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3D Printed Dancer and a Soup Ad...

Two pieces of work that are pretty darn impressive.

First up, The Mill's work for The Chemical Brothers Wide Open video. It's just amazing.

The Chemical Brothers - Wide Open feat. Beck Director: Dom & Nic http://www.domandnic.com Producer: John Madsen Choreographer: Wayne McGregor Dancer: Sonoya Mizuno Taken from the new album 'Born In The Echoes' out now.

Next up, is a miso soup ad from Japan. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that a soup ad exists that is better then anything in my portfolio. Any way, it's epic so enjoy.

世界初のかわいい味噌汁（原宿味）とは マルコメと「KAWAII」を世界に発信するアソビシステムが コラボして開発した、これまでにない新しい味噌汁です。 「カワイイ！」と呼びかけると、ひとはカワイクなると言われます。 では「カワイイ！」と呼びかけると、味噌もカワイくなるのか？ 東京・ロンドン・パリでたくさんの方に味噌にむかって 「カワイイ！」と叫んでもらいました。その数、２０２３回。 つまり、2023 Kawaii！ その集めた声を、長野工場の味噌にも聴かせて、商品化。 「味噌」も「具」もカワイイ味噌汁です。 ＊＊＊ 彼は、言った。かわいくなったね、と。 でも、ママは、言った。昔はかわいかったのにと。 それは私に向けられた曖昧な言葉。「かわいい」、の定義をおしえて He told me I got "kawaii" (pretty) . But my mom said I used to be so "kawaii" (cute). They used the same vague word, "kawaii". What does it mean? かわいいとは幼くて、無垢で、純粋なもの。 清少納言は、枕草子にそう書いた。 Kawaii is young, innocent, and pure.

Project Profile - 2015/2016 America's Cup Wolrd Series Titles

A comparison of an early animatic vs final delivery for the world feed titles for the 2015- 2016 America's Cup World Series. The animatic was created in Cinema 4D with with an edit built in After Effects. The animatic went through many revisions to adjust for things such as music changes as well as animated characters which had an effect on timing and composition. The project involved elements created in Cinema 4D, Houdini and Maya. Alembic and FBX files were used to export camera and boat animations out of Cinema and into Houdini to create the water sims and Maya for character animation, texturing and lighting. The first two shots came out of Cinema as the boat forming was created with a PolyFX modifier. The Cup was also rendered out of Cinema. Everything else was rendered out of Maya. Everything was then composited in After Effects.

A comparison of an early animatic vs final delivery for the world feed titles for the 2015 - 2016 America's Cup World Series.

The animatic was created in Cinema 4D with the shots edited in After Effects. The animatic went through many revisions to adjust for things such as music changes as well as animated characters which had an effect on timing and composition.

Style frames created for the initial pitch process, as well as being a bit of RnD early on, served as the starting point for the animatic. I built my scenes to be animation ready.

The project involved elements created in Cinema 4D, Houdini and Maya. Alembic and FBX files were used to export camera and boat animations out of Cinema and into Houdini to create the water sims and Maya for character animation, texturing and lighting. The first two shots came out of Cinema as the boat forming was created with a PolyFX modifier. The Cup was also rendered out of Cinema. Everything else was rendered out of Maya. Everything was then composited in After Effects. You can watch the final results below.

The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup has kicked off with it’s first World Series race in Portsmouth and Brandspank is right in the middle of it. In January we won a pitch to create the opening titles and on-screen look for the world feed broadcast of both the World Series and the Finals. After obtaining sign off on concept and storyboard from Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts Brandspank set about creating the opening sequence along with all graphic design and production involved in the on-air look for information graphics seen during live coverage. The final sequence aims to deliver on the brief of conveying the speed, technology and athleticism that makes America’s Cup racing such great viewing.

Learning Cinema...

The breakdown video above is a good motivator to looks past my annoyances with Cinema 4D and embrace it for motion graphics work. You can view the completed piece over on Vimeo.

Turns out here in Auckland, a lot of production studios use Cinema 4D. I had heard it was geared towards motion graphics and this week I did my first bit of work in Cinema 4D and it was... fine. Coming from 3D Studio Max, it is obvious how some things in Cinema are much easier to do. What had me a bit frustrated at times were the really basic things. Gizmo/pivot points seem to be a bit illogical once you start building up splines or add modifiers. Extrusion and bevel controls feel a bit limited. Either I'm missing something but why can't I create proper dummy objects?

It's still early days for me so my opinion isn't final, and I'm sure in a few weeks I'll be raving about Cinema. Until then I shall do right by the Internet and bitch about the learning process!

The Gift, by Carl Erik Rinsch

An interesting mix of film making and advertising, reminds me a bit of the shorts put out by BMW a few years ago (in terms of quality/production value). This was interesting enough that I will forgive the Philips TV product placement (they did pay for this so it seems fair). This is now in the process of being turned into a feature film, shocking.

This is one of five shorts that are part of a campaign called Parallel Lines, you can view the other film over at www.cinema.philips.com.