Superfad Finds Comic Relief In Red Nose Day Campaign
March 1, 2009Superfad was honored to help the comic relief red nose campaign by taking on the nose animation quota for both the charity and the BBC/red bee’s cross media campaigns.
“Breathing life into the three noses was a lovely animation project, made all the more satisfying in the light of the incredible achievements of comic relief. It also helped that we kind of fell in love with the noses themselves and so channeled that love into making them move in a proper rubber nose authentic way. I think that makes us rubber animation pioneers.” Superfad London
Red Nose Day aims to make a difference to the lives of thousands of people living in abject poverty, or facing terrible injustice, both across Africa and in the UK. From combating domestic violence to assisting people affected by HIV and AIDS, Red Nose Day funds long-term projects that help people help themselves.
Since its launch 25 years ago, Comic Relief has generated over 500 million GBP for numerous worthy causes. The main TV event broadcasts on BBC 1 on 13 March 2009.
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Superfad was founded in 2001 and has produced award-winning work for many of the most respected brands worldwide. Honda, Sony, Target, Adidas, and AT&T are just a few of the companies who have turned to Superfad for inspired branding. RELATED LINKS http://superfad.com/about.php www.rednoseday.com www.comicrelief.com
Framestore Create E*Wings Trade (Superbowl)
March 1, 2009The challenge with the E-Trade baby is – as it is with any well established (and loved) character – to move him on without losing the qualities that endeared him in the first place. Agency Grey Worldwide (NY) and Director Randy Krallman for Smuggler have done this triumphantly in two new spots that they unveiled during the 2009 Super Bowl. 401K and Wings both feature our youthful hero (voiced, as previously, in a superbly laid-back performance by the director) but in each case there is a second character – a golfing rival and a keen amateur vocalist.
“As with Trading and Banking, we had a large task to complete in a very short time. The new elements of a longer monologue and interaction with a second character added to the challenge but, as always, our amazing team of Flame Artists delivered brilliant work.” Laney Gradus Head of Production, Framestore
About Framestore
Framestore has been working in digital film and video for over 20 years now, creating original and astonishing work that has helped make it the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe.
Amongst Framestore’s notable commercial credits are Smirnoff Sea (winner 2007 VES ‘Visual Effects in a Commercial’, The Chemical Brothers The Salmon Dance, Casino Royale – Title Sequence, Vauxhall C’mon campaign , Sure Go Wild, Guinness noitulovE, Johnnie Walker Fish, Levi’s Odyssey and Guinness Surfer.
Rhino & Mackenzie Team Up For Mercedes
March 1, 2009Rhino Creative Director/Visual Effects Supervisor Vico Sharabani collaborated with Director Iain Mackenzie of Paydirt and Merkley+Partners to develop two spots introducing the Mercedes 2009 GLK model, a new smaller, sleeker SUV. The spots showcase the agility, beauty, and functionality of the new model, as it navigates the winding streets of old Italy with ease, squeezing between two semis unscathed, and passing through the trunk of a redwood without a splinter. The beautiful footage, shot by Mackenzie, was enhanced through a Flame color correction system that was specifically tailored for Mercedes by Vico and Rhino lead artist Mickey Gorenstein. Gorenstein developed an eye for Flame color correction working at Gravity Visual Effects in Tel Aviv before moving to Rhino.
The ongoing partnership between Rhino, Merkley+Partners and Mercedes-Benz includes two-dozen design-heavy effects spots, many of which Vico was the Creative Director/Visual Effects Supervisor. Rick continues, “Agencies and directors love Vico, first as a creative director for his eye, and secondly for his contribution and collaboration as a visual effects supervisor. He always looks for director-friendly solutions that guarantee great looking film, never encumbering the shoot. Thirdly, everyone loves Vico because he’s got a great vibe!”
Rhino’s work for Mercedes is the latest in a string of successful ventures for major brands and feature films including recent Golden Globe nominee, The Reader, Dreamworks’ comedy, Ghost Town, Soul Men, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and spots for Cadillac, Verizon, Subway, ESPN and Toyota.
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Crossroads Convey Doom For PS3’s Resistance 2
March 1, 2009Crossroads’ recently signed director Stuart Rideout helms a terrifying tale of Armageddon for the PS3’s Resistance 2 game via Deutsch, LA. The spine-chilling :60 cuts to menacing prophets from various periods in time including: the desert prophet, the oracle, the young Buddhist monk, the blind man, and the voodoo lady; their sensory accounts anecdotally tell the story of impending doom.
About Crossroads:
A multimedia and content creation firm, Crossroads offers a clear vision, innovative leadership, and unparalleled reach into the entertainment talent pool. With headquarters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, and an affiliate office in Toronto, Crossroads has six divisions: Film, Television, Commercials, Music Videos, New Media, and Creative Services. All offer exclusive talent featuring some of the world’s top directors, show creators, writers, and producers.
Founded in 1989, Crossroads has been a consistent leader in the development and production of feature films and television programming, as well as producing award-winning commercial and music video content for top-tier brands, agencies and performing artists.
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Secret Location Launches Game To Support TV Series – I Prophesy
March 1, 2009Toronto-based digital boutique Secret Location has launched a massive, ground breaking immersive multi-player online role playing game to support new TV series I Prophesy. The TV Show: I Prophesy, which launched on January 27th on Vision TV, is a 17-part series looking at potential futures for humanity. Each episode focuses on different scenarios: the world after a nuclear attack, asteroid showers or rising oceans, as well as more positive developments including the rise of nanotechnology and utopian societies.
“The broadcaster didn’t give us a traditional brief, instead they brought us in for a meeting and discussed what they wanted this show to do for their network,” explains Secret Location Founder and Creative Director James Milward. “Joan Jenkinson, head of original programming at Vision TV wanted to create an original way for fans to be able to connect and discuss the topics and issues related in the episodes. They wanted to create a unique community around the subject matter and to expand their audience to a younger demographic. We came back to the network with the idea and they loved it. We went into development with them that day.”A New Marketing Model for TV: The site offers a blueprint for an innovative new marketing tool for TV executives trying to encourage viewers to interact with their programming offline.
“The game was designed specially to integrate sponsorship,” comments Milward. “Sponsors can “clothe” avatars, say with Nike sneakers, or create contextual advertising within specially created positions, instead of obtrusive banners or pre-roll. The site can also be quickly re-skinned to suit any brand or TV show’s particular requirements.”About Secret Location: Secret Location is a creative digital production studio that delivers engaging experiences and products to increase brand experience and audience relationships. Secret Location’s mission is to produce highly inventive integrated creative solutions for advertising agencies, broadcasters and third-party film and television producers. Secret Location works in tandem with independent TV production companies to create content across multiple media platforms and create innovate creative and business solutions. www.secretlocation.com
Royale Elevates Spirits in Discovery Channel Re-Brand
March 1, 2009Motion design and production studio Royale recently completed a comprehensive re-design of Discovery Channel’s on-air look and branding. Playing with the idea of “discovery,” Royale created a high-energy package that exhibits Discovery Channel’s repertoire of stunning show footage and imagery in unexpected ways.
“Royale brought an idea to the table which brings to life the awesome, unusual and authentic moments found in our programming by combining a series of stills with dynamic 3D animation,” says Heather Roymans, Creative Director of Marketing at Discovery Channel. “Brilliant. Working with Royale was such a pleasure; the collaboration came easy. They brought such spirit, creativity and an impressive work ethic to this project.”
“Royale showed amazing technical savviness in creating a simple interchangeable system generating unlimited combination of visuals,” adds Amie Nguyen, Art Director at Discovery Channel. “Their commitment to the quality of their work made the process a strong experience.”The dynamic transitional device, developed by Royale, evokes the magical, elemental nature of experiencing life and learning. Images break into 3D cubes, flipping and unfolding like an enchanted mosaic that reflects the mystery and charm of discovering. Impressed by their promo package for the Discovery Channel show, “Mythbusters,” Royale was asked by SVP Creative James Hitchcock and VP Creative Dan Bragg to refresh the network’s on-air identity and branding.
“We’re all ‘Discovery Channel’ junkies so it was a huge honor to work on this project,” comments Jayson Whitmore, Royale Creative Director/Partner. “Our goal was to create a simple clean package that would visually embody the idea of ‘discovery’ and unify the look of the entire network for years to come. In exploring different techniques, we were able to establish the right expressions of energy and anticipation through the animations.”
“Our design had to carry us from image to image in fluid yet surprising ways,” explains Brien Holman, Royale Creative Director/Partner. “The cube elements were given dimension without being cumbersome or requiring the Discovery team to use 3D to produce. It looks sophisticated, with the cubes seeming to magically come out of the screen, but it is actually a technically simple and easily adaptable system.”
Holman, Whitmore and their team animated everything by hand — parceling the images into squares, and rendering numerous mattes of the correlating shadows. The client could then throw any texture or footage onto the mattes and break up the images into 3D cubes.
“This was a heavy After Effects delivery for us,” comments Holman. “Hundreds of squares can become a mess very quickly so it was key to have good solid animators with keen design sense. We had to determine how the images and storylines would flow from one to another in the most visually compelling way.”
Royale was also tasked with refining the Discovery Channel logo, which had undergone a design overhaul last spring. The studio revamped the network’s signature globe icon, giving it dimension and finessing the typography. The new logo is currently being used across all of Discovery’s collateral materials such as letterhead and business cards.
The comprehensive package for the Discovery Channel includes branding elements, IDs, show menus, transitions, and lower thirds, as well as a generic toolkit of graphics and animation.
“This was such an organic collaboration with the Discovery team,” says Whitmore. “They were calm and trustworthy, and gave us the creative space to do what we needed to do. We greatly appreciated each other’s input.”
“We created a contemporary branding characteristic that is uniquely theirs,” concludes Holman. “It’s the foundation for everything they’re doing on their network now. It was a nice vote of confidence to help evolve such a well known brand as the Discovery Channel.”
About Royale: Founded by creative directors Jayson Whitmore, Brien Holman and executive producer Jennifer Lucero, Royale recognizes that the landscape of advertising has changed drastically within the last few years, and that although the outlets may be changing, the power of the moving image continues to be the most effective way of communicating. Royale’s greatest love is to help solve our client’s advertising needs through the visceral language of motion design.
CREDITS Client: Discovery Channel SVP Creative: James Hitchcock VP Creative: Dan Bragg Creative Director, On-Air Marketing: Heather Roymans Supervising Producer: Sarah Murphy Production Manager: Kevin Lahr Art Director: Amie Nguyen
Production, Design, Animation & Editorial Company: Royale / Los Angeles, CA Creative Directors: Brien Holman, Jayson Whitmore Executive Producer: Jen Lucero Producer: Anne Hong Art Director: Camille Chu Designer: Kyle Smith Animators/Designers: Kevin Tonkin, Anthony Madlangbayan, John Robson Animators: Greg Reynard, TJ Sochor, Levin Sadsad
Syndrome Flies For Dyrdek’s MTV Fantasy Factory
March 1, 2009LA-based directing collective and design/animation group Syndrome just rolled out the show open for Rob Dyrdek’s new MTV show Fantasy Factory. The graphically explosive sequence shows renowned street skater Rob Dyrdek bouncing rapidly through a colorful fantasyland of pipes, ramps, and funnels leading from city streets to twisting pipeworks to the mouth of a lion, among other incredible scenes. Dyrdek’s mascot, Meaty - a mainstay from his original show, Rob and Big - of course accompany him on this rapid-fire montage, joined by new puppy and sidekick Beefy.
Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, which launched on MTV on Feb. 8, revolves around a fantasy warehouse in Los Angeles loaded with an incredible skate park, a giant skate ramp launching into a foam pit, a basketball court, Dyrdek’s office loaded with his massive collection of skate decks, and “Corpo,” a corporate office on the second floor that houses his lawyer, toy designer, and executives, among others. Dyrdek will include a whole cast of characters, including an SUV named Stormtrooper, a three-wheeled car named T-Rex that can outrace a Ferrari, and, of course, his dogs Meaty and Beefy.
“Syndrome killed the open,” said Rob Dyrdek. “I wanted something that captured the insanity of what we’re doing with this show and they nailed it. From the live action skating, to the funky graphics - it really sets up the kind of Willy-Wonka fun that we have on the show.”
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Freebie: Downloads: Palm Tree Texture Set
March 1, 2009Free Download of pre masked palm tree leaves in .png file format. You may use/modify how you like, textures and masks are royalty free. Originally developed for use within the Active Worlds universe and related moo2u projects/photoshop and/or 3ds max training tutorials.
Click each image for full size PNG or you can save/use the resized versions shown here.
Finally the Mask:
