TEDx: REAL is a visual exploration of the nature of reality, as seen through the hopes, fears, and dreams of a mother-to-be who imagines the possibility of a better world for her child. It’s part exquisite corpse – in that it’s filled with unique, surreal moments – but doesn’t quite adhere to the rules of that convention because it’s much, much more collaborative. In total, we curated work from ten studios, including ourselves, and pieced it all together for the final product.
Substance has partnered with TEDxSydney since 2017. When we first started working with them, they could see that while we had a great body of work, we also understood their ideas and purpose and how ‘motion’ could compliment the brand.
The TEDx briefs are always just one word, and it’s up to us to interpret them. For 2020, the theme was “REAL,” which is a very broad theme to work with.
We realised that REAL couldn’t be pinned down to one neat explanation, and a single-styled expression could never do the topic justice. What’s REAL can be so fluid and personal, but ultimately, a shared experience. So, we leaned into the multifaceted nature of reality and decided collaboration would demonstrate this perfectly. I guess we could have pursued a multi-style approach ourselves, but we just felt it was more authentic to include different points of view, and it gave us all a more global presence – in keeping with our ongoing strategy of positioning TEDx as an event with global impact.
We curated the studio selection with two main criteria.
First: which studios did we admire?
…and in a very few cases who we had a connection with. Marcel at State, for example, had come to Sydney in 2019 for Node, a local motion festival.
Second: where were these studios based?
Global representation being so important, we invited studios from the US, Australia, Asia, India, and Europe. We cast an even wider net when you include the sound and music partners.
Once we had decided on a collaborative approach and picked the studios, we created a detailed (but open) briefing document for all the partners. We included the story behind TEDx, past work, and the approach to the 2020 project. We also defined things like duration, key design principles – colourful, upbeat, positive, thought-provoking – with references and provided some jumping off-points to kickstart ideation. We knew from experience that it could be hard to choose a message when dealing with such broad topics, and we wanted to make it as easy as possible to begin.
We had a list of 20-30 different interpretations and definitions of REAL, which served as mini-subjects (or “sub-realities”), and asked the studios to choose one that interested them (with a backup in case any were interested in the same ideas). Of course, they were also at liberty to come up with their own.
Starting points were basic but useful: real life, real love, real (fake) news, virtual reality, real estate (puns are valid), escape from reality, games, social media, science and religion, memory, and so on. Studios were then free to take the idea wherever they wanted and in any style, provided the critical design principles and tech specs were upheld.
We believed that it was this freedom of choice that was going to make things interesting. Of course, weaving these all back together was going to be a challenge, connecting them into a cohesive unit. We achieved this with an overarching narrative and the brilliant music integration from Ambrose Yu.
We were delighted when Motionographer showed interest in the work and asked us to break the project down. Once again, though, we believed the result would be much more authentic when including unique points of view, so we managed to herd some of the studios together one last time.
The studios you are about to hear from are:
BEMO
Nerdo
Spillt
Mighty Nice
Post Office Studios
Bullpen
Oddfellows
Mixcode
State
Substance
Fill us in on your Motion Design background and what led you to become a Motion Designer.
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
I was still in school when Motion Design started becoming something you could (maybe) do with a PC. Growing up, there was minimal internet, no 3D commercials, and even VFX was reserved for Superbowl spots. I had interests in film and graphic design as two potential avenues to explore after school but hadn’t yet seen how they could connect. I’d seen Se7en around this time, and Goldeneye was my first introduction to the Bond title sequences. It was all still so out-of-reach, though, mostly filmed and optical effects (not digital!) and on ridiculously high-end machines locked away in million-dollar facilities. It wasn’t until a few years later – seeing Sphere, Dead Man on Campus, Fight Club – and getting hold of After Effects and Photoshop, combined with the web bubble of the early 2000s and Flash bringing animation to websites, that Motion Design really became a possibility. It was design, and it moved, but it wasn’t film. And I knew what I wanted to do.
Brandon Parvini – Design + Tech Dir at BEMO
Pure chance. In college, I was a fine art student and just happened to know computers. I made the mistake of making friends with the film kids who just kept asking if I knew how to do this or that on computers. The answer was always, “No. But I’m sure I can figure it out.” That became a pattern for the next ten years until I realized I never wanted to go near VFX again. I began to lean heavily into the design side of the industry. I always felt more like a Motion Designer than a VFX artist.
Lorenzo Levrero – Co-Founder & Creative Director at Nerdo
We started at a time when everything was very difficult to make, and just a few people could do it. The only animations that could be seen online were flash websites. There wasn’t a lot of motion graphics around, no Facebook, no YouTube, or Instagram. Perhaps that’s what pushed us to leave our work as freelancers/employees and set up our own studio.
Spillt
Miles Petrock – Art Director at Spillt
When I left school, I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to be within the field; I wanted to do it all: editing, color, animation, 3D. It wasn’t until I started freelancing that I got a glimpse into the world of pitching, design, and execution. It was then that I found my path and honed my skills as a motion artist.
How would you introduce this project to someone watching for the first time?
Michael Shiao Chen – Director at Mighty Nice
Ideally, I want viewers to form their own interpretation of the piece. After showing friends and family, hearing each person’s vastly different interpretation was a very interesting experience. For me, the piece was meant as a commentary on how our own identities and subjective realities collide in close relationships – whether it’s between lovers, family, friends. We often project our own images and insecurities onto the ones we hold dearest.
Post Office Studios Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
With the help of technology, one can easily connect with another person anywhere else in the world; the physical distance is no longer a barrier. Our idea was to demonstrate that this means of communication has made the world a smaller place to live in. We wanted to take the audience through the visual experience of a virtual reality headset user. By switching from one channel to the next, the film’s main character jumps into multiple high-energy and action-packed scenarios. We presented all of these situations in distinct art styles to emphasize how different, and real every experience is. At the end of the film, the user reaches the final channel, which is the comfort of his own room – calm & peaceful.
Miles Petrock – Art Director at Spillt
TEDx: PERCEPTION is a deep dive into the building blocks of reality. We wanted viewers to have a moment to deeply consider the true nature of the universe and put aside the reality we perceive every day.
How did your team approach interpreting your sub-theme?
Oddfellows
Our subtheme was LOVE, which is dangerously familiar territory. Our instincts told us to stray from the traditional, binary, and trite depictions of love and move into a more sensual, fluid, and modern sense of the word. Starting in the nascent stages of attraction, our characters are unable to pin each other down. As they proceed, they gain a clearer, more concrete view of each other and ultimately join with clarity in a structural and physical way. Our design process yielded inspirations from early 20th-century cubism under the pulsing glow of a lava lamp. I imagined an aesthetic made of flat, multi-layered silhouettes combined with carefully tracked gradients and blurs to create surprising depth, structure, and softness. Of course, this was easier said than done, but our animation team was up to the task. Everyone contributed surprising innovations from sweaty streaks and drippy drops to eerie eyes and coconut clops — ten seconds of steamy perfection.
Oddfellows
Take us through your process. How long did it take? What techniques did you use? What programs are you using?
Brandon Parvini – Design + Tech Dir at BEMO
Brandon H and I worked up the initial concepts based on the sandbox Scott (from Substance) gave us. After taking care of the boarding and based character ref, we brought in one of our favorite collaborators, Scott Hassell, to work with me on the character dev and sketches. From there, I went to work getting them sculpted, rigged and animated, and built out the scenes. I had been wanting to try out some new shader techniques, so I handled all the mat dev. Once we had a set deck of everything, we brought in another of our favorite people, Pablo Thomas, to help with the 2d cel work over the piece. So, all told, there were only really the four of us on it.
Software-wise we flowed from Zbrush for sculpt to Cinema 4D for Rig, Texture, and Animation, Arnold for render, and After Effects for comp. I had long wanted to take Arnold for a spin to test its chops, and it did not disappoint. It was my first time using it, and it was a really fun process getting lost in the weeds mixing OSL shaders – and other techniques I’ve generally only been able to use with Redshift and Octane – but bringing some of those theories over to the toonshade (NPR) world.
BEMO
Michael Shiao Chen – Director at Mighty Nice
The project was something we chipped away at over a few months, as there were a few stops & starts, with the main obstacle being Covid’s impact on the TEDx conference. Blender and Maya were the key programs being used. We were able to leverage our existing expertise with Maya’s animation and rigging pipeline but really take the non-photorealistic rendering and look-dev to a new level in Blender’s real-time Eevee engine. Things like stylistically painting shadows on characters became a breeze when you could do it in real-time on a per-shot basis.
Lorenzo Levrero – Co-Founder & Creative Director at Nerdo
We work with the Adobe Suite to illustrate, animate, compose. We use Cinema 4D + Corona or Blender for the 3D and Toon Boom for animation. We believe that any software is just a tool (such as a pencil), so creativity and technique are the best software. We love to experiment, though, so we are always keen to experience new technology.
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
Once we had the concept in place, we started looking into character designs & visual concepts while thinking about the storyboarding for the film. With our storyboards in place, we started working on the animatics, eventually developing the visuals in terms of background illustrations & character styles. We finalised their look & feel and proceeded into the keyframing for the film to get started with the cel animation process. Next, we worked on the in-betweens & cleanups, and then the colouring of the main character, and finally proceeded to the compositing stage, bringing together the character with the background.
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
On a nuts-and-bolts level, we’re a Cinema 4D + Houdini studio right now, mixing Octane and Redshift for 3D, but we also mix in a pretty broad range of other programs. As for TEDx – it’s an unusual one because we got a lot of time to consider it upfront before we ever opened a 3D program or even made a sketch or animatic. Unfortunately, things were thrown so askew in 2020 that the timeline kept drawing out – and I’m sure many other projects faced a similar situation!
Did you face any difficulties along the way? If so, how did you overcome them?
Michael Shiao Chen – Director at Mighty Nice
The original format was for 5xHD screens lined up horizontally in an extremely wide format. The story we had back then showed many different couples interacting in unison on each screen. When the TEDx conference then shifted to an online format (due to covid), we had to pivot. We really honed in on the nuances of the interaction between a single couple while still keeping that core idea of identity/subjective realities/projection abundantly clear.
Tubo Lee – Mixcode
I think the hardest thing was how to express multi-dimensionality. After all, it meant the possibility of plurals is happening. I also often think if it is another dimension, can I play video games leisurely all day? Haha. In the end, we chose to flash the art settings of different dimensions into the frame in a limited film length.
Lorenzo Levrero – Co-Founder & Creative Director at Nerdo
There are always challenges. During the pre-production, in particular, there was a moment in which we felt like we had reached a dead end, but then sharing ideas was fundamental to solve all the doubts. I am referring to the character creation, in particular. We had thought a lot about its design and what the clothes, age, gender, ethnicity should be like. We wanted it to be inclusive and contemporary, so without specific somatic features, but at the same time not too minimalist nor abstract. All the efforts made by our illustrators were very important to achieve the result we were looking for. We are very proud of it!
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
Our initial concept was in 3D, and we had put quite a bit of work into our timeline before we realised it wasn’t working. Deciding to make the switch from 3D to cel was a huge hurdle that we definitely took a risk leaning into. But it paid off in the end, and we have a great film to show for it!
Substance
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
I had thought the biggest challenge would be assembling the collective – but everyone was incredibly enthusiastic about the idea, and we started early enough that timelines were working for us all. Instead, the challenge turned out to be keeping the project moving through the unexpected and monstrously damaging onslaught of COVID19. We all agreed we shouldn’t give up but had to deal with the extended schedule to account for the extreme difficulties in our various parts of the world, as well as TEDx postponing and changing the format of the event. In the end, it was sheer tenacity that kept us going – and we’re thankful for the indomitable spirits of everyone involved. In a way, the project gave us all something positive to focus on, knowing that the message of hope we were creating would reach the world eventually.
What was your favorite moment or most fun part of the project?
Aaron Kemnitzer – Creative Director at Bullpen
Knowing we were working with other studios and artists around the world that we admired. When the pandemic hit, it was great to be a part of something larger than ourselves.
Bullpen
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
The conceptualising stage was a great time for us. It’s always really refreshing and fun to throw a lot of interesting ideas at the wall to see what sticks. The brainstorming sessions were probably the most fun we’ve had since we were given so much free reign to go about executing the film.
Miles Petrock – Art Director at Spillt
A fun part of the project was creating the particle simulation that you see at the deepest level of the animation. The movement represents the state of flow that might be occurring at this level of reality. This simulation was created with xParticles flow fields. Flow fields are great because they provide an organic look yet are very art directable.
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
Jumping off the cliff and the uncertainty of where we would land; a necessary but very important uncertainty. Creative control of each piece had to be in the hands of each studio so that it was a true combination of viewpoints. It wasn’t a complete blind leap because we knew the underlying concept was solid, and the studios and composers would all deliver stunning executions. We just didn’t know exactly what we’d get back, and seeing the animations gradually come together – for all studios to see each other’s progress each step of the way – was a really wonderful, shared experience.
What are your thoughts on working with your perceived competition?
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
That’s an interesting question, which assumes that we’re in competition with each other. I don’t think any of us see it that way! Everyone has their own style or approach, personality or flavour, and if one wins a project, it’s no loss to the others. We all work with motion, but each of us has a different voice, and it’s those unique foundations that enable us to stand apart on our strengths and then come together on a project like this.
To answer in a more general sense, if you have an approach that’s uniquely your own, you’re not truly in competition with anyone.
In a collaboration like TEDx, we’re amplifying each other’s voices and complementing each other’s strengths. The entire project was underpinned by a tremendous spirit of sharing, and processes were completely open: all studios could see each other’s concept decks, boards, animatics, draft animations all the way through to finals.
We’ve talked about the most fun part of the project, but the most rewarding part was getting to know each other a little better, and it actually became a huge (and positive) constant for us all through 2020.
What were some ground-breaking moments in Motion Design that have shaped the way you think?
Brandon Parvini – Design + Tech Dir at BEMO
Most of the seminal shakes for me in the modern Motion Design industry have come in the form of opening sequences for festivals and music videos. Andrew Thomas Huang’s Mutual Core and Tendril’s StyleFrames NY come to mind as key moments.
They tended to serve as these touchtones of where we were, what we were struggling with, and what aesthetics were being worshiped at the time. But it’s hard to point to individual hits, just ones that altered my view of things. In a holistic sense, we are currently living in the aftershock of accessible GPU rendering that has turned photoreal into an aesthetic. I think a lot of how we’re navigating things is through that binary of ‘realistic’ or not. Some are challenging it in really fun and inspiring ways. I’m just excited to see where we go.
Michael Shiao Chen – Director at Mighty Nice
The animated films of Satoshi Kon have heavily influenced my work, particularly in subject matter and the homage he pays to film history.
Mighty Nice
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
We were startled the day we got exposed to all the international studios like Buck, Golden Wolf, Giant Ant, and many more who have put together jaw-dropping content. This opened our way of thinking to find creativity in every challenge and deep dive into Motion Design.
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
In somewhat chronological order:
- The title sequence for the original Thundercat
- Seven, Gattaca, Fight Clu
- Brand New School’s summer 2001 reel – a monster at almost 4mins but blew my young mind. It’s a 320×240 QT that I downloaded and still have.
- Being at the first SemiPermanent in 2003. I saw this in University with some friends; then, we immediately emailed the team (I didn’t know who they were at the time) to ask if we could animate titles for the next event!
- The early Motion Design of Nando Costa (well, all his work, really)
- 2006’s Stranger Than Fiction with graphics from MK12
And so many more!
What do you think we could do as a community to work together more and drive the industry forward?
Brandon Parvini – Design + Tech Dir at BEMO
I would love to see more multi-team collaboration like this in the future. The economics are a little difficult but getting different groups with different value systems to work together on something felt pretty amazing to be a part of. I also feel like diversification of styles and methods with some of the up-and-coming toolsets may help allow for a more inclusive appreciation of various looks and approaches by adding a little mystery back into the image-making. At times it can feel like you can see someone’s process in a very naked way which then relegates the creative to an ancillary thing.
Michael Shiao Chen – Director at Mighty Nice
Young up-and-coming artists should really be educated on the business side of our industry. As a community, it’s something we can really push for; a platform to inform entry-level artists of these topics. Too often, I see artists with tremendous talent underestimate their own value and get taken advantage of financially.
Lorenzo Levrero – Co-Founder & Creative Director at Nerdo
I think that pitches are killing the industry and ruining the way any project is tackled. The initial phase is the most important and delicate one. It is when you address the crucial issues both from a creative and production perspective. The high level of complexity cannot be properly addressed with such tight deadlines, so the result can suffer. We as a community should raise awareness around this bad habit.
NERDO
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
Forums, where people can discuss their hurdles and processes, can help propel the industry forward in a more collaborative and innovative direction. Projects like this one with TEDx bring like-minded people together to work in the same field and with a similar vision.
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
Quite a few things – and a lot start at the education level. People coming into motion should know more about fees, rates, business, taxes, being organised, and generally be better prepared for the non-artistic side of the industry, which is essential to building a life and a career.
Do you have any advice for creatives on how to pursue their dream projects?
Brandon Parvini – Design + Tech Dir at BEMO
Passion shows through in craft. You can tell when someone loves what they do as it will reveal itself in the product. While keeping that in mind, make sure you’re finding outlets to do what you actually want to be hired to do. If you’re doing composite work and you really want to design characters, find a way to do some character work in your free time, even as a hobby, so you can show someone something. It sounds obvious, but you’re generally only hired to do what you have already done before. Don’t count on others to give you the opportunity if you don’t have evidence to show how or what you would make given the chance. Your dream project, I assume, would be doing something you really really love doing for someone you would really love to work or collaborate with. If you’re not doing what you love, you’ll never be on your dream project.
Tubo Lee – Mixcode
Don’t forget why you made this decision in the first place.
Mixcode
Lorenzo Levrero – Co-Founder & Creative Director at Nerdo
Motion Graphics is a very crowded place, full of talented people. So, to enter this world, it is fundamental to master different fields. However, a dream project does not have to be a complex one at any cost. Try to express yourself in what you can do best and add just 10% to the challenge. It is important to have a solid idea of the message and the feelings you want to convey. And again, pre-production is crucial! Dissect and test your project continuously. Do not skip any step throughout the journey.
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
We believe in the power of exploration and experimentation the most when working on dream projects. When there is a lull in the workflow, we would advise creatives to really push themselves and take the time to play with different tools and different styles. This has not only helped us stay relevant and interesting but also given us the advantage of having a wide breadth of styles in our body of work. Taking the time to experiment on an off-day can pay off on the project front as well since you can refine the style you’re aiming for in that practice period before jumping into a new project.
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
As Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Though getting started is probably the easier part, more difficult is discovering what you want to do or make and how to direct your energy towards that outcome—and being OK with the fact that it’s going to take time. Probably a lot of time. More than you think. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to remember where the finish line is and avoid getting off-course with all the other interesting things along the way.
What would be your message to the industry for 2021?
Brandon Parvini – Design + Tech Dir at BEMO
It feels like things are moving really fast right now. We’re in a great moment where artists who have been producing their own unique things are getting a lot of traction. There are some big payoffs happening for people who have put the sweat-equity in themselves. The pause I would ask people to take is to make sure you are making things for yourself and fulfilling your wants on projects or tests. Experimentation, failure, and exploration have been long-running tenets of Motion Design; it would be great to see those make a bit of a comeback.
Aaron Kemnitzer – Creative Director at Bullpen
While some of us might technically be “competitors,” we’re all friends and family! This project is an excellent example of that belief in practice.
Michael Shiao Chen – Director at Mighty Nice
The whole client/agency/pitch model is ripe for disruption.
Post Office Studios – Multidisciplinary Design & Animation Studio
Experimentation is probably our biggest message to the industry at this time. Right now is an exciting time to be working in animation, in our opinion. Not only because of the ease of technology at our fingertips but also with how the importance of the visual medium has taken over in the last decade. At this point, as creators of visual media, we owe it to ourselves to take risks and really play with traditional concepts of design and animation. We feel the more we can think and work outside the box, the more interesting & relevant our industry will become.
Post Office Studios
Miles Petrock – Art Director at Spillt
Besides being inspired by the artists around me every day, I would say that conferences have had some of the most profound effects on me; places like Blend Festival and FITC. These events attract motion graphic artists worldwide and let you engage with your favorite animators and designers. It’s great!
Scott Geersen – Director / Co-Founder at Substance
2020, with all its headaches and disasters, helped us realise that so many things we took for granted simply didn’t have to be that way. I hope we can hold on to both that questioning spirit and the drive to answer those questions with action.
As an industry example, do you need to be physically present to make an impact with your work? This is just one question that’s going to have a lasting effect on both designers and studios.
State Studios