Some visual styles and animation techniques go beyond mere 2D or 3D labels. Here at Beakus we just call these projects 'Mixed', and they include pixillation, puppet and model animation, effects animation, and live-action hybrids. It just goes to show that animation is a versatile medium which can find it's way in to all kinds of scenarios and platforms. Below you'll see a taster of projects that have included 'Mixed' techniques.
Leo Bridle entered Dorito's competition to make the most beguiling ad for their new campaign. Typically thinking outside the box, or jar, Leo and fellow directors Ben Thomas and Joe Dennis cooked up this sensual – even a touch erotic – hot tub scenario. Shot on a tight budget in live-action and blue-screen stop-motion, the [...]
New director Leo Bridle created this masterpiece of stop-frame animation with fellow graduate Ben Thomas. Made almost entirely from paper and using a steady-handed cut-out technique, the film traces the journey of a solitary man seeking his partner through his thoughts. Selected for the British Animation Awards 2010, the London Film Festival, Stuttgart and Anima [...]
'Je Suis Jalouse' is the title of Leo Bridle's music video for French artiste Emily Loizeau. Shooting on blue-screen and then fabricating an entire world from photographs and collaged materials, Leo deftly tells the story of our green-eyed chanteuse and her circus-man.
Director: Leo Bridle
Commission: Narcisse Films
Two spots for 7Eleven in Australia, commissioned by Clemenger and animated using traditional puppet stop-motion.
Director: Steve Smith
Producer: Richard Barnett for Trunk
Commission: Leo Burnett, Melbourne
Fruit Salad
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Leigh Hodgkinson's dark, atmospheric and texturous puppet animation 'Stalk' was created for the Pulse Scheme. Deftly weaving model animation of the director's favourite and well-loved childhood bunny (who gratiously had her stuffing replaced by armature for the shoot…) with composited photographs and delicate lighting and smoke effects, the film plays out like a modern urban [...]
As a reward for their diligence and outstanding Million-plus hits on You Tube, Leo Bridle and Leo Powell were invited to make a second viral for online media mag 'First Post'. On a similar theme to 'Web 2.0' they take us headlong in to the heart of a PC to see what makes it tick. [...]
Nominated for a D&AD Award, and with over a million hits on You Tube, Web 2.0 is a viral for online media magazine 'First Post'. It was created by Leo Bridle and Leo Powell and takes us in to an interesting world where your lowly grey-box PC delivers everything you need to digest the day's [...]
A charming music video for Domino Records' two-piece electronica band 'Psapp'. Shot in and around the director's garden and featuring a bouncing mix of pixillated objects, puppetry and clever compositing a story unfolds between a grown-up girl and her cutlery…
Director Steve Smith was asked to put together a title sequence for a documentary about the 40-year anniversary get-together of the seminal Beatles' Sgt.Pepper album. Bands such as Kaiser Chiefs and Magic Numbers recorded all the track afresh, which is echoed in these titles, put together with After Effects.
Director: Steve Smith
Producer: Richard Barnett for Trunk
Commission: [...]
Leigh Hodgkinson's series of Greene King sponsorship idents to bumper Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV. Can you guess the name of each pub?
Director: Leigh Hodgkinson
Producer: Maria Manton for Slinky
Commission: Greene King
Old Cock
Blue Anchor
Blue Pig
A short 15" spot for Whiskas, via TBWA in Netherlands. Following the success of Trunk's campaign for Whiskas, TBWA wanted to re-visit the cloth-puppet fishes from an earlier spot "Taffy". Trouble is, there was no fish anymore… So, 3D artist Darragh Mason had to re-create the fabric fish in 3D CGI, and duly animate it [...]
Domino Record's fantastic combo 'Psapp' were searching for a team to put together their 'Hi' video with a certain homemade aesthetic. Beakus and the team at Trunk began pulling apart musical electronica to obtain diodes, sparks and bulbs that would come together to form mutant circuit-board characters who awake in Psapp's studio after dark – [...]
This animated sequence formed part of the fantastic 'Mrs de Ropp', a fiction drama by Sam Hobkinson based on the writings of Saki. Sredni Vashtar is a ferret who is imagined to become fierce and kingly by a little boy who seeks vengeance on his overbearing Aunt de Ropp… Dark and shadowy cut-out animation was [...]
Modern folk doesn't come much heartier than London's 'Adem'. This video was a collaboration between Beakus' Steve Smith, Trunk and designer Lynn Hatzius, who created the amazing artwork for the album and the mechanical birds seen here. Combining ghostly live-action of Adem in his 4-roomed crumbling abode and 2D cut-out animation of the tiny birds [...]
Exploding from Domino's stables in 2004 came Archie Bronson Outfit, with a mix of guitar drudgery and belted lyrics. Beakus director Steve Smith and Trunk worked hard to realise a complicated video involving a shoot with instantaneous back-projection and a hefty arsenal of animated and composited effects. The result shimmers with detail and light – [...]
Beakus director Steve Smith was fortunate enough to join the Trunk team in creating the Magic Numbers' first video, which shot them to chart success. "Forever Lost" is an ode to doomed relationships, which is translated through the video in to a story of missed opportunity, and the stupidity of being overlooked. First onboard was [...]
Leigh Hodgkinson's title sequence to a new series hosted by Hardeep Singh Kohli, where the comedian investigates British culture.
Director: Leigh Hodgkinson
Producer: Maria Manton for Slinky
Commission: Tiger Aspect for Channel 4
Commissioned by Cbeebies, Leo Bridle created the opening titles for a new show 'Green Baloon Club'. So impressed were his clients that they enrolled Leo to make 10 3-minute stand-alone sequences for the show, 'Skipper'.
Director: Leo Bridle
Commission: Cbeebies
CBBC Newsround commissioned a small number of animation directors to create bespoke 3-minute sequences to illustrate the stories of several children living below the poverty line in the UK. Littlebeak directors Leigh Hodgkinson (through Slinky) and Steve Smith (through Trunk) both created work for the programme, which went on to win a BAFTA. Below is [...]
Made in just 2 weeks at the Royal College of Art, we thought this is worth a look for it's inventive technique whereby facial animation is added to a live-action figure. The clip is based on an interview provided by the Imperial War Museum, London, in which Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein remembers her first encounter [...]
A fascinating insight in to the techniques involved with creating 'Train Of Thought', Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas's latest film, made entirely in paper…
Director: Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas
Commission: Arts University College Bournemouth
Music: Portico Quartet
Starring: Napoleon Ryan & Marie Thomas Galvin
