Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sharing Animation - Music Video - Strawberry Swing (Shynola, 2009)

It has been a while since I don't share some more animation even though I have this huge list yet to be shared! =) So I'm back to wrap up the animated music videos, at least for now. And yes, I chose a good one for last.

This music is Strawberry Swing by Coldplay, and the video is from the amazing artists from Shynola.

Shynola are a little less and a little more than the usual animation studio. They are only three (when they started they were four), so I guess that's for the less, but they are all great friends that met in college and got together just to make the stuff they love. And that surely is a lot! In the end they are not a usual animation studio because they don't make just the usual animations, they go further.
They are mostly known for their work with music videos. Coldplay (yes, this one), Radiohead and Queens of the Stone Age (the last one HERE) to name a few. They also animated some parts and bits for filmes, like the title sequence for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and some animated bits for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
HERE you can see their official website and the music videos they produced.
HERE is a link to their Vimeo channel.

Now I'll take my time talking about how it was made, since it's so good looking and it was in fact a work that required much sweat.

First things first: Yes it is Chris Martin in the video.
One of the main logistics about this video is that the animation had to be very very well planned prior to the recordings. When Chris went to the studio to record (they did it in one week and the whole project took 3 months to be done), the Shynola guys had already a fully planned animation to follow as reference, in which the character played by Chris was an animated CG character.
It WAS all drawn on the floor with chalk. Of course they had only to draw and rub the parts that were going to move, which in big mass parts, like a cloud or something you can even see that the pattern in the middle stays the same. But nevertheless it really is an amazing accomplishment!
Since they had it planned and animated prior to the shooting itself, they could use that as reference, they would carry a portable screen in which they could see the reference video and a live streaming of the actual scene (for the knowledgeable people out there, it works like a normal stop-motion software, where you can see live what you're doing and through "onion-skins " see the frame(s) before or reference videos)
About the hero narrative in the whole thing, the story doesn't really relate to the lyrics, Shynola's team tried to take the mood of the song instead of going directly to the words, they say they would have nothing to add and it would be less interesting for them to produce, which only shows us again how this guys are doing what they like to do!

And what they like to do, we like to see! Strawberry Swing by Shynola.



Check out the other short movies from the Sharing Collection HERE!!


See you soon with another animation treat! Next time won't be a music video (unless I cross with some absolutely amazing one!)


No copyright and related rights infringements are intended with these sharings, all these animations are properties from their respective authors or studios always credited in the post.