Download the whole H264 bunch in one swoop here (50.2mb *.zip).
> Quicktime H.264
(12.5mb)
> iPod Compatible
(2mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(12.2mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(2mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(7.2mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1.2mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(4.6mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(2mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(3mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(2mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(8.9mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1.2mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(2.7mb)
> iPod Compatible
(1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1.8mb progressive)
BBC Three relaunched its whole brand last month, and these are a selection of the old-look idents, including the first video above, which is the “blobs” final adieu just before the new look arrived.
These Aardman inspired spots have been on-air since the networks launch in 2003, and while I’m not often a fan of purely CGI idents, as they often create stale nothingness, these are quite an exceptional concept, often funny and beautifully executed.
BBC Three is the network responsible for bringing Little Britain to television, along with the short lived but awesome architecture series Dreamspaces.
– Cheers to Andy for supplying the videos.
12 replies on “BBC Three says buh-bye to the blobs.”
What’s up with that continuity announcer? I can barely understand him… 😀
forget the announcer, what’s up with the S and M flash frame at the beginning of the first ident! Too funny!!!
One more thing I forgot to mention. I’m a 3D artist and these are terrible. The lip sync is terrible. They don’t look like they’re talking at all. Bad, bad, bad animation. The “gay” bit is the worst one. It’s totally irrelevant. The rope bit was just too clever I guess for me b/c I didn’t get it at all. I didn’t even finish watching the rest of these. I know the amount of work that goes into some of this stuff but…OMG I can’t even believe that these got approved. N E way.
Pieter, it’s called Scottish 😉
@ automatic_ab, even if you feel the technical side is wrong, the Blobs did their job. And they were pretty popular and recognisable with viewers, even my cousin who isn’t interested in TV Pres a-such asked me what happened to them ‘and they were funny’
>> Pieter, it’s called Scottish 😉
I didn’t knew that continuity announcers get to use their native accent in the UK. Over here in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, people on television have to speak Algemeen Nederlands (“General Dutch”, a standardized version of Dutch) instead of the accent they grew up with.
The lip sync on these is dodgy because they basically redubbed a bunch of existing idents just for the occasion (shown over 1 week). The ‘real’ versions are all perfectly synched.
Pieter, Ah I see what you mean. As far as I’m aware, continuity announcers here did used to have a standard Queens English dialect back at the start of TV in the UK, but as the years went on; Accents from other parts of the country became normal.
“I’m a 3D artist and these are terrible”
I think CGI is all wrapped up in glossyness, slickness and perfection. The simplicity of these I thought were perfect.
People aren’t liking the current BBC Three branding but I love it. Doesn’t have the same sense of humour but they’re hardly deadly serious and still contain a ‘random’ sense of humour (such as a man in a suit pushing a milk-float across the screen etc)
As for accents, I’ve noticed more and more British accents creeping in to continuity and narration. The Bristolian accent seems to be getting more and more popular
Oh and because I forgot, and because I’m making a bit of a trend of double-posting on here…
Notice how lame channel start-ups are these days?
Yeah there’s no need for them to make a big deal out of it these days, but I miss the days where it took about 5 minutes and you got all kinds of music and noises blaring out of the TV!
I like the blobs, cute and funny. I like the newer branding better though, and I can see how they could get annoying after a while. The “gay” one and the “bungee” one were my favourites.
the new BBC THREE idents are really crap, the blbs made BBC THREE famous.