Sequence on set

Styling Hex

With Jonah Hex, we were working with artwork that was very small, very flat, and — for the last two episodes, at least — very old. When we put together a motion comic, we spend a lot of time working on the actual look of the piece. Shots are reframed, lit, colour-corrected, and doused in effects (like the smoke and fire in episode 6). We’ve never been called out on beating up the artwork too much, so I think we strike a good balance between respecting the original art and adding a little cinematic flair.

Here are two shots from Hex (episodes 3 and 6, respectively), showing the styled shot compared to the naked (but already reframed) artwork. Scroll over each image to see the original artwork.

Sequence does 3D

We do quite a bit of 3D work here Sequence. When it comes to 3D in motion comics, projection mapping tends to be one of our silver bullets.

When we started working on Batman, we found that our usual After Effects wizardry wasn’t doing justice to some of the panels. No matter how far you throw layers in 3D space, flat layers still look… well, kinda flat.

In the infinite search for something better, we started experimenting with projection mapping. Our latest motion comic (Jonah Hex) feature a handful of projections, and we thought we’d give you a quick look at how it’s done.

First we start with a flat image like the one below.

We create a camera on the same angle as the one used in the image and model the objects accordingly.

Then, we project the image onto that geometry.

Finally, we animate the camera, send the render, and grab a coffee. Then it’s back to After Effects for stylization and animation.

An I Am Legend blast from the past!

We’ve just released (put online) two of our fave I Am Legend motion comics – Shelter and Death As A Gift. Check ‘em out below! Ka-pow!

Year of the Awesome

Sook-Yin Lee’s directorial debut Year of the Carnivore will be hitting theaters June 18 (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal). Up against the big boys! No big deal. Except that it is.

Oh, the website? Yeah, we (with Derek Kinsman) did that. Again, no big deal (it is). Hurray!

We <3 Ventilate

We <3 Ventilate and, apparently, Ventilate <3's us! We're super-psyched to be featured on their site here.

Ventilate is kinda like the Canadian Motionographer. But then Vancouver is supposedly the Canadian Seattle, and Vancouver is better, so… draw your own conclusions there.

We <3 Giant Ant

Giant Ant Media is a creative studio that tells stories with video, motion and interactive. More importantly, they’re super nice, fun to hang out with and generally very good looking. If they were all at the beach suntanning, you’d be like “damn”.

Giant Ant and Sequence go together like PB&J. Above is just a taste of the brilliant stories they tell. Is Sequence going to ask Giant Ant to prom? Stay tuned!

Ivan makes awesome

Sequencer Ivan Cruz is making this (below). It’s gonna be a new intro for our reel. But, more importantly, look how awesome it looks.

Look. Look at it.

Andrew's Art Corner

Our resident artist Andrew West is always hard at working designing things that have absolutely nothing to do with what we’re currently working on. Here are two of his latest. More to come!

Stereoscopic Batman!

We do a lot of little tests here at Sequence. There’s little beakers and Bunsen burners everywhere. It’s pretty adorable.

While we were working on Batman: Black and White, we whipped up the little stereoscopic number above to see if we could harness that 3D technology that the kids go crazy for. And it worked!

Try it out! Put on some of those special glasses and watch Batman jump off the screen*. Think how awesome 3D motion comics would be on, say, the iPad. Granted you’d have to be wearing the dorky glasses, but that’s a small price to pay for 3D awesomeness.

A very small price. Awesomeness. We’ve got more 3D content coming soon (more than just a test), so… you guys hang in there!

* Sorry