Little Dragon – Twice

I just found out about this Swedish band Little Dragon. The music is pretty fantastic and this music video is beautiful, and haunting at the same time. The story is so simple, but sad. I was intrigued by the delicacy of the whole puppet show, from the movements of the tiny intricate puppets to the sheer fabric used as background and water. There was even a sense of depth in some scenes, when trees in the background were behind the fabric and looked blurry. Watch as the bird sheds its tears or as rain pours over the skeleton.

http://www.myspace.com/yourlittledragon

I Met the Walrus

I just watched the Oscars so I thought I’d post this up:

I Met the Walrus trailer. Josh Raskin and Jerry Levitan. Oscar nominee for best animated short film.

This was one of the Canadian films who competed for an Oscar but unfortunately they didn’t win. It’s taken from an interview recording from a 14-year-old obsessed Beatles fan (Levitan) who knocked on every door of a hotel right here in Toronto in 1969 until he found him. Lennon found it funny to see him barge in and was kind enough to let him stay. After being shelved for so many years, Levitan wanted to do something artistic and meaningful with the tape to honour the late Lennon. It features his message about world peace and what we could do to promote it.

I like the whimsical line art illustrations that’s apparently the style of Lennon’s own drawings. Lennon’s own words are coincided with visual puns that morph from image to image. The transitions are fluid and seamless.

Take a look at their awesome website: http://www.imetthewalrus.com/

Ventilate.ca

Just added this site to my blogroll: http://www.ventilate.ca/. It’s another useful site if you’re looking for inspiration, and it’s Canadian!

MographWiki

MographWiki is a site where you’ll find almost anything you want to know about After Effects. It’s a big resource site with links to articles, tutorials, forums, blogs, and other inspirational sites on motion graphics.

20/120

Promax/BDA, an international association of entertainment marketers, promoters, and designers held a conference last year screening short films by 20 companies and designers. They ranged from serious to funny, from documentaries to fake infomercials.

These were the only guidelines: 20 pieces. 120 seconds. The theme is “change.”

This is in many ways similar to the project we were given. 20 companies/designers were given a topic and were required to construct a time-based concept.

Out of the twenty, these were some of my favourites:

I was amazed at how such a simple idea was executed so simply and effectively. By flashing image after another, and typeface after typeface, “change” was cleverly demonstrated by “changing.” To accompany the flashing images was music with the same brisk tempo.

Everyone interpreted change as transformation or metamorphasis. This was the only team that saw change as money, and it’s funny too.

Here’s the link to the rest of the films: www.twenty120.com

Project 2 Blog

Here’s the link to my Project 2 blog with Wenwan.