Ana Mouyis and Zachary Zezima met on a boat while both were students at Parsons School of Design, and now they make videos together. Their collaboration began in 2012, when Mouyis was approached by Mush Records to create a music video for the emerging Canadian band Holobody. The video that the duo made, for the song "Riverbed," explores timeless themes of life, death, and … Read the full Story >>
The task facing veteran British illustrator Tim Marrs was daunting: Create an advertising spot for Chrysler parts-and-service company Mopar that would, as he puts it, "articulate the firm's sense of history and passion for motoring." That sense of history--75 years' worth--had to be encapsulated in just 30 seconds. And Marrs had exactly one weekend in which to create a range of ideas for the … Read the full Story >>
In 2012, the Thornberg & Forester production company teamed with ad agency DDB Chicago to create a fundraising video for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. The one-minute piece is powered by a true story about a car accident that changed one family's life forever--a narrative that, in turn, is sent into motion by a simple animated device: a red ribbon symbolizing the charity organization. … Read the full Story >>
Can a promotional video for a shopping mall's complex customer-loyalty program be both informative and fun? Astonishingly, the answer is yes. But perhaps what's most astonishing about the International Motion Art Awards-winning video made for the Shopville Le Gru mall in Turin, Italy, is that the people who created it rarely saw each other--except for the few times they met during online Skype conferences. … Read the full Story >>
"As a longtime fan of both professional wrestling and stop-motion animation, it only made sense that this is what I would spend my final project of school working on," says Rosemary Travale of her thesis project for the B.A. Animation program at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. Titled "The Champ," the short features a lead character who, like Travale, is slightly obsessed by the … Read the full Story >>
"I have found that film versions of the photography I produce work well on the web and can add another dimension to a project," says British photographer David Stewart. Along with his commercial photographic work, Stewart has created a number of noted fine-art series, including "Teenage Pre-Occupation," a documentary-style look at teens who, as he puts it, "are wrapped up in their own world … Read the full Story >>
Some monsters may be more likable than others--but that doesn't mean their lives are any less emotionally fraught. In Typsetter Blues, a three-minute animated story from Canada-based filmmakers Hector Herrera and Pazit Cahlon, a loveable guy named Harold falls for a new coworker, who unfortunately falls harder for someone else. It's a classic love triangle, featuring a main character with three eyes. "The project … Read the full Story >>
"Peter Hamlin and Nina Frenkel took this song on a dreamy, animated ramble, and we're totally dumbstruck and thrilled with what they came up with," notes the blog of the Brooklyn-based folk-rock band Little Silver, describing the music video for "Stolen Souvenir," the lead track from their debut album. The video, reflecting the animation work of Frenkel and Hamlin's background in motion design, illustration, … Read the full Story >>
Sometimes the real idea of a motion piece doesn't present itself until the shooting is over and the editing begins. Such was the case with the stylish video created by New York-based photographer and filmmaker Carlos Serrao called "The Hip Hop Oligarchs," which featured the musical artists A$AP Rocky, Wiz Khalifa, and Big Boi. "Our visual concept for this shoot evolved after we starting … Read the full Story >>
Humans, curious creatures, are often driven to explore what lies beneath the surface of things; artists and other inquiring souls often use this urge to burrow below the conscious mind. Jun Cen, a Chinese-born illustrator and animator now living in New York City, says that his beautiful, dreamlike film "Mutual Tunnels" was inspired by his desire to examine his inner self--or, more specifically, his … Read the full Story >>
Today we launch a series featuring winners of the first International Motion Awards. The competition, created by the American Illustration-American Photography group, uniquely honors the year's best art and design in a variety of motion genres, from live action/photography and animation to motion graphics/design and student work. We start with "Boxcar Fair," a music video created by photographer and filmmaker Andrew Kornylak, along with … Read the full Story >>
Olimpia Zagnoli, an illustrator based in Milan, notes at her website that she rides a tiny red bike, wears stripes, hates blue ink pens and sends postcards. The band Green Like July also hails from Italy, though it has been described as having a classic American-folk sound. In 2011, Zagnoli directed her first music video, for the band's song "A Better Man," which featured … Read the full Story >>
Andrew Hida's documentary about Andrew Cunningham and Tony Reuter began as a class project at Syracuse University focused on a power soccer team for disabled young men. But it evolved into something far more moving, an intimate look at the relationship between Cunningham, a 13-year-old with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and 21-year-old Reuter, who was born with brittle bone disease. "The more … Read the full Story >>
Here's an interesting ethical question: What if you and your wife happen to be friends with someone who earns her living as a prostitute? When you take her to parties with your friends, who may want to date her, are you obligated to let them know? That was the query posed to Slate magazine's popular "Dear Prudence" online advice column. Illustrator and animator Rob … Read the full Story >>
Illustrator Mai Ly Degnan's International Motion Art Awards-winning piece "Hopelessly Devoted: A Ghost Story" is in fact not a ghost story, but a story about love -- the kind of love that hurts, the kind that is lonely rather than rapturous. The three-minute stop-motion animation focuses, in Degnan's words, "on blind love, unhealthy, one-sided relationships, breakups and moving on." The story follows a ghost … Read the full Story >>
You can often find a worthy subject for a story close to home. Photographer Scott McDermott did when he lived near the corner of Broadway and White Street in New York City, not far from Let There Be Neon, a business that makes custom neon signs. "I always thought it was cool and somewhat unexpected that there was a store on my block that … Read the full Story >>
Ron Haviv, the co-founder of the VII photo agency, is one of the best-known photojournalists in the world, having compiled an unflinching record of conflict and social injustices for publications like the New Yorker, Paris Match, Time, Stern, and Vanity Fair. (Starting today, New York City's Anastasia Gallery features a retrospective of Haviv's 23-year career.) In recent years, Haviv has also moved into motion … Read the full Story >>
Painter, author, designer, and educator Laurie Rosenwald notes at her website that she speaks Swedish like a native New Yorker, which makes sense since she divides her time between NYC and Stockholm. Her drawings have appeared in the New Yorker, New York magazine, and other publications, and she leads a novel workshop series on "how to make mistakes on purpose." Her new minute-and-a-half animated … Read the full Story >>
"A lot of times my best images come from seemingly dry topics, because they force me to think more abstractly and symbolically. I always do my best work with very general, rather than specific, art direction," says illustrator and motion-design artist Richard Borge. Much of Borge's work features fanciful, complicated mechanical contraptions, so when a friend at the strategic marketing company White Rhino mentioned … Read the full Story >>
If you thought life at Dunder Mifflin was weird, wait until you spend a day at the office with Mindt Chuply and Lamar Babcock.Those are the two animated characters invented by Brooklyn-based illustrator Jason Coates for a comic strip that takes office humor into surreal new directions. In 2012, Coates decided that his comic would work better as an animated web series, so he … Read the full Story >>
