Ant Man & The Wasp - Quantumania

While freelancing at Territory Studio I had the honour of being brought in on the team to work on Marvel’s latest Ant Man movie. For over 3 months this involved designing and animating a series of holographic interfaces to be part of ‘The Quantum Realm’.

Working on a Hollywood movie meant having an efficiently streamlined workflow, often involving jumping across screens and shots whilst communicating effectively with other artists across the globe. You can read more about the team’s work over at Territory’s website.

A selection of the shots I worked on are shown below: 

Pulsebeat of Manchester

While at The Panics I directed this unique collaboration between Adidas, Manchester Utd, and legendary designer Peter Saville. Peter talks about his methodology behind his reworking of Joy Division’s iconic Unknown Pleasures album cover into a new strip for MUFC, bringing together the worlds of football, music and design.

Taking the electromagnetic waves of the original sleeve cover, I use the ‘pulsebeat’ as a central motif. It weaves and buzzes through Manchester’s streets, evoking the excitement of a Haçienda-like rave to the thrill and atmosphere of Old Trafford on match day.

The decision to create a semi-abstract world of silhouettes and black & white imagery came very naturally from the campaign imagery, featuring some of MUFC’s footballing stars.

Featured on Motionographer and Stash Magazine.

Executive Producer: Ania Markham
Post Producer: Lotte Hoeksema
Director: Kim Taylor

3D Artists:
Charleton Mercelina
Guido Ekker

Motion Graphics Artists:
Kim Taylor
Doma Harkai
Erwin van den IJssel

Audio: Factory Studios
Sound designer: Dan Beckwith
Music: WH Lung “Somebody like”

Production Company: The Panics
Agency: Homeground

The cadets of inner-space

Working at The Panics I was asked to direct this medical video aimed at informing kids suffering from a certain chronic illness about a new course of treatment that would span several years. Such a prospect would have likely life-changing effects, so I aimed to soften such a foreboding subject matter by creating a positive, space themed video with the young ‘cadets’ taking on a mission towards their eventual recovery.
 
Production Company: The Panics

The video, filled with action packed sequences as well as other more humorous excerpts aims to provide an engaging and reassuring way to educate the kids about the experience they were considering embarking on.
 

The silver haired heroine represents the patient watching the video. Along the way the viewer is informed about the medical information and procedures by way of a friendly talking robot, which breaks down the medical processes that will occur.

I underwent an extensive character design process, working with designers and animators to create an approachable and likable hero that would appeal to kids across a wide age range. We wanted her to be to be fun, and a little bit cool while and avoiding patronising the kids with something dumbed down and overly childish.

The robot character was created to tackle a lengthy block of rather dry information relating to the medical treatment. Set in a scientific lab, it talks through with the aid of motion-graphics diagrams what can be expected in the treatment. Adding a bit of personality and character to these sections sought to make the retention of dull yet crucial information a lot easier.
 

Enter the lab

Forget lab-grown meat, what happens when we start lab-growing our own mutant cyborg children to do our bidding? 

Nominated for SXSW 2020 Best in Title Design, this title sequence brings to life a phantasmagoria of genetic experimentation gone nasty. Spinning a cinematic tale in a short, sharp slice of biological horror it asks: What twisted horrors is mankind capable of creating once he learns to manipulate nature to his depraved will? 

The titles set the scene for the bi-annual Amsterdam event Panic Room, featuring talks from inspirational creatives spanning multiple fields. This special 18th edition also coincides with the rebirth of The Panics as a company, formerly known as PostPanic.

Direction and concept: Kim Taylor
Produced by: House of Panic
Audio Production: Amp.
Amsterdam Score and Sound Design: Bertus Pelser
Producer: Liene Berina
Rendering and Compositing: Kim Taylor
Character Design & Sculpting: Karolis Jurkstaitis
Additional modelling: Joppe Vos, Bahram Hosseinpour, Kévin Reynes

A bigger splash

I directed this short clip for Adidas and their new Ultraboost Tie-Dye edition. The client wanted a vivid, paint themed master animation that would work at multiple sizes and formats across the campaign.

The project was a fun excuse to get messy with paints - I created a number of real paint streaks and digitised them to add some real texture to the visuals!

This is your brain on social media...

Personal animation 2017. Sound by Redhorse Studio.

The Squeeze

A short intro for the Disney Channel show 'The Squeeze', set in London.
This project involved a lot of development to explore appropriate logos and treatments. Below are some of the evolutions:

Royal Salute

I directed this promotional video for Royal Salute Whiskey. In collaboration with an illustrator we aimed to create a feeling of opulence and elegance, playing on the brand’s royal heritage in a playful and whimsical way.

Production Company: The Panics

Designing a synth-pop UI

A little montage of my work for the multi-talented synth wizard Michael Lovett of NZCA LINES. His self-directed video for 'New Atmosphere' is a vision of a distant future interstellar fantasy.

The work involved designing futuristic GUI design and animation, also designing and compositing a futuristic cityscape.

Michael is also a dude for letting me borrow his vintage synthesizer.

London 1889

I created a 360°, 4K resolution animated scene of an atmospheric victorian street as part as a VR experience for ABC

This was one of the more challenging and ambitious projects I've been part of. Firstly, involving extensive research of period architecture and features, and then on a technical level creating a scene in 360. The majority of the scene was modelled in Cinema 4D and rendered using Arnold Render. St Paul's Cathedral and the far distance was achieved via matte painting, comped in After Effects. Please note I didn't make the time machine.

This video below gives a little behind the scenes taster of the process. 

Created while at Pebble Studios

Try the interactive 360° Experience below

Psychedelic flora

As dusk falls, a garden transforms into a pounding, phosphorescent rave filled with darkly psychedelic flora and fungi.

Visuals and Music - Kim Taylor
Listen to the full track here 

Featured:
The Creators Project
Vimeo Staff Picks

Visualising a cosmic opera

Whilst working at Territory Studio I worked on this project for an opera production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande opera at Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium. The work involved creating on-stage projections of deep space, planets, starfields and universes exploding.

Working under direction from artist Marco Brambilla, I designed several of the compositions. The concept was created using original NASA footage from the Hubble Space Telescope into a series of compositions that were projected on a floating 7m diameter disc.

Stormy Skies

Music video for the wonderful Wyles & Simpson. Client: MTA Records. Direction, VFX and edit by me.

Directed by Kim Taylor
Produced by COMPULSORY.
Exec Producer: Chris Toumazou
Exec Producer: Kiran Mandla
Head of Production: Kadri Mahmoud
Assistant Producer: Hannah Shipley
Director of Photography: Robert White
Focus Puller: Emilio Schlappi
DIT/Clapper: Graeme Watt
Gaffer: Dan Goodall
Art Director: Juno Calypso
Hair/Make-up: Ellia White
Costume: Ruka Johnson

Editor & VFX: Kim Taylor
Colourist: Julien Biard @ FINISH // finish.tv

Commissioner: Sophie Hall
Label: MTA Records
Rep: Kim Jarrett @ OB Management