DJ Snake & Lil Jon - Turn Down for What

This music video simply kills it on all fronts. I have no words.

Countrylife #3

Really love this animation from Andrea Manzati (illustrations), Aude Danset (animation), and Wesley Slover (sound design). I really appreciate that 3 separate artists created this piece because I think what makes this animation so successful are those three parts working in unison.

Font Men

Really love this short piece from dress code about the work and process of artists Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones.  Fonts are one of those ultra-specific forms of art that most people probably don't stop to think about, but when you break down fonts and the reasoning behind them, you open up a whole world of interesting problems and solutions. I also really love the animation they have sprinkled throughout. I can't think of a better way to illustrate the subtle differences between a single font type.

Coworker Portrait #5

I recently finished another portrait for my coworker. This is probably my favorite portrait I've done yet. She wanted it in the style of Alphonse Mucha, which I felt was semi in my wheel house. The style itself is part illustration part photography, so I figured if nothing else I'd be able to fudge it. Took a few afternoons but I really like how the colors came out and the I had a lot of fun bringing the hair to life.

Bun House Films' "Monkey Man" Behind the Scenes

Ever wanted to know how a Bun House Film is made? Well this little behind the scenes footage my buddy edited will not clear that up for you.

Vagisil "Let's Do Something About It"

These are two simple yet effective ads for Vagisil by Tofer Moran. I really enjoy the character style and color palette of these works. Everything about the whole piece is subtle, smooth, and calming. just goes to show you don't always need crazy effects to make something memorable.

Don't Fail Idaho 'Turning Point'

I've always loved the way BUCK can take small animations and turn them into something bigger through the art of storytelling. This animation could have been created in such a much simpler way, but BUCK goes the extra mile to tie emotion to the piece, which in the end makes it 100% more authentic. It makes you care. That being said the animation itself is smooth as always and I absolutely love the character style at the end of the video.

Ripple - The Future of Money

Really enjoying this animation for the new global payment network, Ripple. Animade has done a wonderful job creating "fluid" transitions and I love how they carry the ripple motif throughout the entire piece.

Fun with Shapes

A simple title for a simple animation that needs no more explanation. Work by Elliot Lim.

Chris Koelsch 2013 Animation Reel

Hey! That's my name in the title of this here blog post! What do ya know, I actually finished my 2013 reel!  To be honest I'm extremely relieved.  I guess releasing it in early February really isn't all that bad, but I'm excited to move on to the projects I have planned for 2014.    I'm pretty proud of all the work in this year's reel and the track, Budding by Broke For Free really sets the tone well.  I have a few bigger projects already in the works so keep your eyes peeled for what may pop up in the next year, I appreciate every single person that supports me.

The Journey Begins

Michael Kirkham and Johnny Kelly were charged with creating over 500 animated clips for an interactive commerical project. Here is a semi-randomised selection of 75 of these - three and a half minutes out of a total of twenty-six (!). I absolutely love seeing animation like this. It's like seeing the mind of the creator, or seeing a great painters sketch book, I could stare at it all day.

chimpnology

For those of you who don't know cyriak, you should probably check out his Youtube page before viewing this video below.  His style is, how do you say it, a bit different. But I love his work and I hope you will too, he even did Conan's Season 3 supercut, which you can see here.

Photobooth Rentals of New Mexico

A friend of mine owns Photobooth Rentals of New Mexico and he recently approached me about creating a 30 second ad for his business.  I had a lot of fun making this because their playful branding fits my style really well, and they managed to keep the message short and sweet.  Photobooth Rentals of New Mexico rent out photo booths for all kinds of events and their staff is extremely professional, so if you are in the area definitely think about giving them a call.

 

Cube Spin Test

Recently a coworker approached me with two videos he had seen online (https://vimeo.com/13458659, https://vimeo.com/7576197) and wanted to know if it was possible to recreate the cube spin seen in them without using Cinema 4D or any sort of 3D program. So in an afternoon I whipped up something similar completely within After Effects and you can see the result below. It was made with a few lights, a 3D cube made from 2D shape layers, and some faux shadows.

A Guide To American Football

Fraser Davidson has been a LONG time animation inspiration to me. This recent animation he's created that gives a full tutorial to American football is no different. Not only are his colors brilliant and character designs quirky, but his animation is always smooth and drives the story in an engaging and unique way. The best part of this whole animation? He wrote and animated the entire thing himself!

Jungle - Platoon

This music video for Jungle's hit, Platoon is one of those videos I know I would like before I even watched it.

The Bun House Gang: Cutting Room Floor - Update 1

Hello all!  Seeing as how The Bun House Gang: Cutting Room Floor animation is going to be a constant work in progress for me over the next year, I figured it made the most sense, both for me and my audience, to give updates as frequently as possible. This way everyone can see all the work that goes in to something like this and hopefully interacting with fans will give me a little extra boost to keep working when I'm getting in a slump.

I've made a few updates before, showing you the characters I've created.  I now have the full Bun House crew assembled (see below).

My next step in the process was to take these characters into After Effects and get them rigged up and ready for animation.  Seeing as how Cutting Room Floor is going to be heavily based on old Scooby-Doo episodes, it only made sense to copy their iconic title screen.  So below you can see breakdowns of each character's run cycle, and then the final product at the bottom.  Remember to stay tuned for more updates in the future.

Life Updates

Hey all, I've been fairly busy with a lot of stuff so I apologize for my lack of posts. My life is pretty focused around the things I'm trying to get accomplished. For one, I'm trying to finish my 2013 reel before the end of January. After that I will be working on the first episode of Life of Slim. I was going to try and push it out before the end of the year but it didn't seem right to rush. I want it to be able to take my time with it and make it better than before. I've also been super preoccupied with creating characters for the next Bun House film. This one will be fully animated and I expect it to be one of my biggest projects of next year. In preparation I have been creating the members of Bun House in Life of Slim style one by one. I only have one more to do, but here are the characters I created most recently.

Louis C.K.: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Crackle is being a huge butt and not allowing embedding of this video, so you'll have to just click on the image below to get to the video. For those of you that haven't seen Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, it's a show where Jerry Seinfeld does just that.  He picks up various comedians in cool antique cars and gets coffee with them.  This recent episode stars one of my favorite comedians, Louis C.K.  However, that's not the only reason I was excited when watching this.  About half way through Louis tells a long story, which the editors chose to animate over.  I really like the simplistic style, it's just enough to help make the story a little more entertaining.

Creating and Rigging Spike Timelapse

With Monkey Man: Origins only a week behind me I'm already beginning to think of what new and exciting short films I can make for Bun House Films. The more I thought about it the more it seemed obvious that our brand of humor, gore, and horror would be great for animation. So one of the projects I want to start next year is a short animated horror flick involving all the Bun House crew up to their usual antics. If you've seen my Mean Mug & Slim series then you already know I have an animated character for myself; however, that still left Spike, Dusty, Danny, and Kevin from Bun House to be created before I could start animating anything.  To make it a little more fun I thought I would create each new character one by one, and then release them in a series with each new character killing off the last.  For the first installment I created Spike, and naturally he killed my character.  You can see the making of Spike's character below, and make sure to keep an eye out for the next kill...