There’s nothing quite like getting something physical after designing it digitally. Particularly when that thing is a 350 GSM matte celloglazed business card. mmmmm thick.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sixty40’s BMX London Olympics animation (introducing this sport as an inclusion for the first time) has just been announced as a finalist in the ASTRA Industry Excellence Awards. This humorous Infographic joins our other series of Foxtel Olympic animations that are circulating the awards scene with our 2010 Winter Olympics spots winning 3 x International Silver Promaxes.

In this case, you won’t learn about Olympic Game mythology or gain an insight into the Greek tradition of athletic nudity – but you will come away with 50 seconds worth of dazzling facts about the hardcore tendencies of BMX riding. Character animation in After Effects really brought this spot to life and was accompanied by Gus Worland (Triple M Breakfast Announcer), who naturally makes our script sound super exhilarating. We worked closely with Contently in producing this series and have Foxtel to thank for being XTREMELY supportive of our creative vision. Here’s to bringing home gold!

If you haven’t already, check out our most recent Foxtel Olympic animations here.

“2006: Some great memories there. A year of great characters combined with some sweet motion. Shame about how few pixels there were back then. People obviously had more time to watch reels then.”

“2007: Nice to see a reel adding new classics and clients as we develop. But wow, some of those jobs bring back some great moments of creativity and pressure combined in beautiful harmony. Great song too.”

“2008: Getting classier now, more 3D and design coming in. Amazing lyrics in that song that always made us a bit teary in meetings.”

“2009: What an intro! Using one of our puppets involved in a brain breaking karaoke scene might have been a pretty big call in retrospect. But when you’ve got rad work, you can break all the rules.”

“2010: Another great song. A solid remix. Here we’re separating our work up to try to let people focus on different parts of what we do. That stop motion stuff brings back some memories in the studio during summer. Hot!”

“2011: More finesse here. Some higher budget 3d work shining through. But great to see the humour coming through. Love to see how edits effect the feeling.”

“2012: More great music. By shaving it down to 1:32, we’re clearly trying to respect that people are highly prone these days to switch channels on their internets. Keep it fast and punchy folks. Inspire and get people to pick up the email.”

As the personal sensitive vision of graphic novels continue to become more prominent in the comics market like a billowing emo storm, in a stark contrast Chad Essley’s new graphic novel documents the strange life and times of a public figure trying to disappear (albeit in a very public fashion). Essley’s new work, The Hinterland, documents his relationship with John McAfee (McAfee Antivirus) as he tries to go underground in an attempt to hide from authorities in Belize. Overnight, Chad Essley’s job title for McAfee (McAfee Antivirus) shifted from Illustrator to Webmaster and Primary Public Liaison, closely documenting the suspect’s scurry from the law. He writes, “I’ve been busy! Life has many twists and turns.” Indeed it does Chad.

Sixty40’s Matt Taylor elaborates: It has been an amazing ride following John McAfee’s adventures, from reclusive antivirus software mogul to alleged murderer with a compound and private army in South America. A graphic novel is the only logical conclusion to this saga and no doubt safer than having Vice magazine trail after you. This sounds like an amazing and personal insight into a man whose life is stranger than fiction, and needs images to fully realise the weirdness.

The McAfee story joins the ranks of other acclaimed graphic novels, recently released about very different people whose stories are also nothing short of incredible. My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (about the teenage tribulations of serial killer, Jeffery Dahmer) and Annie Sullivan and The Trials of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert (about Helen Keller’s tutor) came out last year. Unlike most autobio comics, which tend to be sad and lonely stories written by sad and lonely cartoonists, these all bust out into some bold new territory.

How all of these stories benefit from the graphic novel format is by the actions of giving these insane stories a face, a setting and through their hand-drawn nature, a personality. It’s interesting that none of the stories are drawn in a slick, highly styled way, but the simplicity and earnestness of their line work helps you assess these people who are labeled freaks, monsters or villains as just people; their actions are drawn out before you and you can be the judge rather than being steered in a direction by the prose of an author.

Of course, choice of art style sets a tone for a story, but I find that with all three of these stories the simplicity of style grounds them and lets you feel what it’s like to be that person or know them, rather than just sit back in the bleachers removed and gob smacked. The fact that these are all indie graphic novels, with a lower level expectation than if to say this was a feature with Brad Pitt signed to star as John McAfee, gives them the freedom to be less sensationalistic and explore the issues in a raw honest way, much like the style they are all drawn in.

This is also an exciting crazy first for comics in general. We’ll be watching this story unfold.

Here’s a photo of our Creative Directors Mark and Matt. Thumbs up for enthusiasm. Let it be great.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NuBees forms part of a series of near future robot films directed by Mark Simpson. They form part of Sixty40′s independent development efforts, designed to explore techniques and expand our story telling repertoire. This Spring (their Autumn), the Centre for the Promotion of Science in Belgrade, Serbia is hosting their Days of Future: Days of Robotics Festival; an event where students, citizens, academia and industry will come together to debate, ponder, explore and embrace the prospects hi-technology is offering global civilization. This amazing-sounding festival will be projecting NuBees along with the Music Video we created for Africa Hitech’s “Out In The Street” centrally throughout. Can’t get to Belgrade? Check out Nubees here and, if you haven’t seen it already check out Out In The Street here. Robot Dystopia ho!

There’s only one thing to do before four days of PauseFest; gather twenty-five upstanding individuals and confine them within the vicinities of a Spanish restaurant. Lather on some wine, freshly made Paella and invite a photographer too. PauseFeast was born. Mark Simpson and Matt Taylor joined the international likes of Jason White from Leviathan, Jeremy Boxer from Vimeo, Rick Chen from Pozible and many more as topics were discussed, ranging from the state of the art to the state of the future of art.

PauseFest’s mantra is to ‘bring together the world’s best and brightest leaders in the digital industries’. And exactly that was done, only this time to savour a moment before all would brace the stage to speak about this years theme: future. On the day, speakers engaged themselves in fostering the bond between young talent and the commercial industry, redefining our digital perceptions. Speakers included Psyop, Hyper Island, Shock Records, XYZ and The Marmalade, all of whom brought their own cutting edge developments to Melbourne to appear on the PauseStage with Mark. If you missed out, check out the details here.

Want to know more about what we discovered about the future? Don’t hesitate to call.