Raidohead is Back

Radiohead just released a new song with a cool stop-motion music video from director Chris Hopewell.  It seems to be some sort of tribute to The Wicker Man.

Power Trip

Power Trip is one of my favorite songs by the artists J. Cole and Miguel. It has a very relaxed and emotional feeling to it and zones me out every time I listen to it. This video displays typography to go along with the song and it's done in a very creative way. The lyrics are shown on the windshield of a car driving through a city during a rainy night. The lyrics are animated perfectly with the song, giving off a very urban feel. They appear and disappear creatively by being wiped away by the windshield wipers as though the words are raindrops. The video is extremely simple but it managed to capture my attention throughout the entire song.

3D Animation Meets 2D in this Amazingly Colorful Music Video

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Animal Collective, but their music is awesome and they usually have some great videos that go along with their more catchy songs. "Floridada" just came out and it's exactly what anyone would want out of a music video. Weird patterned 3D people having a baby by doing yoga? Check. Epilepsy warning? Check. Amazingly smooth and fun painted 2D animation? Double check.

Who says 2D animation can't marry 3D animation? It just did. In this music video. So enjoy! Get up and dance! And don't forget about that epilepsy warning there are some seriously bright flashing colors in this.

Becky and Joe - From Tame Impala to Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Tame Impala is a band well known among college students, and probably their most well-known song is Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. Aside from having that classic indie music sound and lyrics that are easy to sing along to, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards has an amazing, colorful, engaging and trippy music video. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I found out that the makers of the music video are the same people behind the popular YouTube videos “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a five part video series that falls into the “WTF” category of YouTube videos. It’s nothing special in terms of animation, and is mostly just known for the dialogue/music in the videos. It was very surprising to me then that these same people were the brilliant animators behind the popular Tame Impala music video. Their website has this caption accompanying their upload of the music video: “Becky and Joe directed the new video for Tame Impala’s latest single ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’. The film is made up from over 100 separate plasticine collages all individually made by hand”. That’s what makes the music video so amazing - the fact that it wasn’t computer generated. They actually took the time to design all of this will plasticine clay - a process that is much more precise and time consuming than the computer-based alternative. Knowing what the animators at Becky and Joe are capable of makes me really wonder what made them decide to stick with the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared videos…

Smoke Again - Chance The Rapper

For one of my projects I decided to create a music video with subtle animation effects. The music video “Smoke Again” by Chance The Rapper is a perfect example of this. Little things are animated like the smoke from the cigarettes, Chance’s eyes, the car lights and smoke coming off the tires, along with other video effects. It catches the eye of the viewer in an entertaining way and makes it more intriguing because you have to look for all of the animations. This video was directed by ILLROOTS and edited by Dylan Knight. The special effects and animation were done by the animator Anthony Esquivel. I am not experienced enough yet to make animations as clean as they are in this video, but I hope that in the future I will become more skilled in this field of work.  

OK Go Bread Animation

As a film major who also doubles as an art student, I am always thinking of new materials that can be incorporated into projects in unique and interesting ways. Sometimes it can be hard to remember that even common everyday items can be works of art within themselves.

OK Go is is band that is not only known for their music, but their creative viral music videos as well. 

Their music video Last Leaf was created using over 3,000 pieces of bread (all past their sell-by dates) that were etched with a laser and then photographed. The 2D animation is mellow piece about the passing of time, which is a self-reflexive theme regarding the material used themselves. 

To me, this video simply shows that the possibilities of animation are endless, transcending any medium imaginable. 

Rotoscoping with Breakbot

One of my favorite music videos is Breakbot's "Baby I'm Yours". The shimmering colors and shifting shapes are hypnotic and go along with the music so perfectly. For my next project I'm working on a mini music video that uses this technique, although mine will be a lot less cool than this. I think it's interesting when artists use other mediums for rotoscoping like watercolor or gouache.

Breakbot generally has really cool animated music videos so if you like this one, I'd definitely recommend looking at their other ones.


Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours (feat. Irfane) - HD from Ed Banger Records on Vimeo.

Animation & Music

Golden Wolf is an animation company in London that has been in action since 2013. While researching something to blog about, I came across this animated music video that this production team has recently made. The teams at Interscope and Blood Company approached Golden Wolf about doing the music video for the artist Zedd. They gathered a team of artists from all around the world to create a film using many different animation styles. They put together a story line and divided the shots between themselves and 10 other collaborators. They made a black and white film with a creative hand drawn feel that mesmerizes the viewer. 

A$AP Rocky - JD Music Video

About 8 months after the release of his May 2015 album At.Long.Last.A$AP, rapper A$AP Rocky recently released the music video to his song "JD". I watched this video when it first came out last week and was captivated by the way that the animation it used was blended with real video footage. It was a style that I haven’t seen very much at all before (although I’m sure it has been done), and I really enjoyed it. This is something that I would like to eventually learn how to do, and it could possibly the topic of one of my future animations of the week. I like the style of the flickering paintbrush strokes that the animation was drawn in, and I found it a lot more engaging than just plain old video. My favorite part of the video however came at about 0:48. The beat drops and makes three distinct thumping sounds, which the video parallels by switching back and forth from animation to video in time with each thump. It matched excellently. and I immediately was drawn in even more for the remainder of the video. Videos like JD are part of what initially got me interested in motion graphics - it’s a way to make the work I’m already doing look significantly more visually appealing. This video was very well done, and I’m definitely going to look into tutorials on the paintbrush animation style that it used.

Music and Animation

I think it’s important to recognize the connections between music and animation. Kanye West’s music video for “Heartless” is an inspiring example. Hype Williams produced and directed the music video, while he worked with the animation sources, Michael Chomet and Optic Flavor. They teamed up and used a technique called “rotoscoping”, which involves drawing over footage of live actors. This technique gives the animation a very life-like feature. After doing some research, I found out that the animation team was only given 10 days to hand-draw 3,000 frames of animation and backgrounds, which seems insane to me. Amazingly they were able to finish in time and create a music video that is an inspiring piece of artwork.

Color and Movement in MS "Ghost"

I was surfin the net like I'm one to do, when I came across a really rad animated music video. I usually don't like dubsteppy kinda stuff, but I found myself really liking this one!

First of all check out how bobby everything is! It's like the characters are actually dancing to the music. Also the skull guy, even though he don't have no mouth, is designed so well that you always know what he's thinking. Could you make this kind of stuff in After effects? I feel like the bobbing to the music thing is something I've seen us do before in class.

The only thing I really don't like about the music video are the colors of the main characters. Everything is colored really spookily, but the other main characters are these boring flat colors. It makes me more mad than when I strikeout in a softball game. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

Consider this, don't text and drive.

Inspiration is an important thing. As a kid, I believed that Rhett and Link were definitely good places to draw some energy and it's honestly true; if I hadn't listened to little Jules, I wouldn't have anything to write about right now. Either way, this pair made a video basically rapping about why texting while driving is bad. And it is. So good for them. Either way, I enjoy the aesthetic of the video and wanted to point out some more specific things. I really like that even though they could've easily used a green screen for the movement behind them, they decided to go with what appears to be just a screen and projector. They also just flash some crazy-ass lights every now and again and that's pretty cool, too. I also like how casual the little text animations are on the video itself because the whole video almost shouts 'look at me; none of me was done in post' when a lot of things were clearly done. Anyway, take a look.

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.

Animation Movement and Music

I love animated music videos. So often the true artistic meaning of a song cannot be properly conveyed through live action, so for me this represents a profound opportunity for creative expression. Take for instance the work of Felix Colgrave:

Everything flows in a way that is truly striking. Every beat, chord and solo is represented with bright colorful and strangely beautiful characters. Even though the song might not having anything to do with what we're seeing, it's spirit and message is all there..

Take this one made to compliment Mika's song Lollipop:

Everything just flows in a way that's not only visually stunning but also creatively brilliant. The texture of the song is brought to life in rich sugary detail. the whole frame springs to life from the lyrics of the song in a way that only an animation can.

I know this class deals more with 3D, but I couldn't help but share my affection for animated music videos.

Breakbot - By Your Side Part 2 (Music Video)

I always think back on this particular music video when I try to think about my favorite music videos. There is something that I really like about plain white and black backgrounds and the crisp, simple lines that make up the animation. I always appreciate a nice short & sweet video and this animated music video is the perfect length.

Mumford & Sons' New Music Video

Last month the popular British folk band Mumford & Sons announced that they'll be releasing a new album, Wilder Mind, which is scheduled to be released next month. They made this announcement by releasing the music video for their new song "Believe".  The video itself is an edit of a bunch of beautiful shots of driving along the streets of London at night. There is a lot of clever editing, putting the different clips together and messing with the speed of each clip. The most interesting part of the video, I think, is right around the two minute mark. At this point there is a cool editing technique being used that creates this really cool kaleidoscope effect, which really takes advantage of the lights on the street at night.

This song is definitely pretty different from the sound that Mumford & Sons has produced in the past, but I'm excited to see in what direction this new album is going to take this band.

GUNSHIP- Fly For Your Life

This is a music video with a very powerful animation. Its setting looks like WWII and is a dog fight between 2 pilots. Its animation is very artsy and reminds me of a Japanese style similar to Attack on Titan.

This video was released in January 2015 and is fairly unheard of but in my opinion is well worth a watch. the editing in the video is very intense and well as the plot. also the composition of the piece as a whole is quite breath taking.

GUNSHIP- Fly For Your Life 

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.

Music Video Inspiration

This is the music video for the song Better Than by the John Butler Trio. It's a funky tune, with a pretty cool music video. The video is a bit old, originally being put on YouTube back in 2007, and I have no idea what software was used to make video, but we can do everything featured in the video with After Effects. The video features some spray pain effects, and a camera movement effect that looks very similar to the Sure Target tutorial that we just went through. The effect that is featured throughout the entire video, having John Butler be superimposed onto walls and posters, can easily be accomplished with some chroma effects, and the color changing can be done using an Adjustment Layer. This video may serve as some inspiration for our upcoming Title Sequence project. I know I  got some pretty good ideas from the video. And even you don't get any inspiration from this video, you can still enjoy an awesome musician with dreadlocks playing the banjo, and what can be better than that?

Conte

The other day a friend of mine showed me a video on YouTube of an electronic music artist named Conte. I was immediately taken aback by the creativity and innovation that I experienced while watching the video and I knew I had to share it with you guys.

This video was created by David Conte, who is also the musician. I don't think that I have ever seen something like this before. It combines the music to the visual lights in a way that makes them feel like they are one of the same. The the lights change colors and move to the beat of the music in a mesmerizing way and every mark is hit in the video. The other impressive thing about this video is that it is all done live. David Conte has the routine down perfectly so that the placement of the objects and lights is not messed up. There really is no room for error in this endeavor. This video makes the music come to life through lights animation and video. I think this is really something special. Check out his videos at http://www.jackconte.com/ -- they are all awesome!