The Tadpole

The tadpole

This is a cute animation short with a stylized  graphic style. I like the watercolor look of it and the simple humor. The audio design is nice too, great sound effects and a jazzy sound track. It was created by Passion Pictures, a London-based production company. Passion Pictures is better known for  their work for the animated rock band Gorillaz and the opening and closing animation for The Beatles: Rock Band video game. This year, their film The Lost Thing has been nominated for best animated short film Oscar.

The Beatles: Rock Band

 

 

Beatles: Rock Band

The Lost Thing

Passion Pictures

Gorillaz

Madagascar travel book excerpt (Madagascar, carnet de voyage, extrait)

Madagascar, carnet de voyage, extrait

This animation by Bastien Dubois looks like a travel sketch book come to life. It uses 3-D animation with a traditional look and music. 

Thought of You

Thought of You is a lovely animated short by Ryan Woodward.  Figure drawing, 2d animation, contemporary dance and music are combined into a thoughtful animation. The drawings are simple and beautiful with fluid, natural movement. 

Short documentary “Influencers: How Trends & Creativity Becomes Contagious”

The short documentary Influencers: How Trends & Creativity Becomes Contagious looks at people who have influenced music, fashion design trends, and pop culture over the years. It’s interesting take on how creative people are inspired by creative work in different fields.

Arcade Fire’s amazing interactive HTML5 music video

Arcade Fire

I had a lot of fun putting in different addresses and watching this amazing interactive HTML5/music video/Google maps mash-up for the indie band Arcade Fire. There is so much going on I had to watch it a few times. Windows pop open and shut, maps spin, photos of streets that you may know appear.

You have to use a HTML5 compliant browser, and be warned the film is processor intensive. You’ll want to shut down other programs first. It will take a while to load, but it’s worth the wait. I was able to view it with Safari 4 and 5.

“The Wilderness Downtown” page

Arcade Fire’s The Wilderness Downtown

More about the video

[UPDATE 9/6/10] NPR: The Secret Ingredient Of Arcade Fire’s New Video? You

Arcade Fire: Using social media to score a number-one album
Much like the now-fabled Old Spice Guy campaign, Arcade Fire and Merge Record’s use of social media is sure to be a model for album releases to come.

Official Google Blog: Arcade Fire meets HTML5

Google Chrome Experiment page
Choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering… this Chrome Experiment has them all.

Windows pop open and shut, showing video and Google maps all timed to the song “We Used to Wait” off of the new album

2,000 watercolor paintings to create this video

The band Breakbot's music video "Baby I'm Yours" animated by Irina Dakeva

Over 3 months Irina Dakeva painted the 2,000 watercolor paintings used to create this music video for the band Breakbot. The resulting film is lovely and mesmerizing.

Top notch animation for a music video

Bill Sneed's animation of a surreal night journey.

A charming video of a pickup truck’s trip to the moon. I love the color palette and the illustrations. It really has a unique look.

A guide to 5 top sketchblogs

From Loish sketchblog

We were encouraged to keep a sketch book in art school. Today young illustrators and animators are creating sketchblogs. These blogs can have drawings, sketches, roughs, finished art, iPod art, short animations or a mix of all.

NPR animation: Travel the invisible highway

I loved this charming animation for a science report by Robert Krulwich about insects using high air currents to move great distances. The art and visualizations by Benjamin Arthur are well done and illustrated the story so well. Of course, since it’s NPR, the audio is wonderful. What a great way to make science fun.

Audio report, animation and story:
Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can’t See