Issue: Animation - Sep 26, 2003

EBERLING COLLECTIVE PROVIDES DESIGN WORK FOR MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS

PLAYA DEL REY, CA - Three of the Ebeling Group's (www.theebelinggroup.com) roster directors conceptualized, designed, directed and produced a series of stylized category bumpers for the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA).

Kansas City, MO's MK12, along with the Brazilian collectives Nakd and Lobo created the graphic segments that introduced nominees in the "Best Rap Video," "Best Female Video" and "Best R&B Video" categories, respectively. For this year's VMA Awards, MTV selected 13 different companies to design ins and outs for each of the award categories, giving each design team complete creative freedom with the only restriction being that they used black and white with only one or two accent colors.

MK12's work for "Best Rap Video" centers around a hip-hop-loving British prep-school boy with three arms. The segment was treated with a posterized visual effect. MK12 shot the sequence with a PDX150 and edited it using Apple's Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. The facility also provided original music.

Nakd paid tribute to "Best Female Video" with a seductive segment featuring a slithering woman whose hollowed-out midriff bursts with a flurry of hand-drawn rose petals. Dancing on a pedestal positioned in a CG futuristic landscape, she tugs on a bud peeking out from the gap in her stomach. As she pulls, she releases a stream of flowers and vines until she becomes completely enveloped. The vines swirl around, creating the title, "Best Female Video." Nando Costa and Linn Olofsdotter were designers on the project.

Costa, Marcello Souza and Renato Ferro used Discreet 3DS Max Adobe After Effects to create the sequence which features music by Plastiq Phantom.

Lobo's work for "Best R&B Video" features line-drawn animation of an octopus couple in the throes of passion, their tentacles enveloping each other. The segment culminates in a cloudy squirt of ink, which takes shape, spelling out "Best R&B Video." The sequence was created using After Effects running on a Mac.