The end of 2010 saw a flurry of projects pass through our doors, every monkey on board putting shoulders and elbows into the push to make client delivery dates.
Among the more interesting projects was a series of spots for the South Carolina Education Lottery promoting the rolling jackpot amounts. Our concept involved shooting a four foot red ball, frame by painful frame, in a stop-motion animated journey across South Carolina, highlighting the geographic and cultural diversity of our beautiful state.
After running a few tests to gauge frame-rate and lens selection, we hit the road. From the mountains in the upstate to the beaches of the lower coast, our crew averaged approximately 1 frame every 4 minutes…and it all goes by so fast. Of note: it rained in Greenville the day we shot the downtown scene, so if you were to look closely at just those few frames, you would see a few members of the crew filling out some of the cafe patio chairs, their hindquarters soaking wet.
So take a moment to stop and enjoy the spot and the stop-motion behind the scenes work it took to make it!
Animation/Motion Graphics Archive
SCEL Powerball: Behind the Scenes
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011Turner & Mad Monkey usher James back to Cleveland
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010Heat vs. Cavaliers; Thursday, December 2nd. It would easily be the most anticipated of the 1230 games on the NBA’s 2010-2011 schedule. So when Turner Sports Creative Director Drew Watkins asked for help executing his vision for an ambitious lead-in to the broadcast of LeBron’s return to Cleveland, we jumped at the chance.
It turned out to be a good move. The morning after the game, TNT reported that the telecast drew a 4.2 rating. That means nearly 7.1 million people saw us make the impossible possible with effects shots that relocated some of the world’s most beloved landmarks. One sports/media critic even blogged about the spot, piling lavish praise on both the poignant metaphor behind Turner’s concept and our “stunning” special effects (his word, not ours) which involved matte painting, camera mapping, and 3-D animation.
If you weren’t one of the seven million who saw the spot the first time, check it out now:
Powerball Shoot
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010Today is December 8th, and it is freezing outside in Columbia. Not just figuratively, because our southern bones get cold so easily, but literally, because it’s 32 degrees. If water can freeze, we can too!
In order to keep warm, we’re thinking back to warmer days…like in November. At the beginning of last month we traveled all over the great state of South Carolina- Mountains, Midlands, Sea- to shoot the latest SCEL Powerball spot. Here’s a sneak peak of some of the photos! Check out our Mad Monkey Facebook page to view the full album.
~MM
Powerball in the Upstate
Powerball on the beach
Powerball at the State House
Motion capture- the antithesis of good animation?
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010Let’s talk about animation, really good animation. I’m not talking about who would win in a fist fight between Pixar and Dreamworks (Pixar, obviously), I’m talking about honest to goodness frame by frame animation. Or perhaps, let’s talk about the antithesis of good animation. I’m talking about Robert Zemeckis and his attempt (perhaps unconsciously) to harm the art and soul of animation.
Zemeckis is a visionary filmmaker; he’s the guy who made Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, both excellent and innovative movies. However, there’s a dark side to that vision of his. Zemeckis removes the humanity out of animation and replaces it with [shudder] Motion capture.
The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol are all examples of this. Each of his latest films features motion capture exclusively, without so much as a touch from an animator. If you’ve seen any of these films you know why I’m complaining. Tell me you weren’t uncomfortable watching The Polar Express. The reason? Motion capture.
Motion capture, for the non-animators out there, is the process of recording movement and translating that movement onto a digital model. In other words, translating the movements of a guy in a ping-pong ball covered leotard (like this guy) to it onto a computer model.
Now I know you’re thinking “Hey, wait just a tick- Avatar, King-Kong and Gollum from Lord of the Rings were all motion capture, and they didn’t suck!” And you’re right, they didn’t suck. The truth is that most modern films use some element of motion capture, but the difference with the Navi, King-Kong and Gollum are animators. Each of those films had a team of animators come in and animate over the motion capture, frame by frame, adding a bit of finesse and emotional connection to the performance.
It’s like cooking. You can make a meal from a box and it’ll fulfill your daily need to eat, but a truly amazing meal needs to involve some added spices and herbs to that box meal, like garlic… everyone loves garlic, right? Animators are the garlic of the modern film. By using motion capture, Mr. Zemeckis skips the garlic and thus the characters in his films suffer, lacking any sort of emotional connection. In short, they’re bland.
And the world has started to notice. The Academy Awards recently modified their rules concerning what qualifies as an animated feature film in regards to motion capture stating “An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture… in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.”
Hopefully Robert Zemeckis will take note while he’s gearing up to make Roger Rabbit 2 next summer. Hopefully he will continue to do a great job for Toon Town and doesn’t harm the art and soul from that as well.
