.



Radiohead just released a new music video for their song "House of Cards." Unlike most music videos, this was not shot with a camera, nor animated, nor mographed. Instead, the whole video was shot and made made with LASERS. And cold, hard MATHCODESMARTS. In fact, it's a lot like a scanner that effects studios use when scanning maquette models (i.e., Weta), except the output looks like a Winamp visualization.

From the Washington Post article:

It's definitely not your average video considering that there were no cameras or lights used: it's all data. The video uses real time 3D recording, utilizing structured light and laser-enhanced scanners. Google is hosting the interactive video application at code.google.com and providing an iGoogle gadget for the video and application.

Definitely go to the Google site. Not only can you download the source code to make your own visualizations, but you can also check out the "Making Of..." video and see how they actually did it.

http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/