trunk Archives - Trunk | Animation Production Company
Coldplay
On 05, Sep 2014 | In Press | By Pip
Trunk Animation creates Coldplay ‘Ghost Stories’ album stream. Last week saw Coldplay release a full 43 minute stream of their 6th studio album on iTunes, a week before it was released. The fans went wild. Richard Barnett at Trunk Animation was approached by commissioner Sam Seager at Parlophone with an image, and a question. The image turned out to be Coldplay’s beautiful new album cover designed by Mila Fürstová, and the question, can we bring the mesmerizing, highly detailed etching to life, without losing its look and character?! A plan was hatched, some tests carried out and rather than just creating a 10 second looping GIF, Trunk Directors Alasdair + Jock came up with the idea of an epic 43 minute long animated film that unfolds as the album is played. To begin with Mila’s Ghost Stories artwork had to be meticulously traced by hand, basically pixel by pixel, in order that Alasdair + Jock and their team at Trunk could work at the scale necessary, 7K, which is nearly 4 times HD! The new high-resolution image they created enabled tiny elements within Mila’s etching to be worked on in a lot more detail, allowing for tiny sections to be animated, and dynamic camera moves added. Jock noted, ‘the painstaking attention to detail in the re-drawing was essential in order to retain the aesthetic of Mila’s artwork, and allow new elements to be added and animated”. During this process sections of the image had to be re-imagined in order that when you moved one object or character, you weren’t then left with a hole in the background, so Jock had to learn Mila’s style of mark making. The film used a multitude of animated techniques, and a team of 10 animators and art workers using 3D, 2D cuts outs, and classical 2D hand drawn came together to create the astounding 50 individual sections. Each section had to be animated in such a way that they could be looped, ranging from 30 secs to an impressive 2 minutes, which of course just made everything that little bit harder! Once animated, each section then had to go through a heavy compositing and effects stage in order to pull all the different techniques together, and make sure the line style in the animation was exactly the same as that of the album artwork. To help build an overall visual narrative for the album, the team slowly revealed more and more detail as the tracks progress allowing the viewer to travel in and out of what is in essence a world within a world. The team also utilised time-lapse photography and SFX to create the world ‘outside’ the wings. Time lapse clouds, sea, and mist are mixed with affected art worked shooting stars and a waxing and waning moon which casts the wings into darkness as track 5 ‘Midnight’ progresses in the middle of the album. The amount of detail, the length, and the technical processes involved were so vast that Trunk had to bring in an extra bank of powerful computers, known as a render farm, to crunch the raw data. 53,000 unique frames had to be processed in such a way that the process wouldn’t grind to a halt, which meant that some 300,000 smaller pre-renders had to be made over 4 long and grueling days. (A special thanks to our fuse box for providing us with two lovely blow outs, wiping out 7 hours of work!) Al notes ‘It was a massive undertaking but we wanted to create something unique for the album, and we loved the idea of bringing this image to life with some really beautiful movement, in a way that matched the intricate and complex look of Mila’s artwork.’ Richard added ‘The finished project has to be up there in our top 5 along with the projections for Madness at the Queens Diamond Jubilee, Rok’s lyric vid for The Rolling Stones, our visuals for Keith Urban at the Country Music Awards, and of course Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano visuals!’ The final film was streamed on iTunes, May 12th at 9pm. And Coldplay’s 12 million fans took to Twitter immediately with a buzz of lovely comments and messages, they of course loved the album, and gushed at the animation, and as @Coldplay tweeted ‘Kudos and a thousand thank yous @trunkanimation for creating such a beautiful animation’, we instantly made hundreds of new friends! It has been short listed for a UK Music Video award. Click below for press coverage:-
Credits:-
Direction- Alasdair + Jock
Production Company Trunk Animation
Album artwork- Mila Fürstová
Artist- Coldplay
2D animation- Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Zoe Matzko, Jeroen Jaspaert, Aaron Lampert, Valentina Delmiglio
3D animation- Layla Atkinson Artworking- John Harmer, Valentina Delmiglio, Jock Mooney Time lapse- Mo Hague
Compositing- Chris Sayer, Alasdair Brotherston
Line Producer- Pedro Lino
Producer- Richard Barnett
Label Parlophone
Commissioner- Sam Seager/Parlophone
DataUpload- Chillibean
Coldplay | Ghost Stories
On 22, May 2014 | In Alasdair + Jock, Director Page, directors, Music Promos, Visuals | By Richard
Credits:-
Direction- Alasdair + Jock
Production Company Trunk Animation
Album artwork- Mila Fürstová
Artist- Coldplay
2D animation- Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Zoe Matzko, Jeroen Jaspaert, Aaron Lampert, Valentina Delmiglio
3D animation- Layla Atkinson
Artworking- John Harmer, Valentina Delmiglio, Jock Mooney
Time lapse- Mo Hague
Compositing- Chris Sayer, Alasdair Brotherston
Line Producer- Pedro Lino
Producer- Richard Barnett
Label Parlophone
Commissioner- Sam Seager/Parlophone
Data Upload- Chillibean
Alasdair + Jock | Coldplay
On 22, May 2014 | In Features, news / blog, Press | By Richard
Trunk Animation creates Coldplay ‘Ghost Stories’ album stream.
Last week saw Coldplay release a full 43 minute stream of their 6th studio album on iTunes, a week before it was released. The fans went wild.
Richard Barnett at Trunk Animation was approached by commissioner Sam Seager at Parlophone with an image, and a question. The image turned out to be Coldplay’s beautiful new album cover designed by Mila Fürstová, and the question, can we bring the mesmerizing, highly detailed etching to life, without losing its look and character?!
A plan was hatched, some tests carried out and rather than just creating a 10 second looping GIF, Trunk Directors Alasdair + Jock came up with the idea of an epic 43 minute long animated film that unfolds as the album is played.
To begin with Mila’s Ghost Stories artwork had to be meticulously traced by hand, basically pixel by pixel, in order that Alasdair + Jock and their team at Trunk could work at the scale necessary, 7K, which is nearly 4 times HD! The new high-resolution image they created enabled tiny elements within Mila’s etching to be worked on in a lot more detail, allowing for tiny sections to be animated, and dynamic camera moves added. Jock noted, ‘the painstaking attention to detail in the re-drawing was essential in order to retain the aesthetic of Mila’s artwork, and allow new elements to be added and animated”.
During this process sections of the image had to be re-imagined in order that when you moved one object or character, you weren’t then left with a hole in the background, so Jock had to learn Mila’s style of mark making.
The film used a multitude of animated techniques, and a team of 10 animators and art workers using 3D, 2D cuts outs, and classical 2D hand drawn came together to create the astounding 50 individual sections. Each section had to be animated in such a way that they could be looped, ranging from 30 secs to an impressive 2 minutes, which of course just made everything that little bit harder! Once animated, each section then had to go through a heavy compositing and effects stage in order to pull all the different techniques together, and make sure the line style in the animation was exactly the same as that of the album artwork.
To help build an overall visual narrative for the album, the team slowly revealed more and more detail as the tracks progress allowing the viewer to travel in and out of what is in essence a world within a world. The team also utilised time-lapse photography and SFX to create the world ‘outside’ the wings. Time lapse clouds, sea, and mist are mixed with affected art worked shooting stars and a waxing and waning moon which casts the wings into darkness as track 5 ‘Midnight’ progresses in the middle of the album.
The amount of detail, the length, and the technical processes involved were so vast that Trunk had to bring in an extra bank of powerful computers, known as a render farm, to crunch the raw data. 53,000 unique frames had to be processed in such a way that the process wouldn’t grind to a halt, which meant that some 300,000 smaller pre-renders had to be made over 4 long and grueling days. (A special thanks to our fuse box for providing us with two lovely blow outs, wiping out 7 hours of work!)
Al notes ‘It was a massive undertaking but we wanted to create something unique for the album, and we loved the idea of bringing this image to life with some really beautiful movement, in a way that matched the intricate and complex look of Mila’s artwork.’ Richard added ‘The finished project has to be up there in our top 5 along with the projections for Madness at the Queens Diamond Jubilee, Rok’s lyric vid for The Rolling Stones, our visuals for Keith Urban at the Country Music Awards, and of course Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano visuals!’
The final film was streamed on iTunes, May 12th at 9pm. And Coldplay’s 12 million fans took to Twitter immediately with a buzz of lovely comments and messages, they of course loved the album, and gushed at the animation, and as @Coldplay tweeted ‘Kudos and a thousand thank yous @trunkanimation for creating such a beautiful animation’, we instantly made hundreds of new friends!
;
Credits:-
Direction- Alasdair + Jock
Production Company Trunk Animation
Album artwork- Mila Fürstová
Artist- Coldplay
2D animation- Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Zoe Matzko, Jeroen Jaspaert, Aaron Lampert, Valentina Delmiglio
3D animation- Layla Atkinson
Artworking- John Harmer, Valentina Delmiglio, Jock Mooney
Time lapse- Mo Hague
Compositing- Chris Sayer, Alasdair Brotherston
Line Producer- Pedro Lino
Producer- Richard Barnett
Label Parlophone
Commissioner- Sam Seager/Parlophone
Data Upload- Chillibean
Making Of
Director- Pedro Lino
Producer- Richard Barnett
Audio Mix- JM Finch @Fonic
Coldplay ‘Ghost Stories’ stream
On 12, May 2014 | In Features, news / blog, Press | By Richard
12th May 9pm GMT
Coldplay ‘Ghost Stories’ itunes album stream!
http://t.co/ybyzyYiyKc NOW! (Just click the Featured Video.)
If you’re reading this, then stop and get yourself to itunes NOW! Where they are streaming the whole of Coldplay’s new album with visuals by Alasdair + Jock! Over the past couple of months, we’ve been painstakingly bringing Mila Fürstová’s beautiful album artwork to life, and creating a sequence for the entire length of the new Ghost Stories album.
The piece has been made using a multitude of techniques, incorporating 3D, 2D cuts outs, classical hand drawn and time-lapse photography, all brought together with hours and hours of artworking and compositing.
Mila’s etching had to be meticulously traced by hand, basically pixel by pixel, in order that we could work at the scale necessary, 7K, which is nearly 4 times HD! The project pushed our computers to the limit, as well as all our animators, artworkers, directors and compositors. When the label first called about the project, we carried out some in-house tests so we would know exactly what we were letting ourselves in for, but when you want to make something really special, you always know you’re going to pull some late ones! Alasdair + Jock, fresh from creating Lily Allen’s lyric video for Air Balloon, worked tirelessly, as Jock headed up the team re-creating Mila’s artwork, and Alasdair took charge of pulling all 53,000 frames together. The piece contains around 50 separate loops from flying fish to a spinning gyroscope, and journeys through the album cover allowing audiences to get intimate with the artwork whilst listening to the album in its entirety for the first time.
Commissioned by Sam Seager at Parlophone, the project has to be up there in our top 5 favourites along with our projections for Madness at the Queens Diamond Jubilee, Rok’s lyric vid for The Rolling Stones, our visuals for Keith Urban at the Country Music Awards, and of course Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano visuals!
Trunk’s MD Richard Barnett headed up the project, whilst producer Pedro Lino line produced the animation.
We’ll tell you all more about it after the event, but for now, go and enjoy the album, and we hope you love the loops!
You can see more information about the album release here http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/12/idUSnMKWCrwhha+1e0+MKW20140512
Credits
Direction-
Alasdair + Jock
Band-
Coldplay
2d animation-
Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits
Zoe Matzko
Jeroen Jaspaert
Aaron Lampert
Valentina Delmiglio
3d animation-
Layla Atkinson
Artworking-
John Harmer
Valentina Delmiglio
Jock Mooney
Time lapse-
Mo Hague
Compositing-
Chris Sayer
Alasdair Brotherston
Album artwork-
Mila Fürstová
Line Producer-
Pedro Lino
Producer-
Richard Barnett
Commissioner-
Sam Seager/Parlophone
Data Upload-
Chillibean
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/12/idUSnMKWCrwhha+1e0+MKW20140512
Tom Fun Orchestra | Throw Me To The Rats
On 05, Apr 2014 | No Comments | In work | By Richard
Directors: Alasdair Brotherston + Jock Mooney
Band: The Tom Fun Orchestra
Rok Predin’s New Short Film Trailer ‘One of a Kind’
On 25, Mar 2014 | In news / blog | By Richard
Trunk Animation’s director Rok Predin has been working like a demon since the New Year creating his fabulous new film ‘One of a Kind’. The trailer gives a first peak at the sumptuous rich palette, style and feel of this upcoming short. It also features just one of the staggering 73 characters featured in the film. It has been great fun noticing the increasing amount of highlighter ink covering the printed pages stuck to the wall beside Rok, as they mark the progression of each character from concept to completion. Even though there are many pages to go, Rok is confident of a late spring release.
The subject of the film contains a grand evolved theme that, like his short “Back in the Day” (https://vimeo.com/67576646), will resonate with all of us. For the first time in a Rok Predin short a narrator has been used to tell the story. The narration is provided by…..well that’s a secret for now but Rok was chuffed when they agreed to get involved. However, we can tell you that the Ivor Novello award winning composer Daniel Pemberton, who has just finished working on Ridley Scott’s latest feature ‘The Counselor’, is creating the wonderful score. And as always we’re thrilled that Barnaby Templer and Fonic have agreed to come on board to look after the Post Production.
As so many distinct characters are involved in the film it creates a host of challenges for Rok, who notes “The main challenge is to find an efficient way to animate multiple characters and retain their diversity without making custom rigs for each of them”. Working with a small team he is overcoming this and other challenges by pushing his skill set to the max. Using Photoshop, Cinema 4D and After Effects Rok is constructing a multitude of costumes, textures, hairstyles and accessories for his characters all which bear the visual handwriting of their creator.
All of us at Trunk are waiting the late spring with bated breath. One thing we can be sure of is that the completed film will sit proudly alongside his other well-received shorts that include “The Chase” (https://vimeo.com/58445885) and “Inside” (https://vimeo.com/40523105).
Jaguar C-X17
On 25, Sep 2013 | No Comments | In Commercials, Director Page, directors, Films, Rok Predin | By Richard
A film about the design philosophy behind Jaguar’s new C-X17 concept car with Ian Callum, Jaguar’s Design Director (Director’s cut).
Director: Rok Predin
Animation: Martin Oliver, Francisco Puerto Esteban, Layla Atkinson, Rok Predin, Will Jarvis
Art Workers: Jenny Jokela, Sarah Yan
Composer: Sebastijan Duh
Sound Design: Jake Roberts
Sound Mix: JM @ Fonic
Compositing: Rok Predin
Producer: Richard Barnett
Animation Concept: Trunk
Agency: FP Creative
Prod Co: Trunk Animation
Lily Allen | Air Balloon
On 21, Jan 2013 | In Alasdair + Jock, clip, directors, Music Promos | By Richard
Director: Alasdair+Jock
Producer: Richard Barnett
Illustrator: Jock Mooney
Animation: Layla Atkinson, Pedro Lino, Alasdair Brotherston, Leslie Dart
Commissioner: Sam Seager
Artist: Lily Allen
Record Co: Parlophone
Darkside | A1
On 20, Sep 2012 | No Comments | In Press | By Richard
Directed by Ryan Staake (Pomp&Clout)
Director of Photography: T.S. Pfeffer
Co-Producers: Robert McHugh & Ryan Staake
Label: Clown & Sunset Films
Production Companies: Pomp&Clout LLC & Pier Pictures
Costumes: Rachel Dainer-Best
Timelapse: Peter Corina
Pyramid: Santa Monica Plastics
Production Assistants: Jamin Mandel & Ian Kaye
Transportation: Rudy Schaefer
Thanks to Nicolas Jaar and Noah Kraft
Shot in Arizona and California
