peur[s] du noir

rented and watched this film consisting of french scary animated shorts after seeing gorgeous screen caps online. absolutely gorgeous black and white animation, however, the stories are hit or miss. the last one really captured my fancy because of the play of light and shadow, form and counterform. like the frames being full of emptiness. and it was creepy.

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.

my green crocodile

heartbreaking and beautiful.

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

talk about dot and line compositions from principles class! bocket just shared this with me. i've never seen it before, but i love it, narrative-wise and design-wise.
maybe i won't love a square, but lines are pretty hot.

Laundry Day

This is a student animation project made by Guillaume Chartier from Sheridan College. The synopsis is that a guy's girlfriend finds something incriminating in his pants pocket while doing his laundry...and the genuinely unexpected plot twist that ensues.



I honestly can't stop laughing.

pizza-la

shared by ish.
everyone: thank you, ish!

What does this have to do with airliners?

A friend shared some United Airlines commercials with me today that I thought I'd share with you guys. I'm sure you've seen some if not all of them by now, but I thought it would be nice to have a couple of them collected in one spot. They don't necessarily say anything about their company so much as the experience of traveling or the enjoyment of flying. Still cool stuff.




Here are links to some more:
the meeting
hearts
butterfly
two worlds
sea orchestra
moondust

I'm sure I missed some, but a quick search online will bring 'em up.

"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.

Trembled Blossoms

Advertising Prada's Spring/Summer collection is this colorful video by James Jean. The concept is a bit silly (everything in nature metamorphosizes into a Prada product), but the art style is gorgeous. It reminds me of Okami, Prince of Persia (the new one), or even Odin Sphere. Although the girl walks a bit funny, but I guess you can kinda attribute her to having that "model" walk. The music sounds like Sigur Ros with a female vocalist, but I think it blends well with the video.

Do check out his other artwork on his website. Especially the exquisitely beautiful concept art for this video.


James Jean official website

BBC Olympics Animation

The Gorillaz are no more, but its fun to see these guys still animating. Animation is based on the "Journey to the West", which is something I always hear about, and should probably catch up on.

philip glass for sesame street

i can't believe i watched this as a kid. i remember seeing it and being a little creeped out by the song, but at the same time it was kinda mesmerizing. now, with a thorough graphic design education, i have such a greater appreciation for this! i was actually being fed something pretty complex in terms of graphic systems, color, and music. it's really quite wonderful. i don't know how much influence philip glass had in the visuals or if he had any say at all on what it was supposed to be, but i think it's really cool how sesame street managed to expose kids to artsy conceptual things like philip glass and design principles without them really knowing.

totally rad, i say.

MUTO

Creative stop-motion graffiti animation. I would hate to be the public works department responsible for cleanup.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Dear Beautiful

Oh, the power of traditional 2D animation!

Dear Beautiful (by Roland Becerra) is an animated short film about lotion-gulping zombies and a man's failed marriage. While I could go into further analysis of the story and all such metaphors, I want to point out that the art and animation at times is eerily realistic. At times, I feel as if I'm looking at a photo or live-action shot, only to have something move in stop-motion speeds and tell me that I'd been fooled. The lighting is what pulls it off. Not to mention that the faces are incredibly well-drawn.

Oh yeah, the story's kinda scary too. And it's being made into a movie. Oh, and here's the trailer. But I highly encourage you to watch the short film as well.


Trailer for Dear Beautiful from Quiet Earth on Vimeo.