Posts tagged 'Vector'

Bells

“The majority of the 3D models used in the video are based on real objects from Space; the Hubble Space Telescope, Progress and Voyager 1. The planets and moons in the video are generated using NASA imagery, and helped to create a formal aspect to an otherwise abstract piece.”

As anyone who frequents this site knows, I’m a big fan of ‘wormhole’ videos. That’s not a formal, industry term or whatever just a little tag I started attaching to any video with a significant portion dedicated to taking bringing the viewer on a journey directly towards (or away from) the center of the frame. The first one I can remember seeing is 2001’s infamous ‘Star Gate’ slitscan sequence and I disctinctly remember wishing it had been twice (or three times) as long.

Ever since the inception of this site over three years ago I’ve tried to collect the best examples of the form and my current favorites are Max Hattler’s Sync, the bizarre and whimsical Pelican by David Wilson Creative (for The Maccabees), Jesse Kanda’s psychedelic sea-punk music video for Arca’s Manners, Quantum Leap by Thomas de Rijk (for Slugabed), and Carl Burton’s supremely strange and intriguing short film, Shelter.

Attached above is a video – by Stuart Sinclair – that fits in nicely with the aforementioned watchables. The glitchy, looped-and-syncopated music by Suns is just-right for a dive through space and the wire-frame visuals heighten the futuristic, tech-drenched vibe.

Top-marks all the way ‘round. ENJOY!

Oh and be sure to check out our wormhole feed, it’s not-to-be missed.

[ BELLS MUSIC VIDEO ]

X

Right out of the gate I was enamored with the aesthetic; it evokes movies like Tron and WarGames which – whether they hold up now or not – were seen in the brain-like-a-sponge days of my childhood and, as a result, a welcome flutter of warm nostalgia cascaded through my brain.

About a minute in though my interest started to wane; when were things going to pick up? I was a bit bored and having trouble understanding what this whole thing was about but, since Max made it, I stayed locked in (and am glad I did).

I build systems all day and, before construction actually starts, I first have to understand what I’m building and why it’s worth the effort. Usually there’s some kind of raw, chaotic element that, if thoughtfully reconfigured, can transform an unwelcome existing reality into a new, useful one.

I’m typically dealing with reams of unstructured data and have found that, more often than not, a wise first step in the process of turning chaos into order is forcing oneself to slow-down and observe. So that’s exactly what I did.

What are these shapes? Why do they move as they do? What causes the connecting lines to appear? Were they always there or do they spring from nothing when another form is close? What causes them to go away? Are they artifacts of communication or some abstract representation of relationship (or neither)?  Why do some shapes leave the frame while others combine or split or shrink down to nothing or…

...then it was over and I longed to see more. I wanted to live in that neon-and-artificial-yet-strangely-organic-and-alive world for a bit longer to see where things went. I couldn’t make sense of it at first but felt that if I kept watching some hidden, important meaning would eventually present itself.

As mentioned above, the talented Max Hattler directed the attached with some animation assistance from Matt Abbiss, Tony Comley, Valeria Fonseca, Siobhan Mcelhinney and Luiz Stockler.

ENJOY!

P.S. If you haven’t seen (or seen-in-a-while) Max’s excellent Sync I suggest you do; it’s SUPER trippy.

[ X (by Max Hattler) - Festival Version ]

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) ]

Hide & Seek

“My approach to illustration is about paring things down as much as possible.
I try and get to the essence of my subject by using as few lines and colours
as it needs to convey the core of the idea.”

Malika Favre, who wrote the above, has a distinctly minimal and dignified hard-edged style that’s reminiscent (to me at least) of Paul Rand‘s iconic logos, René Gruau’s figures and those muted-future illustrations you might see hanging faded in a dated hair salon’s street-facing window. That last bit of the preceding sentence might seem insulting but honestly, it wasn’t my intention.

Picasso famously said that ‘good artists copy; great artists steal’ which, like most hyperbolic statements, makes sense on the surface but doesn’t hold up to honest, measured scrutiny. Insecure assholes steal; a great artist internalizes the images that inexplicably resonate, leveraging them as a catalyst for iterative exploration until something entirely their own arises from the grind. And, though Ms. Favre’s work might remind me of something else – it is, make no mistake, wholly unique.

Strangely enough, the attached wasn’t made by her but was commissioned by Kemistry Gallery to advertise her upcoming exhibition, Hide and Seek. Maki Yoshikura did the animation while Luke Carpenter and Natural Self handled the compositing and music, respectively.

Credits aside, I like to see such tight, precise illustrations move and Maki did a stellar job bringing Malika’s work to life without compromising it’s rigid spirit. Oh, and the transition from one vignette to the next in stark black-and-white makes the eyes a bit dizzy (in a good way) so get this loaded full screen for sure. Enjoy!

[ Hide&Seek - Malika Favre ]

The Murf

A story about growing up in the universe.

Oh shit! This might be, no joke, my new favorite video on the site. Scott Benson (he did episode 8 of the Animation Tag Attack) crafted this gorgeously animated music video for UK-based progressive electronic act, Rendezvous who were rad enough to give him complete creative freedom. PRO TIP for bands/clients who will work with Scott in the future: do the same, the man knows how to make some engaging watchables.

The overall narrative of human evolution is built through a series of brief, tightly edited vignettes (some lasting only a few seconds) that each inject a new unique dimension to the story while simultaneously advancing the overarching theme of how religion, spirituality and technology have the power to amplify and/or diminish our inner animal nature. Each one is polished to a high-sheen and a delight to take in (especially the gorgeous ‘shines’, bursts and abstracted geometric particle effects); this is one of those videos you’ll re-watch immediately after it ends.

If your reading this post in a dark room with nothing to do tomorrow: great! Click full screen, grab your headphones and enjoy. If you’re at work or have other stuff to do then do yourself a favor and bookmark this or leave yourself a note to watch it when you have the time to really enjoy what Mr. Benson has created. Enjoy!

Oh, right! I almost forgot! If you’re into process then don’t miss this write up on Scott’s blog where he goes into detail behind his thinking and motivation behind how and why he created The Murf.

P.S. If you liked this (which of course you did), I think you’ll also enjoy Thursday.

[ Rendezvous - The Murf ]

Thursday

Venessa wrote in to suggest a video by Matthias Hoegg about ants experiencing an evolutionary leap forward via the ingestion of an unnamed elicit substance left carelessly by some partiers on holiday. It’s good! You should check it out! Anyways, I got to watching some of the other stuff by Mr. Hoegg and decided to post this video – entitled ‘Thursday’ – instead. He calls it a ‘love story’ which I guess it is but it’s told in such a unique way that, in my mind at least, it defies such simplistic and broad categorization. I’m particularly fond of the film’s visual style – the best descriptor I could come up with was ‘delicious’ – it’s packed full of simple, slick animation, loads of rich colors and at times carries a very E-Boy kind of vibe (which is very good as far as vibes go). The Dope Sheet has a great interview with Mattias about his inspiration and process so definitely head on over if you’re interested in that sort of thing. It should also be mentioned that Marian Mentrup contributed some pretty fantastic sound design to the project so do yourself a favor and grab some headphones when you get around to watching it. Enjoy!

Thanks for the heads-up, Vanessa!

[ Thursday ]

A Man Like Me

Ty sent us a bunch of great links last week that included a video from Lemon Jelly‘s DVD companion for their excellent album, ‘64–‘95. Though we loved the vid he originally submitted, we couldn’t find it in true HD so we decided to post this one – which we think is equally excellent – instead.

Try as we might, our Google-fu wasn’t powerful enough to track down the production credits so if you know who animated and directed this please drop us a line and we’ll update this post immediately. In the meantime, enjoy the colorful-vector-animated goodness. Thanks for hooking us up, Ty!

[ Lemon Jelly ('64-'95) - '90 aka A Man Like Me ]

Vectorfunk with Matt W. Moore

'Sacred Vectorfunk' by Matt W. Moore
'Sacred Vectorfunk' by Matt W. Moore'Crystals and Lasers' by Matt W. Moore'Bicycle' by Matt W. Moore'Sacred Vectorfunk 2' by Matt W. Moore'Three Posters' by Matt W. Moore'Cosmos' by Matt W. Moore

I love the energy Matt creates by combining hard-lined geometry, vibrant colors and intricate patterns.  Click through to his website to see loads more. Oh, and if you’re in the market for some wallpaper you might want to check this out, too.

[ : : : MWM Graphics : : : ]