Reel of the Month Club (Dec. 2024): Coat of Arms
December 21, 2024
Vancouver motion phenoms Giant Ant push their story telling talents into dark, dramatic, wide-screen territory with this riveting animated backdrop commissioned by the Vancouver Opera for “Stickboy” based on the book of the same name by Canadian spoken word artist Shane Koyczan with music by Neil Weisensel. [Watch]
Jingle-bell-happy 2D/3D animated :30 from Ryan Honey and the Buck LA crew for McDonalds seasonal “hot and tasty white cocoa refreshment” featuring enough cute character work and clever transitions to last you through the holidays. Agency: Leo Burnett. [Watch]
Insightful and detailed look at the total rehab of a “beat-up, old, barrel-truss building” in Chicago’s West Loop by Erin Sarofsky and Mark Olthoff of Olson Kundig Architects into an expansive new studio that would feel right at home in Santa Monica, Venice or Culver City. [Watch]
Seismic-grade earth-bending from director Tomek Baginski and Poland’s Platige Image in this short for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission starring Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Aisling Franciosi (The Fall) which premiered at BFI Southbank in London as part of the British Film Institute’s [Watch]
Israeli artist/director Vania Heymann follows up his widely praised interactive video for Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” using 16 live action faces to bring classic album covers to life in this smile-inducing clip he says was “Made out of love and admiration for all the musicians and visual artists who’s art we [Watch]
Discover the shocking truth behind the production of Eoin Duffy‘s Oscar-shortlisted film “The Missing Scarf” in this detailed and insightful making-of film. Music by Wizwars.
[Watch]
Mate Steinforth and Sehsucht premiered “Chameleon” at Pictoplasma 2014 in Berlin, allowing audiences to “modulate the characters and dive into a world between reality and virtuality. Chameleon addresses alienation and identity. It also raises the question of self-awareness and introspection in a world of post-privacy.”
[Watch]
Dave Fothergill, currently a senior VFX artist at RealtimeUK in Manchester, hit the internet hard two days ago with his hilarious/fascinating crowd dynamics test called “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up!” [Watch]
Animator/director/writer/artist James Farr pays the bills as creative development director at Steelehouse Productions in Tulsa, Oklahoma but makes the world giggle a whole lot more with his own short films, like this Halloween treat called “A.V.P.V.T.O.T” (with music by Digital Math). [Watch]
Nike’s new Colordry process bakes dry pigment directly into the fabric, effectively “reducing the water used in dying clothing to zero.” Definitely a step in the right direction eco-wise, but how does one make this dry-dye technique visually interesting? [Watch]
In March 2013 Australian animator Felix Colgrave unleashed “Man Spaghetti” and for a full 99 seconds, the world stared agape and asked WhoTF is this guy? [Watch]
Hornet directors Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson serve up a sweet helping of their mad character skills in this 80-second celebration of Google’s Android Lollipop release working directly with Google Creative Lab. [Watch]
Check this series of six spectacular lessons in CG room transformation from 1stAveMachine directors Nico Casavecchia, Tomas Dieguez and Roman Rütten thru 72andSunny for the Sonos wireless hi-fi system. [Watch]
Buenos Aires motion and VFX studio Kasana teams with fellow Argentinian Andres Rossi for 90 seconds of mesmerizing abstraction they call “Life Cycles” with music and sound design by Lucas Totino Tedesco at Hula. [Watch]
