conigs

The origin of the NBC peacock logo?

Great animation by Nathan Love (in collaboration with NBC Artworks).

I want everything we do—that I do personally, that our office does—to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything or that a client thinks it’s worth anything or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me.

– Saul Bass

[via Motionographer]

If you’ve worked on commercial project, you know there’s only one constant: change… especially at the last minute. One of the things that seems to frequently change is color choice. If you have a complicated AE animation and many layers that use the same colors, this can be a royal pain. You can reduce this pain if, from the beginning, you set up a color control layer.

[Note: this really only works well if you're working on vector animations with single-color objects.]

First, set up an adjustment layer and add the “Color Color” effect found under “Expression Controls.” Do this for as many colors as you want.

I recommend naming the controls for the layers you will be coloring rather than the color itself.

Then, apply the “Fill” effect under “Generate.” Here, you can option-click (alt-click on PC) and drag the pick-whip (that little spiral button) to the color control in your color control layer.

Now, when the client comes back to you with the comment “The trees should be purple,” you won’t be cursing under your breath (as much).

With so many newspapers seeing decline in their physical circulation, it’s nice to see a paper like the New York Times embracing the flexibility of content that the Internet can offer.

Recently, their After Effects workflow was posted on digitalartwork.net. It’s a little rough and they fully admit they’re new to the mograph game, but it’s always interesting to see how someone else works.

Now if only other papers would realize Internet distribution offers more than digital copies of their print.

Here’s the New Your Times’ demo reel:

A Behind-the-scenes about the “HBO Starship” intro from the 1980s. It’s good to remind ourselves how far effects, graphics, & animation have come in only 30 years. I’m also tempted to use some of these techniques digitally.

[via Motionographer]

Caught this yesterday and forgot to post it. Jeff Gabor posted two quicktimes. First, a 4-screen breakdown of several character animations for the latest Ice Age movie: Reference, Blocking (rough animation), Splining (model refinements), and Lighting. The other is an evolution reel, from rough poses all the way through final polish.

They’re large quicktimes, so be warned, but it’s worth the wait to get a small glimpse at how complex 3D scenes are built. All too often, it seems animators and designers want to jump right in and work on the final product, skipping steps. This is a reminder that as with nearly everything, it’s best to start from a general, big picture perspective, then refine as you go along.

[via Motionographer & someone on Twitter, but couldn't find it anymore]

An amazing stop-motion piece by Apt Studio & Asylum Films for the Fourth Estate (blog) 25th anniversary. The attention to detail and simpe (yet encompassing) aesthetic have me watching it several times and still seeing something new.

For more information, visit www.25thestate.com (I especially recommend the videos page), the 5th Estate blog (not a typo), and the Apt portfolio & blog.

Without further adieu, 25th Estate (full screen recommended):

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

[shoutout to Tim H on Facebook]