Like a horse in the sky is a Chinese expression meaning fluid expression and creativity. Jung von Matt commissioned us to create a sky where Beijing’s creative advertising agencies are the horses, munching complacently on the clouds. Everything is business as usual, until one day a wooden horse arrives…
This video announces the opening of Jung von Matt Beijing’s new office. Have fun at the party gents, and remember to use the urinal.
Watch: Horses In The Sky on Youku
Visit: Jung von Matt Beijing
Watch: Know Your Smart TV: Playing Games
Between projects, we tend to get a little weird. Without clients to reel us in, there’s no telling where our minds will wander! This is my best attempt at explaining Mandy, the lovable girl with a very serious problem. Coming to internets near you this fall.
Watch: Nicholas Was
Watch: Sinatro
We recently took a trip over to the National Institute of Clean-And-Low-Carbon Energy for two days of video production. NICE commissioned us to help tell the world its story and after interviewing Nobel Laureate Dr. Carlo Rubbia, along with some of the world’s leaders in the field of clean energy, we think that story is long overdue.
On the outskirts of Beijing, Chinese energy leader Shenhua Group has built a Future Science and Technology City, where top scientists from around the world are coming together to develop clean energy solutions and patent new technology. After getting a look at their facilities and the sheer size of their investment, we can’t help but wonder what amazing innovations NICE has in store for us. Watch this space!
Visit: National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy
Read: Dr. Carlo Rubbia
We had a bit of downtime between projects, so decided to cook up a new character. Trained by Yoda himself, meet the mixed-media animation with a moving personality. When he’s not setting high school students on fire or blowing up heads, he’s just alone in his bedroom practicing his skills. He still has a long way to go, as you’ll see in this video.
Read: About Telekinesis
Watch: Carrie Trailer
Watch: Scanners Trailer
Visit: Our Vimeo Page
Watch: On Youku
In this behind the scenes feature, we’ll be discussing our latest viral video for BMW, The Call. The brief for this project called for a tricky slow motion shot, following a flying cellphone through the interior of a car. Let’s break down the steps we took to achieve this effect.
The phone’s journey takes place within a spacious BMW M5. The front seat passenger answers the phone, before the driver punches the accelerator and the car’s speed sends the phone drifting through the air toward the back seat.
First, we fully composited the phone in 3D, to give us total control over the phone’s movement.
During production, we used a mirror ball to take a HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) light probe, using 9 different exposures. This allowed us to capture the real lighting condition inside the M5 and later simulate it in our created 3D environment.
We then needed to create a realistic reflection over the phone’s glass surface. For this, we shot a separate panorama of the interior of the car. The camera settings in the 3D environment were then matched with the camera settings of the panorama plates.
For a look at the finished phone in motion, check out the official viral video on Youku.
Watch: BMW The Call
Hong Kong Designers Association has awarded 39°N with a Bronze medal in Motion Graphics, for our Christmas animation, Nicholas Was. We’d like to thank the HKDA, our parents, the flying spaghetti monster and of course Neil Gaiman, whose writing inspired our mixed media madness in the first place. I don’t want to jinx us, but I have a feeling there are more awards to come. Watch this space…
Visit: Hong Kong Designers Association
Read: Neil Gaiman
Watch: Nicholas Was
The Creators Project China has featured 39°N videos GUNDOG and Year Of The Rabbit. Big thanks to The Creators Project, a global network dedicated to the celebration of creativity, culture and technology.
Visit: The Creators Project Blog
Happy holidays from us all at 39°N. We hope you have a great one. In the spirit of our favourite Christmas actions movies, we’re happy to present GUNDOG. He’s a hard living, heavy drinking, crime fighting dog, and he’s here to save Christmas.
We’re launching our Christmas video card tonight at the Bookworm in Sanlitun at 9pm. Very exciting stuff. Here’s a sneak peak of the superstar, Detective Gundog. It’s our homage to 80’s/90’s Christmas actions movies & TV Christmas specials but with a dog. Video will be posted here tomorrow.
Caught a peek at these awesome Chuck Taylor Converse designs over at tauntr.com and fell in love with the Walking Dead shoe. If you see these and start scrambling for the ‘BUY NOW’ button… sorry but they are only concepts so far. Hopefully someone at Converse will see these and then see the sense they make! Below are shoes from 2 other great shows
