Hey everybody! So for my title sequence I'm thinking that I'll transform the beautiful landscapes of over the garden wall into a series of paper cut outs, and them have them move across the screen in 3d to give a cool parallax effect. Now I only really know as much photoshop as I've needed to know in order to get by here, so I was wondering if any of you out there might be able to offer me some advice.
Just so you guys can get a sense of what I'm trying to do here's a landscape that I'm halfway through paperizing.
It looks a little flat right now, and I'm thinking that I might stay from the original color scheme a bit since it's currently very hard to see the paper texture that I'm trying to put across. I also feel like it might be good to add a sort of vignette filter over the top of things to add a little extra visual intrigue. I'd love to know if you guys have any insights on how I might make this puppy pop. It's a real challenge trying to boil down these visually brilliant landscapes into their rawest form, but I'm confident that it can be done, and done it a way that doesn't make it look like a reject south park background.
Happy Halloween Everybody! Having been out this week really sick, I have seen and suffered some scary stuff indeed! So, on tonight -the spookiest night of the year right behind the day after president's day- I'm going to present to you all:
How's the text moving? It's HAUNTED!
So, you dared to scroll down further into the spooky hard drive! You are either very brave, or very foolish. We shall soon see! My first image file of HORROR tells of a fate that almost was! This is: the Spooky Scary Tale of Larry Kasanoff and Foodfight!
Foodfight! began in 1999. It was so perfect, the perfect way to cash in on kids, adults, and food! By creating a movie about food mascots, these food companies would pay to have their cameos in the movie, and in turn cameo the movie on their products. It was so diabolical and soulless that somebody at the company swiped the hard drives with the movie on them, in an attempt to save us all from the horror lurking within! But that didn't stop Foodfight! The movie was revived, but in a totally different software that most the crew was not familiar with! Director Larry Kasanoff knew little to nothing about directing animation, so there were riggers working as texture artists, modelers working as animators, and stupid people working as directors! Foodfight was released finally in 2012, and it was a glorious sh*tstorm to behold. and so, BEHOLD! A piece of what could have been!
Merchandise that actually was produced! And of the same quality as the movie!
There are pieces of the merchandise floating around the world and the internet! Only the spookiest of the spooky own them. I keep this picture on my drive to remind me: Foodfight! Hates you as much as you hate it! The true horror of it all though, is that lots of talented people worked on this project. They were dragged through hell, and this was the product. Those poor souls...
The next haunt from my hard drive is THIS PICTURE!
Is he a man? A pug? These are all excellent questions! Questions with no answers- but spooky ones!
The next scary thing is this image of the Puzzler from Numberjacks!
What are the Numberjacks? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's a British kids' show that has some....interesting... animation. But nobody is as scary as THE PUZZLER!
Better watch out, or he'll trap you in one of his puzzle bubbles. Those British people in the video? They're all DEAD! Muahahahha!
The next, is a video that was filmed in the weird redneck-y part of upstate NY. Nobody knows who the woman is, but it was filmed with a JVC 100 and thought that if you watch the video, she comes and vacuums your face! Watch at own risk!
Well, spooklings, that's my show for you tonight! May your treats be sweet and your tricks be sour! I leave you with something to brighten your spirits, some classic Mr. Chriddof!
Hi everyone! For my first post I decided I'd start out with a classic. I've always loved Tim Burton and the weird/creepy stuff that comes from him. The Nightmare Before Christmas was one of my favorite movies as a kid, especially because I love Halloween!
The animation in this film is fantastic. It really makes you feel as though this place, Halloweentown, is a real world. The lighting is great, especially in the scene with the moon in the background. The textures of the ground and the stitches on Sally's face are so carefully detailed!
Not to brag or anything, but I did carve a sweet pumpkin 3 years ago that sums up my appreciation for this movie.
So far, I've spent all of the semester posting each week about as many After Effects videos and tutorials as I possibly could. This week, I've decided to broaden my horizons, and with the use of Greyscale Gorilla, I discovered some pretty cool animations that people created using the program Cinema 4D, instead.
From what I can tell, Greyscale Gorilla is essentially the Video Copilot of Cinema 4D, as they have quite a bit of information on the program, as well as contributions from readers, and for Halloween, they had a competition among their followers to create a five-second "Monster Bash" animation. Here is the winner:
For those interested, the runner ups can be found here.
A.K.A My childhood. Every Christmas and every Halloween me and my family would gather to watch this movie together. Even back then I knew how stop motion films where made but I couldn't even begin to imagine the time and the amount of people it took to put it all together. I know I should have posted this yesterday because it was Halloween, but too bad. Below is a behind the scenes look at Nightmare Before Christmas.
Coraline is a much more recent film by Tim Burton and even years later, both of these films where made the same way. As they say in the clip below, everything you see on the screen was made by someone. They painted trees, executed ideas, worked on every single hair on Coraline's head. It took and amazing amount of time and an amazing amount of people. The end result is a beautiful film with a unique look and feel because it's not your typical animation film like Toy Story or Cars.
While searching for a Halloween related video, I found Cirque du Freak's title sequence. And since it is Halloween and we are working on our own title sequences, I thought this was very appropriate. And plus the creativity and motion graphics are very impressive.
Here is an interview with the Motiongrapher Brandon Lori. To read the complete interview, click here! (I highly suggest it)
"Specifically, for Cirque du Freak, what was the most challenging aspect of distilling the film’s long-form narrative into the economy of time provided by a main title?"
"It is quite a challenge to condense the film’s long-form narrative into a title sequence. I normally do not over think too much in creating a complex narrative for the opening unless it is needed. The idea of a main title sequence is to set up the tone and mood for the audience to discover the story as the movie unfolds. The opening sequence needs to be metaphorical in content and impressionistic in tone. Unless there is a very specific prologue that the filmmaker feels strongly needs to be explained, I usually will try not to be too literal and keep it simple.
We don’t want to reveal too much about the plot of the film in the title sequence. As for Cirque Du Freak, it is a graphic opening. The idea is to introduce six freak show characters and bring them all together through the journey of two puppets. I wanted to let the credits play an important role in the sequence. They become the main actors throughout the sequence then the story becomes a backdrop. I think title design is about the titles and other elements are secondary."
"Can you explain the title’s typographic significance, and how you decided to have the letterforms serve a dual purpose in providing information, while also becoming interactive devices for the characters?"
"The typography is inspired by some older reference in graphic design history. I am particularly interested in Dada artists such as Filippo Marinetti in the way they use letters to literally illustrate the content. It becomes a figurative poem. And concrete poetry—the idea of seeing letters as actual objects, as well as Bradbury Thompson’s work in the 50’s and 60’s. All those are the original source of inspiration on what we did for the title.
I also wanted to invent a new way of seeing how the credits behave. If you see the credits as actors on stage instead of just titles in the foreground, then we can imagine them to do anything that you want them to do as long as you direct them. They can dance and they can interact with the characters. In this case, they are truly the actor on stage with the puppets."
Creative Credits:
Project: “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” main title sequence
Client: Universal Pictures Design/Animation: yU+Co., Hollywood, CA
Since it's the middle of fall and almost Halloween, I decided to redo the opening for the horror film, Halloween. The original opening credits for the film is very simple, mainly because the film was very low budget. Here is the original opening credits:
The opening to the film is just about the only effect they use because of the strict budget. I've decided to give the opening a little extra kick. I want to keep the theme of simplicity because i believe it works for the film so i decided i'm going to used a variety of photos and videos. I want to stay away from crazy modern effects because the film isn't modern. it's a classic and it should keep that look.
the shots I'm collecting include videos and pictures of jack-o-lanterns, gravestones, autumn leaves, fog, and peoples' Halloween decorations. I'll also incorporate blood into many of these shots. I want to use the same music because i believe the score of the film is so amazingly well done that it can't be replaced. I've been researching eerie-type effects online and hopefully this comes out how i picture it in my head.
