Young animators light up BT Tower

On January 31 five up-and-coming animators were given the chance to have their work run on the digital display at the top of London's BT Tower thanks to somewhereto_ , a nationwide 2012 Olympics legacy project to help young people in sport, culture and the arts

Somewhereto_ funds 'ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK'. Its mission is to help young people realise their ideas by providing them with the resources and spaces to do so. The project, which is run by 'youth engagement agency'Livity in partnership with Channel 4, ran a contest asking for submissions from young animators for work to appear on what is Europe's largest digital display. The five young animators chosen were Dean Wright and Emma Wilson, Joe Collins, Lawrence Simpson and Will Adams (more here).

I have recently asked some of my year 12 and 13 students to set up a blog. I have found one (Alex Carter) which you can view here

Twinings Get Back to You Advert

I recently saw this advert and instantly fell in love with the animation and soft colour palette. Here is what Twinings have to say:  

We've created this really quite extraordinary piece of animated advertising to metaphorically explain the hectic lives that women today lead, and how taking just 10 minutes out each day to reconnect with yourself can have such an impact on the rest of your day. 

We teamed up with animation house Psyop, working through the creative process from simple illustrations, to creating something that we believe is truly spectacular.  To bring the animation to life we have worked with up and coming young artist Charlene Soraia, to bring you the wonderfully emotional recording of "Wherever You Will Go", which is available to download on itunes from Monday 3rd October.

Watch Me Move at Barbican Art Gallery

The Barbican Art Gallery in London has devoted its summer show to a celebration of animation, from The Lumière Brothers to The Simpsons. Here are some highlights...

The exhibition takes place across the large art gallery space at Barbican, and mixes familar names from the commercial world with pieces by contemporary artists who have been influenced by animation techniques. Its title, Watch Me Move, is inspired by Winsor McCay's short from 1911, Little Nemo Moving Comics (still above).

Skeleton's Dance By Walt Disney from Kornell Rastafari on Vimeo.

The exhibition is divided into loose themes, opening with a section that looks at the early emergence of the genre. Included here are experiments with photography and science, as well as early cartoons, such as Walt Disney's bone-chattering short Skeleton's Dance, shown above, which was created in 1929 with Ub Iwerks.

Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) from Living Lines Library on Vimeo.

Another delight is Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur (above, from 1914), which appears within a brief history of dinosaur special effects in the exhibition, spanning from McCay's delicate line drawing to Steven Spielberg's use of emerging CGI technologies in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park.

[Looney Tunes] Duck Amuck (1953) from Arnaud TISSEYRE on Vimeo.

A large section of the exhibition is devoted to the much-loved characters that have been created via animation, with screenings featuring everyone from Bugs Bunny to Betty Boop, Felix the Cat to Homer Simpson.

The Barbican gets around the problem of such a screen-heavy show by the use of clever exhibition design, by Chezweitz & Roseapple. A multitude of different screen sizes are used; some encourage you to stop and linger in specially created booths with speakers installed, whereas others allow you just to wander through soaking up the multitude of imagery on display. There is also an expansive 'cabinet of curiosities' featuring examples of plates from cartoons as well as the original puppets and figures from a number of films. In addition, there is a display packed with enough vinyl toys to keep any graphic designer (or kiddie) happy.The end result is a family friendly show, with films here for all tastes, child or adult. For the more hardcore animation fan, Watch Me Move offers the chance to rediscover classics of the genre, and also see the influence it has had on art, while for others it simply provides an excellent opportunity to while away a few pleasant hours watching cartoons.

Watch Me Move will be at the Barbican Art Gallery until September 11. There will be a series of talks, screening and events during the run, more info is atbarbican.org.uk/artgallery.

Earth-loving rabbits

Filmmaking duo Koja made this charming hand-made 3D stop motion film for the Body Shop on how small gestures can help take care of nature

The Body Shop - Earth Lovers from Koja on Vimeo.

                           

Jamie's Dream School

Recently I began watching the television series Jamie's Dream School. I personally disagree with some of the comments that Jamie makes such as "if you don't get 5 A-C GCSE's you are on your knees". I found this comment incredibly irresponsible. If a teenager does not get all five there are always other options such as foundation courses and key skills, so to bark this at these young people without checking his facts is terrible. 


Another issue I have with the program is that they seem to be blaming the teenagers "failure" entirely on the school. In some cases yes maybe the school did not do the best job, but in my opinion in schools it is roughly a 50/50 mix of teaching quality and the students attitude and motivation learn. The teenagers that are on this show have been called "ferrel" even by Jamie and have no manners or concept of being quiet when someone else is speaking or listening. One student bunked off school for most of his academic career and blamed the school for not learning anything!!!


Finally the main thing that bothers me is that Jamie Oliver actually thinks he can do a better job at teaching than a trained professional and quite frankly I think that is incredibly arrogant. He has set up this dream school with some of the best academic minds in the country spending god knows how much money to do this and claiming this is how teenagers should be taught. Has he even thought how unrealistic this is?


Anyway on a brighter note I absolutely love the illustrations that appear in the opening sequence of the program. They were done by Hanne berkaak

Here is an advert for the programme:

Jamie's Dream School from Hanne berkaak on Vimeo.

Skins Season 5 Animation

Tonight the pilot episode skins season 5 kicked off. i am glad to say that Skins has finally returned to more believable and realistic story-lines, season 4 was getting a bit silly! The pilot focused on a young girl named Frankie who is a bit of an outcast and had rough time at her old school. In her spare time Frankie makes animations using a drawing mannequin. It really is quite impressive and something different to add to the mix of drug taking and copious amounts of alcohol!

25 Years of Pixar

A little while ago I had the pleasure of watching a documentary called Pixar: 25 Magic Moments on BBC3. It was entertaining viewing and showed fans how Pixar started, how the animators storyboard, and information about favourite characters. I would highly recommend watching this documentary which should still be available on BBC iPlayer.

Christmas fun for everyone!

The Christmassy treats keep on flooding into CR Towers. Here are some more of the inventive ways that designers and ad agencies are promoting themselves this festive season... First up is illustrator James Majowski's take on Santa, which he calls 'On the origin of Christmas'.

We've all seen Elf Yourself, but now there's Delft Yourself, a uniquely Dutch take on the whole interactive Christmas card-film-website thing from 180 Amsterdam. Visitors to the site are encouraged to use their webcams to create their own personalised messages that will appear on the site in a Holland style.

Lean Mean Fighting Machine has tackled one of the great questions of the Christmas season with its website Snowman or Fatman? The site invites visitors to pick one option and then watch a small boy approach a snow-covered figure and kick it to reveal which is correct.

Season's greetings (again) from New Future Graphic on Vimeo.

New Future Graphic has created this cute film featuring a wrapping paper-machine. The paper patterns shown can then be downloaded for use on your very own gifts online here

, and there are fun iPhone and iPad treats too.

Digital production house squint/opera has shown its dedication to the Christmas season by painting a giant Christmas tree across its office space.

Who is Banksy?

Aardman Animations created this cute little animation for the Encounters Festival in Bristol. The film plays on the mystery that surrounds the identity of one of the city's most famous sons: Banksy..

The film was created by Aardman director and animator Chopsy, and was commissioned by the Encounters Festival for the Grafitti Animation section, appropriately enough.

Ok Go - Last Leaf Video

OK Go leads this week's round-up of great new work, with a video that's bound to make you feel a bit peckish...

The promo, for track Last Leaf, takes toast art to new heights. Using 215 loaves of bread (that were all past their sell-by date and heading for the dustbin apparently), the film was directed by OK Go, Nadeem Mazen and Ali Mohammad, and features animation by Geoff McFetridge. 

Changing Education Paradigms

This animation was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, about how schools kill creativity. Sir Ken Robinson is a  world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award. It is so great to see an already excellent talk brought to life visually. 

Other RSA Animations:

Smile or Die Talk

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Talk

The Secret Powers of Our Time Talk

Bembo's Zoo - Typography Animations

Bembo’s  Zoo is a flash website with beautiful, innovative alphabet animations. The animations are a kind of typographic game – at first you see the name of an animal, then the letters start swirling around and finally form the shape of the animal itself. Fun for both kids and typography geeks!

Bembo’s  Zoo is also available as a picture book, Bembo’s Zoo: An Animal ABC Book.

Stop-motion chalk on wall animation for Gaz Metro

Gaz Metro A Natural Evolution from La Moustache 

Here’s a lovely little animated promo for Gaz Metro created with stop-motion chalk on a wall. The shoot took place over 4 nights and used over 1600 big pieces of chalk.

The animation-work is by La Moustache

Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are - Music Video

Yesterday I was shown the video for Bruno Mars' song "Just the Way You Are" by my sister. I was instantly impressed by the innovative use of imagery that matched the lyrics. In the video there is a mixture of live and stop animation that creates truly beautiful art out of a simple cassette.


Making of the Video:


Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are - Video

Canon Pixma: bringing Colour To Life

The project is a collaboration with biochemist/photographer, Linden Gledhill for Canon’s PIXMA colour printer range and Dentsu London.  The project features surreal ‘sound sculptures’ made of dancing droplets of paint captured in extreme detail as they react to sound waves.

 Linden has a mesmerising Water Figure series on Flickr, a fantastic example of “bringing colour to life”.  He agreed to collaborate with Dentsu London and travelled from Philadelphia to shoot the campaign stills on a Canon 5D Mark II, with a Canon EF 100mm Macro IS USM lens.

The ‘colour sculptures’ were created by stretching a balloon over a speaker to form a membrane.  A few drops of paint were then placed in the centre of the balloon and a single sharp note was played through the speaker, causing the paint to erupt for just a fraction of a second.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Pop Up Book Animation - Il Et Ait Une Fois

This wonderful animation was made by the Parisian design Benjamin Lacombe. The animation gives a wonderful preview of the book and the stories within it.


Il etait une fois - Benjamin Lacombe from B&C on Vimeo.


Other Books:

PAC-MAN Turns 30!! Moleskin Celebrates

Moleskine has been on a roll lately - after their hybrid Kindle, iPad and iPhone notebooks, they released a Peanuts 60th anniversary edition notebook. This week is the launch of their latest product - the 30th anniversary Pac-Man notebook. 

This limited edition notebook features Pac-Man cover art, mini stickers and the Volant version comes with a set of Pac-Man themed colored soft covers. 

The 30th anniversary Pac-Man Moleskine notebook is available in four different versions, each with their own silver embossed Pac-Man on the cover. The notebooks are available for purchase through Moleskine Asia or for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Making Future Magic - Light Painting

Yesterday I came across this wonderful video clip. Typography is made by using an iPad to do light painting with. The result is amazing! Take a look below:

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

The World Of Peter Rabbit and Friends

Recently I have re-discovered The World Of Peter Rabbit and Friends an  animated television series based on the works of Beatrix Potter, featuring Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphic animal characters created by Potter. It was originally shown in the UK on BBC between 1992 and 1995. It was the released on Video. 


Each episode opens up with a live-action Beatrix Potter, portrayed by actress Niamh Cusack, coming to her farm house out of the rain, sitting down to some tea with her pet rabbit, Peter, and then setting up the featured story. An exception to this is The Tailor of Gloucester episode, which is set at Christmas time. Some of the episodes include storylines from two separate books, either told one after the other or intermingled. The animation style ofThe World of Peter Rabbit and Friends is very close to Potter's artwork in the original books. The main title song for the show is "Perfect Day" by Miriam Stockley.


If you are a lover of Beatrix Potters illustrations and stories this is definitely worth having a look at. Here are some of my favourite parts:


Peter Rabbit:

The Tailor of Gloucester:

BBC Radio 4 - Today Programme Adverts

I was watching television about a week ago and was absolutely delighted when an avert for the BBC Radio 4 Today Programs popped up. I saw the Yoko Ono clip and loved the mixture of illustration and animation. Through further research I found that the project was a collaboration between the well established Why Not Associates and Red Bee Media. The Illustration that was involved was drawn by Paul Davis. 

The adverts represent the following people Yoko Ono, Stephen Hawking, Jonny Wilkinson and Kofi Annan, 


Yoko Ono

Stephen Hawking

Kofi Annan


Here is a still from Jonny Wilkinson's Intro: