Gravity and Bach Collide. London’s Optical Arts keeps the exploratory spirit alive with this live-action ballet of poetic destruction shot at extremely high speeds (between 1000 and 5000 frames per second).
From Optical Arts: “The film is an exploration of the nature of time, the relentless violence of entropy and creative energy, and its relationship to music itself”.
Bach by Stephen Malinowski
Stephen Anthony Malinowski is an American composer, pianist, educator, software engineer, and inventor.
He is best known for his musical animations and his computer program ‘the Music Animation Machine’ which produces animated graphical scores. He visualizes music using a system of colored shapes, taking information from a MIDI file. He has collaborated with artists such as Vincent Lo, Alexander Peskanov, Björk, and the Del Sol Quartet.
Music: Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, J. S. Bach, 2nd movement, Largo ma non tanto played by by Lara St. John and Scott St. John with the New York Bach Ensemble.
Life After Coming Out by CNN Motion
Mark Tedesco joined a seminary in Rome when he was a teenager. Halfway through his education, he began to confront feelings he’d had for much of his life — feelings he wasn’t sure how to reconcile with his faith.
Art director Ignacio Osorio and the team at CNN Motion apply a gentle, compassionate touch to the story of Mark Tedesco, a young priest trying to reconcile his faith and sexuality in the latest episode of CNN’s “Life After” series.
Swing you Sinners by Fleischer Studios
Swing You Sinners! is a 1930 animated cartoon short, directed by the Fleischer Brothers as part of the Talkartoons series. The cartoon is notable for its surreal, dark and sometimes even abstract content.
WALL-E by Pixar Animation Studios
WALL·E) is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction romance film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton.
WALL-E follows a solitary trash compactor robot on a future, uninhabitable, deserted Earth, left to clean up garbage. However, he is visited by a probe sent by the starship Axiom, a robot called EVE, with whom he falls in love and pursues across the galaxy.
Felix Saves the Day by Otto Messmer
The first of the Felix cartoons after the series moved from Paramount, ‘Felix Saves the Day’ sees the titular cat coming to the rescue of a little league team. Produced by Pat Sullivan Cartoons for the creator of Felix the Cat, Otto Messmer. (1922)
Cuphead by Studio MDHR
Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional hand drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings.
The animation process
Character References
References & Inspiration
Studio MDHR
Wash Waltz by Wim Goossens
A short film by Wim Goossens © 2020
Footage filmed at ‘De Walvis’ car wash in Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
Music: An der schönen blauen Donau, Johan Strauss by André Rieu.
Sous la glace by Baulard, Berrahma, Dupont, Estampes, Nory & Potin
An allegory about the dangers of following your deepest instincts, “Sous la Glace” (Under the Ice), a CG short film by six students at École des Nouvelles Images comes wrapped in the most sublime digital cinematography.
Directed by Milan Baulard, Ismail Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory, Hugo Potin with music composed by Baptiste Leblanc.
Wash by Wim Goossens
A short film by Wim Goossens © 2020
Footage filmed at ‘De Walvis’ car wash in Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
1917 by Roger Deakins and Sam Mendes
April 6th, 1917. As a regiment assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
Golden Globe-winning “1917” is a serious Oscar contender. It stars George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth, and Benedict Cumberbatch and was filmed to look like one continuous shot. Cinematographer Roger Deakins explains how he and director Sam Mendes did it, from digging up a mile of trenches to attaching cameras to cranes and drones.
More one shots:
Atonement by Joe Wright
Boogie Nights by Pault Thomas Anderson
Touch of Evil by Orson Welles
Useful Machines by Molistudio
What happens when a machine doesn’t have a purpose?
But hey, I can’t stop watching. Well, Isn’t that its purpose?
The Coronavirus Explained by Kurzgesagt
Kurzgesagt – German for „In a nutshell“ is a Munich-based YouTube channel and design studio with a unique perspective on design, color, and storytelling.
Oblivion, Part 6 by Wim Goossens
Background Visuals for the opening concert ‘Bosh Choirbooks’ by the Cappella Pratensis, March 2020 ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Made with the initials from the books.
Music: Nesciens Mater by Jean Mouton
Duck Amuck by Chuck Jones
Duck Amuck is an American animated cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons. The short film was released in early 1953 by The Vitaphone Corporation, the short subject division of Warner Bros., as part of the Merrie Melodies series. It stars Daffy Duck, who is tormented by a seemingly sadistic, unseen animator, who constantly changes Daffy’s locations, clothing, voice, physical appearance and even shape, much to Daffy’s aggravation and rage. Pandemonium reigns throughout the cartoon as Daffy attempts to steer the action back to some kind of normality, only for the animator to either ignore him or, more frequently, to over-literally interpret his increasingly frantic demands. In the end, the tormenting animator is revealed to be Bugs Bunny.