ghOst productions inspiration

This is a demo reel for a medical illustration company that showcases several different types of animation that they can do as well as several examples of medical procedures.

Mark Summers inspiration

This week's inspiration is from Mark Summers (at Richard Solomon). He is very good at doing high detailed and refined scratchboard with color. The picture below of the cat shows the rule of thirds and depth with the amount of texture from the scratchboard.

Mathias Lachal inspiration

I like this animation because it was a simple concept that was executed very well--it is so bizarre and strange that one is hooked and wants to see what will happen next. The animator explores a range of ideas and motions, including interacting with sound and the objects in the room.

Range Ton Bazar from Mathias Lachal on Vimeo.

Evynd Earle inspiration

Evynd Earle is an artist from California who passed away in 2000. I was first introduced to his work in my home--my parents used to live (before I was born) in California near where Evynd worked. They were both struck by his paintings, and as a result while I was growing up I was familiar with a handful of serigraphs (think silkscreens with 50+ colors) of his work hanging throughout my parent's house.

Evynd's first big commercial job was as the background artist for the Disney film Sleeping Beauty, and he worked there for ten years. He is well known for his very unique style of landscapes--there is really none other like him, in my opinion.

His style shows incredible rhythm with the lively shapes and personalities of trees and often bright colors contrasted on a black background. His paintings also show depth with textures in stipling and again through color. Here are some examples of his serigraphs below (click for larger image). All of these images are from his website.

Andy Needham inspiration

In terms of motion design, I am a sucker for music videos. Here is a random one (I don't know the band, but I like the video) I found by Andy Needham. I like the interesting combination of 2D/3D. It is also interesting to see how directors change aspects throughout the movie to keep a person's interest. A song is, usually, very repetitive and the art has to reflect that. But Andy introduces some variety with the red 'paint' and breaking the repetition with different visual styles--similar enough to keep unity in the video, though.

Feeder - 'Tracing Lines' from imcalledandy on Vimeo.

Andrea Cobb inspiration

The artist I like this week is Andrea Cobb. Her style uses primarily vector art with layers of embellishments and details. In this illustration below, she uses several different types of lines and shapes to create texture. The dark teal and brown-red color scheme is complementary, but variation in the shade adds dimension and variety as well. I also like how the woman is mostly created by the negative space of the objects, bringing emphasis to her features and hair.

Eva film title inspiration

This is the film title for a movie called Eva. I'm pretty sure it's 3D animation, but the lighting is superb! You can also see faces and people reflected in some of the 'glass.' I imagined that the artists were put to the task of making memory visual.

Patrick George inspiration

Patrick George's art creates a concept with minimal shapes and bright colors. The result is a strong and eye-catching design. The design on the left shows unity with color, and grouping. It has symetrical balance, except for the sailboat so that it is emphasized. The design on the right I thought was well done because it describes Lolita in a simple and effective way--Lolita's youth and seduction (in the narrator's mind) is much represented by the sucker.

The Seed inspirational movie

I liked this film, called 'The Seed' by Nexus because of it's creative use of combining 2D animation drawings and 3D paper stop-animations. There was a creative and unpredictable way that events and objects were presented--for instance, the body. We all know that the stomach is where food is digested, but making it look like the food is melting into the acid and the intestine being a maze is surprising and is what delights me about animation. I also like the attention to detail, such as the music being damened under water--it is tied in so well and so naturally that I almost didn't notice.

You can see the movie with this link:

http://motionspire.com/assets/videos/nexus_the_seed.mov