Christian Hogue next week will be our guest, you can check Lost In Space, his company he is working for... Here is a little article about him from Bangkok Post...
Lost in Space is a network of designers, graffitists and film-makers who blur the boundaries between the moving image and art in advertising. They don't adhere to normal advertising strategies, preferring a more artistic, hands-on approach to working on the bleeding edge.
"It hurts to be out front," creative director Christian Hogue said.
So why are they called Lost in Space?
"If you're lost in the cyber-space world of modern communications and advertising, then you might need the help of Lost in Space," Hogue explained in part-superhero, part-cyber nerd terminology. He spends most his time in Bangkok where he gathers creative types to create projects for international clients, such as Nokia's current global campaign to raise environmental awareness, which commissioned three short films under the title Power of We.
Hogue prefers Bangkok, not just for the weather, or its close proximity to his mother in New Zealand, but also because he feels the creative scene is just starting here, with new VJs, designers and artists constantly appearing, creating a fresh, vibrant atmosphere. One of his more artistic video pieces - Tree of Life and Death - was created for the anniversary party for Whitespace Gallery.
Perhaps you may recognise some of his work, such as the cover of Coldplay's Rush of Blood to the Head (originally commissioned as a fashion piece for the movie Dazed and Confused), and the infamous final scene in Terminator 2, where the T1000 sizzles to its doom in a cauldron of molten metal.
Hogue's outfit also worked on the video graphics for Pierce Brosnan's last Bond film Never Say Die, including the satellite views, medical beeps and zooming into maps and mobiles, all of Bond's gadget graphics.
Lost in Space has also worked alongside other creatives to produce stage graphics and projections for the Rolling Stones and Bjork in the UK.
As an example of how artistic work can be produced with modern telecommunication technology: When they worked on the stage graphics for the Robbie Williams 2007 World Tour, Hogue was working out of New Zealand with a programmer in South Africa, along with a London crew. This is what really marks Lost in Space apart from other design/film collectives - that they can work with different types of people who may live hundreds or thousands of kilometres apart from each other, but function through a virtual setup, making them a truly global team.
Please have a look at this Music Video done by Hong Kong artists based, Da Joint. The technique used is 3D Camera movement and depth of field in After Effects! Download the Music Video here
2 weeks ago, i shown you what is rotoscoping (masking frame by frame) but coulnd't found enough examples to show you. Here are 2 famous music videos using this techniques (i guess the white stripes really influenced the director of the ting tings one)
The ting tings - Shut up and let me go... masking always in the center to make a hole in the picture
Many of you want to do a useful project 1 serving a purpose. If you want to try something challenging you can have a look at the Young Creative Network awards. It's full of brands and briefs, and a chance to win and get famous... yeeepah!
I know that most of you are not doing interactive, but you seriously need to put a bookmark on this website... You got the cream of the crops of Animation, Motion Graphics and Webdesign... Just have a look at some of the artists and you will think... how the hell they did this? Yes... billions of references! Enjoy without limits!
Next week, I will have pleasure to introduce you Nicolas Dali, another french fellow, talented with animation and motion Graphics. Nicolas will join us for 4 courses (3D Motion Graphics, Puppet Tool animation, Basic Animation and Typograpghy. You can check his website.
Nicolas Dali was featured in one article from Bangkok Post 2 months ago, you can learn more about him there:
SGT PIPO'S BUSY AUDIO-VISUAL WORLD
Nicolas Dali works in many media, from animation to music
Nicolas Dali is a designer who works across a range of disciplines, including illustration, web design, animation, print, motion graphics and VJ-ing.
Because sound is as interesting to him as visuals, he enjoys working in a medium where the two meet, and this has led to him live VJ-ing and creating motion graphics to accompany live rock bands or DJs.
"I really like VJ-ing because I'm basically a musician playing with graphics and music, two of my favourite things together. Image without sound seems a bit lacking, but combined it can be very powerful."
Mr Dali grew up in a small town close to Aix-en-Provence in the south of France before heading off to university in Marseilles to study visual communications. His grandfather was Arabic, hence his surname, but there's no relation to the famous painter Salvador Dali, at least as far as he knows.
"After studying I wanted to see what happened overseas. My girlfriend is a French teacher, so it was quite an obvious choice to go abroad, so we decided to travel to Hungary. It was quite simple really." From Hungary the couple travelled to and lived in Malaysia, and then to their present home, Bangkok.
Mr Dali's graphics and motion visuals tend to borrow the visual language and style of the 1920s, as well as communist aesthetics, but always adding a modern twist. A good example of this is the Penang illustration that depicts a woman staring proudly into the distance, with all the strong lines and shapes often seen in the Constructivist movement in Russia.
"This illustration was made for the 50th anniversary of the independence of Malaysia. It's not a complex concept at all. In Penang there are a lot of Chinese people, as well as Indians and Malays, so I wanted to show all the different cultures through the different newspaper texts on the clothes, the Borneo rose [bunga terung] in the background, and small motifs like monkeys and elephants."
He is currently working with the French Maison PoaPlume collective to create an updated almanac, complete with classic 1920s-style commercial graphics with a modern twist, for which he'll be creating the cover and fake ads.
"'Almanac' was the name of an old book where you could find information on astrology, even comic strips, and this was the inspiration for us to make our own."
His animations, on the other hand, have a completely different feeling - these at first appear quite cute and childlike, but there is definitely a touch of darkness lurking in the background. One such handmade animation is called Le Corbo et Le Renard (The Crow and the Fox), inspired by Jean de la Fontaine's fable, that shows a crow who aspires to become a Moulin Rouge singer after the fox flatters the crow in order to distract him while stealing a gramophone.
Another relatively new character is "Sergent Pipo", an alter ego of the illustrator himself, again inspired by his love of music. Sergent Pipo is modelled on the characters portrayed by the Beatles for their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Like most musicians, Pipo has a MySpace page, which has gained quite a reputation, through which Mr Dali has received much attention and many commissions.
I just found a beautiful websites with a few tutorials about After Effects, they also teach basic after effects... It's clean and good quality, check it out! aetuts.com
What was done a few decades ago... without after effects. Interesting though! Norman MacLaren is one of the pionneer of motion graphics and stop-motion, if you are interested about this field you have to watch more of his work.
You could see on this one how he expressed the sound (electronic music from the 60s!!!) though abstract shapes...
For more information about our program, please visit our website.
http://www.suic.org
If you would like to contact any of our students, or have more information about their work please contact us.
