Posts tagged 'Colorful'

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 ]

Etam Cru: Betz & Sainer

'Bastard' by Sainer (http://www.etamcru.com/sainer/bastard)
'Bastard' by Sainer (http://www.etamcru.com/sainer/bastard)'Bang' by Etam Cru (http://www.etamcru.com/etam/bang)'Removal' by Etam Cru (http://www.etamcru.com/etam/removal)'Fishing With The Death' by Betz (http://www.etamcru.com/bezt/fishing-with-the-death)'Mind Trip' by Etam Cru (http://www.etamcru.com/etam/mind-trip)'The Journey' by Etam Cru (http://www.etamcru.com/etam/the-journey)

Betz & Sainer are two Polish artists (from Łódź and Turek, respectively) who collaborate under the ETAM Cru moniker and are just as comfortable creating screen prints and canvases as they are painting huge-ass murals. The attached images are just a small sampling of their work so, if you want to see more, hit up their individual blogs (Betz / Sainer) or the official ETAM site. Enjoy!

P.S. If you like what you see here, be sure to check out Aryz’s work, too.

[ ETAM Cru ]

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 ]

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 ]

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) ]

Cosmic Jungle

File under: LOLWAT

Fabrice Fiteni cooked up this colorful, psychedelic treat at Supinfocom.

P.S. If you enjoyed the attached you’ll probably love The External World, too.

[ Cosmic Jungle ]

Aryz

'Fried Egg' (2010) by Aryz (http://www.aryz.es/outdoor/fried-egg/143)
'Fried Egg' (2010) by Aryz (http://www.aryz.es/outdoor/fried-egg/143)'Ballad (Detail)' (2012) by Aryz (http://www.aryz.es/outdoor/ballad/177)'State of Mind' (2010) by Aryz (http://www.aryz.es/indoor/state-of-mind/121)'Love Letter' (2011) by Aryz (http://www.aryz.es/outdoor/love-letter/162)'Concrete Walls Project (for Herokid)' by Aryz (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariztotelismo/5166034577/in/photostream)'Struggle' (2012) by Aryz (http://www.aryz.es/outdoor/struggle/174)

“I don’t really know what [my work] should be called, some people call it graffiti and some [call it] street art. I don’t really care. I started painting graffiti, and then I started doing characters and big walls…I don’t know. I think [my paintings] are just interventions in outdoor spaces…more

“A message, for me, is something secondary. If I have to say something, it’s worth representing it and doing it big but sometimes my art is simply about the pleasure of painting and nothing more, or the simple fact of joining colours together. The shape [of a wall] is an excuse to put colours in one place or another. I don’t give much importance to the message…more

Barcelona-based Aryz is young (23 at the time of this post), talented (see attached images) and – judging from those two quotes above – far more concerned with creating aesthetically beautiful work than fussing over which labels to attach to it. See loads more on both his website and Flickr feed or click here if you’d like to watch him paint in HD.

Enjoy!

[ Aryz ]

Let’s Go

File under: LOLWAT

Alexis Beaumont and Rémi Godin bring the bizarre for Parisian indie outfit Stuck In The Sound. Thanks for sending this our way, victor! Cheers!

[ Stuck In The Sound - Let's Go ( official music video ) ]

Mutual Core

“I shuffle around the tectonic plates in my chest.
You know I gave it all, try to match our continents;
To change seasonal shift, to form a mutual core.”

You guys remember SOLIPSIST, right? (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, drop what you’re doing and go watch it immediately.) It’s easily in the top five of my ‘Favorite Pieces of Internet’ list for 2012 so I was SUPER-PUMPED to discover (via Sam Lillard) that its creator, Andrew Huang, directed Björk‘s latest music video.

The two are a natural fit: His craft-material-as-biology approach pairs well with both her nature-as-allegory lyrical tendencies and always-out-there visual style so it’s no surprise that this collaboration thrums with a primal, living energy.

The bits are available in 1080p, too so don’t hesitate to load this thing on the biggest display available. ENJOY!

P.S. Our Bjӧrk feed is pretty rad.

[ OFFICIAL Bjӧrk - Mutual Core - Art + Music - MOCAtv ]

Kyonghwan Kim

'Stran' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)
'Stran' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)'Siflo' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)'Tor' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)'Liz' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)'DD' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)'Sicaf' by Kyonghwan Kim (http://www.tahraart.com/)

Kyonghwan Kim is a concept artist based in Korea with a portfolio that reminds me of both Yoshitaka Amano‘s muted, richly textured figurative illustrations and Miyazaki’s signature bright, cartoonish style. The six I’ve selected here are but an aperitif; check out Kim’s website for loads more. Enjoy!

[ KYONGHWAN KIM ]

Selections from the Universal Monsters Show at Mondo Gallery

'The Trip' by Drew Millward (http://drewmillward.com/)
'The Trip' by Drew Millward (http://drewmillward.com/)'The Mummy' by Rick Baker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Baker_(makeup_artist))'Frankenstein' by Graham Erwin (http://www.grahamerwin.com/)'Wolfball' by James Groman (http://jgroman.blogspot.com/)'Mutant from Metaluna' by Scarecrowoven (http://scarecrowoven.com/)'The Bride of Frankenstein (Detail)' by Jason Edmiston (http://www.jasonedmiston.com/)

Mondo Gallery in Austin opened it’s doors on October 19th for their Universal Monsters gallery show and (thankfully) Scott Wampler from Collider was there to snap lots of fantastic hi-res photos of the gorgeous artwork on display. The six attached to this post are but a small sampling of the 90+ taken at the event so, if you’re interested in seeing more, just click this hyperlink.

Happy Halloweeeeen! Mwah-ha-ha-ha!!

[ Limited Paper: Mondo Unleashes the UNIVERSAL MONSTERS at the Mondo Gallery; Check Over 90 Images from the Event! ]

Manners

Yes, please. I’m a sucker for wormholes and Jesse Kanda‘s geometric, seapunk(ish), refracted-and-ray-traced slow-dive for Arca‘s Manners is an excellent example of the form.

Serving instructions:

  1. Get the attached loaded in HD on your largest available screen and position your head close enough to it so that the majority of your field of vision is filled.
  2. Put your headphones on.
  3. Stare directly into the center of the screen and keep your eyes fixed that way for the duration of the video.
  4. Enjoy the magic that happens in your peripherins.

Cheers to Peter Verner for passing this along on Twitter. Thanks!

[ Arca - Manners (HD) ]

Le Taxidermiste

This bizarre, gorgeous short created at Supinfocom Arles by Paulin Cointot, Dorianne Fibleuil, Antoine Robert and Maud Sertour is packed to the gills with gobs of subtle, pleasing visual detail. Full-screen is a must. ENJOY!

P.S. Our Supinfocom feed is pretty rad, you should definitely check it out.

[ Le Taxidermiste ]

Ryohei Hase

'Tayutau' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/01.html)
'Tayutau' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/01.html)'THE ANATOMY OF HACKING (an illustration for the November 2011 issue of Playboy magazine)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/32.html)'Repetition (2011)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/03.html)'Untitled (2011)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/newimages.html)'Drown in the empty dried-up room (2008)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/room.html)'Blood (2008)' by Ryohei Hase (http://ryoheihase.com/newimages/26.html)

Ryohei Hase is a freelance illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan who cut his teeth as a concept artist at NAMCO Bandai. To see more of his work, visit ryoheihase.com.

[ ryoheihase.com via Axis Animation ]

The Miracle

“Where do all these melodies come from?
Where do all these melodies run from
to then find solace in sun, son?
Honestly? I’m stumped.
All I know is somehow when I’m stuck,
I’m un-stuck.
Maybe it’s dumb luck, I give up;
I’m just as dumbstruck.”

Steve first sent us this video in the spring but, truth be told, I didn’t take the time to really dive in and pay attention to what was going on until a few days ago. Don’t make the same mistake.

I never really caught on to what the song was about because I was too fixated on the visuals. For whatever dumb reason I tend to not like when shot footage and animation are combined unless they’re seamlessly mixed together. That’s certainly not a rule, just a general prejudice rooted in the sticky cellar of my psyche. When I was a child I used to separate my food into neat little piles; the stuff I liked least was eaten first and, when it was finished, the next mound in the hierarchy of flavor was tackled until my favorite was last on the plate. It sounds dumb now that I’m typing it out but, at the time, this behavior seemed perfectly logical. I was a little obsessed by the process to the point that I’d have a mini freak-out if different foods touched each other.

To enjoy something on it’s own terms is, to me at least, fundamentally satisfying. I find that both sobriety and intoxication are agreeable in their own way but to be either one or the other for too long a span of time spurs a vague discomfort as each plays an integral role in calibrating the poles of my consciousness.

Yin and yang, bruh.

So, separate and tackle in turn. If shot footage and hand-drawn animation are fused into one film, why wouldn’t you want to make the finished product look as homogeneous as possible? You know, invest the necessary time and attention to do a proper blend; apply some craft ‘n shit. This is probably why I glossed over the attached when I first saw it. But I didn’t dismiss it...how could I? Mr. Steven Smith himself made it for goddamn Stones Throw and, seeing as I’m a big fan of both, decided to tuck it away and return later. On a recent trip to the Midwest I did just that and, away from the pressures of work, had time to properly marinate in what was going on.

Anyways, the song is about the creative process and – even though Homeboy Sandman is specifically referring to his methodology for writing rhymes – the themes he covers are pretty universal to anyone who makes things. At it’s core, creating something is a frustrating mix of volition and luck. You’ve got to do what you can to get the ball rolling but ultimately, what’s going on isn’t completely within your control. It’s haphazard and messy and inexact and – for beings whose evolutionary success depended primarily on an ability to exert dominance over the surrounding environment – supremely frustrating.

“I think ‘What is this melody meaning to me?’
The answer might come in a week.
The answer might come immediately.
What is the recipe?”

Lyrically, it’s a tightly-packed, mad, stream-of-consciousness tumble and the accompanying grab-bag of colorful, whacked-out visuals heighten the sense of anticipation for what he’ll say next. It took me until the ninth or tenth viewing to finally notice that the only shot footage is of Sandman’s head, the physical case for an internal universe of grey matter that simultaneously contains both the hindering, fickle spontaneity of his creative muse and the honed mastery of language that eventually liberates and externalizes it.

At that moment everything shifted; the heterogeneous, sharp-edged contrast of the visuals morphed from the thing I didn’t like to my absolute favorite part. Maybe you’ll like it, too?

“EN-JOY.”

For more Steven Smith-created goodness just click here. If this is the first you’re hearing of Stones Throw listen to this and then go buy some albums.

[ Homeboy Sandman - The Miracle ]