In August 2016 South America plays Olympic host for the first time as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
take over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Take a quick peek at how the Trollback design crew built the logo for NBC’s promotion and coverage of the event. [Watch]
After four months of previs work and 126 layout attempts in 3D, Gorgeous director Chris Palmer and Glassworks CD Jordi Bares finally nailed the recursive and hypnotic three-dimensional Droste Effect (where a picture appears within itself ad infinitum) required to build “The Endless Road” for Honda’s CR-V [Watch]
Childline, the 24-hour UK counseling service for children and young people, takes on the problem of porn-overload among 10-13 year olds with a series of three incredibly frank and therefore controversial webisodes based on illustrations by James Wignall and Mina Song and animated by Alexander Shaharovsky [Watch]
Discover how Mill+ director Russell Tickner and a 30-person crew at The Mill wrangled 900 million CG Lego bricks into 100 characters all composited into live action shot over four days in South Africa to create this roller-coaster-like spot called “Awesome Awaits” for LEGOLAND thru agency BMB. [Watch]
Rods director Thierry Poiraud and Paris VFX powerhouse BUF help French subscription satellite/cable provider CANALSAT backhand the French tradition of airing American TV series six months after they premier in the US. Agency: BETC, Paris. Sound: Kouz. [Watch]
Dave Hughes, creator of Adult Swim’s 4 a.m. experimental cult hit Off the Air, talks to Stash about his latest collaboration with Baltimore composer/musician Dan Deacon called “When I Was Done Dying,” gathering nine exceptional animators for a surreal and unrelenting visual assault. [Watch]
Framestore and Radical Media director Steve Miller give the talking animal genre a tiny tweak in this peculiar spot for GE thru BBDO New York called “Invention Donkey,” the anchor creative for a broad digital campaign across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. [Watch]
Back in March French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist, Triplets of Belleville) surprised us with a couch gag for the Simpsons skewering his fellow Gauls. Now the three-time Oscar-nominated animator/director/comic artist takes on the evils of social media in a reworking of the “Habanera” from Bizet’s opera “Carmen” by Belgian pop-star Stromae. [Watch]
Montreal writing, directing and producing duo Mihai Wilson and Marcella Moser (aka WeWereMonkeys) bring their signature talent for stark VFX and intense levels of detail to this psychotropic, Medusa-gone-wild music video for NY rapper/songwriter Azealia Banks called “Ice Princess.” [Watch]
Hornet director Yves Geleyn specializes in telling simple stories with style and charm. Witness this new :90 animated spot, the center piece of a cross-platform effort urging the good people of chilly New Brunswick to conserve electricity by switching to programmable thermostats. [Watch]
Amsterdam design and animation studio PlusOne crafts a series of swirling and vibrant hand-drawn vignettes to tackle the challenge of raising awareness about STDs and HIV among immigrants to the Netherlands from sub-Saharan Africa, Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and Aruba. [Watch]
Montreal VFX and animation studio SHED help the Quebec government battle smoking among the 11 to 14 set with a charismatic/creepy character fit for a vinyl collector in this 3D spot posing as stop motion, part of an awareness campaign stretching across TV, web and print. [Watch]
Discover how Autofuss director/CD Tarik Abdel-Gawad and director of photography Joe Picard harness the scan ray problem often encountered while filming lasers to create in-camera floating architectural elements and typography made of light for the 2015 YouTube Music Awards Launch Film. [Watch]
Belgium-based director/CD/artist Jean-Paul Frenay talks to Stash about the brooding and ambitious titles he created for the second edition of the OFFF Festival in Quebec with VFX help from the Paris branch of Prodigious [Watch]