miniscule

I just had to post this awesome animated short. Genius character design and a great script although let down a little by a weak ending (yes Ben you were right). A tale of a plucky lady bird/bug who fears no foe. Brilliantly fusing real video footage with strong 3D characters. Poor old spider gets a real raw deal though. Check it out and tell me what you think...

gt

Our agency has gone through some significant changes of late as it expands and wins new clients. To reflect this our website has been updated to include examples of the new work. I have had a heavy hand in creating lots of flash elements for these pages. As I take you through the pages I have worked on you need to look out for anything that moves and usually in the top right corner of the page. Have a read of the whole site as well if interested. Some of it makes great reading.

The Audi Q7 makes use of a 3D render of the car itself. I took the assets and animated them into this 360 spin of the car to reflect the content on the CD mailer that GT produced.

The Audi facelift and ba.com make use of a flash technique that I have been experimenting with whereby a bitmap image is distorted to create a 3D look. Originally the screenshots slid in on a plane but the new look with a flip slide works just as well I think.

The Canon dot campaign as it is lovingly called was something that had happened before I started at gt. I took the basics of the ad campaign which was the drip/dot and the ink jets (at the bottom of the page) and generated my own spin on things.

The Canon EOS 400D was my first full on campaign at the start of my time at the agency. You need to scroll to the second ad to see my work. It was a tough campaign to work on as we only had 30k to play with. I learned a lot about what you can squeeze out o flash on this one.

Microsoft is a huge client for us and another ad campaign I worked on was the Windows Mobile Devices campaign. There were several iterations of the ads. This one was a nice version that shows how you can use your Windows Mobile Device to open Word and Excel documents on the move.

Using Ben's awesome animations here I muddled them into this page for the Poetry Archive. Lots of fun stuff here (check out the animations at the bottom of the page).

outstanding

Who's a clever monkey then. It seems the powers that be have deemed me to be the Sessions' choice for DETC Outstanding Graduate of 2006. Check me out at the bottom of their homepage here and the full article here.

ample

This is a really cool concept. Painting music with gestures. You select an instrument and then paint those musical notes onto a canvas of colour. Watch and listen as your musical masterpiece takes place. I think for something like this to really work a mouse just doesn't cut it. I want to be able to reach in with my hand and paint with real gestures. But a great start into something truly beautiful and unique. View the full page here.

readymech

This looks like a huge great big bundle of fun. This designer has created gorgeous little creatures that can be printed onto A4 card and folded into these great shapes. I just need a good excuse to do this one weekend. Does anyone have any spare 10 year olds I can borrow. Oh screw it I'll just do it for myself. I think I will start with the computer from 2001 with it's arms stretched out saying "Daisy". Cute. Check out the full page complete with pdf links here.

the full zx

Oh boy did I love my ZX Spectrum. It truly was a ground breaking device brought to us by the infamous Clive Sinclair (think Sinclair C5). My dad got it for me when I must have been 8 or 9. It was an all-in-one keyboard and CPU device with an awe inspiring 48kb ram. Wow. Of course you had to hook up a tape player to it and literally play the casettes to it. Those in the know can do a good impression of the whirring and clicking you used to hear.

My favourite game had to be jetpac. Oh it was marvellous. Building a space ship and filling it up with fuel all the while dodging the aliens. So guess my surprise when I discovered this. A widget for my mac that emulates the ZX Spectrum!!! Yes those tiny standalone apps that hover off screen waiting to be summoned, well someone has created one that acts exactly the same way as the ZX of old. JOY. Here's a picture of the widget in action. Will I ever get any work done?

For those of you lucky enough to own a Mac you can get the widget here and the .tap ROM file of Jetpac (plus several other lovelies) here. But you have to promise me you'll tell me your high scores :)

shadow play

This is exactly how car adverts should be. Simple and elegant. A poignant message with a simple strapline "Isn't it beautiful what hands can do?". Shadow puppetry has always been an interesting medium to me. It relies heavily on the imagination to work. No colour and no sound. Just shapes and suggestion. There is a great scene in Hideous Kinky where the two girls are acting out a shadow puppet scene called the 'dark hand'. It reminds me of what it is like to be a child where everything is full of wonder and excitement. I think this Volkswagon ad captures that moment.

windows mobile campaign

It is finally online. A huge labour of love for me at GT. This is the first Microsoft campaign that we undertook and here is one of the ads in its live format. Please note that adverts do alternate on pages such as this so a few refreshes of your browser may be in order (I have provided a screenshot to show you what you are looking for). Click here to view the ad in all its glory. Oh and don't forget to click on the ad even if you don't want to. No harm done and it all adds up to a successful campaign for us.

Between you and me

This movie was filmed in what is in my mind a new medium. Stop motion burst photography. So by using a digital camera's burst mode you can fire off a series of images one after the other. By piecing these images together you create a stop-motion effect. I think this achieves a rather unique look and would be great to use in a viral ad campaign.

Between you and me has won loads of awards including the SeNef Mobile Grand Prix at Seoul Film Festival, Best Experimental Film at the Tiburon International Film Festival, Best Cinematography at the Gotham City International Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Vilnius Independent Film & Video Festival and in the Experimental Film category at Big Apple Film Festival. It was written and directed by Patryk Rebisz.

What really happened after the death star blew up

This video is genius. And for those of us who wondered what really happened after the Death Star was blown up here is your answer. With quality science fiction like Battlestar Gallactica these days what can you do but laugh at how ridiculous the Star Wars franchise has become. Enjoy my young padawans.

all about the iPhone

If you can't laugh at yourself...

iPhone Nano anyone?

The shape of things to come????

iPhone tastic

Apple has done it again. I haven't been this excited since the launch of the original iPod six years ago. This truly is innovation at it's very best. A big welcome everyone to the iPhone.

What is really interesting about this device is how it fills the gaping hole in the mobile device market. "What?" you say but we are totally saturated with phones with all kinds of capabilities. Phones can surf the net, get emails, take pictures, take notes. So what exactly is the iPhone bringing that is new to the market. Short answer NOTHING. But what it is doing is getting it right. This is the device that people have been calling out for. A fully syncable pod-like unit that pairs up with your desktop Mac thus keeping all your photos, music and video with you wherever you are. For me this is the amalgam of two devices I carry with me to work everyday. My iPod and my phone. Perfect.

The Apple iPhone does purport to take pictures and does so with a 2 mega-pixel camera. This is obviously not going to win anyone over who is a serious photographer but if they are using the same technology found in their laptops for iChat the quality will be great. We should note that Apple is not showcasing this feature on their iPhone site so obviously not the selling point. No, what this is meant to be is a storage device for all your personal media AND one that you can use to make phone calls with.

What is absolutely superb though is the user interface. This is the point where your jaw will literally drop open. You have seen nothing like this before. For one there are no buttons on this device. It looks like an elongated iPod but with a huge display and no click-wheel. Yes it looks like that revolutionary patent has been banished to the history books. Apple has now devised a user-interface whereby the iPhone can detect your finger movements without the need for a stylus. This is touch-screen done right. You can view your photos and videos by holding the device in either potrait or landscape. It will detect which way up it is and turn your media the right way up (check out the music and video demos here). What I found breathtaking is the way you can literally thumb through your album art.

The phone capability of the iPhone does exactly what you would expect it to but encased in a gorgeous and intuitive user-interface. You scroll through your contacts in much the same way you would your music library. As you place your finger on the device you flick up or down and the list rolls as though you were spinning a rolodex (check out the video here). One entirely unique feature here is the ability to view your voicemail messages and to select which one you would like to play in whatever order.

Added to all this is the ability to browse the net and send email. The iPhone sports a slimmed down version of Mac OSX and graphically it is stunning. Using the miniMail application feels exactly like the Mail program we all know and use. Browsing the net is like nothing I have ever seen on a mobile device. It loads the entire page giving you a large thumbnail of the page and you can zoom in on any section and click on the links. The way you zoom is by using two fingers and spreading them apart. (Intuitive). It has to be seen to be believed.

My only question is when is it available and will I be able to use all these features here in the UK.

why i love lego

Created by Blattner Brunner, USA, this print campaign highlights why so many people LOVE lego. Because it encourages you to use your imagination. And if this isn't an inspiration to kids around the world (and adults alike) I don't know what is. This campaign went on to win the Cannes Grand Prix Prize and well deserved it was. It just goes to show...simple ideas can have a huge impact.

the dark knight returns

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was originally released in 1986 and brought with it a welcome breath of fresh air into the Batman franchise. The superhero gets reimagined by Frank Miller as an aging ex-superhero, now 55, who hasn't fought crime as Batman for 10 years. The character is also haunted by the death of his side-kick Robin, amongst other angsts. For me this was my first venture into the world of the graphic novel being firmly locked in the cinema realm or traditional novel world. This truely is an amalgam of the two genres, in what most would see as a comic. Really it is much more than this and the reason that this medium is hearalded for the success of many movies of late. My interest was sparked after seeing Sin City which watches exactly as the graphic novel reads. This story is also penned by Frank Miller who's upcoming movie 300 is of interest to me as well. I think the style of narrative is a big pull.

In Batman the illustrator is Klaus Janson who has a gritty etched style that feels almost dirty. Perfect for reimagining a dark hero who is miles apart from the pussy whipped Superman (he makes an appearance as a character whom worldwide governments have allowed to remain saving lives but is not seen anymore as a hero). It is a dark tale told with gusto. The camp character we once knew is transformed into a really dark hero who is seen as a vigilante and enemy of the state. He fights criminals with extreme violence and pays no mind to hurting police along the way.

This graphic novel has opened the way for me and I'm looking forward to reading Hellboy, The Watchmen and Dark Empire amongst others. All it takes is to get over your fear of reading a comic book as an adult and you will be in for a treat.

iamstudio

iam-studios presents this FWA site of the day here. Using some really cool 3D character design with an animated robot dog with what looks like a speaker for a head. Drawing heavily on Pixar animation style here most notably their Luxo Jr lamp toon and also the imac g4 ad. But this goes a bit further and uses the dog's animation as you navigate through the site. Once you enter you need to use the blue pebbles to navigate through the site and each pebble has a different dog animation. Oh did I mention they are funny too. A nice clean design style with great use of white space. Simple, elegant navigation is the key here. But did they draw on our studios mantra at Good Technology (where I work) namely we are good technology (only he is i am studio, i am work etc) see the comparison here.

catch me if you can can

Nexus Productions of London created this classic title sequence for the movie Catch Me If You Can back in 2002. It is a retro look back at 60's design emulating the look of movies like the Pink Panther and other caper movies. It is highly stylized and follows a narrative as the animation takes us through the main plot line of the movie. This is monochromatic gorgeousness at it's best.

1000 hand bodhisattva

There is not a lot I can say about this except for WOW. Gorgeous choreography and consider this.... all the performers are deaf. Check out the wiki page for much more info.

transform my ride

Well yes they do make some great and clever adverts here in the ol' U of K but can it really compete with the coolness of this Sci-Fi channel ad from the States. Number one 'they' need to spend trillions figuring out how we can actually have cars that do this. Imagine how cool that would be when going out of a Friday night. Oh and the timing with the release of the ever popular Transformer series just seems poetic. Did we ever doubt that a live action Transformer movie would ever get made. My only worry is Michael Bay (Armaggedon, The Island, Pearl Harbour....yikes) at the directing helm. I do hope Spielberg steps in as producer with some helpful hints and tips. "Hi Michael, here's the 3 disc DVD of the making of King Kong. I'll just leave it on the table by the TV. Feel free to watch it ANY time. No really". Check out the Transformers trailer here.

mono face

Happy New Year!!!! I can't actually believe it is 2007. But it is so I guess that means another chance to get it right. I stumbled across this site today and had to share (click here to access monoface). It really is just buckets of fun. A simple premise made even better by gorgeous photography and a tight clean layout. Swap the heads, eyes, mouths and noses around to create some weird and wacky Frankenstein's monsters. There are 759,375 possibilities and I want to see yours. Email me your version and I'll stick it up on the blog (screen grab the image: Shift, Apple 4 on a mac and press Print Page button on a PC I think).

Jeremy Willmott



Michael Parsons



Thomas Major