H2Oil - Alberta Oil Sands Industry

The Canadian animation company La Moustache has created these 3 animated sequences for the new documentary H2oil. The documentary, produced by Loaded pictures exposes the Alberta Oil sands industry was made entirely under AfterEffects. Art Direction and animation by Dale Hayward and Sylvie Trouvˆ©. Illustrations by James Braithwaite. Narrated by Catherine Kidd.

Extracting bitumen from tar sands (Oil sands) is a very high energy intensive process, requiring industrial scale heating (using natural gas) and 4 barrels of fresh water to produce one barrel of oil. So clean water resources shrink very quickly, along with the burning of natural gas to create another carbon emitting fuel, and it goes on. For more details about this environmental disaster, check out the animation.

For a fairly neutral overview of tar-sand mining check this link.

A literal ocean of plastic bags...

Another great animated short from the folks at Free Range Studios to promote the anti-plastic bag campaign of Save The Bay...

Mascots Strike Back

The Anti Advertising Agency provided the dialog used in this new video as a Creative Commons licensed download four years ago...


Product Placement from Matti Niinimˆ§ki on Vimeo.

New York Comes Alive

A sweet little live-action animated film using actual interviews of New Yorkers...


The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

Thanks Carlos!

Fine Under: Not All Advertising Sucks

Even though I'm generally disgusted by the increasing intrusion of large scale commercial advertising onto every imaginable surface, I was pleasently surprised on my brief trip to Washington DC yesterday to discover some in the tunnels between the stations that was actually quite delightful. A series of lighted stills move by at just the right pace to create a short animation. The ghostly images appear with no warning and are rather eerie in their silence (perhaps not the best effect for every product), but also brought on a childlike sense of glee in seeing the classic zoetrope effect at that scale. I'd love to see what an NGO or artist could do with this medium.

I found this video of it on YouTube, though it's really much more dramatic in person...

Green Christmas

MC Lars wishes you a Green Christmas...



Thanks Mica!

Attention California Voters: NO on 8 & YES on 2

My friend Jess at Roughstock Studios has made a lovely poster to remind California voters to vote NO on the anti-gay marriage Prop 8. Download a printable version on her site HERE.















And The Humane Society with Freerange Studios encourage California voters to vote YES on Prop 2 via this entertaining video...

Beware of 9/11

A recent episode of Current's SuperNews reminds us of what we really have to fear...



Thanks Leah!

The Power of Signatures

Beautiful animation from Amnesty International...



Thanks Diego!

I Met The Walrus

"In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack"

Mapping Organic Brand Ownership

The folks at Skyome.net took the data of Dr. Phil Howard, who has been tracking corporate ownership of organic brands for several years, and consolidated it into a fascinating time lapse animation. Check it out HERE.

Richie Bush

If you haven't read a copy of artist/activist Peter Kuper's depressingly funny parody of a Richie Rich comic book featuring George W. you can watch an animated version HERE.