Comments on: Evil Bee Animation

Evil Bee Animation

jonson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:00:49 -0800

Evil Bee (embedded QT) is a gorgeous & interesting animated short about a worker bee in a factory who rebels; bonus points for awesome soundtrack by menomena.

By: meringue

meringue — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:08:41 -0800

awesome!

By: davebush

davebush — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:16:40 -0800

There's some broccoli in yer candy, eh Seinfeld?

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:23:41 -0800

Here's a direct download link, but given the nonces in it I don't know how long it will last.

By: rooftop secrets

rooftop secrets — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:24:18 -0800

thank you. that was awesome.

By: Bugg

Bugg — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:27:48 -0800

Thanks! Menomena's 'Friend and Foe' is an amazing album BTW. Your favorite artist sucks and all that... but I've got to recommend this one. It's easily one of my favorites in the last few years.

By: King Bee

King Bee — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:28:01 -0800

Wow, that was top notch. Thanks for posting. Menomena is a great band, btw. I've had the opportunity of seeing them live at SXSW (also known as hipster festival USA), and I'm going to get to see them again in a couple of weeks. If anyone's interested, check out the tracks "The Pelican" and "Wet and Rusting" off their record Friend and Foe. You can see them perform the latter if you click on this link.

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:29:47 -0800

There's some broccoli in yer candy, eh Seinfeld? Seinfeld and "Bee Movie" Overload.

By: jonson

jonson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:30:21 -0800

I'd never heard them before this, but I really like this song, so I'll check 'em out.

By: MythMaker

MythMaker — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:33:45 -0800

That was fantastic. Great filmmaking.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:39:44 -0800

Oh man, that was extraordinary! Outstanding.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:52:31 -0800

Unbelievable. Thanks for posting!

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:09:00 -0800

Does it say something about me that I can handle self-aware bees in a factory, but I couldn't grasp it when the bees started working with the birds and lighting up?

By: itchylick

itchylick — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:14:09 -0800

Wow. Very nice indeed.

By: meech

meech — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:23:16 -0800

I'm mostly non-plussed by the animation posted but that was super-duper cool.

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:25:18 -0800

As good as superjail.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:27:04 -0800

Wow, that's gorgeous. I can't quite put my finger on where I've heard that song before, though.

By: sparkletone

sparkletone — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:29:17 -0800

This bee... it grumbles?

By: Muddler

Muddler — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:33:05 -0800

Soylent Honey is Bees? Good song and nice animiation, point of storyline locked in mind of director.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:47:53 -0800

I like that the animation looks different from things I've seen before.

By: Lord_Pall

Lord_Pall — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:03:39 -0800

I felt that they just abandoned their species for frivolous flower sex and light bulbs. I was upset they didn't raise a bee army and crush their treaded bird slave overlords.

By: notmtwain

notmtwain — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:07:32 -0800

Not the same as Menamena, I guess.

By: Phatty Lumpkin

Phatty Lumpkin — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:11:02 -0800

I have no idea what I just watched...and I love it!

By: dansdata

dansdata — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:27:23 -0800

That was the most depressing thing I've watched since that damn Kiwi thing. I envy all of the people who couldn't figure it out.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:18:29 -0800

2nding menomena. saw this on youtube sometime back and thought it was just the video for Evil Bee..? guess not. Wet and Rusting and Evil Bee are really great tracks. for the life of me i cant figure out why they chose 'rotten hell' as the 2nd single from the album, as to me its one of the weaker tracks. Air Aid and My My are two other really standout songs from this album.

By: progosk

progosk — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:21:29 -0800

Director interview. Previous awesome Menomena video: Cough Coughing.

By: Orb2069

Orb2069 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:24:17 -0800

...And here, I thought the ventilator-shaft-escape thing was just a fantasy of the dying bee. (See: Identical red-juice markings on Escape Bee and Dying bee, Escaped bee exploding in delight as Dying bee is shredded, etc...)

By: spacelux

spacelux — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:10:48 -0800

I was highly impressed with the animation on it's own, but when I read how it was made via progosk's link, I had to watch it all over again.

stefan : after i sketched out the storyboard and assembled the animatic, i met with friend and modeler kimi kaplowitz and she developed sculpted and created the bee character, complete with hair and a working abdominal lightbulb. i then took photos of the bee at every conceivable angle and under several different lighting schemes. in photoshop, i'd cut all parts out and then reassemble them in after effects. this allowed me to move it around like a puppet. the backgrounds and machinery were shot the same way. within after effects i created a 3D environment using 2D elements (the bee, walls, floor etc).

By: mrmcsurly

mrmcsurly — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:31:55 -0800

Menomena = Best band name. Ever. Every time I say it out loud, I become 7 years old again.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:59:59 -0800

If you can get your hands on a copy, I recommend The First Menomena Album (I Am The Fun Blame Monster). The flipbook x4 is totally pukka.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 07:44:23 -0800

carsonb, if i (mostly) like the new album, am i going to be into their first album?

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:10:21 -0800

It's always difficult to speculate on those things, joeblough, but if it's any help I loved IAtFBM the first time I listened to it. Two years later, took me a few listens to really enjoy Friend and Foe. I think their work between albums on live art installations, touring, &c. took their already complex sound to another level. You may know this already, but Menomena built their songs on a computer before learning how to play them on guitars, drums, etc. Then they recorded them.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:49:45 -0800

true, true. i guess i'll check out IAtFBM... why not? i think in one of the links above they mentioned how they use a sampler/looper to compose the music. that's pretty awesome, actually. from the finished (recorded) product i would have never guessed.

By: rush

rush — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:59:02 -0800

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?

By: baker dave

baker dave — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:39:19 -0800

nice post joson

By: MythMaker

MythMaker — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 10:50:19 -0800

I agree with orb2069 and rush that it seems obvious that the whole escaping bees thing is just a fantasy of the dying bee. And, also, having read the description of the animation technique, I'm even more impressed. Stefan Nadelman is really pretty impressive with After Effects.