Adding to this pain, was the fact that all of these videos were also unresponsive, opening up a flaw in my theme design: that fitvids.js (the excellent jQuery plugin by Chris Coyier and Paravel I’ve integrated into my blog to make videos responsive) would only work on specific video elements that I had hand-coded myself. Thankfully I found a little bit of help from the fitvids.js creator, Chris Coyier at CSStricks.com, which helped solve the issue.

I realise I’ve been posting a lot of videos lately, though I’ve been really interested in motion graphics and animation over the past few months. I’ve been gradually training myself in AfterEffects and Cinema4D, though the lack of a decent video camera has stopped me making the leap into full-on film. Perhaps I should create another blog to track video inspirations and keep them separate from my other design interests. In the meantime though, this is the impressive reel of design agency, DixonBaxi, who’ve worked with a great number of clients including Channel 4, Five, Motorola, MTV, Nokia, O2 and Sony.

These titles for a documentary on Spanish publishing House, Editorial Bruguera, were produced by No-Domain, a design studio based in Barcelona. I especially like their Lo-Fi technique of overlapping multiple layers of transparent film to create the desired effects for the titles. “To create these titles we were inspired by the minimalistic environments used commonly in Bruguera drawings, and by enfolding each one of them with delicate and transparent lithographic films representing the invisible soul of the graphic editorial print process of the era.”

Process shots:

I’m currently loving the work of Madrid-based motion design studio, Toch – especially the stunning opening titles for this year’s MadInSpain conference. The use of cutting-edge 3d visuals (complete with convincingly real textures and depth-of-field effects) is really nicely combined with interesting type work to give the animation a unique and original atmosphere. Other works in their portfolio include some really good 3D work for the likes of Channel Five, MTV, Ford and Antenna 3 TV.

This is the amazing teaser trailer, directed by Kevin Dart and Stéphane Coëdel for Fleet Street Scandal’s new Adventure story, Looks That Kill which will be released next month. The animation is a fantastic follow up to their trailer for the first book in the series, Seductive Espionage– the production of which was extensively featured in this interview with the creators on Artofthetitle.com.

Vanishing Point by Takuya Hosogane.

Animation done in Adobe AfterEffects and Maxon Cinema 4D.

Dot – a collaboration between advertising agency, Wieden + Kennedy’s London office and the ever-talented people at Aardman, this video was created to celebrate and showcase the amazing capabilities of the Nokia N8’s 12-Megapixel camera and Nokia’s new device the microscopic Cellscope.

The stop-motion animation was shot entirely on the new Nokia N8 with its Cellscope attachment and has won Aardman a Guinness World Record for the ‘Smallest Stop-motion Animated Character in a Film’, with the protagonist Dot measuring at a mere 9mm tall.

I love this video directed by London-based visual artist Quayola, whose work integrates computer-generated animation with video in an attempt to blend the real with the artificial, while simultaneously challenging the boundaries between art, design and filmmaking.

It is the third of a series of video installations commissioned for the 2009 Bordeaux Art&Architechture Biennale, based on the idea of combining digital animation with classical architecture. In his rationale for the work he states:

The term Strata defines a geological formation made of multiple layers of rock. Each one of these layers has its own individual characteristics and history, which combined produce beautiful and unique formations…
The Strata project consist in a series of films, prints and installations investigating improbable relationships between contemporary digital aesthetics and icons of classical art and architecture. Like in geological processes, layers belonging to different ages interact with one another producing new intriguing formations.

It’s certainly a very fresh way of looking at classical art, and I find the parallels he draws between the layers of art history and those of sedimentary rock very intriguing.

(found via graphism.fr – a very interesting blog for any french speakers out there)

Title sequence for Dexter, designed by Digital Kitchen.

I have recently been rewatching early episodes of the TV show Dexter in order to catch up with the latest season that started on the 26th of September, and I had forgotten how brilliant the title sequence is. It stars Michael C. Place as the titular anti-hero Dexter, a sociopathic killer who leads a double life as a blood pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, and the sequence sums up the tone of the show perfectly.

The series actually won an Emmy Award in 2007 for “Outstanding Main Title Design”, and it’s easy to see why. The narrative device of the morning routine is an excellent introduction to the character, giving us information about his habits as well as his appearance, all the more relevant when you consider the protagonist’s penchant for ritualistic behaviour. It is also worth noting how his face remains obscured – removing power from the viewer and adding to the sinister nature of the sequence.

A more in-depth article on the sequence was also featured recently at Artofthetitle.com, a great resource for those interested in title design.