Quantum of Solace / MK12

MK12 // Quantum of Solace: Main Title Sequence Reel from MK12 on Vimeo.

In creating the main titles for Quantum of Solace, MK12 set out to design a powerful sequence that not only paid homage to Bond title sequences of the past but also exploited new technologies to its advantage, creating a micro-narrative to work in concert with the film's premise.

As many of the film's locales are desert-based (also a convenient analogy for Bond's mental state following Casino Royale), that became the thematic backbone of the title sequence. MK12 designed several sequences in which sand was an integral 'character', sometimes as a background element, but also at times coming to the foreground and behaving in ways that were impossible to capture on film alone.

For those sequences, MK12 created composites of manipulated live-action sand plates, advanced particle simulations and enhancements using Trapcode Form and Trapcode Particular.

“As we were working with a very compressed schedule, choosing software with a simple interface but complex output was critical. As with many of our past projects, the Trapcode Suite proved to be a useful, if not essential, production tool. Many of our final compositions in Quantum were enhanced & sweetened - and in some instances developed entirely - using Trapcode,” said the team at MK12.

More information about this and other projects can be found at http://mk12.com.

More about this piece on Art of the Title 

New free iPhone app: Immersive

Trapcode Immersive uses the magnetometer (digital compass) and the accelerometer to figure out how the device is held and then renders a corresponding view from a panorama. It is like a window to another world in your hands!

The app contains seven panoramas of different landscapes. One idea we have for future versions is to enable loading a panorama from the photo library on the device (if there is interest in such a feature). Other possible uses could be for previewing a hotel reservation, real estate or whenever an immersive view of an environment is needed.

Since the app needs a compass it works with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad (runs as an iPhone app).

Get it FREE in the App Store

Preguntas Hermosas by Süperfad / David Viau

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Director David Viau Notes:

"There was a tremendous amount of 2d effects and compositing in 'Preguntas Hermosas' that contributed to the magical and stylized realism of the environments. Trapcode products definitely played a key role in the production and were a go-to resource. From the woman breaking apart into butterflies to minute details of atmospheric enhancement, the Trapcode Suite was intrical to bringing drama to the love story."

Check out Süperfad's site.

Terminator Salvation by Imaginary Forces / Jeremy Cox

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Treated studio logos that appeared before Terminator Salvation, produced by Imaginary Forces.

Creative Supervisor/Designer: Karin Fong
Lead Animator/Designer: Jeremy Cox
Producers: Cara McKenney, Kathy Kelehan
Project Manager: Steven Giangrasso
Inferno Artist: Rod Basham
Coordinators: Heather Dennis, Kim Dates

Point cloud research:

[ View on Vimeo ]

Jeremy Cox notes "Research for sequences in Terminator Salvation. We used the Bumblebee 2 stereoscopic Camera from Pt Grey Research. The first clip is a screen capture of the software bundled with the camera, and the rest are renders from After Effects using Trapcode Form."

Machine Vision Montage:

Terminator Salvation Machine Vision Montage from Jeremy Cox on Vimeo.

Read more about this work here.

Imaginary Forces website

Vortex.A - generative art for iPad / iPhone / iPod

Vortex.A - touch-interactive generative art. I am experimenting with fluid dynamics: how liquids and gases behave - a classically difficult problem in physics/maths. Most agree that fluid dynamics is described by the Navier-Stokes differential equations. There is no known all-case solution for the equations, but there are solutions for specific cases and approximative methods to find numerical solutions.

I'm experimenting with my own approach and it is making some pretty promising animations. This app visualizes the flow by emitting particles where you touch the screen (multi-touch works) and the fluid itself is also affected by touch. The lines are so called "pathlines" that trace the particles' paths over time.

I'm polishing the technology and hoping to bring it to VFX/motion graphics artists as a tool for fluid dynamics animations in the future.

The price is 99 cents and it's available in AppStore.

Check out CreativeApplications.net's article, contains video! Or proceed to view video on Vimeo. Or, if you have flash, check out the video below (note that this video is from iPhone, on iPad it looks different)