Psyop and Sun Creature Partner With Werner Herzog on “The Twilight World” Animated Feature
March 3, 2025
Never played World of Warcraft. Never will.
But thank the gods and the hordes of fans who do, giving Blizzard the motivation and the cash to produce head-snapping cinematics like this one for the game’s latest expansion pack called “Warlords of Draenor.”
It seems Garrosh Hellscream has “escaped through the Dark Portal and forged the orc clans of old into a terrifying war machine known as the Iron Horde,” but we all know narrative is not the point – we’re here to get sucked down the rabbit hole of infinite rendering detail, the impeccable lighting, sweeping scale and blazing action. And then watch again.
FYFI: Duncan Jones’ World of Warcraft feature is now in post and due for release in 2016. [Watch]
LA’s Alphonse Swinehart builds mystery and intrigue with his art direction, design and animation while Hollywood’s Scatterlight Studios pull together the production and post on this title sequence for the SundanceTV/BBC miniseries “The Honorable Woman” starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. [Watch]
Buenos Aires advertising CD turned director Jonathan Gurvit first grabbed our attention back in 2010 with his “Hair Conditioner” spot for Santander Bank which went on to win him a Cannes Lion.
This new “Trolls” spot, with killer CG creature work by Laposta in Buenos Aires for outdoor power tool maker Echo and based on a less-than-polite script from agency Cramer Krasselt, continues Gurvit’s quest to grab your attention in 30 seconds using feature-level VFX.
Watch more CG creatures from Gurvit and Laposta including a giant cricket and an in-your-face urban pidgeon. [Watch]
Stardust director and co-owner Seth Epstein fires up his team for this startling DC Shoes clip featuring design/graffiti by Los Angeles art Collective Cyrcle and two of DC’s sponsored Skaters to promo a new product line Cyrcle designed for DC. [Watch]
Ticktockrobot director and first-time father, Jun Iwakawa draws on his background in print and graphic design for “Handle With Care,” his rough guide to caring for a newborn baby – an off-kilter mix of dry humor, factual information and an early aughts-inspired aesthetic. [Watch]
Just when we were sure we’d seen enough football advertising to last a lifetime, director Anders Schroder and the Frame team in Copenhagen hit us with this carefully choreographed matrix of CG fun to promo the Superliga (Danish soccer league) broadcasts on TV3 Sport/Viasat. [Watch]
Hornet’s Yves Geleyn, who established his animated animal-wrangling skills last Christmas co-directing the blow-out success “The Bear & The Hare,” keeps the charm of that multi-award winning John Lewis spot but slides the technique sideways into hand-crafted wooden puppets for Rice Krispies thru Leo Burnett, London.
Watch Geleyn’s previous adventure with woody puppetry here. [Watch]
Imaginary Forces‘ directors Dan Gregoras and Jeremy Cox keep the pallet minimal and the details intriguing in the title sequence for the new WGN original series “Manhattan.” Set in Los Alamos, NM, in 1943, the show “chronicles the lives and families of the scientists building the world’s deadliest weapon, and exposes a world full of secrets and consequences.” [Watch]
More smile-inducing 3D character animation work from Supinfocom students complete with the mandatory manic chase sequence and a scene-stealing narcoleptic ninja Granny. “Escarface” was co-directed by Eva Navaux, Burcu Sankur, Vincent Meunier, Lionel Arnold, Dario Sabato, Pierre Plouzeau. [Watch]
Nexus directing duo Smith & Foulkes swept the film festival circuit and collected an Oscar nom for best animated short when they unleashed “This Way Up,” their 10-minute, CG slapstick ode to death, hell and dogged father/son perseverance back in 2008.
Now online for the first time, the film’s charm proves timeless with insightful character work, masterful dark-comic timing, sombre atmospheric design and a delightful/definitive vision of the underworld. [Watch]
Halifax character designer/director/animator Joel Mackenzie fires up a full-on barrage of his skills for indie-rocker (and fellow Haligonian) Rich Aucoin’s new track “Yelling in Sleep.”
Mackenzie sums up the plot like this: “A reformed lumberjack must harness the power of nature in order to fight an 8-bit mutant wasp monster that is destroying his friends and his home.” [Watch]
ManvsMachine‘s fertile relationship with Nike continues with the design and execution of this intense, geometry-heavy 3D work – the centerpiece for the launch campaign of the Mercurial Superfly football boot. MvsM also handled the campaign’s print and in-store retail assets which you can see here with some behind the scenes insights. Superb audio by Resonate. [Watch]
Ringling College students Michael Bidinger and Michelle Kwon hit every beat perfectly in their graduation film, a four-minute romantic comedy called “Jinxy Jenkins, Lucky Lou.”
The refined character design, animation subtleties and clever story arc (combined with the breezy original core by Mason Self and sound design by Nick Ainsworth) make it easy to forget you’re watching a student film and not the trailer for a new Disney feature. [Watch]
The Method Design team in New York twist classical Middle Eastern architecture into a hyper-detailed and carefully lit 3D broadcast promo toolkit designed by Danny Yount and Prodigal Pictures for FX Network’s new drama “Tyrant.”
According to Method: “The abstract frames will allow for the addition of text elements and a set of transitional elements were also provided. The artists paid particular attention to creating a detailed version of the logo treatment which is revealed front and center. The Method crew’s toolkit included Maya, V-Ray and Nuke.” [Watch]
