Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

The video I chose for this blog is Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz. This band has shown creativity in the past by using animation during their live performances. The video is a 2D animation that is animated by Robert Valley, Heath Kenny, and Rikke Asbjorn. It was directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland, and the production company is Passion Pictures. This video is very entertaining because it tells a story and the animation is done very well. Check it out!

Do Ya Thang - Gorillaz

The Gorillaz is arguably one of the best bands to have ever graced my ears since birth. But aside form their music, they are a prime example of transmedia. What started out as a British rock band has transcended into comics, online games, and interactive holographic concerts! But what I want to talk about today is their Style-o (Stylo is one of their popular songs... This is a joke). Many times you'll find a blend of 2D and 3D animation, and practical effects in their music videos which always helps to blend the creepy, disgusting, and fantastical world of Gorillaz. "Do Ya Thang" was a collaboration between them and Andre 3000, to help promote Converse.

The video below is a making of the very same music video. Here you will see snippets of the production process. Everything from the storyboard, dressing the set, blocking the actors, and eventually modeling the band mates. It's interesting to see how paper comes to life not just through a green suit but the detail they put into designing even the skin of all the characters.

Gorillaz "Clint Eastwood"

I an a very big fan of the Gorillaz and also find their music videos very entertaining. "Clint Eastwood" is just one of their songs with an animated video, however, it is my personal favorite by them.

The gorillaz animations include  4 main characters:

2-D

Russel

Noodle

Murdoc

While the animation in these videos are nothing extremely advanced, I just find the stories very entertaining and enjoyable which is there purpose. From what I can tell from the videos the majority of them could be created in After Effects which is something I hope that I will be able to do at some point in the future.

Here is a link to the video: Gorillaz-Clint Eastwood

If you haven't ever listened to the Gorillaz I would recommend them, they are a pretty unique group and I personally love their music.

The Magic of Monkeys

So, for those of you who aren't familiar with the Gorillaz, I feel really..bad for you. The Gorillaz are not only an amazing band, but they follow up with amazing animation and art direction concepts, done by Jamie Hewlett. Damon Albarn is the lead singer, and met fellow animator and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett in college. Together, they began conceptualizing the idea for Gorillaz!

During their early years, the band would stand behind a huge screen while live visuals of the animated characters were projected onto the screen for the audience. The virtual band The Gorillaz is consisted of 2D, Murdoc, Russle and Noodle. The music videos, along with a novel called Rise of the Ogre, follow these characters and their various adventures in the non fictitious world that they live in. It is a truly fascinating universe and I strongly recommend you guys check it out! I have been following the Gorillaz for a while, as I am in love with their music videos. They recently released a video for a song called "Stylo," which is their first live action video and was featured on the album "Plastic Beach." Notice the artistic differences between the animation in Stylo and the rest of the videos I'll post. It really is amazing!

Since this post is about the magic of monkeys, I will be posting another AMAZING animated short film about a monkey. It's called "Shave It," and is written and directed by Jorge Tereso. The production company who made the film goes by the name 3dar studios. I have to say, this short animation has one of the best examples of art direction and coloring that I have yet to see. The whole world in which this money lives in simply filled with rich colors, so colorful in fact that you feel as if you can taste it! Ok, this is getting weird but my point is the film is both creatively and visually innovative and it is definitely worth the watch. 

Here is the 3dar website!

http://www.3dar.com/the-work/

Graphic Animation in Music!

Now, I am sure everyone will remember this song. The song is a bit of a throw back but the music video is worth mentioning now! Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz!
The band the Gorillaz, are a strictly animated band. It was an idea created in the late 1990's by English musicians Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The band was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for best virtual band!
This very different but captivating music video left its mark in my head back when I saw it on MTV's "TRL."
Yes, the song is great and yes the music video is a little weird but I like the use of graphic animation to convey the message of the song via music video. Overall the virtual band idea, I think, is graphic animation genius and so is this music video!

Gorillaz

            
 This is a video created for the song "Do ya' Thing" by the Gorillaz. I think this is a really neat video, and the way they made it is very interesting. From what I saw in the "Making of video", They used an actor as a sort of reference, I'm assuming for the lighting and such, and then placed the 3D character into the scene. This gives the video a very unique look. When I first watched this video I actually thought they were using puppets. I still since watching this video for the first time a year ago haven't seen another video that feels quite like this one. Also important to note is the limited use of some 2D characters within this 3D environment. I like that part of this video as well, I think it adds a few really sort of jarring moments to the video. I'm also a real sucker for the art styles the Gorillaz have used over the years so that's definitely a big part of that too.

            
This video is the "Making of" video which shows, kind of poorly, how the video was made. It's some pretty interesting stuff but its not all explained as well as it could be. It does show you the process they went through to prepare the space and to set up the shots. All in all this a really unique video that a lot of work went into and I think it really payed off.

Here's Some Advice: DoYaThing

In the past 14 years, the band Gorillaz has went from being a side project of visual artist Jamie Hewlett and Blur's Damon Albarn to the greatest virtual band on the planet, expanding their universe not just musically but also visually. Earlier in the year, Gorillaz teamed up with Andre 3000 and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy to collaborate on a song called "DoYaThing" for Converse's "Three Artists, One Song" program, which brings together musicians from different disciplines to make one track together (a previous collaboration consisted of Soulja Boy, Andrew WK, and Matt and Kim). Along with the song, Converse released a line of Chuck Taylor's All-Stars featuring Hewlett's designs.



In addition to the great song and shoes, Converse also put out a music video, directed by Hewlett, depicting the animated characters of the Gorillaz universe in a modern day setting in a flat in England. The video takes the 3D animated bandmates and mixes it with real world footage and 2D imaging, not to be confused with images of Gorillaz' lead singer 2-D. Here's some footage of the making of the video.



The final depiction of the video shows off how much work was put into making this video and the characters in it as real as possible. Enjoy!