We’ve been working on a show pilot based on the acclaimed novel Erotomania: A Romance by Francis Levy. Check out the trailer here.

Erotomania is about two monogamous sex addicts. James Moran and Monica Cole are animal-like creatures who meet over anonymous sex. Eventually food, art, television, and even the therapy that is supposed to help them all become compulsions. As they develop an awareness of each other and evolve, they’re forced to confront their traumas and addictions.

The New Yorker and New York Times’ Daphne Merkin writes: “Erotomania…is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It offers a hermeneutics of the erotic, by turns shameless, funny, romantic and poignant.”

The Village Voice writes of Francis’ book: “[A] hilariously satirical debut novel. Miller, Lawrence, and Genet stop by like proud ancestors… But it’s a more recent generation of mischievous deviant writers (Nicholson Baker, Mary Gaitskill) that truly looms large — Erotomania’s closest predecessor might be Baker’s The Fermata. [An] ambitious book… [A] biting satire.”

The Los Angeles Times:
“Sex is familiar, but it’s perennial, and Levy makes it fresh.”

Time Out Chicago:
“A high-minded yet slapstick take on erotic desire.”

Bookslut:
“Levy seems to have an eye for detail for all that is absurd, commonly human, and uniquely American.”

Erotomania is currently being produced as an eight-part animated series by Designomotion. Art and hand-drawn animation is prepared in Vietnam, with digital animation done in the United States. Show creators Francis Levy and Joseph Silver attended Columbia University and recently collaborated on the graphic novel version of Francis’ novel The Wormhole Society.

The Wormhole Society, a graphic novel by Francis Levy and Joseph Silver, is now available on Amazon! Based on a book by Francis Levy, this epic 300-page work was produced by Designomotion in Saigon, Vietnam.

Rusty is an East Village reprobate reminiscent of Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov. When he steps into a portal—the sandwich board outside his favorite Mexican restaurant—he discovers a multiverse inhabited by endless iterations of himself. Rusty “worms” himself into varied worlds including King Arthur’s court and even the Big Bang as he struggles whether to seek redemption or sink deeper into his own degradation.

The Wormhole Society puts the American obsession with resurrection and salvation under the microscope. Medical charlatans offer cure-alls for erectile dysfunction and a host of other ailments with plans that produce credit card-style rewards points. Hucksters with biblical stories of revelation and reform populate the twelve-step program to which the novel’s title alludes. The Wormhole Society is a satiric examination of time travel and utopian notions of fantasy and science fiction.

Foreword Reviews writes:
“The book strikes a delicate balance between dark introspection and humor…The art flows thanks to creative page layouts and interesting depictions of a variety of eras…a man has a fantastic romp across the multiverse, hoping to become a better person.”

Booklife, Publishers Weekly observes:
Levy’s script wastes few words, while Silver’s layouts deftly guide the reader’s eye to what matters most in each moment, whether the scene is wrenching, silly, grand, or heartening…Rusty’s world of alleys, fire escapes, filthy apartments, and basement meetings is touchingly desolate, while the fantastical stuff—from Camelot to prehistoric rutting—bursts with energy…”

Available on Amazon in both hardcover and paperback editions.

Here are some recent design frames we worked on for Zachry Construction:

And here are some design frames for a 3D corporate reel opener:

Every once in a while we like to work on a studio art piece, in addition to our commercial motion graphic videos. This week, we present ‘Revenge’, a two-minute, whimsical short. Based on a poem by our Creative Director Joseph Silver, ‘Revenge’ is a collaboration between Designomotion and the talented illustrator, Eva Kao.

Update: Out of 750 films, ‘Revenge’ is a finalist in the Berlin Zebra Poetry Film Festival. It also advances to the semifinals of the Adobe Achievement Awards.

To produce the dream-like world presented in ‘Revenge’, Kao created separately painted gouache on paper layers, which were then scanned and digitally altered under superimposed fragments of hand-lettered words.

Music and sound design was created by Wei-San Hsu.

No animals or vegans were harmed during the rotoscoping process – and all characters are fictional. Except, perhaps, the tiger.

Check out the final spot on our website or YouTube.

We just wrapped a two-minute website video for Vacation.com, a leading leisure travel marketing organization serving almost 5,100 travel agency locations.

For this video, we wrote a script about Sarah, a quintessential travel agent, who sends a host of other characters on journeys throughout the world.

For one of her customers, John, she plans a transcontinental trip, ending in a teahouse on the Hua Shan Mountains of China. Sarah also plans plain vanilla trips for everyone else as well. Below are the Smiths, on their annual holiday cruise.

And here’s Sarah, hard at work for her customers. Vacation.com is a website where travel agents like Sarah can meet and be inspired by other travel agents.

In our two-minute spot, we explore how the Vacation.com website is used by travel agents to belong, inspire, and grow.

Vacation.com also plans live events where travel agents can meet in person…

…helping them grow their business.

Check out the final spot on our website.

Recently we completed a two-minute video for FireEye Managed Defense.

We designed a cyber-criminal that pops up throughout the spot, stealing and wrecking havoc wherever he goes.

The cyber-criminal infiltrates the customer’s defenses, sneaking through backdoors and security breaches…

But FireEye Managed Defense kicks in! If you haven’t heard about FireEye yet, you soon will. They were named Silicon Valley’s hottest security start-up by Forbes in 2012.

The script was written by Adam Hanft  – Adam is also a frequent writer for the Huffington Post.

Check out the final video here on our website, or on FireEye’s YouTube Channel.

Here are a few frames from our live action Kmart commercial:

Our 3D animators built this in C4D with some After Effects Optical Flares and RSMB to sweeten up the composites.

Live action was shot against green screen using a Canon 7D. Our talent, Amy Bursor, was a breeze to work with.

Check out the entire spot here or on our YouTube channel.

Flora Health, a leading manufacturer of premium health products, asked us to create a suite of three web videos for Flora 7 Sources, Flor-Essence Tea, and Floradix Iron + Herbs. Here are some screen grabs from 7 Sources:

The client wanted a video that was both informative and inspirational, one that educated their customers about the benefits of 7 Sources to overall health and the environment. We collaborated with the client on writing the script, designing and animating a spot driven by clean graphics, typography, and a soulful track.

The look-and-feel of the spot conveys the dire consequences to the environment from using heavy metals and PCBs, and from collapsing fish populations.

To date, the 7 Sources video has had 8,000+ hits on YouTube.

Check out the 7 Sources video here on our website, or on Flora’s YouTube channel.

A grab from the second video in the suite, for Flor-Essence Tea:

Check out the Flor-Essence video here on our website, or on Flora’s YouTube channel.

Some grabs from Floradix:

For this third video in the suite, we designed an ‘everywoman’ character, using her to illustrate both the health consequences of iron deficiency, as well as how Floradix fills the gap.

Check out the Floradix video here on our website, or on Flora’s YouTube channel.

Recently, we completed an Explainer Product Video for Emdeon (now Change Healthcare). Here are some snaps:

Our healthcare client wanted to keep it clean and simple, using just typography, graphics, and a catchy tune. Above is the Doctor character, who rolls blithely through the video, encountering and overcoming obstacles in the healthcare industry with the help of Emdeon.

We had a ball – literally – illustrating a cast of characters that would make Edwin Abbott Abbott, author of ‘Flatland’, proud. (By the way, Abbott really is written twice.)

The Patient character checks out his Portal options.

And here, the red cross of the Doctor transforms into the hands of a clock – using the magic of After Effects’ Path tool.

We leave you with a shot of the Doctor and his happy patients. Smile!

Check out the final video here in our Work section, or on our YouTube channel.