Monday 19 December 2011

“I want an APP!”

You want an App? We can give you an App! Here at Assembly Studios, we can produce a version of your website that functions as an App, allowing you to browse your website WITHOUT an active internet connection. A click of a button lets you export your site to iPad / iPhone / other mobile device. Here are some of the questions we get asked:
 
How can it benefit me?
Use your website as a presentation tool without being reliant on an internet connection. Downloading to mobile devices could give you image galleries with touch screen navigation, or geolocational applications to guide your customers right to your front door.
 
How much do they cost?
The cost of producing your App can be a small percentage of your web build cost.
 
What do I put in it?
Whatever you like, with Assembly Studios’ content management system, you can modify the content of your App with the click of a mouse.
 
How do I get me one?
Give us a call 020 7426 2080 or drop us an email on info@assemblystudios.com – we’d love to discuss how it might work for your company.

assemblystudios.com gets festive!


















Our new website has had a Christmas makeover, with each project being carefully translated into a beautiful festive bauble. Check it out - www.assemblystudios.com

Friday 18 November 2011

A Winter's Tale


Here's an animation we produced which was used as a viral Christmas greeting. We really enjoyed working on it and now that Christmas is lurking around the corner it seems like the perfect excuse to get it out again! If you are looking for a creative digital greeting to send out to capture your clients' attention then give us a call - we have many ideas up our sleeve for all budget types and mediums!

Monday 14 November 2011

Two New Areas Join Creative Assembly














We are excited to announce that two new areas will be joining our network of Creative Assembly sites: Somerset and Swindon.

For those of you who are not familiar with Creative Assembly, it is an online tool developed by us, in collaboration with Torbay Council, to connect creative, cultural and arts businesses and individuals with each other and their customers. They use the online hub to network, share knowledge, showcase their work & products, and reach new customers and consumers. Creative Torbay and Creative West Sussex have been running successfully for some time now, getting thousands of hits per month.
 

Click here to read case studies from Torbay Council and West Sussex County Council!
    To find out more about Creative Assembly and how to set up a site for your region, click here for a product information sheet or contact us on 020 7426 2080 or daniela@assemblystudios.com

    Friday 4 November 2011

    Assembly Studios in the News: Property Week










    Here is one of our images in action, doing what they do best: showing a scheme off to its best advantage. This image was a verifed view, so it was used for both planning and marketing purposes.

    Friday 28 October 2011

    Assembly Studios.com Goes Live!


    There comes a time in every website’s life when it’s time for a refresh. That time arrived for us several months ago. We get a lot of compliments on our site, but we felt collectively that it was time to move on. Our new website is, much like us, all about the work. Visually, it’s quite a departure from our slick, black look of old: neutral backgrounds and simple, well designed menus ensure that our portfolio is always the main focus. Here are a few additional features that make our new website cool:

    • The site uses a fluid layout, which means that it displays equally well across desktop browsers and mobile devices (useful since an increasing number of our visitors access the site from smart phones, iPads, and the like).
    • Even non-Flash users will be able to see animated content and galleries thanks to our standards compliant HTML/CSS and Javascript (this makes for better SEO too…)
    • Lots of great new work. We hope you like it!
    Here’s a link to the new site – we’d love to get your opinion: www.assemblystudios.com

    Drop us an email at daniela@assemblystudios.com to share your views. So, if that gives you food for thought, and you’re interested in refreshing your own website, give us a call. We’d love to discuss your requirements! 020 7426 2080

    Abu Dhabi Airports Company Animation




    Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) is the owner and operator of five airports and several check-in facilities. Our brief was to produce an animation that could be used to clearly illustrate their business to a multi-lingual audience. We have been commissioned by the ADAC marketing team on numerous occasions to produce a variety of marketing collateral from corporate animations for events through to e-mail teasers for their new brand reveal, for which we also created a brand reveal animation.

    Thursday 27 October 2011

    A Chapel With A View

    We recently worked with one of our international architecture clients to produce some dramatic new renderings of their chapel project. The day and night shots show the chapel in its stunning surroundings, built into the countryside.

    Monday 10 October 2011

    We are recruiting… Senior Project Manager / Studio Manager, London

    We are currently seeking a Senior Project Manager with Studio Management skills to work from our London studio.

    You will have wide-ranging experience of project, account management, and studio management in the creative industries, exceptional communication and organisation skills with a proven ability to deliver medium to large scale projects, building lasting client relationships within a variety of industry sectors and media outputs, including strategic identity, print, digital and mobile both on time and within budget.
    You will be managing a small but growing team across three studios, taking a studio resource management and utilisation role as the company expands.
    You will be expected to bring the following key abilities to this role:
    ·         Ability to manage key projects from agreement of project plan and scope of work through to final delivery and client aftercare.
    ·         Ability to work as a single point of contact with both internal and external production resources, on a range of media outputs, including strategic identity, print, digital and mobile.
    ·         Ability to manage client expectations and negotiate change management with diplomacy and financial acumen.
    ·         Ability to pull out from the detail and monitor the wider studio picture by keeping a handle on resource utilization and production overruns studio-wide.
    ·         Ability to have fun and not take yourself too seriously, whilst still being driven and passionate about your role and the company.

    You will be required to liaise with our design, development, sales and marketing teams and report into the Directors and Board.
     
    Working knowledge and expertise working in SalesForce CRM, Access FocalPoint Project Management, 37 Signals Suite, Roadmap, InDesign and Photoshop or similar systems would be preferable.

    For further information or to apply for the position, please email richard@assemblystudios.co.uk

    Friday 16 September 2011

    Flights of Fancy



    We’ve been working with Abu Dhabi Airports Company for a while now and we were thrilled when they asked us to create a promotional film that they could use at exhibitions and events to educate viewers about its corporate arm. The film focuses specifically on the five airports ADAC owns and operates, its subsidiaries, and its customer services brands. Our brief was to present this information in an engaging way and our resulting piece is a visually rich blend of mediums, from photography and typography to animation and motion graphics.

    Tuesday 16 August 2011

    Wanted: Talented Middleweight 3D Artists for freelance, contract and permanent roles!


    We're busy - we need another CG Artist! Have a look at the visualisation section of our website:


    Does that look like your work? If so, we want to hear from you! We have both short term and fixed term contracts available. Here's what we're looking for:

    ·    3 - 5 years visualisation experience
    ·    Previous studio experience
    ·    Ability to work daily from our London studio
    ·    3D Studio Max, VRAY, Photoshop and After Effects skills
    ·    Experience with animation, compositing and post-production
    ·    Great team players who are passionate about CG

    If that sounds like you we would love to hear from you! Please send a C.V. and showreel / portfolio to info@assemblystudios.com (6MB Max).

    Apologies - due to high volumes of responses it is not always possible to respond to all applications.

    Monday 15 August 2011

    Things We Like: Part 01...


















    The quality of the street art around our studio, just off Brick Lane, is seriously good. One guy whose work really jumps out though, is Mexican artist Pablo Delgado. Pablo's work has a unique three dimensional quality that both engages and involves the viewer. A few of Pablo's works can be seen on Calvin Street, Corbet Place and Jerome Street (pictured).

    Thursday 28 July 2011

    London 2012: One Year to Go











    Since it's the one year countdown to the 2012 Olympics, it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit the CGIs we produced for the winning bid! Here they are...





    Wednesday 20 July 2011

    Our CGIs for OMA's Commonwealth Institute Feature in BD Magazine

     It's always exciting to see our work in the press. Above are a couple of the images we produced for OMA's Commonwealth Institute which were published in BD Magazine today.

    http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/inside-omas-commonwealth-institute-redevelopment/5021841.article

    Tuesday 19 July 2011

    Wanted: One Talented Middleweight 3D Artist!

    We're busy - we need another CG Artist! Have a look at the visualisation section of our website:

    www.assemblystudios.com/services/visualisation 

    Does that look like your work? If so, we want to hear from you! Here's what we're looking for:
    • 3 - 5 years visualisation experience
    • Previous studio experience
    • Ability to work daily from our London studio
    • 3D Studio Max, VRAY, Photoshop and After Effects skills 
    • Experience with animation, compositing and post-production
    • Great team players who are passionate about CG
    If that sounds like you we would love to hear from you! Please send a C.V. and showreel / portfolio to info@assemblystudios.com (6MB Max). 

    Apologies - due to high volumes of responses it is not always possible to respond to all applications.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Assembly Studios is an award winning multi-disciplinary design agency. Our creative CG department works with the wider studio to deliver a diverse range of content for print, web, interactive and animation.

    Thursday 23 June 2011

    Hammersmith Grove

    You might not guess from these images, but this scheme by our client, Development Securities is actually, at this moment, a car park in Hammersmith town centre. Not for long though... As you can see, there are big plans for this plot and it will soon be transformed into a mixed-use development with office space, a cinema and restaurants.

    2KS Summer Party Invitation











    We love a good party, so when our client Development Securities asked us to come up with a design for their summer do, we were only too happy to oblige! They wanted to use an aspect of the Two Kingdom Street architecture in the design, so we focussed on the bright panels in the front foyer. We aimed to create something both playful and memorable by only allowing the viewer to decifer the text by altering their view of the invitation.

    International Dialogue Group Mission to Mumbai 2011


















    The last few months has seen me travelling a lot as we help boost our UK workload by expanding into new markets. Trips to Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East have proved fruitful, so when I was invited to travel to Mumbai as part of a 10 man delegation organised by the International Dialogue Group, I decided to take the plunge and see how much further the Indian economy had moved since my last recce in 2009.

    Given that this particular patch of land had been earmarked for redevelopment for over 10 years, knocking it into shape in 48hrs through an architectural charette chaired by NLA‘s Peter Murray was always going to be a challenge. Well, ok, we actually had three days, but we needed to make sure we were finished in time to watch the cricket, obviously. The guys on the trip were a great mix of high proile british talent and experience, a real age range too – most, if not all, had some connection or business reason to be in Mumbai. What really shone through was the professionalism of the team and how well they gelled together.

    Given the scale of the plans for Mumbai (we got a sneak preview into their 40 year plan) it was always going to be a challenge to make an impact in such a short time, but we did achieve something - over the course of a few days we met with various government and private sector organizations. We were able to stimulate debate and canvas ideas that had not yet been considered - issues of land reclamation (currently regarded a sin in India on environmental grounds) expanding green and civic spaces and housing were all systematically considered and represented with commercial and passionate flair. Listening to one local architect explain "one of the problems with trying to improve housing for the slum dwellers is that the slums are built next to the place of work and the new housing is usually out of town, about 20-30k out - what often happens is the slum dweller gets his new house, he then sells it for good money and moves back to where he started from". The vast majority would rather be local than commute through the mad traffic. What an earth can you do about that? Possibly not a lot, by all accounts.

    I would love to go into further detail as to what we were specifically tasked to look at, but the powers that be have been stimulated by the team’s ideas, and it looks like it may well be taken further. As a result we are limited in what we can and can't say. Notwithstanding, such big ideas tend to touch a great many, so one has to tread with a certain amount of diplomatic dexterity. It may be that some or all of the team will need to be back in the coming months to see if we can make a difference to what has been a long time in the making - watch this space.

    Tuesday 21 June 2011

    Launch of Creative West Sussex...















    We are delighted to announce the launch of Creative West Sussex yesterday, which is the second website in our Creative Networks suite, following Creative Torbay.

    The Creative Networks system enables creative communities to communicate, network and publish their content online. The site content is user driven, with administrators able to adjust how their own site works using a unique control panel, thereby sculpting the way the site facilitates cross pollination and communication across creative sectors in their area. Geolocational information, date proximity and a host of other techniques are deployed to ensure that individual users of the sites are presented with fresh and appropriate content.

    Torbay was the ONLY council in the UK to increase footfall to museums and gallery spaces in 2010, a fact they attribute to their creative website!

    To see the websites in action visit http://www.creativewestsussex.com/ and http://www.creativetorbay.com/

    If you are interested in finding out more about the Creative Networks or would like to set one up, give us a call on 020 7426 2080.

    Friday 17 June 2011

    An Unexpected Marshmallow Break
















    There are many great things an intern can do, but this week I think we discovered a new and, frankly, unexpected one, courtesey of our lovely design intern Matthew: make the team homemade marshmallows! They were the best mid-afternoon pick-me-up we have discovered to date, and since there is nothing more boring than trying to describe how something tastes, here's the recipe so you can discover for yourselves...

    Use these:
    455g/1lb granulated sugar
    1 tbsp liquid glucose (available from some chemists and specialist cook shops)
    200ml/7fl oz water
    2 large free-range egg whites
    9 sheets gelatine (about 16g/½oz), soaked in 140ml/5fl oz water
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    icing sugar, for dusting and coating

    cornflour, for dusting and coating
    125g/4½oz fresh raspberries
    200g/7¼oz white chocolate, melted, to serve (optional)


    Do this:  
    1. Place the sugar, glucose and water in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and continue cooking over a high heat until it reaches 127C/260F on a sugar thermometer - take care as the mixture is very hot.
    2. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with an electric whisk until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.
    3. When the syrup is up to temperature, remove from the heat and carefully slide in the softened gelatine sheets and their soaking water. The syrup will bubble up so take care not to burn yourself. Pour the syrup into a metal jug.
    4. Continue to beat the egg whites while slowly pouring in the hot syrup from the jug. The mixture will become shiny and start to thicken. Add the vanilla extract and continue whisking for 5-10 minutes, until the mixture is stiff and thick enough to hold its shape on the whisk.
    5. Lightly oil a 30cm/12in x 20cm/8in shallow baking tray. Dust the tray with sieved icing sugar and cornflour and then spoon half the marshmallow mixture over and smooth it with a wet palette knife.

    6. Coat the raspberries with a mixture of icing sugar and cornflour, and lay over the top of the marshmallow mixture. Cover the raspberries with the remaining marshmallow mixture and leave for at least an hour to set.
    7. Dust a work surface with more icing sugar and cornflour. Loosen the marshmallow around the sides of the tray with a palette knife and turn it out on to the dusted surface. Cut into squares and roll in the sugar and cornflour. Leave to dry a little on a wire rack before packing into an airtight box.
    8. Serve the marshmallows as they are or accompanied by melted white chocolate for dipping.


    Original recipe here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/raspberrymarshmallow_86118

    Monday 6 June 2011

    Commando Challenge Weekend: The Aftermath

    So, Saturday finally saw the arrival of the Retrack Commando Challenge. Matt, Matthew, Ross and Frederick from the Assembly London Studio chose to spend the day canoeing 13km, climbing 10km, cycling 20km, then finishing off with another 3.5km canoe. Brave or foolish? You can decide from the photos below! Six gruelling hours equalled second place in the competition and over £1,300 for charity...








    Wednesday 25 May 2011

    Our Branding Guides the Way To Lighthouse






















    How exciting - our branding has gone up on site at Lighthouse in central Moscow! We'll keep posting as the project progresses so watch this space to see the development take shape.

    Thursday 19 May 2011

    Virtually Perfect | Issue 03 | May '11















    Issue 03 of our CG Illustration & Animation newsletter, Virtually Perfect is now out. If you didn't recieve a copy direct to your inbox - email marketing@assemblystudios.com to be added to the distribution list!

    Wednesday 18 May 2011

    Crouch Hill Community Park

    Here's a closer look at our CGI section for Penoyre & Prasad's Crouch Hill Community Park.

    Nanjing Waterfront Redevelopment

    Check out some of our CGI stills from a recent film we worked on...

    Monday 16 May 2011

    From ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ to ‘Avatar’: The rise, the fall and the resurrection of stereoscopy

    Stereoscopy: noun - a device by which two photographs of the same object, taken at slightly different angles, are viewed together, creating an impression of depth and solidity.

    Ok, now we know what it is (vaguely) – but how did it evolve? And how can it give your firm a competitive edge in a struggling market?

    What Is It?
    I’m sure everyone at some point has seen a 3D film; I remember seeing a show-case as a child with a shark jumping out of the screen… and being slightly underwhelmed. Although impressive, it was rough, unconvincing and jarring for the audience. Now 3D films and media are all around us and the medium is quickly losing its ‘disappointing’ reputation and is increasingly being described as truly impressive. Films like Avatar and other recent blockbusters have blazed a trail, along with 3D computer games and 3D televisions, which are growing in popularity every year.

    Ok, let’s talk science: the basic principle behind a ‘3D’ image or film is that any media can present two slightly different images from two adjacent viewpoints; one for each eye. This gives the effect of parallax (difference of an object’s position perceived from two different viewing positions). Humans (and other front-eyed animals) use parallax to judge distance, a skill essential to our daily lives. But how does anyone present a different image to each eye?

    The Evolution
    Historically this effect has been achieved with coloured filters (red and green) separating out images to each eye. I’m sure everyone, at some point, has had experience of the classic ‘red and green’ anaglyph glasses; maybe a 3D comic, or some of you may even have had the misfortune to see some of the films touted around in the 80’s. The common assumption is that this was when the first 3D films arrived. In actual fact, the first anaglyph 3D film was shown (incredibly) in 1922.

    From the 1930’s, the popularity of 3D grew rapidly, before its eventual fall from favour in the late 1950’s. As the years went by, popularity in the medium peaked and troughed: new breakthroughs in technology were made - film companies jumped at the chance to offer a never seen before experience to their audiences - audiences flocked to see what all the buzz was about; then, inevitably, interest plateaued until its next incarnation came onto the scene.

    So, what came next? Stereovision in the 70’s allowed both of the images necessary to create a 3D effect to be on the same film reel and used a special projector lens to separate them, meaning films always remained in sync. These days, you’re most likely to encounter polarization, which is characterised by the 1980’s sunglasses you’ll be asked to don. This is preferred over the old red and green process, because it gives better colour viewing. With this method, two views are projected onto the screen with different polarisation, then the glasses only let one version into each eye, because the lenses also have different polarisation. Clever stuff. The technology just keeps getting better and better and now, with the right hardware and software, you don’t even need the glasses at all. Great news for anyone who’s ever wanted to take a date to a 3D movie!

    A Competitive Edge?
    “All this is interesting” you might say (assuming you’re still reading, and haven’t succumbed to death by 3D!) but what does it mean to businesses today? Well, 3D just won’t die - it’s becoming commonplace at the cinema, there’s a very real possibility that 3D TV will enter the average home in the not-too-distant future. If you want to be seen as the vanguard of modern technology by your customers, and keep one step ahead of your competitors, now is the time to put some feelers out and start thinking about how stereoscopy could be used to engage with your client base. Being on the forefront of technology could be more cost effective than you think: 3D computer monitors are cheaper than ever and most computer graphics cards support 3D output to screens and glasses. There are, of course, right and wrong times to utilise stereoscopy within any media and if you are thinking of doing it, do it right. Have it in mind from the start, craft the project to suit and complement the medium, and take advice from the experts!

    If you want to have a chat about how 3D could be used to enhance your project, product or marketing, get in touch on 020 7426 2080 – we’d love to hear from you and discuss your 3D needs!

    Assembly Studios Tackles Commando Challenge for Retrak


    On 4 June, an intrepid group of Assembly Studios folk and friends will be tacking the Commando Challenge in aid of Retrak, an amazing charity working to improve the lives of street children in Africa. The challenge will take place in the Lake District, where the team will have a mere 12 hours to travel 46.5K.

    The challenge comprises a 13k canoe to Ullswater, then a 10K stroll up Helvellyn via Striding Edge, followed by a 20km bike ride to Derwent Water, then, to round off, a 3.5k canoe from Derwent Water to Keswick.

    The team is made up of: Matt Fairman (CEO); Matthew Jones (CG Artist); Ross Cunningham (Creative Director); Ben Tadiar (Web Developer) and our good friends Fredrik and Chris.

    If you would like to support Retrak by sponsoring the Assembly Studios team, you can donate securely online here: http://www.justgiving.com/MC-Jones

    Monday 9 May 2011

    Something For The Weekend...

    I don't know what you did at the weekend, but here's a little something our UAE Creative Director, Jon Wells, created, just for fun. I hope you like it!

    Thursday 5 May 2011

    New Commision for Mohammed Bin Zayed City, Abu Dhabi

    An animation we produced last year led to another exciting commission from KEO International Consultants. This time we produced a series of CG images for the Public Realm Concept at Mohammed Bin Zayed City in Abu Dhabi. The work was commissioned last month to showcase on the KEO stand at Abu Dhabi Cityscape and the entire project was completed in less than one week. Scroll down to see the image set.

    Monday 18 April 2011

    Meet the Team - Senior CGI Artist, Kyle Grace

    Q: What’s your favourite advertising / marketing campaign and why?

    A: The First is “Those who can; Teach” - A government funded campaign to encourage new talent into the teaching profession.  Heartfelt interviews with famous sportsmen and artists regarding their influential teachers. It was simple, powerful and well shot.

    The Second is “Good things come to those who wait” – Guinness. Their brand is strong and their adverts are engaging, I am yet to see a bad representation.

    Q: What do you wish you had designed / invented?

    A: 28 hour days would be a great invention.

    Q: Any websites or design magazines you use for inspiration?
    A: CG Architect, World Architecture News, Digital Photographer.

    Q: Is there a piece of technology you couldn’t live without?

    A: My Wacom. It’s the key tool of any good retoucher or CG artist.

    Q: What’s the best job you’ve ever worked on?

    A: Make’s Grosvenor Waterside. We produced several key images and a matched CG animation into a helicopter based footage.

    Q: What makes you laugh out loud?

    A: Any surreal British comedy, from Monty Python to Eddie Izzard.

    Q: Describe your perfect weekend?

    A: Any music festival – a weekend of Music, Beer, Beards and Badgers (You need something to talk about at 3am in a field).

    Q: If you had to sum yourself up in 140 characters Twitter style, what would you say?

    A: I like to spend a lot of money on beer, fast cars and women. But as I’m not George Best, I’ll just squander my time and money on music and photography instead.




    Thursday 14 April 2011

    Wanted: One Talented 3D Artist!

    Assembly Studios is an award winning multi-disciplinary design agency. Our creative CG department works with the wider studio to deliver a diverse range of content for print, web, interactive and animation.

    We are on the lookout for a talented experienced 3D Artist to join our London studio. 3D Studio Max, VRAY, Photoshop and After Effects skills are essential, as is experience with animation, compositing and post-production. We need great team players, able to work on multiple projects simultaneously, who are passionate about CG, very creative and diverse in their skills sets.

    If that sounds like you we would love to hear from you! Please send a C.V. and showreel / portfolio to info@assemblystudios.com (6MB Max)
    Click to visit the Assembly Studios website.

    Friday 8 April 2011

    iPhone Travel Photography... Matt in Mumbai...

    Mumbai trip 2011 - UKTI mission to Mumbai reveals a buzzing economy and lots of opportunity for us Brits to export... The last few months have seen me travelling a lot as we help boost our UK workloads by expanding into new markets. Trips to Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East have proved fruitful, so when I was invited to travel to Mumbai as part of a 10 man delegation organised by the international Dialogue Group, I decided to take the plunge and see how much further the Indian economy had moved since my last recce in 2009.

    Equiped with nothing but an iPhone to document the trip - here's a taste of what went on...