"HOW TO TIE A BOW TIE" by The Hill-Side

After watching this amazing stop motion tutorial from The Hill-Side I still don't think I could tie my own bow tie....but that's more my fault than their's. However, I'm truly convinced all step-by-step instructions should be done through stop motion now.

The Marathon

Finally got around to making another MeanMug & Slim short, and believe it or not it isn't gun related!  Lisa, my girlfriend and the inspiration for MeanMug, is running the Glass City Marathon this Sunday.  For those that don't know the Glass City is the nickname of my hometown Toledo, Ohio.  Just goes to show how close MeanMug & Slim is to my real life.

Vincent Glielmi

I was recently turned onto the work of photographer Vincent Glielmi.  His body of work, attraction to odd and simple things, and overall framing and composition reminded me a lot of how I take pictures.  I especially loved his Midwest Landscapes series (being from the Midwest I can confirm this is what it generally looks like)  and his Comicon series.  My girlfriend once had a photography assignment at a similar convention and it was a blast.  With his quirky sense of humor and wide framing, Vincent managed to capture the spirit and pride of these convention goers with intimate portraits while also sneaking those in between, out of context moments that put conventions of this sort into perspective.

Midwest Landscapes

The Con

Riley Cran

Some inspirational icons and design from designer Riley Cran.

Norton - Stuff Anthem

This animation from Psyop is the perfect example of a piece that could have been achieved with a  simple, slick, iconic explainer animation. However, by embodying the story into this cute character we are able to take the storytelling to a whole new level which in turn made the importance of "stuff" that much more believable.  Through this technique the viewer can relate and empathize with the character, instead of just being talked at.

Ghana

Some seriously clever art direction and style from Gyimah in this short piece inspired by growing up in Ghana. I've never been there, but this piece definitely paints a colorful picture.

11Eleven, "Ritual"

Really digging the texture and style of these short pieces from The Fox and King. They focus on little moments, but they are powerful none the less.

The Anatomy Of Owen Wright

A new take on an old style from Indoek in this piece that highlights the anatomy of professional surfer, Owen Wright. I say a new take on an old style because the whole video seems like something I saw in an encyclopedia 20 years ago. That feeling is only magnified by the black and white and slightly dusty feel of this piece. However, Indoek has made that style current with their lovely animation and beautiful photography; I love the mixture of both.

ING - Numbers

Lovely little spot for ING from Eran Hilleli. Simple and elegant, but I really love how the characters interact with one another.

Kevin Dart

Finding the work of Kevin Dart is kind of like finding one of your grandpa's old Playboys in the attic. Pure awesome.

8th Tehran International Animation Festival 2013

Some wonderful character animation from Hadi Tabasi to promote the 8th Tehran International Animation Festival 2013.

Adobe - CMO Explainer

I must say that I love these creative animations that use Rube Goldberg machines to tell their story.  It's a fun and clever way to take the viewer on a journey.  This particular piece was done by VeracityColab to introducing Adobe's marketplace for CMOs.  They explained that the piece had to be done in a week so I'm curious to know if they used Newton to speed up their animation process, because the animation looks quite smooth.

Super Hero Quick Change Test

I recently had the luck of doing some character animation at work. This is something I do a lot in my personal work with MeanMug & Slim but I haven't really had the opportunity at my current job to do any serious character animation because most of the time I'm doing more infographic type stuff. This particular client lacks creativity in their documents and power point work so the idea was to design a Clark Kent/Superman character to create a visual metaphor for where they are currently in their business (boring and drab) to where they need to be (super in everything they do.) Hopefully they dig where I'm headed and I can continue creating animations with him.

Toh Kay - With Any Sort Of Certainty

I've always admired Scott Benson as an animator, because at the foundation his characters are rather simple in design. However, he manages to push 2D storytelling and animation to a whole new realm. This music video for Tomas Kalnoky is no different.

80's

Wonderfully nostalgic 80's title animations in all their metal, neon, gritty glory from Jarred Hageman. 

NOTE TO VIEWERS: Watching this video WILL give you a mullet.

Sparkles and Wine - Teaser

Simple execution from Nacho Guzman that yields amazing results. It's amazing to see how much light position truly does affect the way we perceive the way someone looks.

Moniker creates crowd-sourced music video for Light Light

Brilliant and highly interactive idea from Moniker for Light Light's new song, Kilo. I could tell you all about it but you should just follow the link and experience it for yourself.

 CLICK HERE

Daft Punk ft. Pharrell - Random Access Memories Teaser

Haven't been this excited for an album release in a long time.

Photo of the Moment - Untitled

Untitled, a photo by emilyupsidedown on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Print.

Computer program that learns to play classic NES games

You heard it here first folks. Or maybe you didn't, and if that's the case you should be looking at something else on my blog. Computer programmer Tom Murphy has created a program that learns to play NES games and win....with some interesting results. I don't claim to understand half the math that went into creating this but Tom's commentary and examples are pretty entertaining. I could watch a computer learn to play videogames all day.

30 Days of Animation

One of these animations pops up every now and again, but I always seem to love them. Geoff King created an animation for every day in March and below is the result. His attention to subtlety and detail are what bring out the personality in his characters. I could learn a lot just from watching this over and over.

National Geographic - 80's Ident

BUCK is going totally 80s with this new ident for National Geographic's “80’s the Decade that Made US”. They were tasked with telling a story of the American experience in the 80's and I think in 15 seconds they did a pretty amazing job. I love the watercolor animation as well as the audio track that pairs it. Everything comes together on this piece and it shows.

Emporium Arcade Bar 8-Bit Promos

I always love 8-bit animations and this one from OPTIMUS DESIGN for Emporium Arcade Bar in Chicago is no exception.  We all know booze and gaming go hand in hand, but I think we're all waiting for the first "coffee house" arcade lounge if you catch my drift.  There would be a lot less controllers thrown anyways...

Meetformer

I really like the color palette and isometric cartoony style of this informational animation from Roman Vyshivanov.

Illusions (part one)

Really intriguing concept from Animal on the subject of Illusions.  Now I have always had an affection toward the weird and unexplained, so a video on illusions was right up my alley to begin with.  The first thing that stood out to me about this piece was the voice over.  It fits so well.  I love how it sounds like it's from archival footage.  I also enjoy the mixture of found and animated footage.  However, what I found best about this piece is that it could have ended half way through and achieved what I thought it was going to, but then it goes into a much deeper and unexpected place in the second half that I honestly got a few chills.  Well written and I'm looking forward to the following 7 films.

Photo of the Moment - Hyatt Cinema

Hyatt Cinema, a photo by cito17 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Abandoned movie theater in my hometown.

Light Speed Car

A really fun animation from Marcus Melin. The smoke effects are really great in this piece. I especially love Melin's process; he makes illustrations and puts them on Dribble, then if he gets enough likes he animates them. Seems like an interesting way to make small projects.

After Effects: Cineware & Cinema 4D Lite

As many people are finding out, the next version of After Effects will have Cinema 4D integration.  This is huge news and will be a much easier way for motion graphics artists to get 3D work into their animations. Learn more about it in the video below.

LAB[U]

Lovely animation from The Workroom on sustainable cities.  Really enjoy the design and use of space in this piece.  There are a lot of moving parts all working together, much like a city, and I think that really helps to pull the whole thing together.  It's especially great when you understand something that isn't even in your native language.

Windows

Absolutely entranced by this animation from Conor Whelan on that happy loneliness one often feels while traveling alone.  Expertly captured through the use of windows.

Patrick Moore

Great logo, icon, and text design from Patrick Moore.

McDonald's - Roller Coaster

Buck being Buck....this is just so awesome.  Something about putting a cheeseburger through a retro filter just always makes me happy. It's almost more American that apple pie.

365 - January

Wonderful concept from The Brothers Mcleod: One Film. One Year. One Second a Day. Follow the daily progress here. Watch more 365 here.

Eclipse

I posted the making of this piece a long, long time ago.  Somewhere along the way it got lost in the shuffle, but I've rediscovered the full version and it's amazing.  Love the pacing, style, and overall ambiguity of this piece from Gobelins.  I feel the pacing really goes hand in hand with the feeling of outer space; slow and quiet.  I also enjoy how the environment almost looks like a topographical map with all the line work.  Great piece, I could see this being much longer, but keeping it to 3 minutes was just as effective.  Let the viewer make their own conclusions.

Konami (Alphabet Test)

I really enjoy this animation and video from Bryce Wymer and Justin Demetrician. Letter animation like this can be a great tool for those situations where imagery just doesn't work. Sometimes just throwing text on screen can be a little stale, so coming up with your own animated alphabet can really help. I'm planning on doing something similar on an upcoming freelance project so this is a great reference.