MOMOCO

On tuesday 21st of march i took a visit to london and was fortunate enough to attend a studio visit to MOMOCO is an EMMY and BAFTA winning creative studio. The firm has produced film design, branding, commercials and animation for 16 years. Well known, world-wide for its main title sequences, Momoco has collaborated with directors such as Richard Curtis, Ridley Scott, Lasse Halstrom, Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman.They are a small studio with big, cinematic vision and LOVE the conceptual process, the storytelling and the execution - all delivered on schedule to budget. The team is led by Creative Director and Producer NIC BENNS with Design Director MIKI KATO.


Upon entering the studio i was shocked to see how small it was with only four designers working there especially with regards to the quality of work the produce and the amount of work they produce. I met with Nic Benns who is the creative team leader and director and producer of the company and he show me some of the work they have produced and some of the work they were currently working on and spoke me through the process and approaches to the projects.


He explained that they use mainly Cinema 4D to create their work which i thought was interesting as this is the programme i have become most familiar with myself. They do also use aftereffects and live footage to create a lot of their pieces and it depends on what the specific project requires with regards to how they would make it however cinema 4D seems to me used a lot.

He mentioned that for cinema 4D they also use the plugins Real Flow and X-particles to create the work.

RealFlow Cinema 4D gives you the best in fluid simulation, directly inside Cinema 4D. So you can achieve high-end simulations with an even easier workflow and doesn't take as long to see what you are creating in cinema 4d which can be an issue when using lots of various deformers or simulations in the programme. http://www.realflow.com/realflow_cinema4d/
x particles is a robust particle system for Cinema 4D that is made for designers. Unlike other particle systems for Cinema 4D, X-Particles doesn’t require that you know Xpresso or know any complicated programming. Like Cinema 4D itself, X-Particles is a particle system that does a lot, but makes it easy and fun to play with and make beautiful effects.
In the same way Mograph revolutionized animation in Cinema 4D, X-Particles does the same for particle systems. In fact, if you are familiar with Mograph, you will be right at home in X-Particles. But now, you aren’t limited by how many objects you have on screen. Animate and control MILLIONS of objects with X-Particles.https://greyscalegorilla.com/downloads/x-particles/

Nic also told me that when they come to rendering out their finished pieces of work that they sometimes use a render farm which is somthing i was interested to hear about as i had not heard of render farms before. A render farm is a high performance computer system, e.g. a computer cluster, built to render computer-generated imagery(CGI), typically for film and television visual effects. And they just send the file off to the render farm and request when they need it finished for with the price varying depending on how soon it needs to be ready for.

He explained that they often work on more than one project and could spend as little as 2 weeks to produce a piece for a client after the initial pitching and planning development of the idea which is very inspiring and shocking considering especially the size of the studio and number of people working on the projects. He did mention that they have a circle of freelancers that they often bring in if they require more help with certain projects.


He also mentioned they they create their own storyboards to pitch ideas to their clients and often spend about a week doing this which again is a short amount of time. He showed us that he uses a 3D programme to make the storybook using wire frame figure to map out where things will be for each scene to give a detailed and easy to understand picture of how the piece will look. I also found it interesting that he mentioned that although they are a very recogised and established company and have made title sequences and movie intros for popular pieces such as hannibal the series and the intro to paddington bear the movie, that they still have to pitch to clients and that the competition is still very high.


He explained that they are soon to be opening a studio in LA as well as the one they currently have in london in order to work more with american clients as it is more efficient for clients to be able to work with local companies in order to have face to face meet ups to discuss the projects they are working on. And so this would be more beneficial for their american clients, this seems like it is a good evoloution for Momoco as well as they do title sequences and intros for american tv and movie producers.


MISFITS Titles from MOMOCO Film Titles on Vimeo.



He also explained that when they are working with a client they are often give some scripts or sequences of the programme or film and information about the content within it to then start coming up with ideas on how to portray the personality and nature of these in their work. Which is why especially with their title sequences they are so incredible as they are an artistic montage of the programme or film itself giving the audience a taste of what is to come. and their approach to this is very good.


I noticed when looking at their work that there seems to be a kind of unique style present in their work although each of their pieces seems to vary somewhat depending on the nature of the programme or film they are making the piece for. It seems to be a sci fi, grunge slightly punk themed style that i really love and has some similarity to that of my style that i have started to broadly develop across the years of making work whilst studying, with the pain markings and particles i often use.


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HANNIBAL Titles from MOMOCO Film Titles on Vimeo.

Nic also give me his email to contact him on in which i messaged him thanking him for allowing me to come and visit and he said i could send him any future questions i have which i thought was very kind considering how busy they are. And overall i thought that the trip here was very inspirational and a very rewarding insight into this side of the industry and this kind of work they are producing is something i would be very interested in pursuing myself.