Inspiratie blog

Zoals iedereen kreeg ik de afgelopen weken een trits e-mails van de bedrijven die mijn persoonsgegevens in hun databases hebben staan. Zij informeren hoe zij omgaan met mijn privacy onder de nieuwe regels van de Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG). Écht duidelijk werd het me niet. Want daar heb je visualisatie bij nodig.

De geest van Amsterdam is moeilijk te vatten. Het is meer een gevoel: je voelt het als je door de straten fietst, langs de grachten wandelt, of vanop een brug naar de bootjes kijkt. Hoe krijg je dat gevoel te pakken, dat gevoel van: dit is Amsterdam? Animatie! Van sprookjesachtig tot historisch, van praktisch tot grappig, hier zijn tien animaties die (een deel van) het gevoel van Amsterdam hebben weten te vatten.

In60seconds sluit erg aan bij hetgeen wat ik uit een stageperiode wil halen. Het maken van animaties, waar veel (complexe) materie wordt uitgelegd. Als illustrator wilde ik juist datgene ontwikkelen en daarom zat ik bij in60seconds helemaal goed.

Als 3D animator was ik tot verbazing van mijn opleiding aan de HKU gaan zoeken naar een bedrijf die zich richt op 2D animatie. Ik doe nou eenmaal een 3D opleiding! Omdat in60seconds in mijn ogen de perfecte balans had tussen visueel en commercieel werk sprong het bedrijf uit boven de andere.

Als AV student op het Mediacollege Amsterdam was ik erg opzoek naar een richting die ik op wou gaan. Er waren geen afstudeerrichtingen, dus was het aan mij om uit te zoeken wat ik nou echt leuk vond. Ik wist al dat ik iets met animatie wilde gaan doen door mijn voorgaande stage en daarom had ik besloten om te solliciteren bij in60seconds.

Tijdens de portfolio-avond van de afdeling illustratie van de Willem de Kooning Academie kreeg ik een kaartje om langs te komen bij in60seconds. Na een enthousiast introductiegesprek met mijn toekomstige stagebegeleiders werd ik gekroond tot nieuwe stagiair! De daaropvolgende vijf maanden boden mij veel vrijheid om zowel aan opdrachten van bestaande klanten te werken, en om mijn eigen stageproject te formuleren en deze onder begeleiding uit te voeren.

Als animatiestudent aan de WdKA was ik op zoek naar een stage waarin ik kon werken met animatie. Ik was dan ook heel blij dat in60seconds mij aannam als stagiaire, ook al had ik geen ervaring met Illustrator en weinig uren gespendeerd in After Effects.

It’s Monday again! That means a new Video Top 5! This edition we focus on corporate storytelling. Using storytelling techniques, a company communicates its identity and brand. A unique way of connecting with the consumer. We collected a few inspiring examples!

Today’s games are made with glorious visual effects. To ensure that a game actually sells, game trailers are made as a teaser for the public. Trailers that show magnificent visuals and give you a hint of what’s in store for you. This week we selected five of the most beautiful game trailers for you to watch.

Let’s dance! This Video Top 5 is about dancing. It’s quite hard to make a good walk cycle and even harder to make a good dancing character! You need to understand the body of your character completely, and have to know how a dancer moves. We found 5 nicely animated examples. Enjoy!

Motion design has it’s fair share of transitions. But we think we noticed a new kid on the block: Escheresque transitions.

This Video Top 5 is about animated logos. Animation gives more depth and impact to your logo and can be done in many, many different ways…

in60seconds is font of Fonts! This Weekly Top 5 is all about the art of typography. If an animation contains only some illustration, but a lot of text, it can quickly become boring. By using an interesting font and adding some motion, you can create a nice image with just text. Illustrated fonts can bring a twist to your animation. This way, boring text becomes fun to watch!

A new week, a new Weekly Top 5! This time we are going to take a look at character rigs. Character rigging is widely used in 3D animations. The 3D character is a static mesh at first, but the character rig ensures that it has joints and bones, just like our own skeleton. These joints act as a “handle” that animatiors can use to bend the character into the desired pose. This principle is also useful for 2D characters. We collected a few animations which use character rigs. Check these out and try some character rigging yourself, because a well put together rig is not only fun, it saves a lot of time!

This time we go ‘back in the days’ with our Weekly Top 5. We’ve always been curious about our past. History is a recurrent theme in books, films and art. No wonder, since history is a great means to tell stories. Who didn’t read books about knights and princesses, or saw films and series about the past? It is not surprising that there are many wonderful animations about history; our never ending source of inspiration.

Great things happen when animation meets nature. This Weekly Top 5 shows you how. There are infinite ways to illustrate and animate the beauty of mother nature. Those animations that contain elements of nature will feel more ‘real’ or ‘alive’. We collected 5 inspiring animations for you, filled with earthly elements. Enjoy!

This weeks theme is loops! Loops are short films in which end and beginning fits together like a glove. The animation could repeat itself forever. A good loop makes you look not once, but over.. and over.. and over.. Often they are used as a gif image and spread all over the internet. Curious about these video’s? We’ll keep you in the loop!

This Weekly Top 5 is about ‘explanimations’, a term we introduced. We collected some ‘explanimations’ that uses beautiful illustrations and animations to clarify, explain or promote. Enjoy!

Paper, we use it every day. But you can use paper in so much more ways than just in print or writing. Paper is a very diverse material. You can use it in endless ways, which goes for both 2D and 3D animation aswell. Cut, tear, paint or wrinkle your paper. Make a stop-motion out of it or move the paper in front of the camera. Or combine it with other types of animation to make a hybrid. This weeks top five is all about animation and paper, see for yourself how these animators make the most of this technique.

This Weekly Top 5 is about animations with a geometric design. Although you may have been tormented by geometry in school, this mathematical system has its purposes in graphic and motion graphic design. When geometry is used correctly, the lines, curves, rectangles, circles and triangles are well measured. They begin to ‘feel right’. It is a tricky technique to use in an animation, but well worth it if you do it right. We collected some examples of geometry used in a right way. Have a look!

This weekly top 5 is about animals! For centuries animals have been used to tell stories. A good example is the fable. In a fable an animal plays the lead role and it possesses human characteristics. This gives the story a different meaning or point of view.

There are several things that can be funny about a character. Such as its appearance, facial expressions, motion and sound effects. Funny characters can be very useful to brighten up your animation and help telling your (maybe not so bright?) story. But you need to know when you can or can’t use them. For example: using funny characters in an animation about a serious subject can be big turnoff for the viewer. We collected five animations that give a good example on how to use funny characters. Enjoy!