From the creators of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: the tale of three brothers animation, Director Ben Hibon and his crew created a short opening sequence for the film Mirror Mirror, which was released in 2012 (this year).
The opening sequence was created via 3d animation opposed to traditional 2d animation, which really helped give it a unique style.
The story was told so well through just the animation it was memorizing, I think the choice to utilize only a track and no scripted voice overs really created the atmosphere. The atmosphere and transitions into different scenes really made the piece.
It was a visual poem in a sense and was beautifully told with words. I found myself overwhelmed by the simplicity of the story with such simple scenes, although you need to watch it a few times to really appreciate how intricate the story is and how well thought out the transitions are. The clip demonstrates perfect pace which helps the feel to the story.
The style of the animation was also very simplistic, the characters have a static pale porcelain feel to them and show no real emotion throughout the clip, this means the clip relies on the scenery and music to create the atmosphere. The emotionless faces seen in the clip is one of Ben Hibon animation traits, you often see this in his style. Ben started off his professional career after his award winning short film 'Codehunters' for MTV was released.
The 3d animation was very well done. Everything was animated to be very fluid in movement, especially when transitions occurred. In terms of software used I am unsure, but most probably Autodesk was involved; either maya or 3ds max was used to animate, alongside with others.
Overall the animation had its own unique style thanks to Ben Hibon and his imaginative aesthetic. The sequence was beyond memorizing, I could never really take my eyes off the beautifully rendered out frames which seemed to all transition with ease, in the case with both the characters and background scenery. Very inspiring piece and motivates me to further hone my own animation and style.