Short films by Nicolas Deveaux

Hello readers,

Have you ever wanted to see an elephant skydive? How about giraffe's partaking in some Olympic style high diving? If you answered yes to both these questions then your in luck, but who wouldn't want to see those things? Well thanks to french visual artist Nicolas Deveaux and Cube Creative this vision has now come to light in a collection of short films.

Image courtesy of Google Images

Image courtesy of Google Images

Cube Creative is a production company based in Paris that specialize in 2D/3D animation and digital special effects. Cube Creative also spend time with young filmmakers from the top animation schools to help them develop and create their first short film and video clips.

Nicolas Deveaux started at Cube Creative in 2003 where he created his first short film 7Tonnes2 : The everyday story of an elephant trampolining. From this point on his work has gone on to achieve numerous award nominations and also wins. Nicolas is known within the industry for his talent to re-create animals in 3D and has worked on a selection of ads as well as documentary footage. Nicolas does use a lot of elephants within his work, this is apparent when watching his showreel.

Image courtesy of Google Images

The quality of work that has been produced by Cube Creative and Nicolas is of a very high standard, the lighting looks really natural which gives a great sense of realism. The animals are rigged really well, allowing for high quality motion with the body and facial animation.

Image courtesy of Google Images

Image courtesy of Google Images

For me the creativity behind these animations is what really impresses, because why wouldn't a giraffe enjoy high diving?

These videos made us guys on the SoVibrant media team laugh and are well worth a watch.

Videos courtesy of cube-creative.fr

Enjoy.

Ryan Blackburn - Media Productions

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Co-Axial World - Omega watches

Hello readers,

Welcome to another blog focusing on brand marketing. The company in question is the Swiss based luxury watch maker Omega. Famous for pioneering state of the art mechanical watchmaking since 1848, they are a company that has a rich history heavily associated with glamour, wealth, quality, exclusivity and finally not forgetting their trump card, 007. From Golden Eye in 1995 to the present day with Skyfall, Omega claim that James Bond has been saving the world with his most reliable and precise accomplice to hand. They are rightly proud of this partnership which will be highlighted later in this blog.

"Co-Axial world" produced by Tax Free Film and created by HMNS is an animation  for Omega's "Co-Axial technology." The plan is to look at the animation, discussing the concept and the motivation behind it compared to the actual design and finish of the resulting timepieces. 

Final Animation "Co-Axial world" for Omega by HMNS and Tax Free Film

What really stands out in this animation is the level of detail that has gone into the modelling, which can only be appreciated and noticed the more you watch it. From corner to corner wherever you look on screen, it is possible to see a precisely modeled and beautifully animated representation of the Co-Axial mechanism. What has been created by the guys at HMNS is incredible from the original concept to the final product. So much thought has been put into the creation of the world, a world that has cleverly used as many parts of the Omega watch design as possible. So by creating mechanisms that are complex yet beautiful, the creative team deserves credit for getting the balance and amount of the mechanics in the animation spot on. 

The team had to create models which were recognizable but that also showcased the design of Omega watches. The actual design process of deciding what parts of the watch to use for say the Mermaid and the Astronaut must have been both challenging and a lot of fun at the same time.  

Below is a collection of the development images for this piece from sketches to 3D model screen captures, which gives a sense of the through process that went into the concept.

Personal favourites are the use of the Omega watch face design  on the waves of the sea and the Yacht's sails, the design of the Lunar module and Lunar buggy. The most complete scene for me has to be the Solar System model finale which is just amazing. Maybe not obvious to most is how every theme in the animation represents a different range of watches offered by Omega from Constellation, Seamaster, De Ville and Speedmaster. The Aston Martin DB5, a car famously associated with James Bond also makes an appearance. Omega reminding us of their proud partnership with the iconic secret agent which is a nice subtle touch in the animation.

It's also worth mentioning the amazing lighting and texturing, which has a distinct Art Deco style adding to the quality and luxurious feel associated with Omega.

What is truly great about this animation is that it is such a simple and obvious concept executed extremely well. One that has subtle messages throughout highlighting the Omega time-piece range without directly telling  you. This animation successfully advertises the level of design, quality and engineering which can be found in an Omega watch even if they don't always choose to showcase it.

I look forward to hearing your opinions in this topic.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan Blackburn - Media Productions
www.sovibrant.co.uk

The creation of R'ha

Hello readers,

My name is Ryan and welcome to my first blog since joining the SoVibrant family, but first a little about me. I am the newest member of the Media Productions team and I am extremely excited to be working with such a hugely talented and inspiring group of people. 

 

For my first blog I would like to bring to your attention to a Sci-fi short movie created by Kaleb Lechowski, a 22 year old student during the first year of his animation degree. In just seven months he was able to produce an animation with a high level of visual quality as well as a good narrative. Even if it is not that original, it leaves you wanting more. 

This work was completed using software such as Blender, Zbrush, Autodesk Maya, Nuke and Adobe After Effects. In my opinion an amazing achievement considering the quality of the final output, the time it took to create and the fact that he is mostly self taught. It just shows that you don't need a huge budget to create a piece of film that has character and substance, just dedication and talent. I see a bright future for Kaleb, hopefully you will feel the same.

Click here to watch the full animation of R'ha on Youtube

Happy reading.

Ryan Blackburn - Media Productions
www.sovibrant.co.uk

Bill Hicks - Kinetic Typography Animation

I love this kinetic typography animation from azzurevision The subject is one of my all time favourite and most inspirational speeches from the late comedian Bill Hicks. The world would be a much better place if we could just follow some of this sound advice. Peace.

Its Just A Ride

Check out more of azzurevision's kinetic typography animations of iconic speeches here.

Is CGI ruining cinema?

Hi everyone,

Having recently been to see the movie Prometheus, I have decided to somewhat voice my opinions on a controversial subject which I believe in strongly and would like to know your points of view.

Having worked in various facets of the CGI industry ranging from games design to interior 3D visualisation, I have finally come to the belief that CGI in movies is slowly destroying the industry. My career has always been in CGI in some way or other and it is always what I have been most passionate about. Unfortunately I do think that is it being over-used or not used correctly by the vast majority of movies at the moment.

ALIEN CLOSE-UP

Gone are the days of classic movie storylines such as Apocalypse Now or the original Alien movies (well, 1 and 2 anyway) and even the brilliant Blade Runner. A vast majority of the budget of a movie is now being invested in the visual effects as opposed to more important areas such as telling a good story or building an emotional attachment to the scenes and people in the movie.

YODA - STARWARS

Many people will argue that CGI has enhanced the movie-goers experience by more realistically immersing them into a movie. I agree more than anyone that CGI has its place in cinema and is a complete necessity now. It allows us to create and portray visual aspects of a movie which are simply impossible without it. The problem is that it needs to be used wisely and in the right places. Take, for example, the recent movie Prometheus (don't worry there are no plot spoilers for those of you who haven't seen it) compared to its classic counterpart Alien or Aliens even. The mood and atmosphere that Ridley Scott achieved in the previous films vastly surpasses that has been achieved in his most recent work. The look of CGI is in no way a replacement for an actual scene or a physical entity sharing the screen with the actors. The original aliens had a real physical presence and you could literally feel them sneaking up behind the characters in the movie. This was because it was all created through clever use of prosthetics and make-up and actual people wearing alien suits etc. In recent movies, the CGI characters just don't embody anywhere near the same feel of actually being in the scene. I don't think it is down to the skill of the CGI artists at all as they are amazing at what they do. I just believe that there is no replacement for an actual being, as it were, sharing the camera with the actors in a movie.

ALIEN INFANT

One consequence of the above issue is that the acting of the main characters in a film is also compromised. When face to face with an actual Alien or creature, the actors in a movie are much more convincing in what they are trying to portray. However, when they are simply in front of a green screen with nothing more than a little guidance, it must be much harder for them to come across as believable. 

BLADE RUNNER

The truth is that in today's cinema experience, there aren't many new and fresh ideas. Originality has all but left the minds of most movie writers these days and the fact that so much focus is put on the visual impact of a film is just making this situation worse. We are in need of original and engaging stories that rely more on the characters and plot than just wowing us with amazing effects.

PREDATOR

Another problem is the way the critics are assessing and reviewing films at the moment. They are simply reinforcing this false economy by evaluating movies based greatly on their visual impact alone. How amazing the CGI is plays a very large part of how good a rating a movie gets these days and that simply shouldn't be the case.

ALIEN

As a closing note, think back to movies with little to no CGI intervention. Terminator, Dog Soldiers, Alien/Aliens, Predator, Jacob's Ladder, Blade Runner etc... The list goes on and on. One thing you will notice is that these are not massively recent films. The above obviously have visual effects which are a requirement of every movie really. What they don't have is an over use and reliance on virtual characters or virtual scenes and such to portray the atmosphere of the film. This is how movies should be made, to engage us and draw us into the story, while the visual aspect should aid in keeping us there.

TERMINATOR

I am very interested in hearing your comments and points of view on this discussion and thanks for reading.

3D & Media

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Inspiring Animation: Stuxnet: Anatomy Of A Computer Virus

I recently came across this animation by Patrick Clair, an Australian animator. I was really impressed by the style and composition of the piece and blown away by the content behind the animation.
Stuxnet is the first weaponised computer virus used to target Irans nuclear power plants. The virus is capable of taking down national power grids and no one knows its source of origin. Better still the virus is now open source and can be downloaded and adapted by anyone.
Watch this great animation for more information!


Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.

 www.sovibrant.co.uk