-
Cirkus returns to perform @ Cannes Lions 2013
This is our thing. Cirkus will be returning to Cannes Lions Festival once again with both a Workshop and a Booth in the Palais.
Cannes is the perfect platform to perform our tricks for a worldwide creative audience.
Since our first visit in 2009, we have built a highly successful relationship with the Cannes Lions organisation and with that comes our continued presence in sponsoring and hosting a workshop.
Our 2010 “Kamikaze” workshop, 2011 “How much animation does my dollar buy” workshop and 2012 “Do it not the Same” workshops all have the same objective, demonstrating to delegates that animation is a fun and creative tool which, if done in a smart way, will have the X-Factor.
The core mission of Cirkus is making animation accessible and understandable to the general public. The purpose of our workshops is to engage delegates into generating creative ideas for animation, storyboarding and the use of mixed media.
-
My Animation Rules Workshop
This year we welcome Delegates to our “My Animation Rules” workshop on the 16th of June.
Once again we ask the delegates to use mix media in a simple production, cheerfully igniting their imagination with the basics of storytelling and creativity.
Exclusively for this workshop, Cirkus will generate a number of animated 3D character passes as dictated by the delegates during the workshop. These can be characters walking, falling over, running or jumping cycles; objects falling, rising, rolling over or just “plain” props that can be placed in an environment.
The attendees are put into teams and asked to create the storyboard and environment using assets supplied by Cirkus. The objective of this workshop is to think beyond one production platform and mix the 3D character with whatever media; this can be live-action, digital stills, stock footage, 2D drawings, matte-paintings a miniature set or the use of stop-motion – you name it!
Check out our promo video here:
Cirkus will put the storyboards up for popular vote at the Cirkus Booth in the Palais. The Cirkus artists will then perform their magic tricks on the winning storyboard and produce an animated spot during the Festival. Delegates can comment on the film’s progress by visiting our Cirkus booth @ the Palais or via social media. FaceBook www.facebook.com/CirkusNYNZ, Twitter https://twitter.com/CirkusLtd
Click here for information about how to sign up!
-
Drinkies @ Grand Hotel
Animation Workshops can be tough gigs so why not juggle some beers with us at the Grand Hotel. Cirkus will co-host the Campaign Brief’s Aussie/Kiwi Cannes Delegates Welcome Party with Robber’s Dog on the night after our workshop, June 17, 6PM onwards.
No passport required.
-
Cirkus showing the world ‘How things should be’
Cirkus and Longtail showing the world ‘How things should be’
If you are a keen Cirkus blog reader you may remember that we were involved in the creation of a viral video campaign in association with Australian interactive interactive Agency Longtail for Edith Cowan University.
Well we are back for round two. With a simple character approach, and a colourful design palette Human Cannonball Romain Borrel and Juggler Christian Greet were able turn the quirky Creative from Longtail into cute 5 second spots to illustrate how things should be. They couldn’t have done it without the impressive animation skills of our very own Joon Seok and Priyan Jayamaha.
Click here to check out the ‘How things should be’ website:
Or else check out the Youtube channel
Check out the character development
Initial character design
Initial Approach
The character design we ended up going with
Also thanks to Longtail for trusting our expertise yet again.
Creative Director: Josh Edge
Art Director: Rikki Burns
Account Manager: Gina Ioffee -
Wassup?
We haven’t spammed you in a wee while!
Cirkus has been, and is still working full throttle, juggling various meaty projects since late last year.
Despite the initially tight deadlines these spots are now on the shelf, “with client”, delayed, awaiting feedback, going through research or in constant change mode.
So whilst waiting for news from these various mysterious foreign markets, our 2013 “on to it” honors go to, eehhh, well New Zealand!
Last to start production, first to go live!
Good on ya TaxRefunds.co.nz and Barnes, Catmur & Friends for working to schedule and trusting the process, resulting in Eric, this lovely 3D frog design by our own Human Cannonball Romain Borrel. Eric the frog now headlines the TaxRefunds.co.nz website in all his glory!
Check it out here
Check out Eric’s concept art
We also created two, 15 second spots using a mixed media approach with the animated characters composited into a live background really which really helps this spot come alive.
Check out the two spots here!
A special shout out to the Barnes, Catmur & Friends team for making this such an easy process, Creative Director Paul Catmur, Art Director Brad Stratton and Account Director Jo Cheyne.
Thanks to the whole Cirkus team who worked on this, especially our Director/concept artist Romain Borrel, Animatic design Alexandre Toufilli, Character Animation amazingness Hugo Garcia and Priyan Jayamaha, Modeling extraordinaire Mauro Santini, Rigger Jack Tuck, Compositing/DOP Sandesh Codhadu. and Produced by our very own Hoopdiver Kate Goodwin.
Paddlepop Fun!
Often pitches and treatments reveal brainwaves of animation design, layout and ideas in the purest form. In a global pitch through Lowe Jakarta we were asked to show off our character animation skills for this existing hero Paddlepop character as well as create and show the fur set up – within a week. To emphasis relevant actions of the animated sequences we put the furred 3D lion character in this 2D matte painting created by our Human Cannonball Romain Borrel and added some 3D elements in the foreground to stage the scene.
Check out the below frames to see how we arrived at the final product!
And oh yeah – we did not get the job
-
Norman wins best animated short AND best animation craft awards
Congratulations to our Flea Norman Yeend with his big “Getting Ahead” win!
This three-minute short film was written, produced and directed by Norman using traditional stop-motion techniques winning two out of three major awards — for best film and best craft — at the 2012 Sydney Opera House Graphic Festival held on November 10 and 11.
Norman shot this film over 3 weeks using his Digital camera and Dragon animation software to bring to life a living statue and its creator. Luckily, Norman had already made the metal armatures and thought it would be cool to animate those in a humorous way, making up the story on the go.
The background setting is made out of all sorts of junk, clutter and props from Norman’s back-catalogue and private collection,
In Norman’s own words: “It is nice to win awards like this because sometimes it takes an award to get a look-in — to get projects you are working on become noticed,”
We say: now let’s get this boy some work!!!
-
Flea and Stop Motion Director Norman Yeend produces “Getting Ahead”
Our Flea and Stop Motion Director Norman Yeend has just completed his lovely short for the Sydney Opera House Animation Graphic Competition and he needs your vote!
Please visit: http://www.youtube.com/SOHCompetitions
Click on the Vote Tab, type ‘Getting aHead’ (the name of Norman’s film) into the search panel and click thumbs up!
Norman Yeend: “The film came out of an earlier idea about a living statue and its creator that I went for funding for but was unsuccessful. I then tried to raise some funds through a crowd funding site and successfully reached my goal but discovered, too late, that there were already a few other stop-motion shorts out there with a very similar theme. It was then a matter of trying to come up with another idea using what I had. I had already made the metal armatures for my crowd funded film and thought it would be cool to just animate those. Ordinarily, the armatures are covered in some sort of rubber skin that becomes the character, but very rarely are they ever animated just on their own.
I had a lot of junk left over from other projects, so that became the setting. As for the story, that came out of the cyclical tale of my crowd funded short. The creation became the creator. That film had a more serious tone, whereas I wanted this one to be humorous. As a challenge to myself, I just went for it, in much the same naive way I made my little Super 8 stop-motion films when I was a kid. I didn’t write it down or storyboard anything. I just made it up as I went. All things considered, I think it turned out not too bad.”
We love it Norman!Below are a few behind the scenes frames for your perusal (click to enlarge them):
-
A Brand New Liquid and Particle Reel
2012 has been a liquid and particle year for us at Cirkus. Our 3D animation team has worked tirelessly on detergent bullets, balls stacks, cream, milk, juice, flowers, paper birds, dust, you name it, it is all on show in our New Cirkus Liquid and Particle Reel.
-
Michael Malone from Iinet; he is the original upgrader!
BWM Sydney’s creative team Matthew Ennis, Blake Arthur and Producer Ian Ford presented us with a VERY quirky script following Iinet founder Michael Malones progression from Uni student to International internet entrepreneur, showcasing Malone as the original Upgrader. The script came with a brief to create a hand-made DIY looking online video – right up our alley!
The main objective was to tell Malone’s and Iinet’s story by using simple, chic and clever animation techniques. A lot of the content is hand drawn. Some has been traditionally (cell) animated with the majority 2D animated using After Effects. Other styles/techniques we used were: live action which was then outlined and tracked, 3D animation, photos, cut-outs, info-graphics and type, making this mish mash of animation really stand out from the crowd.
The team was headed by Animation Director, Romain Borrel aka Human cannonball, now famed for his some what unusual but always creative illustration approach. Quite a few Cirkus performers had a go at his project; Juggler Christian Greet, Knifethrower Layne Howe, Daredevil Chris Lyne, Firebreather Sandesh Codhadu, Mime Priyan Jayamaha, Fortune-teller Kylie He, Strongman Scott Wilkinson and Rodney Selby with Liontamestress Felicia Brunsting as producer.
The web-video is part of the Iinet campaign and can be seen here! See several frames of the online video below (click on them to see it in full glory):
-
Sears Campaign
Teaming with Advertising Agency McGarryBowen ex Chicago, Cirkus completed their first US Campaign producing a 5 spot national campaign and Directors Cut for Sears.
Cirkus’ Animation Director and Juggler Christian Greet travelled to Prague and Cape Town to supervise the filming of the live action green screen plates. We then fully integrated these with CGI to create a whimsical environment that the Sears products were placed amongst. Cirkus edited and designed each spot individually whilst maintaining an overall texture and look of a paper cut out world of the campaign as a whole.
A combination of good communication and dedicated teams from Sears, McGarryBowen and Cirkus kept the workflow going over an approximately 5 month production schedule. Heading the team in Chicago for McGarryBowen were Ned Crowley, Chief Creative Officer, Kevin Thoem, Group Creative Director, Alison Brown, Creative Director, Allison Miller, Art Director, Kelly Jenkins, Copywriter, Katie Roach, Producer, Jessica Murray, Assoc. Producer.
Nice one all around for the team headed by Christian Greet, Animation and Design Director, Monkey Matt Pitt and Dan Harris for Pre-Viz & animation, Fortuneteller Kylie He for asset design, Layne Howe, lighting and rendering, Sandesh Codhadu, edit and compositing, Lawrence Chandam and Joon Seoky for all Roto and Prep, David Hofflich, Executive Producer.
Christian teamed up with Director Matthäus Bussmann who shot the additional footage to create this Brand TVC featuring a beautifully crafted dream world made from paper cut-outs with beautiful people, lovely kidz surrounded by hot-air balloons and all sorts of magic! Happiness!!
