Having an opportunity to harvest the marrow a bit more on the crafting of the opening to HBO’s “The Pacific,” Art of the Title was able to speak with both Steve Fuller formerly of Imaginary Force’s New York office and Ahmet Ahmet of Imaginary Force’s Los Angeles office to round out the creative history of the piece.

Baptismal and greasy war-streaked faces of mothers’ sons were rendered by Steve Fuller -then in his eighth year at Imaginary Forces, this his final project- and continued by Ahmet Ahmet, using charcoal on tracing paper then scanned and overlaid back into the provided original footage. Hans Zimmer’s score plays with a dignity that is on par with To Kill A Mockingbird (and it’s own legendary opening).

The visuals, profound; the sky-soiling blood sun, a singular helmet strap that seems to drain from the man, from his horrors, the variations of charcoal dust analogical to the volcanic sand of the Pacific islands -all blending and fueling the notion that life runs from our sons and the sons of our enemies then as now.

MTV P.O.V

With powdery solder burns vignetting the schematics, Blac Ionica’s opening for MTV’s “P.O.V.” animates the engineering behind the build to a tight beat with an air of retro espionage that keeps the pace.

A fun step through espionage nostalgia, a ball becomes a blip becomes a bullet becomes a drip connecting the brightly colored character facets in the opening to Adam Reed’s very funny “Archer.”

Art Director Neal Holman details the creation of the title sequence for us.

Quick and affordable 3D printing technology applied to classic stop-motion opens Dutch science program “Het Klokhuis” (The Apple Core) which is Holland’s oldest youth television show, covering everything from the history of dinosaurs to how an iPhone is made. It is a hybrid of hand crafted frame-by-frame animation and cleanly rendered apples with sprouting science experiments encapsulated like the seed of an idea about to be discovered.

Model kits and kilts.

ISO Design’s opening title sequence to “A History of Scotland” offers a gathering sense of self and of a scaled Scotland. Using a tilt-shift effect that simulates miniature scale model photography where a shallow depth of field is created by blurring areas of the composition either optically or in post, the title technique nicely captures the spirit of the pioneering Picts.

For our first post in 2010 we revisit the “How We Built Britain” titles with an interview with their creator Gareth Edwards. This was requested by some readers, facilitated by others and now available to all and feels like the perfect way to begin this new decade. Edwards, a truly multi-talented designer/visual effects artist/director has worked for the BBC on numerous productions including “Seven Wonders of the Industrial World” and “Attila the Hun,” this year completes his first feature film, “Monsters.”

A tangle of utility in both architecture and typography offers a fascinatingly structured title sequence for the BBC’s “How We Built Britain” that bespeaks an acquisitive England. The artificial monuments of type seem proportionally sound, the final title card an achievement of engineering.

The titular tome spreads its pages to typography set illustrative; the text embroiders the imagery as shapes and labels. With what sounds like the jingle of loose change, the type scatters and lays as lovely a refuse as turned tree leaves. It is Curious Pictures' title design for HBO’s “Bored to Death” by Creator/Protagonist/Writer/Executive Producer Jonathan Ames.

Art of the Title: How did you become involved with the project? How did the idea of animating the type come about?

Tom Barham: We were approached by HBO to pitch the series titles. I was familiar with Jonathan Ames' work. When I found out that the series was semi-autobiographical — the story about a writer who hires himself out as a PI - it made sense that the entire world should be a fictional one created from the text of his imagination. We used the original copy from the short story in McSweeney's for the characters as well as all of the backgrounds.

ATS: Including elements of noir or neo-noir seems an obvious choice. What lead you away from that?

TB: Exactly that — it was too easy. We did include a few noir-esque touches like the book cover and general lighting of the pages.

ATS: What was your approach to directing the opening credit sequence?

TB: I wanted to do a combination character and flip-book animation to move the Jonathan character from location to location in a book format. Additionally, since the characters were made from text contained within the book where they exist they needed to move and interact with each other as if they were emitting or leaking letter forms and words.

ATS: What were the first questions you had and how were the answers arrived at?

TB: What’s the idea here? How can we create a sequence that is organic to the subject matter and that communicates both the intent of the show and the intent of the author?

ATS: What was the process for working with the artist Dean Haspiel?

TB: Dean had worked with Jonathan on his novel "The Alcoholic" and done some drawings for the show.

ATS: Do you have any interesting stories related the development of this sequence?

TB: What was most unique was working with Jonathan Ames. It’s unusual for the author of the story to be so intimately involved with the production of the title sequence. He provided a great deal of insight about the characters.

ATS: Can you give us an example of something you took away from this collaborative project? Which gives you a greater satisfaction, collaboration or a project that is entirely your own?

C&A: Both have their merits. For the most part though, I think collaborations provide the greatest opportunity for personal growth. The challenges are more numerous and involve a greater levels of understanding of people and their points of view versus your own personal take on things. The best ventures are usually those that tap into other people’s talents as well as your own.

“For this opening title sequence, we decided to use a literal element from the show to reflect one of its strong underlying themes…things aren’t always the way they seem and rarely go as planned. The series, Météo+, is a French, comedic drama about a staff of eccentric characters operating an independent weather network.

And stylistically, we wanted to keep the feel pretty organic and not use a lot of effecting or compositing. The graphic device of the floating forecasts seemed to be a great subtle touch – both clean and slick at the same time.”

“We did the sequence together with art director Marina Grandi and project manager Monica Masciocchi from FBF (Frame by Frame Italy).

It took about 6 weeks to finish. The lead artist, Alexandras Polevojus, who also did the Boris 2 sequence, is one of the pioneers of 3D compositing in the Baltic States and one of a handful of pioneers of motion graphics after the Soviet Union collapse.”

“Boris was a very popular TV series in Italy after its first season. When the producers decided to make a second season, Piero, a project manager from Fox Channels Italy and Juan Pablo, the art director, invited CREATOR to test how we would imagine the actors underwater. The series takes place in a film studio, and the director always asks for advice from his best friend BORIS the fish. Fox liked what they saw and we got the job. It was impossible to schedule a shoot with all the actors together so they were shot against green screen. Keying the actors took some time. After we got the footage it took about 6 weeks to reach the final result. We just won the silver at Promax|BDA in New York.”

“An intuitive editorial approach and the fantastic manipulation of reality led the way to a montage that hints at the disturbing truth about the people of Durham County.”

“This title sequence, to a BBC 1 prime time drama based in a law firm and centred around it’s main character Fish, played by Paul McCann, was specially shot 16mm and uses film of ink spiralling into water which was then composited against animating typography of the cast to create a simple, sophisticated and classic filmic sequence.”

It was made using pure undiluted ink in water. The movement comes from simply stirring the water in a cylindrical tank. It was shot on a fixed 16mm Bolex camera and telecined to digital format for grading and editing. The frame rate was a mixture – between 25 and 60 frames a second. It’s the luck of the draw which way the ink is going to go and how it spreads, but that’s the beauty. Simple and no need for fluid fx!

“A group of old friends whose lives are thrown into chaos when one of their group commits suicide.

Despite it’s 2D appearance the sequence was animated in Maya not only to give the animator greater control of the characters and environment, but also to add fluidity and personality to the spheres. As the turn around time for the sequence was just a little longer than it takes to make a cup of tea, an added benefit of animating in Maya was that we could quickly render in HD.”