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20 Feb ' 12:53
Sherlock Holmes (2) A game of shadows - credit sequence by Prologue perso / february 20th / 9.16 PM / from St Cannat near Aix en Provence
I was impatient to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie by Guy Ritchie, and even if the movie is great, I was impatient it ends to see the new sequence done by Prologue ;) And I was not desepointed... I contact Danny Yount as soon as I can, who kindly answer question about the first 2009 sequence and send me these amazing research phase images with his answers...
The sequence you did for the first Sherlock Holmes movie had a lot of "succes" for itself. On youtube, you can found tutorial to do animation in the Sherlock way... Even myself, as a designer, I get some clients briefs than can be summerized as "we want to Sherlock Holmes effects" ;) On your side, I also see a Vicks commercial for which the brief must have been the same... Knowing that, how did you start to work on the second movie ? Do you share what U2 feel after recording Achtung baby ;) ?Well, actually I started by doing things that were in the opposite direction - I came up with an idea Ilya Abulhanov worked with me on that involved a 3d chessboard connected to cables and all of these moving boxes that opened up and released all kind of objects from Holme's study - notes, pill bottles, books etc. VFX Supervisor Jose Ortiz and his team made an excellent motion test to prove the concept.
All the producers and the director loved it, but in the last hour they decided to do the same kind of thing again. It was sad at first but once we got going we were able to find ways to overcome repeating ourselves completely. I thought it would be good to have everything painted on this time and to make better use of 3d space. We were also to add more detail to the illustrations and render everything more like real paper.
Have you some behind the scene images to share ?
Here they come
Does the movie team, or Guy Ritchie himself, gave you a biref this time or follow you seeing what you have done on the first movie ?
When they decided to do the same kind of things as last, they gave us a brief of making everything look like the magazine TheStrand - a very popular mag that was read by everyone around the turn of the century. It was probably the Vanity Fair or Interview Magazine of the day. I asked one of our producers Kate Berry to find the earliest copy of the original Holmes stories she could find. Luckily, she was able to find an old Memoirs Of Sherlock Homes from @1900 that was in great shape, so we ended up using a lot of that for the page designs.
Does the team was the same as on the first movie ? Please present us who work on this sequence.
Yes, Alasdair Willson (the original animator) and Lisa Bolan, who was involved in the first concept development process. But Daniel Kim and Jeiko Jongyoon Soh (super talented designer / animators who did a lot of Ironman 2 vfx) were responsible for making all the work look amazing in motion. And Gary Mau who made the main title at the front of the film look great.
This new sequence is more black and white... But the illustration are even more detailed... Can you talk more about this ?
Lisa Bolan made these awesome Illustrations that looked like real etchings and Ke Cao joined in and made many of them as well, including the nice studio logos at the front of the film. The first round by Lisa was more painterly - which were great but in the end we ended up doing more of an etched look, which was a more evolved version of what Chris Sanchez and I pitched on the first film. Lisa and Ke pulled it off beautifully those and had to work around the clock for the 2 short weeks of production to make it al happen. It was a tough assignment for them as many shots were pulled out of the cut sometimes after they would finish them. It was like losing limbs at times but they handled it like pros.
Thanks again for your inspiration prologue.com 
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18 Feb ' 06:46
Studio visit : Poa Plume in Bordeaux ! perso / february 18th / 11.09 AM/from Cap d'Agde near Sète / Nick Drake Three Hours
The Studio Poa Plume is french design company from Bordeaux. I follow them for, I have to admit, more than 10 years ! They will celebrate their 20th anniversay so, it is a long story... I love visiting studio, sharing experience and creative feeling with other designers... And when it is very nice guys (and girls) like this, time is too short...
Their studio is amazing, it is an old factory with its vintage walls and industrial lights. Seeing they are "only" 6 to work in it, they have enough space to put some nice old videos games and even a letterpress printer that sadly, can't print ! But it is a nice decoration object !
We also share the same passion for old commercial from early 1900's books. And the studio, even with big clients and budgets, always communicate with humour... an exemple... a small card which said "Found me a good design agency in the next 2 seconds or you are fired... Easy, do you know Poa Plume ?"... Better than "Our design team can found the best solution for your communication", no ? If I was a client, choice would be easy !
The big project of the team for the past years is the books of August Derrière. I already present the first book here, and the second one came out last year. It is really hard to understand the jokes from non french speaking readers, but only the design worth it... For this second edition, they even design and sell postcards and posters... An exellent exemple of designers who found a good way to have fun (and money seeing the numer of copies sold !) with their self initated projects.
This video sum up the spirit of the books...
Les fourmis n'aiment pas le flamenco - Picrate...par AugusteDerriereThanks you guy for this nice moment and the good restaurant after ;) 
You can found all the Auguste Derrière items on the dedicated online shop / www.augustederriere.com / www.poaplume.com
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15 Feb ' 16:53
Liverpool english pub by Reynolds and Reyner identity / february 15th / 11:49 PM / An hôtel in Bordeaux / Late Night Tales: The Cinematic Orchestra
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14 Feb ' 15:08
Honey Pie Livingphoto / february 14th / 11:48 PM / An hôtel in Toulouse / Late Night Tales: The Cinematic OrchestraHannah Lemholt photography fascinate me... We are in contact for years, having the same admiration for each other work... I am so pleased she took the letterpress calendar, it is nice to see it through someone else eye ! I like her latest objects pictures too...
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13 Feb ' 17:05
Happy Centropackaging/ february 13th / 10:19 PM / from Grabels - Near Montpellier / Hans Zimmer Inception soundtrack
www.happycentro.it -
12 Feb ' 16:07
Quick links / february 12th / 11:11 PM / from Grabels - Near Montpellier / Kezhia Jones
Time to publish varied links...
- I really like losing myself into Pinterest lately, specially the ones of Eric Kass and Frida Ramstedt. - nice items for designers : stellavie lettering artworks / Sango design grafik / Thumb tackpress / luxeplates for iphones - the Copper vision identity is very inspiring - the red list is a kind of visual virtual musem - Grain & Gram get a new interview with Jason Gregory, the man behind Makr studio - Sub88 propose usuful minimal calendar for your istuffs for free - Great article about motion design (in french but some videos are in english) on artskills.net - Check ampvisual blog for behind the scene story of the making of U2 "Achtung baby" sleeve done 20 years ago ! - 2 nices videos : Holstee famous "This is your life" video version + Realtree / The making of a tradition- I use cargo to design wedding gallery for Vincent Rustuel photograph (check more about my work for him on my flickr)
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10 Feb ' 05:17
Wood and grain wedding invitation print / february 10th / 9:47 AM / from La pensée Sauvage center - Drôme
Back in Drôme area, there is a lot of snow and it is very cold here, -10°C when we wake up this morning. But snow is magical... Anyway, something wired happen these past days... I like to share positive things with you, but also to share the bad things ;) Remember we put all our stuff in a rental box to travel ? It is very cold in France right now, and a water pipe froze and broken and water flow everything ! I have lost a lot of things and lose time to with insurance, etc...
Anyway, next week I will visit friends and design studio I always want to visit. I will be in Toulouse on Wednesday and in Bordeaux on Thursday... So if you have ideas of shops, and stuff to see for a designer like me, please share them with me at fabienbarral(a)yahoo.fr
Wood and Grain is a creative couple that just get married and do this so nice invitation... enjoy...
All the details on this project / Check their so inspiring blog at woodandgrain.com
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07 Feb ' 04:45
Jonas Eriksson graphic / february 7th / 10:57 AM / From Grabels - Near Montpellier / Hans Zimmer Inception soundtrack
There is a striking contrast between the modern tools we have today (iPad, iPhone, photoshop, numeric printing) and the fact that we all want a vintage look of things. We see it in identity (several of the latest post in the identity section are very vintage look), in print (letterpress of course) but also in photos...
I do it myself so much, using my iphone all the time to shoot things and want them to look like the polaroids I have of my brother and I when we werre young... I guess some people develop about this more than I do, so if you have books, or blog post about this, I will be happy to read them, email me links at fabienbarral(a)yahoo.fr
The work of Jonas Eriksson for his iPad app is the perfect exemple of this :
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06 Feb ' 05:30
Deep Festival by Puchu graphic / february 6th / 10:11 AM / From Grabels - Near Montpellier / Hans Zimmer Inception soundtrack
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03 Feb ' 05:23
The letterpress calendar : october / november / december & last days !! perso / february 3td / 10.15 AM/from Fontvieille near Arles / Aaron
The sell of the calendar will be closed soon... I need to sell the last copy in the coming days, to be able to hit the road after. I propose you to use the coupon itsabeautifulday to get a reduction of 6€.
The marek printer is repeared, and the coasters will be ready soon and posted to related orders. I am pretty sure I won't do a calendar next year. I am very pleased with the 2011 and 2012 edition, and I do not want to to repeat myself too much... Of course I have other ideas in mind ;)
Here comes details on the last 3 months.October... based on ink and painting elements done by Frédérique, my wife. I use her paitings in a lot my projects, and she need to be there ;) Also, I want to do a tribute to Steve Jobs this year, so "Stay Hungry, stay foolish".
November... based on botanic drawings 
December... based on architecture romans drawings.
These are the last days to get your calendar, use the coupon itsabeautifulday to get a reduction of 6€. Wei Sunpackaging/ february 3td / 9:58 AM / from Fontvielle - near Arles / Aaron
Wei Sun is just a student for now, but or portfolio and specially the packaging section show a real talent... 
www.iamweisun.com / via the dieline
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