Toolfarm Inspirations

Flashback Friday: Howard Jones - Like to Get to Know You Well

2/26/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Yes, I was a big fan of HoJo in the early-mid 80s. He was my second concert, after Corey Hart! This video has some pretty stellar video effects for the age. The song was on the Better Off Dead soundtrack, when they're fixing the Camaro. Oh, I love that movie!

Labels: Flashback Friday, Music Video, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Flashback Friday: HBO Animations

2/19/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Do you remember these? I do! CGTalk just featured these a couple of weeks ago and it seemed a perfect topic for the Flashback Friday feature, which we haven't done in a while. I think you will find this to be very interesting. Thanks to Thom Birks for the link.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

The first circus, Part 2

2/09/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

David Baker, the Program Chair for Digital Aimation and Game Design at Ferris State University posted this piece on his Facebook page.

Tony Sarg was an early animator who worked in cut paper. Nancy Beiman, writer of 'Prepare to Board' found this little gem. Very natural animation... and low tech and simple yet appealing story. Computer animators take note!

Labels: 2D, Film Short, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Airline logos

1/04/2010 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

A bit different than the video we usually post, but these airline logos are definitely an inspiration to design.

Labels: Logos, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Vincent- an Early Stop-Motion by Tim Burton

12/17/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Created in 1982, this is one of his first stop-motion films- interesting to see themes and styles have not changed much!

Labels: Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Retro, Stop Motion, Tim Burton

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Tom Fun Orchestra- Bottom of the River

10/19/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Makes me think twice about what I'm throwing away in the garbage!

Tom Fun Orchestra-Bottom of the River from trunk animation on Vimeo.

Director: Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney
Producer: Richard Barnett
Production company: Trunk Animation
Compositing: Andy Hague, Alasdair Brotherston
Animation: 2D: Anna Benner, Timothy McCourt,
Alasdair Brotherston
3D: Patrick Krafft

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Retro

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Flashback Friday: Max Headroom Interview!

10/09/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Funny stuff. He was so cutting edge at one time. Artificial intelligence!

This is interesting, from Wikipedia:

Not withstanding the publicity for the character, the real image of Max was not computer generated. Computing technology in the mid-1980s was not sufficiently advanced for a full-motion, voice-synced human head to be practical for a television series. Max's image was actually that of actor Matt Frewer in latex and foam prosthetic makeup with a fiberglass suit created by Peter Litten and John Humphreys of Coast to Coast Productions in the UK. This was then superimposed over a moving geometric background. Even the background was not actual computer graphics at first; it was hand-drawn cel animation like the "computer-generated" animations in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series. Later in the U.S. version they were actually generated by a Commodore Amiga computer.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Retro, Television

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

"The Seed" by Johnny Kelly

9/30/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

"A two-minute animated voyage through nature's life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed.

The film was kindly funded by Adobe, made using their CS4 range of software. It was produced at Nexus Productions and features a soundtrack by Jape. It was made using a mixture of stop motion papercraft and 2D drawn animation."

Making of video:

Making of 'The Seed' from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Full credit list available on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Retro, Stop Motion

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Flashback Friday: After Effects 1 demo reel

8/24/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Yeah, yeah, its not Friday, but I didn't want to wait to put this one up! Its just too much fun.

Todd Kopriva, After Effects documentation lead at Adobe, put the video up on YouTube for you all to enjoy. The animation... not to bad. That was 16 years ago! Pretty amazing, really (but the music... wow, that saxophone music makes me want to run out of the room! My advice, watch muted.)

(Via John Nack)

Labels: 2D, Flashback Friday, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Fleet Foxes: Mykonos

6/23/2009 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Stop motion paper animation by director and animator Sean Pecknold along with artist/illustrator Jesse Brown for Fleet Foxes. After Effects was used to finish the final sequences.

Making of video:

"Our last 4 weeks stitched together. Mainly timelapse of setting up each shot."

Labels: 2D, Experimental, Film Short, Music Video, Retro, Stop Motion

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

Documentary on Pablo Ferro, Title Designer

8/17/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Pablo Ferro created hundreds of titles and designs that you've seen throughout your life. Who is he?

And here is a sample reel of some of his work:

Labels: Documentary, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Ida Maria- I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked

8/05/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Pop-art fun! Warhol would be proud... don't worry, nothing graphic, unless you find bananas to be offensive.

I Like You So Much Better When Youre Naked

Labels: 2D, Bizarre, Humor, Music Video, Retro

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The AKA's- Dead Flowers Forever by Transistor Studios

6/13/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Transistor Studios created this music video for the AKA's from concept to completion. It has a very unique look and feel to it, not your typical "let's put a film look on it" piece. Film negatives are intertwined with black and white op-art graphics, split screens and shaky camera moves- really nice work, with a 6 week turnaround!

Labels: Experimental, Music Video, Retro

Posted by Alicia VanHeulen

The Star Wars Computer Animation

4/26/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

This was posted by Pete Kirn at Create Digital Motion. This kind of stuff fascinates me. Enjoy.

Labels: Documentary, Retro

Posted by Michele Yamazaki

Star Wars vs. Saul Bass

3/03/2008 • Permalink • 0 Comments •

Saul Bass is known for his stylized title designs on such films as Vertigo, The Man with The Golden Arm, It's a Mad Mad World, Psycho and others.

This one was posted to the AE-List and I thought it was cute and interesting take on Saul Bass's style. This homage was done by Bhilmers, a student.