After having been very busy with Post Panic’s Kickstarter project Sundays., director Mischa Rozema is surfacing again with this new short film, Stardust. Just like feature film project Sundays. it poses questions about our relation to the universe. The visual CG orgy, shows the story of Voyager 1, the unmanned spacecraft launched in 1977 to explore the outer solar system – it is the furthest man-made object from the sun. The film’s story centers on the idea that in the grand scheme of the universe, nothing is ever wasted and it finds comfort in us all essentially being Stardust ourselves. The short film was triggered by the death of Dutch graphic designer Arjan Groot, who died 16th July 2011, aged 39, from cancer. Rozema about the project: “I wanted to show the universe as a beautiful but also destructive place. It’s somewhere we all have to find our place within.” By creating a generated universe, Rozema wanted to take his own ‘camera’ to other angles and places within the cosmos, trying to avoid the clichés of the existing NASA and sci-fi imagery we’re used to. The matching audio, using analogue instruments and featuring “Helio” by Ruben Samama, was done by Guy Amitai (Pivot Audio).

Fashion and (conceptual) advertising usually don’t make a very good match – maybe it’s because fashion makers want to be excentric and enigmatic, rather than intelligible. You might say the same about this film. However, it’s quite beautiful and does make you curious what Iris van Herpen’s new collection ‘Voltage’ will look like. Especially when you know that this 3D animation was inspired by her new collection. It was directed by Geoffrey Lillemon, the 3D shapes were created by Joost Korngold, it was produced by Random Studio, and the sound was done by Breek.

This fall, record label Luaka Bop released “Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia.” To give Maia’s first international album release – to commemorate what would have been the Brazilian legend’s 70th birthday – some extra attention, SuperHeroes and illustration/design rep Shop Around created this wonderful animated biography. If you don’t know Tim Maia, don’t worry. According to the press release “Tim Maia might well be the greatest (and craziest) soul singer you never heard of.” The press release continuous: “Infamous in Brazil, Tim Maia was a soul grenade that exploded in the 1970’s. He single handedly revolutionized Brazilian popular music and had the best time ever doing it.” The distinctive voice-over is by Devendra Banhart. When we asked Gareth Broadbent, copywriter at Super Heroes, why Devendra, he answered: “He’s been my favourite South American artist for years. He is a Venezuelan folk singer who has curated festivals like All Tomorrow’s Parties. When we asked him, it turned out that Devendra was only too happy to help as Tim was one of his heroes and he also really ‘dug’ the animation we had made.” The idea was conceived by Eric Welles-Nyström (working at Luaka Bop), the animation was done by Fred Huergo, Zoltan Korai, and David Schagerström, and the sound by Sander Houtman. What a great production.

Another very nice animation by Part of a Bigger Plan (PoaBP) for Louis Vuitton; Mon Monogram (‘my monogram’). To celebrate LV’s 100^th birthday, the luxury brand introduces a temporary personalisation service for its small leather goods. You can choose between 17 colours, different ‘ribbons’, and your own initials. The film was animated by Jos Wabeke and Gary Berendsen, post produced by Glassworks, and the song is ‘Lost in shuffle’ by Shawn Lee. PoaBP already created a few other commercials for Louis Vuitton. The one before this one, Louis Vuitton 1, was recently awarded with a Dutch Design award.

Nice animation, changing the famous Amsterdam canal houses into A’s and promoting the Amsterdam Film Week that will be held in Amsterdam from 5 till 11 November. Created by Ferry van Zijderveld and Bob Mayata. Sound design by Sizzer.

We don’t really know what Lowdi is. At least, not after having seen this teaser. According to the website “He’s small and easy going – light hearted but very social. He’s good on the phone and a massive music fan” Lowdi is a handy portable speaker and if we may judge it by this film, quite a cool one. The product is developed and brought to market by trendblogger Nalden, digital agency Momkai, and ‘innnovation studio’ Present Plus. The film was created by Nalden and Momkai, the animation by Paris based CRCR, and the swaggery sound (“a crossover between Mr. Oizo’s latest album and Phoenix”) by Audentity.

Yet another beaut of a film for a well known fashion house by Part of a Bigger Plan. This time for Dior. The fact that flowers always played an important role in Christian Dior’s life inspired the other Christian, Borstlap, and Simon Philipson to create this ‘impressionist’ film for Miss Dior, Le Parfum. Post production was done by Glassworks.

What a beaut of an online film for Interpolis. Very crafty, combining stop-motion and 3D animation. By shooting it in a 360 degrees caroussel the film ends where it has started. And the zoom out shot at the end makes things so transparent that the pay off ‘Interpolis Crystal Clear’ stands out even more – the message in itself is already quite crystal. Created by FHV/BBDO, directed by Raphael Bartels, and produced and animated by Woodwork. Hats off.

Sony Playstation introduces a new Harry-Potter-like game, “Book of Spells,” that turns your (motion) controller into a Magic Wand. This commercial – created by 180 Amsterdam – enlarges the qualities of the wand by giving it powers beyond the game – turning you into a rat and a cat into a huge chunk of cheese. Not the fattest concept we’ve ever seen, but the weirdness of it definitely carries a certain appeal. Directed by Jeff Low (Biscuit Filmworks), and 3D animation by Glassworks Amsterdam.

The Swedish based animation-production company Hobby Animation asked us to promote their animation contest ‘Free the Swedish king’. And since we like to ignite creativity, we will. In collaboration with the Swedish Republican Association Hobby Animation is asking creatives from all over the world to write a script for an animation (about 10 to 60 seconds) that explains why Sweden doesn’t need a monarchy. The winning script will be produced by Hobby Animation and released on the Swedish news site Nyheter 24. The deadline is February 29th. Further submission specs: here.