John Lewis Christmas Ad

[AmigaMan]

Thought I'd post this here in case anyone missed it. It premiere's on UK TV today apparently but has been posted on Facebook, YouTube etc already. Reportedly cost £1 million to make.

[JCook]

That's a really nice animation. I stumbled on this this morning:

http://vimeo.com/78254514

Jack

[heyvern]

Holy freaking frame by frame Batman!!!

I am in a bit of shock. So many "other" animators would simply use digital compositing to add in the 2D animation and the results would probably most likely look nearly the same. Amazing, and in reality quite elegant and "simple" in it's execution. Holy freaking cow. I keep thinking "old school" animation is not going away anytime soon!!! There was actually no reason to do that animation that way from a technological stand point. The decision was purely artistic and the results are amazing.

p.s. on a a side note, the "overly realistic" part of my brain keeps thinking how that freaking bear would have killed and eaten the majority of animals around the tree, but If I can suspend reality to believe in giant robots fighting monsters from another dimension, I suppose I can believe those animals could have some sort of holiday armistice to exchange gifts.

[AmigaMan]

Yes I saw that 'making of' a few days ago and I too was surprised they created it that way. As you say Vern, it would have looked the same if they'd simply composited the 2D into the real set. There obviously is a difference with things like shadows as they will be real shadows and subtle differences because the character's are actually there on set at varying distances from the camera. Anyway, it worked out well and looks great

[heyvern]

If you look closely you will notice that there was some digital "clean up". The "2D" hare "jumps" and there were visible wires to lift the 2D animation off the ground which were obviously cloned out digitally.

I actually LOVE this idea of animating. My brother participates in the "Super Gr8 film festival". Many of the film makers use animation with old Super 8 cameras that have stop motion capabilities (no one makes these anymore, you have to get them used through eBay or other sources). Wish they had old entries online but they have some problems with the soundtracks and copyright issues. Some of the entrants use copyrighted music and they can't put it online.

My brother has a camera with single frame advance and this would be a great way to do a mix of 2D and real world animation within the constraints of the film festival rules. I could animate in AS, print the frames, cut them out etc etc. My brother has done some stop motion and "animation" for several of his entries. I hope to team up with him next year.

Basically the contest organizers give you a single cartridge of film (color or black and white) and you shoot your movie and turn in the undeveloped cartridge along with a sound track on CD. You never see the final film until the festival after it has been developed and converted to digital. You also can't be certain how the sound track will sync up either. My brother usually keeps track of the shot timing and does a sort of "loose" sound track, usually a voice over or music. I am impressed at the dedication of animators spending all of that time and not knowing if any of it will turn out until on the night. I've seen some of the animations and they are amazing for the low tech medium.

They don't manufacture super 8 film any more (well, in the US. I think there is a Russian company that makes and sells it). The contest organizers get the film by taking I think, 32mm or 16 mm film stock, "slicing it down" to size, punching new holes and then rolling it up inside the cartridges.

This style of "2D" animation is perfect for the Super Gr8 film festival.

[heyvern]

Found my brother's entry in the Super Gr8 2011 film festival on youtube, using stop motion with a super 8 camera.

[AmigaMan]

That's great! Actually, contrary to popular belief, Kodak are still going and manufacturing Super8 film. There are a few new camera's too from specialist manufacturers. My best friend still sells Super8 as well as 16mm films as well as BluRay etc. My first job was working for a company that released films on Super8. The film arrived in 16mm width from the lab and I used to have to record the soundtrack on huge MagnaTech machines then slit the film down the middle for packaging. I still have my camera and projector. Like a few others on this forum I suspect, all my first animation experiments and films were made on Super8. It's great that your brother is still using the medium.

[heyvern]

The company that sponsors the film festival in Harrisonburg VA, does very high quality super 8 digital transfers. Not the typical "Play and record" type thing, they do the "scan each freaking frame" technique. Very expensive but the best possible quality. I think it costs $150 to digitize each 3 minute entry. They did digital transfers for Steven Spielbergs of his old home movies and also worked with him on his "Super 8" movie.

Last year my brother won best something or other.... best visuals or something. The awards are hand crafted by a local artist/sculptor from old broken super 8 cameras. It was the first time I drove down for one of the festivals and it was PACKED. Huge turnouts for this thing. It gets more and more popular every year.

I was suppose to work with my brother this year for his festival entry but he left it go to the last minute and shot it in a day and turned it in on the last day. Next year I definitely want to enter something and use Anime Studio with printed frames. Talk about hybrid old school, new school animation! I was thinking of printing on transparency film and using photographs for backgrounds or doing some kind of "in camera" trick like the John Lewis ad. I would like to avoid having to cut out all of those frames... would kill me.

I will have to figure out the FPS of super 8 and do old school... er... uh... dope sheets? yikes... have to learn something new... um... I mean old.

[slowtiger]

24 fps.

[Danimal]

Very stunning. The kind of thing you could just watch over and over.