Posted on September 5, 2014
Nexus directors Smith & Foulkes brew up two-minutes of apocalyptic fun for a serious cause in this broadcast and cinema spot boosting awareness for Stand Up To Cancer, the partnership between Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK, billed as a ‘killer night of fundraising.’
Smith & Foulkes: “The initial brief was to turn the table on cancer, depicting the disease as a civilization spreading aggressively – unable to prevent its own Armageddon in the style of a disaster movie.
“The main challenge was how to visualize the cancer cells. We wanted to steer away from the obvious route of showing cells as a bunch of grotesque alien germs, but we were also acutely aware of not making them too human or cute.”
“We also had to find a way to illustrate the new therapies, drugs and scientific breakthroughs that are fighting Cancer. We wanted their arrival to be initially magical and mysterious. so we used a glowing blue orb, an unexplained light descending upon a shadowy world.
“Disaster Movies rely heavily on vast visual spectacle and a cast of thousands, so working within our time constraints we decided to recreate this using 2D matt paintings to show a sense of the city without having to model every building.
“This gave it an illustrative and richly textured feel. Modeling and animating our cast in 3D gave us the flexibility of performance we wanted, and made them stand out from their environment.” [Watch]
Posted on September 2, 2014
London’s Marshmallow Laser Feast call their sombre yet startling all-CG clip for Duologue’s cerebral “Memex” track “a 3D study of mortality exploring new photographic processes, in this case photogrammetry,” and view the project as the beginning of a deeper study into VR filmmaking.
MLF: “We worked with FBFX and their amazing 94-camera high resolution scanning rig, to create a full body scan of model Beryl Nesbitt. The scans then went to MLF’s long-term VFX collaborators Analog where they snatched a magical moment of the sunset through a window (the Analog Studio toilet), as a spherical panoramic HDR photo.
“These two photographic processes combined in 3D software where the toilet sunset illuminated Berlys Photo scanned form. We wanted to go beyond the limits of the audience’s eyeballs – using 3D to reveal different perspectives on the human form.”
Arvid Niklasson, director at Analog in London: “After we received the high res models from FBFX we started to build realistic shaders for the skin. Obviously the eyes are extremely important in making a 3D person look realistic so we built our own layered eyes and tear duct.
“Another thing we added was subtle hairs on the body. Since beryl is ‘transitioning to death’ we also had to sculpt alternative versions where she was covered in an ash like material.
“Extra to the main model, we also created all the additional pieces for the video like cloth and the rose. Once we’d decided on camera moves together with MLF every scene was lit, rendered & comped in house at Analog.” [Watch]
Posted on September 1, 2014
The first of four new TalkTalk ads thru Chi&Partners finds Nexus directors Smith & Foulkes applying their signature charm and wit to unlikely 3D heroes on an epic mission.
Smith & Foulkes: “The initial idea for this spot started as a mantra shouted by a crew of household objects demanding better and cheaper TV.
“But the challenge was not just about incorporating the emotional connection seen in previous TalkTalk spots into the script, but also about providing pure cinematic entertainment – so we took a slightly different approach, using the cinematic potential of a group of friends setting out on an epic quest to find a house with TalkTalk TV.
“This gave us the comic scope to show our heroic group’s most over-dramatic adventures in a quiet corner of suburbia.” [Watch]
Posted on September 1, 2014
This extended two-minute 3D animated clip for Renault’s diminutive rear-engine Twingo called “Go Anywhere, Go Everywhere” shows off the signature playfulness of the directors, French visual artists Kuntzel+Deygas who you may remember as the talent behind the stand out “Catch Me If You Can” opening title sequence from way back in 2003.
Produced by Kuntzel+Deygas’ Paris prodco called Add a Dog for Publicis Conseil Paris with music by Beck. [Watch]
Posted on August 29, 2014
At first glance, Patrick Clair‘s tasteful, minimalist and dark aesthetic seems a strange design choice for programming as crass and loud as the MTV Video Music Awards, but the contrast between packaging and content is just what this show needed to keep it from spiraling into a rabbit hole of hubris and inanity.
The title’s circular forms extended into the show content as they “exploded into vibrant, crazy generative turbines of color, form and movement – each a unique sculptural signature of the video they represent.”
Antibody and Elastic handled the design for the show’s branding and broadcast design. [Watch]
Posted on August 28, 2014
If you appreciate the power of data-driven animation you’ll love this new view of history tracking the births and deaths of 120,000 people from 600 BC to the present day: “using them as a proxy for skills and ideas, the map reveals intellectual hotspots and tracks how empires rise and crumble.” [Watch]
