Megunica Trailer is UP!

Jon Baker (of Twin/Window Productions) has just finished the first in series of two fun and adorable spots for Wrigley’s Extra. The 45 sports a small horde of small, vinyl toy-like food characters following a guy around for a day trying to tempt him.

“For me, the most exciting thing about this job was the thought of creating real toy characters that walk around, have personalities and feel completely alive and in the scene. From their appearance, to the 3d animation, to the lighting, I wanted there to be no doubt that they could actually exist and pull off everything we wanted them to do. Look-wise, I was influenced from a variety of vinyl designer toys… the style you’d find in boutiques like Kid Robot or surrounding the desks of designers and 3d nerds the world over. We went to a lot of effort to incorporate the tiniest of realistic details, from casting seams, to paint inconsistencies, to scuffs, to manufacturer’s stamps… even if you don’t actually notice them in the final ad”.

I’ve seen this on air a few time here is Aus and loved it. Its a finely crafted little spot that isn’t as over the top with its use of ficional characters as a lot of similarly themed pieces I’ve seen, and in this case I think it’s better for it. Make sure you check out the links on the featured page for some great concept work including character sketches, renderings and early 3D tests.

The spot was directed by Jonathan Baker at Window Productions, the characters designed by Morten Rowley, the visual effects created by FUEL, and the music by Nylon.

Watch Wrigley’s Extra ‘Tab’ 

Creative collective Punga just added to the extensive list of art works for the Zune-arts project that was created and directed by 72andSunny. Their animation looks like what Tim Burton would do if he came across some vinyl toys. A simple and cute narrative about a friend that rips half of his own heart out just to be with his deceased bear buddy. The creators focused on the Buddhist idea of “death as change, not as an end, but as a beginning” and to “try to laugh about it, instead of being scared of it”. The execution of this animation keeps it light and embodies the idea that they are trying to portray without being weighed down by what could easily be creepy or solemn subject matter.

Clearly the team at Punga had fun creating this, and it shows in this animation. Also, being set to the beats of Ratatat certainly help the coolness factor for this spot.

Check it here. Click on the two bears.

While at the Zune site, if you haven’t seen them yet, the rest of the musically inspired art is definitely worth scoping.

Motionographer’s very own John Cranston

Factory Film’s Wade Shotter with a clever music video for Fujiya Miyagi

Ryan Hooks with a new website and reel

Very cool and creepy video for The Horrors

This is what I’m talking about. Or rather, what I already talked about at Offf Barcelona. Simon Robson (Nexus Productions) has created four brilliant animated vignettes for the independent feature film “Taking Liberties,” scheduled to hit UK cinemas on June 8th. (More info on the film site.)

Watch The Reichstag Fire | Surveillance | The History of ID | Habeas Corpus

Even if you don’t agree with the arguments put forth in these animations (and the film), they are excellent examples of how the smart confluence of design, animation, sound design and writing—collectively known as motion graphics—can be leveraged to create compelling messages that are hard to ignore. I call these animated nuggets of information and persuasion “visual essays.” Unlike a simple PSA, visual essays intertwine educational messaging with argumentative thrusts. The result is a potent audio-visual cocktail that can, if brewed properly, alter viewers’ states of mind.

Simon has a proven track record of rocking visual essays. His “What Barry Says” still stands as a shining example of the form four years after it was created. (At least I think it was four years ago.) The new animations showcase some of the same clever juxtapositions of type and iconic imagery present in that seminal piece, but there’s a burgeoning level of sophistication and polish present in all of Simon’s work (both commercial and otherwise) that is inspiring to behold.

Simon graciously agreed to answer some questions for us:

How much input did you have on developing the visual ideas? Did Chris Atkins (the director) hand you thoroughly worked out boards or was it just you and the script?

I spent ages developing the boards from scratch. Chris totally trusted me on the back of “What Barry Says” and gave me an absolute carte blanche. It is this that inspired me to take on the project. We actually wrote the VO scripts together, too. Of course, Chris was the prime mover and Becca Elleson fact-checked all that we wrote. But I finally put my degree in politics to use and helped write the VOs for these vignettes!

The storyboard process was long and arduous. I give myself an incredibly hard time over the level of my ideas. They have to be an A++ or they don’t get in. This meant many weeks of head-scratrching and drinking coffee before the right ideas came out. I actually re-wrote some of the boards as the animation was happening. This didn’t make me any friends. But once I saw some ideas in production, they didn’t work and had to be re-written, kind of how they used to write ‘Friends’!!!

Did you have to split your time working on this project while simultaneously working on other (commercial) projects?

No, fortunately and un-fortunately I didn’t get any pitch wins during this period. This left me incredibly dedicated to this project. I got really too deep into it, in a way. And to kind of answer the next question, I gave my directors fee for this project to production to get more animators / illustrators on it. In short, I got paid nothing. I lived unpaid for 4 months. I still owe my girl £3000. Fortunately, I just got a paid gig here at Nexus, which was a huge relief. Now I can go out and by some trendy clothes and stop living on beans on toast!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I imagine you don’t get paid much for these kinds of projects. What drives you to create things like “What Barry Says” and these new animations?

What drives me? What do I want on my gravestone? “Directed some great ads that sold stuff to people”. Not really. Don’t get me wrong. I really want to do ads, because there is a creative process to be explored (sometimes) and they pay me. But essentially ads are selling things and we’re all a bit too obsessed with buying things, so I’d rather do stuff which I think is important for people to see and take in.

Obviously I’m a bit of a lefty and this comes across in the work I take on, but I’d like my kids (when I have them) to be proud of what I did. Besides, we all learn these crazy skills, don’t we? 3D, 2D, stop-motion, etc. And it would be one MASSIVE shame if we only used them to help sell something as opposed to saying something important. Actually, as a mograph community, with what we know, if we got together in some cohesive movement we could create some amazing marketing for our cause…just a thought.

NOTE: I’m working on getting a full credit list, but I wanted to hurry up and share this stuff with you all as soon as possible.

The Brothers Strause of Tight directed this very well thought out and executed spot for the Mercury Mariner Hybrid. The spot entitled Tree is heavy cg, but the choice to have the vines, the woman and the camera all jitter and jump as if it were stop motion keep it more interesting than just a glossy vfx spot. The sound design is also very effective in selling the spot.

Psyop’s sister company, Mass Market just finished a very polished and imaginative spot for the French manufactured car, Renault. The spot, entitled Fisherman, is about giant that goes fishing in a nearby city for people using the Renault as his lure. A very simple idea, yet the intricate details and care that was taken in creating this world make the spot refreshingly fun and worth watching again.

As always the spot is extremely well made, and Psyop/Mass Market make it look effortless. Large vfx spots sometimes have an attitude where they know that they are high end graphics and sometimes they come off feeling too upper class for the common viewer. Mass Market spots have the ability to deliver the highest quality spots, but keep it at a fun level. This is another example that shows that even though Psyop/Mass Market are at the top of our game, they still never take themselves too seriously.

It is also very much worth your time to check out Mass Market’s other spots and begin to realize the far reaching grasp that Psyop has over advertising.