Animated Building Projection for V&A Museum – Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes

Credits:
Animator/ Editor: Miland Suman
Development: Alex Hare
Executive Producer: Chris McKeeman
Projection: Des O’Leary & Angus Dunwoody Dun
Music: Stravinsky’s The Firebird

BT Digital Music Awards at the Roundhouse

Locomotion’s Alex Hare designed, created and animated the motion graphics for an ambitious 8-screen projection at the 2010 BT Digital Music Awards in London’s Roundhouse. Commissioned by Ballistic Events, Alex enhanced the BT DMA’s existing branding and developed visuals to complement Reality Awards’ innovative stage and screen set up.

The BTDMAs are the premier awards, recognising the best in digital music entertainment as well as uses of digital technology in the music industry – from websites and blogs to fan-sites, podcasts and more. The BT DMA website opened up many of the awards for public voting while other category winners were selected by industry judges.

The challenge for the VT content was to create an animation sequence on the first screen which would trigger further animated pixilation effects to move across the other 7 screens while all 8 simultaneously displayed video content. Alex used Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Final Cut Pro to produce stunning results. Creating the pixilation effects and simultaneously displaying excerpts of a different nominee’s work on each of the screens created the look and feel of an immersive digital experience for the enthusiastic audience.

Amongst the big screens and bright lights, hosts Caroline Flack and Matt Edmonson presented awards to the likes of JLS, Adam Buxton, Tinie Tempah and Gorillaz. The event also featured live performances by Marina and the Diamonds, Tinie Tempah, Professor Green, Scouting for Girls, Roll Deep Ne-Yo, and McFly. For more details about the nominees and winners, please visit the BTDMA website.

Animated Building Projection for the Victoria & Albert Museum

To promote the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929”, the V&A’s marketing managers Sarah Armond and Cathy Flanagan commissioned Locomotion to create an animated video poster which our colleagues at Exceptional Exhibits projected – guerrilla advertising style – onto buildings in and around London’s Theatreland as well as other significant sites for ballet audiences.

Locomotion’s Miland Suman used After Effects to animate images taken from a handful of contemporary photographs and postcards, reflecting the poster design for the exhibition while introducing movement and depth to engage the attention of a curious public. Diaghilev was revolutionary in his collaboration with composers, artists, designers to create the experience of ‘total theatre’, so it seemed fitting to bring the photos to life through animation and let them out into the world through building projection.

Miland’s skilful presentation of the portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky in costume for the ballet Giselle recreates the dancer’s gravity defying leaps and highlights the thrilling exoticism of the dancer in costume for Sheherazade. His teasing reveal of Waléry’s 1912 photograph of Adolph Bolm and Tamara Karsavina delights in the bewitching scene of the dancers in the ballet Thamar. And, his animation of Bassano’ 1910 photograph excites the passions of the pair in a scene from Stravinsky’s Firebird.

If you didn’t happen to pass by the Royal Opera House on Wednesday the 13^th of October, or walk along the Southbank to see the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 14 October or indeed stroll through Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus on Tuesday 12 October, the night of the UK Music Video Awards and after show party, you can still view the projections here.

The Exhibition runs from 25 September 2010- 9 January 2011 to read more about it, visit the V&A website here.

To book tickets for the exhibition click here.

Pasta Pronto!

Locomotion was treated to a taste of la dolce vita this November, when work began on sponsorship bumpers for Roma foods. Working with Commercials Unlimited, senior editor Lee Bamsey created four idents for the RTE cookery show ‘Catherine’s Italian Kitchen’.

The beautiful Italian images obviously brought out the old master in Lee as he set about ripening tomatoes, adding light rays, and removing creases and reflections from packaging whilst grading the whole edit to give a lovely warm Mediterranean glow. Whether Leonardo would approve of Lee’s AFX approach is another matter but the Loco team think it’s fantastico!