Posts tagged 'Animation'

The Force

Teppei Maki‘s technicolor, lo-fi-VHS-psychedelia visuals pair perfectly with Kool Keith‘s (a.k.a. Dr. Dooom/Dr. Octagon/Black Elvis/Poppa Large) trademark far-out, surrealistic flow. If you’re a fan of the site you’ll be all over the attached…ENJOY!

Thanks for sending this one in, Kenny Love!

[ TOKiMONSTA feat. Kool Keith - The Force (Official Video) ]

Hinode

Tetsuka Niiyama dropped a note in the suggestion bin with a link to some animation he created, “that depicts saltation and growth of life in the sea using jewelry as the motif for illustrating the theme ‘Jewels of Sea’”. It’s expertly done and über-chill...ENJOY!

[ HINODE ]

Genesis

The vast majority of suggestions I receive are accompanied by rather lengthy and well-written messages explaining exactly why the suggestor thinks their submission is perfect for the site. The best ones tend come from the original creators themselves and, the better and more passionately they are written, the worse I feel when I decide not to share their work.

It’s strange to me that there are talented, creative people out there who want ME SPECIFICALLY to see their work. It never fails to validate my existence which, as you might expect, feels good man. My natural tendency in those moments is to post what they’ve shared, thereby increasing my good feels by way of returning their original kindness. But I have other feels to think about! As stated previously, I am rather obsessed with making all of you happy which means that, by extension, I am terrified of wasting your precious time.

As evolved social primates we are all tasked with balancing this ‘feels economy’ and my experience has taught me that any temporary twinges of pleasure I might derive from validating the time someone took to write in are vastly inferior to the satisfaction of knowing I consistently enhance your collective leisure hours.

Which brings me to the attached, a suggestion (via Facebook) from Tilio Canicola accompanied by a simple, two-character message: :)

It’s all he needed to say.

GENESIS is two-minutes of pleasingly-smooth, constantly-evolving abstract shapes (and a few wormhole dives) directed by Francisco Miranda and Guillermo Daldovo with animation/compositing/editing/sound design from MALEVO and set to a song by adapt.

It’s gorgeous stuff and, as far as I can tell, absolutely worth your time: so full screen, volume up and – most importantly – ENJOY!

[ GENESIS ]

Yellow Bridges

Happy Holidaze everyone! First, might I interest you in a bit of nature-centric, fractal animation from cyriak set to a contemplative, driving instrumental by El Ten Eleven?

Secondly, considering that today is a bit of a special occasion for those who tend to frequent this little corner of the internet, I thought it’d be fun to celebrate by compiling a playlist of what are, in my opinion, the best ten videos posted to the site during this past year. Without further ado, I present…

The Tripatorium™ Top Ten 4/20/2012 - 4/20/2013

10. Little Boat by Nelson Boles: “It, like all great animated shorts, appears to be a snapshot taken from within a fully-realized unique world, wholly separate from our own.”

9. LAMENTO by Joshua Catalano for John Talabot: “About ten seconds in I started smiling, immediately caught off-guard – in the most pleasing of ways – by this Joshua Catalano-created journey through a hard-lined, cell-shaded, abstract geometric landscape. The slightly muted palette compliments the loopy, minimal tech-throbs of John Talabot rather well – so much so that I’ve re-watched it a dozen times already.”

8. GOLEM by Patrick McCue and Tobias Wiesner: “My first thought after watching the attached was, ‘this could have easily been in The Animatrix,’ so prep yourself for some late-night, cerebral, sci-fi shit.”

7. Hide by Mathieu Bétard for Kris Menace: “A delicate mix of mirrored-and-repeating geometric ‘morphables’, rotoscoped figures and bizarre transitional touches where everything besides line, form and movement is swept aside. Just absolutely gorgeous stuff.”

6. Crossover by Fabian Grodde: “I’ll leave the flowery prose to a minimum; it’d be a crime to spoil the surprise….”

5. The Ancestor by Crazy Lake Pictures for Darlingside: “An emotional cocktail of gorgeous visuals and poignant tunes; this one’s a winner, folks.”

4. I, pet goat II by Heliofant: “Oh shit. Do yourself a favor and prime your environment for an optimal viewing experience – lights down, full-screen and volume up – this gem deserves your undivided attention.”

3. Bye Bye Macadam by Dimitri Stankowicz for Rone: “The visuals in the attached sync up beautifully (both in timing and spirit) with Rone‘s deep, synth-driven, spaced-out sound. The net-effect is pure, distilled atmosphere…”

2. Shelter by Carl Burton: “My first viewing was late last night and the instant sense of ‘cozy’ I felt at 5:00 was palpable; it was as if I was there, temporarily shielded from the rain.”

1. Evoking Spirits by Ori Toor for Kingdom Crumbs: ”[Ori’s] latest veers into new territory and I’m absolutely loving how he’s mixed in some representational imagery to compliment the usual assortment of evolving, fluid structures.”

[ El Ten Eleven "Yellow Bridges" music video ]

Everything I Can See From Here

File under: LOLWAT

The attached morsel of bizarre animation was created by The Line over a two year period of unpaid night-and-weekends work. It was directed by Sam Taylor and Bjørn-Erik Aschim but, like most passion projects of this calibur, couldn’t have come together without a supporting cast of creatives who generously donated their time and skills.

You can see a full list of who contributed here but I wanted to call out one in particular, Box of Toys Audio, who supplied the excellent sound design. It’s easy to underestimate how much credible foley work can add to a film but, from my point of view, having audio that ‘sells it’ is one of the key contributors to its immersive potential. The first two minutes and fifty seconds are awash in pedestrian, familiar noises – the bark of a dog, the rattle of a chain link fence or the ‘bop’ of a fully inflated ball – that, when the soundscape shifts as the cube descends, you have no doubt that something alien has just entered the scene.

Enjoy!

P.S. The Line also created Easy, a color-drenched gorgeously animated music video we posted last month that’s absolutely worth your time.

[ Everything I Can See From Here ]

Kou kou

I often implore y’all to watch the videos I post here ‘full screen with the lights down’. I think properly ‘setting the scene’ for any worthwhile experience is well, worth it, but in the case of the attached it’s an absolute necessity.

All the sounds in this film by Takashi Ohashi are syllables in the Japanese language but aren’t joined together with any formal syntax; there’s no meaning to discern whatsoever. The same goes for the animation, it’s just bright shape and form on a black field, a visual representation of how your eyes might interpret what your ears are experiencing.

I had a strange realization as I watched it. My initial reaction was “Yeah, that looks about right” but then, in the very next moment, I wondered why it looked right. What in my instinctual thought process is validating the authenticity of how these moving forms relate to the sounds my ears are hearing? Where is that process taking place in my grey matter?

Stranger still, I never had any doubts that you would have the same experience. The human mind is a deliciously strange and delightful thing to both observe and observe with. So yeah, maximize your wonder quotient by clearing out the distractions before clicking play, the extra effort is well worth it.

P.S. When you’re done here, be sure to give With My Umbrella – a music video by Takashi Ohashi we posted last August – a watch next.

[ こうこう | koukou ]

Caldera

“In states of delusion, my father has danced on the rings of Saturn, spoken with angels, and fled from his demons. He has lived both a fantastical and haunting life, but one that’s invisible to the most of us. In our differing understanding of reality, we blindly mandate his medication, assimilate him to our marginalizing culture, and entirely misinterpret him for all he is worth. CALDERA aims to not only venerate my father, but all brilliant minds forged in the haunted depths of psychosis.”

The attached runs over ten minutes in length, easily double (if not triple) most animated shorts I post here. As you probably gathered from the quote above, it tackles to pretty heavy subject matter and the extra time is used to full effect; CALDERA naturally blooms empathy as it steadily draws you in. It’s won a slew of awards and rightly so, each exquistely rendered moment – as directed/animated by Evan Viera and co-produced by bit films and Flicker Dreams Productions – is overflowing with visual touches that demand an immediate rewatch. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous stuff…ENJOY!

[ Caldera (2012) ]

Premier Automne

WHOOOOAAAA HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD!

Premier Automne was created by a dream-team of French filmmakers/animators from Je Regarde, Melting Productions and InEfecto and is so out-of-this-world wonderful that, beyond mentioning my über-affection for the final sequence that runs from 8:34-9:01, I don’t want to say anything else as it might ruin the magic of watching this gem for the first time in a dark room with with a nice pair headphones strapped to your ears.

If you’re interested in process than the ‘Making of’ is can’t-miss – as is Do I Have Power?, a music video we posted a couple of Halloweens back by Carlos De Carvalho, one of the co-directors of the attached. Enjoy!

[ Premier Automne (2013) ]

Easy

Paul Dini meets Interstella 5555; this Mat Zo & Porter Robinson animated music video by The Line is a candy-colored, atmospheric, neon-laced, future-Tokyo treat. Enjoy!

P.S. Give Fantasy a watch next…or maybe Manners; I honestly can’t decide which would be a better follow-up to the attached.

[ Easy - Mat Zo & Porter Robinson (Official Video) ]

Jazz that nobody asked for

“Neurologists claim that stuck songs are like thoughts we’re trying to suppress. The harder we try not to think about them, the more we can’t help it. The phenomenon is also known as earworms, and the ongoing ‘dim di da da dum’ causes a kind of brain itch you can’t scratch.”

File under: LOLWAT

A gorgeous, colorful, tightly-executed morsel of weird by Esben Fisker, Rune Fisker and Pawel Binczycki of Benny Box. Enjoy!

[ Jazz that nobody asked for ]

We Are Golden

“I’ll start a fire with sticks,
I’ll put it out with my fists,
I’ll swim across the sound.

I’ll build a house in the trees,
We’ll live wherever we please,
And never settle down…”

When Tommy Wilson submitted the attached for our perusal he wrote the following in the ‘Why is this perfect for The Tripatorium™?’ field: “It is an awesome music video, trippy and weird in the best way possible. Animation goes perfect with music. This is your bread and butter.”

He’s right.

Jonathan Seligson, a Brooklyn-based independent animator, conjured up a slew of bizarre, psychedelic visuals that simultaneously leverage all the dreamy atmospherics of Black Light Dinner Party‘s synthpop sound while maintaining a narrative structure the pays homage to the song’s earnest, simple lyrics. It’s four-and-a-half minutes of fantastic, sufficiently out-there late-night watchables which is just how I likes ‘em.

The bits are available in 1080p, too so get it loaded full-screen, dim the lights and turn the volume way-up. Enjoy!

Thanks for sending this our way, Tommy!

[ Black Light Dinner Party - We Are Golden ]

Stardust

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the ships that opened the Solar System for the human species, trailblazing a path for future generations. Before their launch, in August and September 1977, we were almost wholly ignorant about most of the planetary part of the Solar System. In the next dozen years, they provided our first detailed, close-up information on many new worlds–some of them previously known only as fuzzy disks in the eyepieces of ground-based telescopes, some merely as points of light, and some whose very existence was unsuspected. They are still returning reams of data.

These spacecraft have taught us about the wonders of other worlds, about the uniqueness and fragility of our own, about beginnings and ends. They have given us access to most of the Solar System–both in extent and in mass. They are the ships that first explored what may be homelands of our remote descendants.” – from Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

I’ve always been rathered enamoured with the Voyager program – especially the Golden Record, which you’ll get a close-up of at 2:35 – and the fantastic visuals in the attached short by PostPanic do a great job of embroidering JPL‘s masterwork with an appropriate sense of reverence and wonder.

Stardust‘s director, Mischa Rozema, wanted to (among other things) create a film that showed what the universe looked like, “from a different point of view. For example, standing on the surface of the sun looking upwards or witnessing the death and birth of a star - not at all scientifically correct but instead a purely artistic interpretation of such events.”

As you’ll see, he succeeded and the end result (for me, at least) provided a much needed shift in perspective. It’s gorgeous; the perfect companion for a late-night, contemplative, solitary sesh. Enjoy!

[ Stardust ]

Doomed

“A set of strange creatures whose instincts instead of focusing on survival seem doomed them to an absurd and comic extinction, in the presence of the astonished gaze of the narrator.”

File under: LOLWAT

I had been (im)patiently waiting for El Señor Studio to finally post this, their peculiar ‘nature’ documentary spoof, after first seeing its trailer back in the summer of 2011. Prepare yourself for an unexpected, bizarre treat…ENJOY!

P.S. If you enjoyed the attached, definitely give this a watch next.

[ Doomed: a biological cartoon! ]

Second Summer

“Now when we kiss, I feel like physics are true;
The world, it spins; my body, begins with you.”

File under: LOLWAT

ADHD – Fox’s new late-night Adult Swim-esque animation block – put together these bizarre visuals for L.A. synthpop outfit, Y△CHT. Enjoy!

Credit is due to Z and Zak for the suggestion…thanks for writing in, guys!

[ SECOND SUMMER | YACHT x ADHD ]

New Machine For Living

To spread the word about their latest synthesizer – The Sub Phatty – Moog asked Flying Lotus and lilfuchs to combine their talents on a one-and-a-half minute promo video. Their last collaboration yielded Zodiac Shit, one of my all-time favorite music videos, and the attached is a similar dose of colorful, trippy eye-candy. It’s a treat, y’all…enjoy!

Cheers to Julian for sending this one our way...thanks!

[ Moog Sub Phatty | Flying Lotus | New Machine For Living ]

Cirrus

I’m a rather outspoken fan of both Bonobo and Cyriak so when I found out that Ninja Tune recently facilitated a collaboration between the two I was pretty fuckin’ pumped…so much so, in fact, that I didn’t watch the attached til this morning. The end of last week had been pretty busy and the last thing I wanted to do was have the initial screening take place on a small-ass screen with some tinny earbuds delivering the audio.

Cyriak’s visuals are gonna be kick-ass no matter what (Exhibit A) but this music video is especially nice because both his work and Bonobo’s sound are all about a steady layering-on. Each artist starts with small, simple and discrete atoms – a stripped-down drum part or short, simple video loop – and starts piling them on top of one another until the whole far-exceeds the sum of its parts. It’s the same ‘spirit’ that’s inherent to many other things I enjoy – electronic music, programming, nature and fractals just to name a few – so to have it distilled into one three-and-a-half minute dose is, well, thrilling. Art is just magic sometimes. Fuck yeah.

Even though I already knew about this one it was fantastic to open up the suggestion bin and find messages from Sam Lillard, Garrett and Mickey Gral ensuring I wouldn’t miss it. Thanks so much guys! Cheers!

P.S. Our Ninja Tune and Cyriak feeds are worthy of your attention. Enjoy!

[ Bonobo - 'Cirrus' (Official Video) ]

The Flow

“The Flow looks at the supervening layers of reality that we can observe, from quarks to nucleons to atoms and beyond. The deeper we go into the foundations of reality the more it loses its form, eventually becoming a pure mathematical conception. Layer upon layer the flow builds new codes that create new codes, each version computing a new, more complex state based on the previous one.”

The attached was created by MRK, a London-based artist who helps scientists and researchers visualize their collected data. If you’re interested in knowing which units of matter are represented in each ‘segment’ definitely give the annotated version of The Flow a watch next.

A big thanks is due to hrcho for sending this one our way...cheers, mate!

[ The Flow ]

The Deep End

Jake Fried has been hard at work since we first posted Waiting Room last May. His latest, The Deep End (attached above), is exceptional. Enjoy!

[ The Deep End ]

Meow

It’s nice to see Anamanaguchi finally make a music video and they went all out for their maiden voyage, tapping long-time Tim & Eric collaborators Daniel Gray Longino and Eric Notarnicola to direct and a whole host of talented animators/artists to pitch-in on the visuals.

The ‘Guch aesthetic isn’t easily pidgeonholed and the surface comparisons that often get drawn between them and ‘video game music’ and/or 90s-kid culture are, from my point-of-view at least, missing the point of what they’re up to. A few months back Tycho wrote about why naked nostalgia grabs are typically unfulfilling and it definitely applies here:

“That’s the trick of nostalgia, and why yoking it is such a dangerous business.  It’s never ‘as good,’ because it can’t be. ‘As good’ wouldn’t satisfy you, now, because you aren’t the person who was satisfied by it anymore, partly because of the satisfaction you felt earlier, but also because of every other force and beam and ray which is always operating on your aggregated being.”

I don’t get the sense that anything Anamanaguchi does is calculated and, even though their style (both sonically and visually) might appear to be borrowed from another decade, it feels inexplicably modern and wholly their own. This is goddamn party music and that shit never goes out of style.

I absolutely love the arcade/clique theme that underscores the whole video and super-dig the pixel art animation sequence that kicks off after Ary is blasted to Furblivion by the L4Z3R R4V3RZ (especially the cameos-created illustrations that run from 2:30-2:33).

Full-screen HD is a must. ENJOY!

[ Anamanaguchi - 「MEOW」 (Official Music Video) ]

Bye Bye Macadam

It appears Dimitri Stankowicz has been hard at work honing his solid-color-fill vector animation style since we first posted his entry into Björk’s Innocence video contest two years ago.  The visuals in the attached sync up beautifully (both in timing and spirit) with Rone‘s deep, synth-driven, spaced-out sound. The net-effect is pure, distilled atmosphere so get it loaded in 1080p and strap your headphones on.

This one’s a treat and we owe Brandon Michael Azzarella a big thanks for sharing it with us on Facebook. Cheers, Brandon!

P.S. If you find that your taste in music tends to line-up with my mine then don’t hesitate to pick up the full-length album ‘Bye Bye Macadam’ is from, Tohu Bohu. It’s packed to the brim with the type of soaring, emotive electronica that’s pitch-perfect for late-night drives and contemplative lazy afternoon seshes.

[ Rone - Bye Bye Macadam (Official Video) ]