It has been more than a year now since I last worked at Bent Image Lab. When I was there, I had a wonderful time getting to know the studio and participated in several cool projects. Before knocking on Bent’s door, my knowledge in the field of CG animation was very limited, as a matter of fact, I don’t do CG at all. I walked in with the intention to put my design and illustration skills to good use, little did I know the result turned out quite perfectly.

Bent definitely has taught me how to advance my technical skills and speed more efficiently. Each morning I always feel like I’m in a rush to get something done, but no matter what the circumstances were, I had to deliver all the projects on time. Since Bent Image Lab is a production house, we pretty much produced all of the final touches from scratch. The amount of labor and sweat went into each project was inconceivably intensive. I worked long hours and was constantly on the edge of deadlines.

When Nando Costa (founder of Nervo.tv) began collaborating with Bent, he brought his creative expertise in motion graphics to the team. Luckily, I got a few opportunities to sink my teeth into doing motion graphics. It was a lot of fun designing styleframes and preparing some of the animation assets for the compositing department. One day, I would love to be able to experiment and produce amazing projects in After Effects.

Thanks again for given me this greatest experience in the animation & commercial industry. Bent has taught me so many things, from every aspect of concept designing to the outcome of developments in production. Being surrounded in the core of many diverse talented people have made me realized how we each carry unique set of skills. I’m happy that I got to share part of my skills with the rest of the team at Bent.

Below are a few examples of what Bent Image Lab can do:

“Whale Song” for Modest Mouse

Coke: Hidden Formula

Lux Provocateur

BC Dairy Foundation “Russian Dolls”

Scott Naturals, “The Right Blend”

jibjab.com is probably one of my favorite sites to stop by for their comical Flash animations. It was actually founded in September 1999 by two brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis. Ever since they released the 2004 US presidential election video of George W. Bush and John Kerry, it became a huge hit to the online community and had featured on numerous of printed media and television shows.

It’s just great how they can take economic issues in our society and translates them into fun and entertaining animations. Watching their work is just unbelievably hard to not stop giggling. Check out some of these videos below and beware of what you about to see. “Time for Some Campaignin” is their up to date work. Obama and McCain scene will have you rolling on the floor.

Time for Some Campaignin’

This Land

In 2007

Nutkin’ Futs 2006

Thought I should do a post in regarding to our upcoming presidential election. My vote is definitely for Obama. I hope our years will be better and brighter than before. No more bullshits! I am ready for a new change!

Are you into animation? If yes, then you are up for a treat. I don’t know where to start or how to explain it but this piece animation is just simply brilliant; not to mention the intensity that went behind the animation work, the use music, and how each movement expresses its own way to tell the story. All I have to say is just watch it in order to believe what this is about because it’s that amazing. Mathieu Labaye has done an excellent job in creating a tribute to his father if only I wish I could have such animation skills and knowledge like him. I have included the original English translation in this post, so read over it before viewing the animation although please be very patient, it may have a slow start at the beginning. Merci!

TRANSLATION :
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Great tribute to his father Benoit Labaye, suffered from a multiple sclerosis at 29 years old. Benoit Labaye had been confined to a wheelchair since age 40 and died at 55 years old the 04.22.2006, as a result of a pneumonia.

CREDITS :
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DIRECTED BY: Mathieu Labaye
ASSISTANCE DIRECTOR: Sabastien Godard
MUSIC: Fabian Forini et Mathieu Labaye
PRODUCER: Jean-Luc Slock
PRODUCTION: Camera-etc

LINKS:
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YouTube Version
Daily Motion Version
Benoit Labaye’s Website

In the movie, you can hear Benoit Labaye speaking:

“I think it’s by the movement you appropriate your own life. By the freedom to come and go, to have gestures of love, tenderness, anger, whatever. When you are deprived of movements, as I am and as a lot of other people are, I think if you want to survive, you must reinvent the movement differently. And so what happens inside my head isn’t purely brain, purely intellectual. It’s a way of recreating an inner space which is also my freedom.”

“When you live a severe handicap, when you live absolutely still, dependent, you live, in fact, something that can’t be shared, that can’t be easily expressed, which you can’t easily talk about. Because when two people talk, to be able to understand each other, they need to have a minimum of common experience between them, to speak of something they both know from some form of experience.”

“Sure, the stillness, the handicap, brings you to the conclusion and to the gradual acceptance that there’s a certain number of things that you can’t do. But conversely I think it opens a whole bunch of new possibilities, notably with inner freedom, inner space, but also with the way you can come in contact, in relation with others.

I think there is in the handicap, in the disease, a lot of potentiality. The human being is inexhaustible at the level of desire, of energy, of inner strength. Ans it’s something you discover with maybe more urge, more intensity, when you’re deprived of movement.”

Honda has recently released a commercial spot called “Do, Keep Doing, Do Some More” which is a short whimsical animation piece that raises the idea of eco-awareness solution. It is about how we could make a difference to the environment according to the choices we make. Some of us may not have a bond with commercials or advertisements since we used to seeing them every single day, but this one will definitely makes you remember the message, story-telling style, and its clever way of branding. I think when it comes down to any Honda’s stuff in general; they’ve always managed to implant an idea into our brain. Thanks to the brilliant creative team at Wieden+Kennedy, they came up with the idea and art direction. The rest of the production work and animation were produced by the team at Not To Scale.

You might also remember this famous spot: Honda Accord Cog

Client: Honda

Production Company: Not To Scale
Directors: Coan & Zorn
Producer: Dan O’ Rourke
Production Assistant: Ellie Whitehead
Animation: Luca Paulli, John Taylor, Dan Murtha

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy London
Creative Team: Sophie Bodoh & Ben Everitt
Agency Producer: Lucy Russell
Creative Director: Shay Reading
Executive Creative Director: Kim Papworth