Golden Wolf Signs with Free Agents for US Representation
July 22, 2024
More smile-inducing 3D character animation work from Supinfocom students complete with the mandatory manic chase sequence and a scene-stealing narcoleptic ninja Granny. “Escarface” was co-directed by Eva Navaux, Burcu Sankur, Vincent Meunier, Lionel Arnold, Dario Sabato, Pierre Plouzeau. [Watch]
Nexus directing duo Smith & Foulkes swept the film festival circuit and collected an Oscar nom for best animated short when they unleashed “This Way Up,” their 10-minute, CG slapstick ode to death, hell and dogged father/son perseverance back in 2008.
Now online for the first time, the film’s charm proves timeless with insightful character work, masterful dark-comic timing, sombre atmospheric design and a delightful/definitive vision of the underworld. [Watch]
Halifax character designer/director/animator Joel Mackenzie fires up a full-on barrage of his skills for indie-rocker (and fellow Haligonian) Rich Aucoin’s new track “Yelling in Sleep.”
Mackenzie sums up the plot like this: “A reformed lumberjack must harness the power of nature in order to fight an 8-bit mutant wasp monster that is destroying his friends and his home.” [Watch]
ManvsMachine‘s fertile relationship with Nike continues with the design and execution of this intense, geometry-heavy 3D work – the centerpiece for the launch campaign of the Mercurial Superfly football boot. MvsM also handled the campaign’s print and in-store retail assets which you can see here with some behind the scenes insights. Superb audio by Resonate. [Watch]
Ringling College students Michael Bidinger and Michelle Kwon hit every beat perfectly in their graduation film, a four-minute romantic comedy called “Jinxy Jenkins, Lucky Lou.”
The refined character design, animation subtleties and clever story arc (combined with the breezy original core by Mason Self and sound design by Nick Ainsworth) make it easy to forget you’re watching a student film and not the trailer for a new Disney feature. [Watch]
The Method Design team in New York twist classical Middle Eastern architecture into a hyper-detailed and carefully lit 3D broadcast promo toolkit designed by Danny Yount and Prodigal Pictures for FX Network’s new drama “Tyrant.”
According to Method: “The abstract frames will allow for the addition of text elements and a set of transitional elements were also provided. The artists paid particular attention to creating a detailed version of the logo treatment which is revealed front and center. The Method crew’s toolkit included Maya, V-Ray and Nuke.” [Watch]
The four members of new French directing collective Brutus (Thibaud Clergue, Aurélien Duhayon, Sébastien Iglesias and Camille Perrin) all graduated from the animation program at the Arles campus of Supinfocom in 2012 and just dropped us their first short film: a grindhouse-flavored concoction of speed and death called “Horde.”
“We tried to find an original look for this film so we mixed different kinds of renders. We also mixed different kinds of animation like a pose to pose in 12 fps for the characters, and a more fluid animation for clothes and props. We mainly used 3ds Max with V-Ray, Mari, Flash, Photoshop and After Effects.” [Watch]
No doubt time-lapse films are everywhere these days and some say the time for time-lapse has lapsed. But director Timothy Melville and cinematographer Nathan Kaso are out the convince you otherwise with this sweeping branded film for Australian car maker Holden, shot over seven nights across the wilderness of Tasmania.
“We travelled over 2,000km through the barren hills of Queenstown, to the vibrant streets of Hobart and finished on the dolerite plateau of Ben Lomond National Park. We captured nearly 20,000 still images, shooting from dusk until dawn and averaged just four hours sleep per day.” [Watch]
LOL and NSFW, The Onion nails it with this behind the scenes “Sneak Peek At Ninja Turtles’ Hyper-Realistic CGI Genitals.” Laugh (and cry) here. [Watch]
All is not what it seems in the aptly named “Scale,” a lovingly rendered 3D short directed by Annie Hua, Arthur Graff, Kevin Monnier and Ouirich Bounthavy in pursuit of their Master’s degree at ATI in Paris. Music by Alexandre Chaigneau. [Watch]
French directing duo Quentin Baillieux and Raphaëlle Tinland (aka Parallel) strike an artful and atmospheric balance of 2D and 3D techniques in this online brand film animated by Ann lou Erambert for Italian watch makers Anonimo who carve (rather than cast) the cases for their timepieces out of solid brass. [Watch]
Paris directing collective PLANKTOON (aka Sun, Alban, Fabrice, Alexandre and Sebastien) step outside their usual realm of fun/colorful 3D character work for this powerful monochrome fundraising appeal created for French AIDS charity Sidaction thru Passion Paris and Leo Burnett. If you have kids of any age, it’s hard not to get caught up in the drama of the vignettes. [Watch]
TBWA\Media Arts Lab references everything from The Simpsons and Pac-Man to the Cookie Monster, Hello Kitty and the Beats logo in this highly likable ode to the love users have for their MacBook Airs. Lovers of Separated at Birth (like myself) will enjoy pointing out the similarities to a certain Google Play spot produced by The Mill earlier this year…
Zeitguised, Berlin’s grand masters of cool weirdness, help launch Odiseo Magazine No.4 with this clip called “sim | stim” which they describe as “a cargo cult of sensual nano-alchemy.”
Commissioned by independent Spanish CD Carlota Santamaría, and creative directed by Santamaría and Albert Folch for Odiseo, the film “celebrates temporary mummification of the body by engaging in an erotic relationship with shape changing clouds of synthetic material.” [Watch]
