Sunday, August 31, 2008

TED Talk: The Power and Beauty of Organic Design

Chris Meyer | 08/31- 10:49 AM

Ross Lovegrove shares his passion for designing objects inspired by the simplicity and complexity of nature.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I’ve been going through their online archive of talks for my own amusement and education, and sharing with you ones I found to be particularly interesting and relevant.

This week I’d like to share a talk by “Captain Organic” Ross Lovegrove of Studio X in Notting Hill, England. He is the celebrated designer of objects such as the iMac, Ty Nant water bottle, and Go chair. Ross is a proponent of what he calls “fat free” design that draws inspiration from natural forms - not just organic blobs in the name of nature, but shapes, processes, and sensibilities derived from the inner logic of natural objects. Although this talk is focused primarily on industrial design, those who are designing logos, 3D objects, or who just want to be inspired about someone deeply passionate about his field should enjoy it.

This talk is part of TED’s series Design Like You Give A Damn. Some who commented on the talk found Ross to be impractical at best and arrogant at worst; I found his laser-like focus on his ideals to be energizing.

Friday, August 29, 2008

After Effects Tips - Installment 2

Trish Meyer | 08/29- 10:46 AM

Learn something new everyday…

Here is a second installment of random tips for working more productively with Adobe After Effects CS3, including the best place to find Help information (surprise: It’s not the Help file installed on your hard drive alongside After Effects...). Please feel free to add your own questions and alternative solutions in the Comments field at the end.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Spotlight: Fox Sports HD

Chris Meyer | 08/27- 07:36 AM

Flowing ribbons in 3D space tie together this sports ID.

For our next project spotlight, we’re going to look at a Fox Sports HD promo animated by Joost Korngold of Renascent. This spot fuses organic movement with the high-impact 3D Fox Sports is known for. Joost, as well as Fox Sports Creative Directors Josh Nichols and Mark Denyer-Simmons plus Senior Vice President and Creative Director Robert Gottlieb, were kind enough to spend some time answering questions and revealing how this spot unfolded.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Adobe MAX, motion 08 Awards Shows

Chris Meyer | 08/22- 09:12 AM

Opportunities to show off your work.

There are a few awards show coming up that we wanted to let you know about:

Adobe 2008 MAX Awards

The Adobe MAX Awards recognizes the best uses of Adobe software for creating engaging experiences. Normally, the MAX show is the domain of web content creators, but lately it’s been expanding out to include more video and motion graphics. In keeping with that, this is the first year that there is a category for digital video projects The top three finalists will be invited to show their projects at MAX 2008 in San Francisco Nov 16-19. The winner receives free MAX registration. Award submissions are due September 5. Click here for more information.

motionfest and motionawards
Call for Entries

These two awards show are connected with the motion 08 conference (which we both will be speaking at). The first is for animation (including Flash, stop motion, 3D, etc. flavors); the second is more for motion graphics artists:

motionfest is a juried competition honoring the best in animation worldwide. Specifically, motionfest recognizes the best animations created for the purpose of entertainment: animated shorts and full-length features. Finalists will be notified by September 12, 2008. Winners of motionfest08 will be announced as part of our opening day animation events, Sunday, October 12, 2008. The deadline to enter is September 8, 2008. Click here for more information.

The motionawards celebrate creative excellence in motion graphics, animation, and vfx, honoring the most current, breakthrough work. All worked entered must be the result of paid creative services and media placement, with the exceptions of public service work, projects for the arts, self-promotion, and student. Finalists will be notified by September 12, 2008. Winners of the 2008 motionawards will be announced Monday, October 13, 2008 at the motionawards party - part of motion08. The deadline to enter is September 8, 2008. Click here for more information.

Save on registration. save $300 on early-bird registration and an additional $200 by using promo code 08stashMO - courtesy of stash. To register, click here.

Monday, August 18, 2008

TED Talk: How creativity is being strangled by the law

Chris Meyer | 08/18- 05:58 PM

Can the genie be put back in the bottle? Or should we just attach a leash to it?

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I find many of the talks relevant to how we think about motion graphic design.

One of the boundaries we must design within are the legal restrictions on the content we might want to use. I’ve written a bit about this previously in blogs on the Public Domain and music licensing. Although I personally believe very strongly in the preservation of the rights of content creators - after all, it’s how people like you and me make money -
Larry Lessig makes an impassioned presentation on how he wishes copyright law would make room for “(re)creation” using previously-created, potentially copyrighted content - think mash-ups (and make sure you watch the three examples that start just past the 8 minute mark; each one is more humorous than the previous one*). If creativity is too restricted, he fears we may become a “Read Only” culture where we only consume, not create.

Click above to watch Larry Lessig’s presentation; click here to see the high-res MP4 version. It will be time well-spent.

(*After watching these examples, I feel compelled to mention how useful it is to master “time remapping” in programs like After Effects. Click here to download a PDF of a tutorial we wrote for Artbeats on the subject; click here to read one Mark Christiansen wrote. Time remapping is also covered in Chapter 27 of our book Creating Motion Graphics, and Lesson 7 of our book After Effects Apprentice.) Also read this article on Artbeat.com on how to smooth out the differences between frames after you’ve changed a clip’s speed.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

After Effects Tips - Installment 1

Trish Meyer | 08/17- 07:11 PM

Learn something new everyday…

In contrast to the columns and tutorials we’ve been posting so far in CMG Keyframes, we thought it would be useful to also post quick-hit random tips for working more productively with Adobe After Effects CS3. This is the first installment; hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to add your own questions and alternative solutions in the Comments field at the end.

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