Director/animator Clément Morin re-imagines Angus Wall’s now-classic 2011 “Game of Thrones” opening sequence to reinforce HootSuite’s prediction of the coming Social Media Winter caused by the “battles being fought between many social networks, who are building walls and blocking access between their [Watch]
Hornet director Yves Geleyn reveals to Stash readers his design and narrative goals behind the powerful new 90-second PSA for States United to Prevent Gun Violence:
“Most commercials would cut on the gunshot, but we felt strongly that we should show it. If it were live-action, broadcasting regulations would have stopped it. Animation allowed us to show the whole scene. People expect the climax even less because of the medium.
“Once we settled on using animation, the key to heightening the emotional impact is in the simplicity of the piece. Less is more. Your brain fills the gaps. You understand that you are in a kid’s room, but it is not filled with too many objects. It is about the mood. This gives more room for the characters to inhabit each scene.
“The character designs themselves are graphic. They have human proportions but in an illustrated way. It is about striking a balance between lovable characters while keeping them realistic so people can project themselves. The family also does not have any sort of key defining characteristics, which helps make them relatable to a wider range of people.
“Speaking in terms of lighting, it is designed in such a way that it points to areas we want you to focus on (something Renaissance painters used frequently). The lighting is sharp. There are no gradients. There are no shadows, just highlights. The lighting helps to build the scene.”
Facts about kids and guns in the US:
• 1.5 million American children live in homes with unlocked and loaded firearms.
• Every day at least 6 children age 0 to 18 are injured in an unintentional shooting.
• 75% of gun shot injuries to children under ten that are serious enough to require hospitalization are due to unintentional shootings. [Watch]
The Japanese delicacy known as hachinoko (baby bee larvae) lends its name to this track from electronic duo Simian Mobile Disco brought to life in a “3D-animated whirlwind of the surreal and humorous” by London creative agency DesignStudio and AD/designer Jack Featherstone. [Watch]
Beautiful exploratory frames from UK studio FutureDeluxe (London/Brighton) created as branding experiments in for Nvidia who asked the crew to development ideas “to demonstrate the computational power and creative potential” of their visual computing technology. “The thread images were created in Softimage and 3ds Max whilst the others in C4D with thinking particles, then rendered in Vray.” [Watch]
And the Award for Best Performance by a Deaf Blue Monster in a Music Video goes to Oh Yeah Wow director Darcy Prendergast who spent three months learning the Auslan sign interpretation of the song’s lyrics then endured a 26-hour shoot on a scorching 40C-degree day after only an hour’s sleep. Co-directed by Andrew Goldsmith. [Watch]
Inspired by the work of M.C. Escher, Japanese woodblock prints and a love of architecture, Monument Valley from ustwo took the iOS gaming world by storm on it’s release last week with a combination of minimal character design, gorgeous pallets and immersive, unhurried gameplay (the total absence of in-app [Watch]
