Suspended Animation

'Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means.'

A technique, popular in science fiction films and familiar through films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien, in which astronauts are placed in a state of deep hibernation for long-duration spaceflights in so-called sleeper ships. Another example is in the original Star Trek series episode "Space Seed".
Suspended animation might enable the crew of a relatively slowing-moving spacecraft to survive the entire duration of a long interplanetary or interstellar voyage, and thus avoid the need for an enormous generation ship; occasionally the two concepts have been combined, with generations of "caretakers" supervising a large population of frozen passengers.

When i saw the phrase 'suspended animation' i thought it was literally nothing to do with animation maybe a technique of some sort! i didn't realise until my step dad had to explain it to me (too many times) ... but i have learnt something new!!!!

1st Ave Machine ... ReRun

http://www.stink.tv/#/live-action/1stavemachine/rerun

This short film is very interesting! The motion graphics and CGI when the basket ball player is running and his shoes are left behind ... the way the shoes leave his feet and then retract back together looks so realistic! I was reading something about how it was done and it mentioned 'suspended animation'

1st Ave Machine ... AUDI UNBOXED

This is one of my all time favourite adverts!!!!

Not your typical car advertisement, the spot effortlessly combines traditional and 3D animation. I’m particularly a fan of nice touches like the camera racking focus from the character’s face to his hands and back to his face. The advert was created by 1st Ave Machine and Passion Pictures ... The two co-directors, Aaron Duffy (1st Ave Machine) and Russell Brooke (Passion Pictures), divided their roles on the project. Duffy took responsibility for the overall vision for the spot and the transformation of the car, and Brooke for the 2D drawn character.

Main Frame ... contraception advert

Post Panic

Design company based in Amsterdam ... the reason i wanted to look further into Post Panic is because i have only really looked at companies within the UK so i wanted to see if there was any difference in the work because of the difference in popular culture!

http://www.postpanic.com/

Alot of the projects directed by Post Panic are very futuristic, extremely surreal, clean, bright and bold! But to be honest its not as if i haven't seen other designs like it before so i don't think it is extremely different ...

Noah Harris

http://www.noahharris.co.uk/projects/ford-blips/

Noah Harris has created the new/current look for E4 (all the idents) i love the E4 idents because of the vibrant colour scheme of purples and yellows and surreal imagery involved in them! looking through Noah's website it looks as if there is a consistent style of work ... he seems to use very vibrant colours throughout his work and loves the use of bright colourful lighting! It looks like he likes to include rod like lights in many different bright colours, here are a few examples ...

E4 ident ...

Dennis Sisterson - Freelance Animator!

I came across a freelance designers blog and i found the work very, very interesting ... his blog includes a collection of his work and a selection of work he is interested in very similar to what my blog should look like!!! (i hope this will inspire me to develop my blog further). He has recently worked at Sherbet and contributed by directing the animation for the current iron brew advert. I always love watching films/adverts that include real live action with animation! It continues to amaze me how great it looks together i think thats why i do enjoy this advert even though i have no idea what the storyline has to do with Iron Brew!

Zombieland ... Type!

I apologise now i couldn't find an English version however you will still get why i have brought this to your attention! I have only recently just seen this film and one thing i really enjoyed about it and i thought was very interesting is the use of text throughout the film! From the begging the main character has devised a set of rules to follow to stay alive and away from the Zombies! To introduce you to this at the begging of the film (the clip i have chosen) there are examples given and almost acting within the film the rule number and rule appear! I thought this was a fantastic use of type within a film since i have never seen anything like it before! I think it is clever the way the characters are obviously not aware of the text as its for the audiences eyes only but it is used as props almost to add to the action of the scene.

Tomato

Tomato is a large art design collective in London co-founded by John Warwicker, Steve Baker, Dirk Van Dooren, Karl Hyde, Rick Smith, Simon Taylor, and Graham Wood. Two of which are members of the band Underworld famous for their song Born Slippy (Rick Smith and Karl Hyde).

http://www.tomato.co.uk/

I came across Tomato while in a lecture of my Art and Design National Diploma and was fascinated with them as they created the title and end sequence for one of my favourite films Trainspotting i also learnt that two member of Underworld were involved (Born Slippy was a dominant part of the soundtrack for the film).

This is part of the title sequence below, I love this sequence i think the white lines against the black background to me connote the representation of train tracks...however the fact they are moving around the screen erratically and not in one direction could connote the message within the film, possibly the effect drugs have on the human body!

Hey Soul Sister

I love the stop motion animation in this music video it is used in the background and also parts of the lyrics appear and move across the background on building, roads and pavements.

I also love the way you can see the smudge marks as the words move across the screen , i think the use of video and animation together works extremely well and i would love to try this on such a big scale like this! Although i am determined to see if i can find out if it was done in front of maybe a blue screen and they placed to work around the obstacles or whether it was drawn onto the walls directly!

Main Frame

Main Frame has an office in London and Manchester and is a creative production studio, specialising in motion graphics and animation for ads, promos and branded creative content.

Clients include

Animal Planet, BBC, BBC Radio 1, Channel 4, Disney, Five, Google, Magic, Sony computer entertainment europe and many more...

So far this is the company that i am excited about! I love the fact they don't have one individual style ... all there projects are completely individual, new and exciting!!

http://www.mainframe.co.uk/#projects

Moving Image

'Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films (also referred to as movies or motion pictures) are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects.'

Under the umbrella of Moving Image:

Advertising

Animation

Film

TV

Web Design

Motion Graphics

Summer Brief so far

I haven't found many design companies so far that i am particularly excited by! I am going to continue looking but instead i might start searching for adverts thats i like or anything that excited me and find the designer rather than searching for design companies! I think that way i may be more successful so watch this space!

SO ltd

SO ltd is a 3D and Web design company in Manchester. They have a client list that includes work for:

-Brothers International Europe

-Brothers UK

-Hitachi

-ICS

-Stay in front LTD

and many more...

I found one of their 3D animations for Brother International Europe it encompasses a pop up book and takes you through a story of how wireless printers and other Brother products are the future! I don't particularly think this is very original since i have seen this 'pop up book' idea way too many time and it better quality! But i will let you decide for yourself (i couldn't find one on you tube so you will have to click the link!)

http://www.subobject.co.uk/featured/brother_pop_up_book_animation.html

Optical 3D

http://www.optical3d.com/

Optical 3D is located in Nantwich, Cheshire and as made clear in the company name they specialise in 3D animation and technical illustration.

Maya Animation

As i was looking at their work i found a small animation where the surroundings (backgrounds) and some of the elements in the animation were created in Maya and the characters were pencil drawn. I was really interested and intrigued to see how two types of animation work together!

RJDM Animations

http://www.rjdm.com/website/website/index.php

As i was looking for designers and animators in the north west i came across RJDM a company located in Northamptonshire (not in the north west but i really enjoyed looking at their work)!

Onward

'The Onward Film Company is an award winning TV and film production company based in Manchester who along with our sister companies MTP in Scotland and Mustard in London represent some of the finest directors currently working in the UK.'

Onward cover all manner of TV and film production creating high end commercials, programme sponsorship and TV idents. They have worked with companies and brands such as William Hill, John West, Craft Scotland and Original source (men).

http://www.onward.co.uk/onward.html

Baby Cow Animation

A variety of Baby Cow Animation included:

Broadcast TV - Horrible Histories (CBBC) ...

Informative Films - Age Concern, Manchester Music Timeline (BBC's 'massive), Do the Green thing ...

Apps, Virals - JunkMonkeys.tv (British Heart foundation) ...

Ads and Promos - Readers Digest 'Kitten eyes', George Michaels 'shoot the dog' ...

Baby Cow Productions

Baby Cow Productions

Baby Cow has produced award winning and highly acclaimed TV programmes for the BBC, ITV, UK digital channels, world sales and DVD sales. As well as TV programmes they also teamed up with Baby Cow Animation and have created many title sequences just like this one for 'Have i got News for you'

Centre Screen

Centre Screen are one of the UKs leading film, video and multimedia production companies. They have been up and running for 23 years and have been working with museums, visitor attractions, leading corporations and government organisations. (They have a manchester office and an office in London) Looking trough their website it seems as though the majority of their work is interactive and one of their pieces that seems extremely interesting is their latest project for the London Eye! It is a 4D experience that shows 3D aerial footag

e of the London eye and experience New Years eve fireworks.

When the 4D experience occurs it is said to make the visitors appear that they are actually there! 'with wind in their hair, snow falling at their feet, the floor shaking and even a s

ense of smell'.

Illustration!

I found this book cover and i really love the illustration i can almost see it moving!! i love the simple fairly scruffy, rough lines! Jules Feiffer is the author and i also know he creates comic strips so he may possibly be the illustrator as well?