Nexus directors Smith & Foulkes have worked their own brand of black magic for Australian agency the Campaign Palace, creating a brilliant CG animation for the launch of the new Panasonic Neoplasma television. Running through some of the dark associations that can be made with black, under a classic B-movie voiceover, the film ends with an explosive celebration of the fact that black allows other colours to stand out. To avoid an overly slick feel, Smith & Foulkes cleverly combined a ‘fixed model’ approach with the infinite flexibility of computer animation. This allowed the transitions from character to character to be funny and exciting whilst being executed with Nexus’ trademark precision. Smith & Foulkes added, “We’ve spent a lot of time recently inventing labyrinthine technicoloured universes of animated tomfoolery and a lot of dancing robots. Which is fine by us. But occasionally it’s nice to get our hands on something a little more minimalist. A simple lump of ‘black’, whatever that is, that can instantly transform from one thing to the next. The biggest trap to fall into with this format is to turn it into a bit of a list. So the challenge for us was to keep the ’see what you say’ narrative interesting, surprising and fun throughout. We wanted the design of the characters to have the extra sophistication that would suit the ‘high-end’ product, so we worked with the designer Mark Gmehling whose incredible character designs we have long admired.”
Client: Panasonic; Agency: The Campaign Palace; Creative Team: Nic Buckingham & Hywel James; Agency Producer: Katrina Maw; Production Company: Nexus; Director: Smith & Foulkes; Executive Producers: Julia Parfitt; Producer: Luke Youngman; Project Lead: Michael Greenwood; Illustrator / Designer: Mark Gmehling; Animation: Nexus; Compositing: Hugo Guerra; Sound Design: 750mph (London) / Nylon Studios (Sydney)
OddBeast Crafts Powerful Opening Film For Half Rez 2025
When OddBeast landed the opportunity to produce this year’s opening film for Half Rez, the Midwest’s largest celebration of design and motion graphics, the studio approached the challenge by embracing discomfort. The goal was to visually express the collective anxieties of creatives facing an uncertain future as emerging tools and technologies reshape their industries. OddBeast Executive Creative Director Kevin Gautraud took the lead on the project’s vision and 3D animation: “I chose to ground the short in responses particular to fears about making a living in today’s creative fields where the rate of change feels insane at times, overwhelming artists with existential questions. Sometimes, ‘I don’t know’ is the most truthful answer anyone can give,” he said. In creating the film, Gautraud tapped into his own response to such anxieties: a meditation on the vastness of time and our small moment in the light, ponderings that bring him perspective, calm and creative inspiration. Powerful visuals of barren yet eerily majestic landscapes take us back to Earth’s origins, giving way – in the film’s final seconds – to the explosion of life – our blip in the planet’s unfathomable journey. Add the ethereal sound design of Bent Stamnes, and the result is a sense of awe, as everyday problems suddenly seem smaller. “For this project in particular, I was inspired by Carl Sagan and his own personal philosophy. He was awestruck at the grandeur of nature, curious about the origin of life, and humble about the extent of human knowledge,” Gautraud explained. “It's about making people feel small, strange and somehow okay with that.” Gautraud used a range of tools to give his concept life, including... Read More
