Reel of the Month Club (Dec. 2024): Coat of Arms
December 21, 2024
How would you visualize a track from a band who calls their music “Live n’ kickin’ American folk-country music in Hebrew.” I have no idea either, but Uri Lotan and Yoav Shtibelman in Tel Aviv decided to transport the audience to a forgotten penny arcade where a wooden doll is stuck in place and time. [Watch]
With spring threatening to descend on New York, the timing of this bicycle-based 3D typographic exercise called “Type-Cycle” from London motion designer (and architecture grad) Marcel Piekarski is pretty much perfect. [Watch]
While buying gear at the auction for a bankrupt studio, animator, educator and film archivist Steve Stanchfield over at Cartoon Research spotted a VHS case labelled “Pixar Marketing Tape.” Prepare yourself. [Watch]
Inspired by an opossum living in a coffin amongst his landlord’s old halloween props, Los Angeles director/animator Justin Hilden began filling his sketchbook with possums and possum gags, “Mostly I was intrigued by their strange avoidance of trouble, a trick not unlike my own reaction to stress.” [Watch]
ManvsMachine construct a series of delightful kinetic CG sculptures based on the work of sneaker design superstars Hiroshi Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield, and Mark Parker to help Nike fans mark Air Max Day 2016. [Watch]
French directing duo Burcu Sankur and Geoffrey Godet (AKA Burcu & Geoffrey) created this smile-inducing clip called “Play” based on the style frames they created for a failed pitch with their continental-Europe reps Troublemakers, “We didn’t get the project but we wanted to bring the images to life animating them.” [Watch]
Berlin creative production duo TED+FLO (VFX super + CD) help Partizan director Tom Noakes realize his curious/hilarious vision of a large man falling down a steep mountain and enjoying every last sensual second. [Watch]
Gaming fans have waited 12 years for a reboot of the Doom world and now they have a taste of the relentless mayhem dropping May 13 (for Xbox One, PS4, PC) with this trailer from Reset director Joseph Kosinski and CG masters Blur Studio thru agency AKQA, all powered by the dulcet tones of Swedish hardcore punk. [Watch]
Nexus director (and architecture graduate) Kibwe Tavares captures a tour de force of intense dance moves and singular characters to launch Guinness’s new Africa Special beer – thru AMV BBDO with post/VFX courtesy of The Mill and Factory Fifteen. [Watch]
LA’s Laundry say they approached the challenge of creating new IDs for The Simpsons – arguably the most graphically identifiable broadcast property of all time – with the strategy of “keeping it recognizable visually but surprising tonally.” [Watch]
Co-directors Adrian and Quentin de Grivel at Biscuit Studio in Paris give robot dystopia a warm, atmospheric and ultimately trippy twist in this animated music video for “Le Marteau et la Plume” featuring Mali-born hip-hop artist Oxmo Puccino. [Watch]
Newly signed Hornet director Andy Baker teams with illustrator Andy Rementer to create a whimsical 2D-animated trip for Asics called “One With The City” thru 180 Amsterdam – a smart counterpoint to the recent flurry of cool and glossy CG sneaker-porn. [Watch]
Homeboy Estudio in Mexico City teams with Spanish composer JeanDox to kick open the fourth edition of the BassAwards with this call for entries video. Submit your latest and greatest animation, motion graphics and broadcast design before May 3 to grab early bird rates. [Watch]
Saddle up for two and a half minutes of gloriously random confection-colored vignettes designed to channel the mysterious power of Kawaii (cuteness) and propel Marukome instant miso soup off the shelves of Japanese grocery stores. [Watch]
