Gustaf Holmsten

I came across this guys website a few days ago and really like his work, he has very stylistic illustrations and lots of motion graphics work mainly done in 3d and after effects it seems, which as I am using After effects to animate my FMP his work really interests me. His website is plain and simple and easy to navigate which I think is very important, and he has added a personal project called Cloudmachine that is primarily aimed to promote his skills to the world instead of a showreel. The piece is very strange and abstract with things like a duck that makes clouds and televisions with pelican wings flying around etc and it simply ends with the back of his business card with his details on it. This is a new idea that I have not seen before and I think it works well but I think a reel would be better just because you can show a number of different pieces that have completely different looks and medias eg. 2d, 3d, stop motion, interactive etc.

CromaZoo Showreel

I came across this company a few weeks ago when they clicked the 'I like' function on my Tomorrows world ad, that i had put on vimeo. I checked out there website and they do some very nice work in lots of areas of design, not just motion graphics, they are based in Milan and sadly their whole site is in Italian (I presume!) but what really attracted me was there showreel.
As most showreels I come across are usually made up just clips of there work shown edited to a funky tune, which is nice, but this one has used a slightly different approach, making basically a whole new piece of work to house the clips of there best projects. It uses a hand drawn style and also stop motion sections and in some ways I think its nicer than some of the work it is supposed to be showing! I think this could be a very good approach for me to use because I have some interactive work aswell as video work, that perhaps wouldnt flow as well if it was just clips of each one put to music.

Watch there reel here: >>>CromaReel<<<

Mainframe Visit

During our trip to London we visited Mainframe, a motion graphics company that produces lots of different work but focussing mainly on adverts for tv. They were situated on the fifth floor and once we entered we were met by Adam Jenns who proceeded to show us round the studio, they had a few different rooms where people seemed to be working in groups on different projects which I liked the idea of and also he said there was a room where mainly the freelance artists work which i thought was interseting, because i wondered whether they wanted to work on their own as apposed to working with the other staff, or whether the directors had kind of just put them there.














We moved on to a little booth (Pictured above, which wasnt really set up for a big group like us- because we were quite crammed in!) where Adam showed us the Showreels they currently send out, which I was very impressed by, although I had already seen some of there work before we went, there was a few new projects that he showed us like the Nickolodeon rebrand which was excellent! very fast paced and bright just as the rest of ther showreel was. Adam seemed like a very down to earth guy and explained to us about contacting companies and getting our work seen, and that alot of people might not even look at your work or e-mail if they get sent alot all the time. He advised just to keep it short and simple, maybe have our portfolio in blog form with our most recent work at the top, which I was very pleased with because just before we went to London I had created a blog form portfolio to show my work. He also mentioned to keep your showreels short because we are graduates we wont have much work to show so no point repeating clips of the same projects as it will get boring!
I think his advice was very good and I will definetaley keep his words in mind when producing my own showreel.

Contact Report - Jonny Kelly

After my visit to Nexus I decided to contact Jonny Kelly (see earlier post in practitioners) who I had been introduced to there, I found him on vimeo after I had joined the site and added a few videos I decided to sent him a message:

• 
  11 days ago

  Hey Dave
  
  Thanks for your message and good to meet you
  
  Just had a look at your tomorrows ad - it looks great. I can't work out how it was done, which i like. Best of luck at stockport
  
  Johnny

• 
  13 days ago

  Hey Johnny,
  
  I very briefly met you in your studio a few weeks ago when I was being shown round Nexus by Nathalie, Just watched your 'Making of the seed' video its great!! Anyway I'm in the process of putting some of my uni projects up on here, if you get chance check them out and let me know what you think!
  
  Cheers
  David
  
  Stockport College

Contact Report - Nexus E-mails

After finding out that we were to be in London for a few days going round studios, I decided to contact a few companies that were based there to try and get a visit organised for myself, after sending a few e-mails this company replied called Nexus Productions (see my earlier post on how the meeting went)

E-mail messages:

On 23 Feb 2009, at 11:16, david croucher wrote:
Hello,
I'm very interested in your company and really like some of the work you produce, especially the 'Mr Long Legs' ad, 'Dept of Transport' ad and the work from Johnny Kelly.
I am a third year multimedia design student on the BA hons degree at LJMU/Stockport College, and before this I came from a national diploma in graphic design.
I am currently working on my final major project and intend to produce a series of adverts for a leading high street bank, to restore the publics confidence using 2d animation and mixed media.
As part of my course I am taking a trip to London on 4th,5th,6th March and am required to try and get some industry feedback from my portfolio and so I was wondering if you would be interested in seeing some of my work, It would only have to be say ten minutes or so just so I could show you a few pieces Ive done and get a few comments on what you like, dislike could improve on etc!

Thanks very much and hope to hear from you soon.

Regards

David Croucher
Multimedia design (BA hons)
LJMU/Stockport College

Monday, 23 February, 2009 12:37 PM:

David,

I'd be very happy to meet you and review your portfolio/show you the studio. Shall we say Thursday 5th at 12:30?
We are located in Shoreditch and the nearest tubes are Old Street or Liverpool Steet stations.
Let me know if this would suit you.

Nathalie Le Berre


On 23 Feb 2009, at 13:01, david croucher wrote:

> Hi Nathalie, wow thanks for the swift reply and offer! I think that should be fine but my tutor is taking us to Studio AKA and I'm not sure when exactly that is going to be! would it be possible for me to get back to you tommorow as then I will know for sure!
> Thank you very much again,
> David

Monday, 23 February, 2009 1:05 PM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk

David,

That's fine, I'd be available Wednesday or Thursday but I'm not in the office on Friday.
Thanks

Nathalie


On 24 Feb 2009, at 12:57, david croucher wrote:

> Hi Nathalie, I have confirmed with my tutors and I think Thursday 5th at 12.30 will be fine, would I need to bring a laptop or would a portable drive be ok to show my work? also do you have a number I could ring if there was any problems with the time, finding you etc
> Thanks again
> David

Tuesday, 24 February, 2009 12:59 PM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk

Dave,

So 12:30 and call our switchboard on 020 7749 7500 if you have any problems.
]See you on Thursday.

Nathalie

Thursday, 26 February, 2009 12:53 PM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk

David,

I've just realised that I've double booked myself on the 5th. I'm actually going to the NFTS short film screening all day.
Sorry about that, it had skipped my mind. Could we meet on the Wednesday 4th instead at 12 or 12:30?
Let me know if that would be convenient for you.

Nathalie

Thursday, 26 February, 2009 1:53 PM

From:

"david croucher"

To:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

Hi Nathalie,

Yea ok wednesday will be fine, I will try to get there for 12.30 then, I have a visit in the morning but if I have any problems I will ring you before hand.
Should I bring a laptop or would a portable hard drive be ok?
Look forward to meeting you,

David

Monday, 9 March, 2009 2:43 PM

From:

"david croucher"

To:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

Hi Nathalie, I'm back in Manchester now after a very successful week in London, and would just like to say thanks again for letting me visit. I also have a question that I forgot to ask when I was there, and that is; How was the Ambi Pur advert on your site made? was it done in after effects or does it have 3d elements to it? because i am thinking of using that sort of style and setting but in a hand drawn style with a fairy tale theme. Any help would be great, thanks, David

Wednesday, 11 March, 2009 11:11 AM

From:

"Nathalie Le Berre"

To:

"david croucher"

David,

It was really nice meeting you. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your visit to London, and the other animation and post houses visits.
I wasnt here when Nexus did the Ambi Pur ads but I'll find out from the director when he's back in. I'll let you know.
Hope will get to see your graduation film when finished.

Nathalie

Contact Report - Alex Bower

Following a portfolio review set up by my tutor with Alex Bower from Bright digital he asked to keep in touch and send him my finished 'Tomorrows world' ad because I had showed it to him when it was a work in progress.

Email Messages:

Tuesday, 6 January, 2009 4:12 PM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yQTn8LFc1G8

look thru the comments for some handy stuff for particular



Good to hear from you Dave.
Happy new year to you to!

The advert looks brilliant mate.
much better with the sound effects!
Hope you get a good mark for it, you deserve one.

I am currently working on a showreel at the moment with some of our work on, i am hoping to have it up there as soon as poss.
ill let you know when it is.

Also heres a few links for the light streaks idea you had.

you may have seen these before...

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/
(look at light streaks and 3d stroke)

The light streaks uses trapcode particular in AE (good for this sort of thing)

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/downloads/trial-versions/

try it out
lemme know how you get on
good luck

alex

________________________________________
From: david croucher [davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 06 January 2009 11:53
To: Alex Bower
Subject: HELLO!!!

Hi Alex, Happy new year! Don't know if you remember but I spoke to you and your colleague Rachel before christmas when you came into college and I showed you some of my work, well anyway, as promised (if not a little later than planned) here is my finished advert for my self directed project, hope you like it:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uu-n6HodXq0 (click 'watch in high quality'!!)

If you would like i can send you a disc with a better quality version on it. Also I was just wondering where i could find any of your companies work, as the only piece i have seen is the courthouse site you have done which is really nice.
Hope to hear from you soon,

Dave Croucher
Stockport College

Corporation Pop - Contact Report

Before Christmas I started approaching a number of companies trying to get some feedback on my work, I began e-mailing a number of people trying to spark a conversation, here is one company that I spoke to called Corporation Pop in Manchester city centre:

Email Messages:

Hi David

Sorry for the late reply -

been snowed under with work and getting in those last few holiday days before Christmas,

Ill have a chat with the guys here and see if myself or somebody else can fit you in Ill try and get back to you by tuesday as Im off till then

Regards Martin

On 28 Nov 2008, at 10:46, david croucher wrote:

Hi Martin,

I know it is a bit out of the blue but, as part of my course I am required to try and get some industry feedback and so I was wondering if you, or anyone else at Copop would be interested in seeing some of my work whether it be me visiting your studio or sending you some work? It would only have to be say ten minutes or so just so I could show you a few pieces Ive done and get a few comments on what you like, dislike could improve on etc!

Thanks very much and hope to hear from you soon.
regards
David

--- On Wed, 26/11/08, Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk> wrote:
From: Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk>
Subject: Re: HI!!!!!!!
To: davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wednesday, 26 November, 2008, 1:29 PM

Hi David

Its worth searching amazon for some after effects books and getting a couple - The problem with web tutorials is they become quite linear and don't allow discussion around the techniques your using - ie how to use the same technique to create a different effect or use it in a different situation. I personally have always found books a better alternative.

Also Its always good to have something to pick up when your render window says approx 60mins.

My role in the company is mainly on the multimedia end The company was mainly Design for Print and I was taken on to expand the skill base into web / multimedia and video.

So from being a motion graphics graduate - I retrained myself into web design, html and css coding, virtual world design, 3D modelling etc....

If you have a love of interactive deign its just as satisfying whatever area your working in - well thats what I find anyway.

I still get chance to work in Video - not as often as I'd like but with the spectrum of work that comes through the studio I still get to keep a hand in with the Print side as-well.

I came out of Uni eyes wide open knowing that the larger your skill set (and also your talent) the easier it would be to find work in the industry.

( I originally started on the graphic arts course and transferred after the first year to multimedia because I understood I would need a larger skill base especially with the shift in the industry to a more digital environment )

Hope this is useful.

On 25 Nov 2008, at 17:29, david croucher wrote:

Hi Martin, Thanks for the advice. I have a bit of a confession to make, I'm actually doing my degree at the Stockport college campus, LJMU run the course but ive only actually been to LJMU once at the start of the 3 years! but will be going again in June when we graduate! lol. so again, sorry to get your hopes up.
As for the animation my room is full of sheets of paper already! and been using lots of cutout 2d puppets for it aswell, so lots of arms n legs all over the place! do you know of any good tutorial sites for 3d animation within after effects? that is my next task on the piece.
If you dont mind me asking what is your main role in the company? and is it the area you intended to go into after uni?

Regards
David



--- On Tue, 25/11/08, Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk> wrote:
From: Martin Wood <martin@copop.co.uk>
Subject: HI!!!!!!!
To: davecroucher4@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tuesday, 25 November, 2008, 4:56 PM

Hi David

Always Nice to hear from a fellow JMU lad - I was on the multimedia arts course and graduated back in 2006, couple of years ago now.

Hows 68Hope Street - still a shack? or has the new building gone up now?

You Still got Carole and Ian tutoring?

We work in all area's including Web Design, Animation, Video, Virtual World Design But the company's main background is in Design for Print.

Bit more detail needed if you want a few tips but if your working to a soundtrack....

always a good idea to open the waveform - If its got a heavy beat you can Beatmatch using It.

Oh and lots and lots of tracing paper for stop motion, ha ha.

____________________________________

Hello, I'm very interested in your company and really like some of the work you produce, i especially like the Arts council 05 piece with the candles, and the warehouse project video. I am a third year multimedia design student on the BA hons degree at LJMU, and before this I came from a national diploma in graphic design. I am currently working on a self directed brief that comprises of an advert for 'Tomorrows World' using hand drawn techniques, stop motion and after effects. What areas do you mainly work in as a company? do you have any advice on stop-motion or working your animation to a music track? Any reply would be much appreciated. regards David Croucher Multimedia design (BA hons) LJMU ____________________________________

Regards Martin Wood

Corporation Pop

22 Lever Street

Manchester M1 1EA

Telephone 0161 228 7772

www.copop.co.uk