Born in 1979, Kook Ewo is the founder of Motion Plus Design, the largest festival for Motion Design Art - with regular events in Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo + 15 cities. The festival is promoting the art of motion design across the world by creating international events and sharing its best resources. Kook is also a Title sequence designer for cinema & TV and used to be a regular teacher at Gobelins School in Paris.
Kook Ewo - Reel 2013 - Classical Version
As the best cloud rendering service provider in CG industry, Fox Renderfarm is dedicated to fostering the development of the visual arts industry. We are glad to be one of the sponsors of Motion Plus Design. Here‘s our exclusive interview with the Founder, Kook Ewo, in which he talks about what we can’t miss about Motion Plus Design and his unique experience & insight into motion design.
- Kook Ewo
- Founder of Motion Plus Design
- Paris
Fox Renderfarm: Congrats on the successful Motion Plus Design Paris 2021! Could you give us a brief recap about the highlights in the Paris 2021 event?
Kook: This edition was a great success thanks to the amazing lineup of Artists Maurice Fransen, Arc4G, Magali Garcia, Mattis Dovier, Simon Holmedal, Fanny Rollot, Eric Brocherie & Cedric Klapisch and Ambre Collective! Trailer here. This year we could also feel that the NFT world was part of the game.
Motion Plus Design Paris 2021 Trailer
Fox Renderfarm: We’ve all been through a tough period of time since the COVID outbreak, what challenges has Motion Plus Design been facing since the COVID-19? And how did you deal with it?
Kook: Yes, the COVID outbreak was hard as we were about to launch new events in many cities in 2020. That said, before COVID arrived and between lockdowns, we did Motion Plus Design editions in Paris, Los Angeles, Taipei, Barcelona, Berlin, Istanbul and we finished the year with an “Online” Tokyo Edition, for the first time. Many other cities were scheduled later, but they’ve all been cancelled. In 2021, events are slowly coming back to cities, but this is still very complex to deal with each country's policy about Covid.
The Good news about 2021 is definitely NFTs: for the first time in our industry, Motion Design artists can actually sell their work! And the funny fact is that we know very well 2 of the most popular artists in this world, as we invited them to our events: Beeple and Pak! So we took a lot of time to study… and then we launched “ignition”, the first NFT Motion Design Collection, featuring 20 amazing artists from all around, all to be sold on the SuperRare NFT website. At the time I'm talking to you, most of them have been sold.
IGNITION, THE FIRST NFT COLLECTION OF MOTION DESIGN
ALIVE © Beeple
Cube © Pak
Fox Renderfarm: Please give us some info about the upcoming event in Los Angeles, and what we can’t miss?
Kook: Motion Plus Design Los Angeles 2022 will happen on March 26 at the mythic Montalban Theater, Hollywood. I can’t reveal the lineup right now but I can tell you should be around!
Fox Renderfarm: What’s your vision for Motion Plus Design?
Kook: Motion Plus Design’s purpose will always be to promote the greatest Motion Design Artists. This means we will still invite the best of them around the world, curate collaborations between them, curate NFT collections with them and create an Art Center with them.
Fox Renderfarm: Could you share with us your career experience and how you established Motion Plus Design?
Kook: I started from zero. I had no drawing skills, no experience, no network. I learned Motion Design by myself in 1999 (mostly After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere from Adobe), then after 2 years, I taught those tools in training centres. Ironically some of these (older than me) students gave me my first jobs in TV! Then I had the chance at 25 to work on the Blockbuster “Silent Hill” directed by Christophe Gans. I've made the title sequence for this film, which opened for me the doors for American film directors such as Vincenzo Natali, Paul Solet, Oren Jacoby, Betsy West and Guillermo Del Toro! I owe everything to Christophe Gans! Then I started Motion Plus Design, then the team grew up with years, then it became worldwide.
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D End Title Sequence by: Kook Ewo
Fox Renderfarm: From your portfolio, we know that you have also been involved in many films and TV productions, which of them is the most unforgettable for you? And why?
Kook: Hard question! Every title sequence has its own story and relationship with a specific director. One of the most unforgettable for me was for the TV series The Strain from director Guillermo Del Toro: i shot pieces of meat that were supposed to be tongues of Vampires. The set was really “handmade” but still, it did work! The best souvenirs I got are actually shootings when we talk about title sequences…
The Strain (TV series) / Title sequence directed by Guillermo del Toro
Fox Renderfarm: What software and plugins do you use mostly in motion design?
Kook: As a title sequence designer, I still use mostly Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and a little bit of Cinema 4D. That said, most motion designers now use 3D softwares as Cinema 4D, Houdini, Blender, 3ds Max, Maya…. I wish I could learn them all… but I just have too many things to do already!
Fox Renderfarm: What do you think are the important factors that make a MoGraph project great and outstanding? Could you give some advice to people who want to step into or new to the CG industry?
Kook: What makes a Motion Design project interesting to me is its authenticity, its own personal way of telling things. Sometimes it can be very subtle, a new type of animation, a way of mixing unexpected ideas together. There are a lot of influences and trends out there that a lot of people are trying to mimic. I’m not against that but an outstanding project to me is the one that goes out of these roads. The only advice I could give to new people is: allow yourself to mimic as long as it’s for technical learning reasons, but then try to “find yourself”.
Fox Renderfarm: Any artworks or artists inspire you the most?
Kook: I’m a huge fan of all the Artists I invited to Motion Plus Design. You can find all their conferences and interviews on Motion Plus Design website for free. Now if I had to choose, the one that inspired me personally the most is the Genius Artist Somei. To me, he “got it all”: the style, the rhythm, the choreography... I sincerely think he’s one of the most talented people on earth.
Beeple | LOS ANGELES 2019
R I G H T - A Reverse Film Produced by SOMEI DESIGN
Fox Renderfarm: Anything else you want to share with the CG enthusiasts?
Kook: I would just say: please take time to learn about the NFT world. I think this could change a lot of things and we all should embrace that! Thanks for reading!
