MK12 - Tactical Design and Research Studio
MK12 is an American studio specializing in motion design, excelling in a style that’s both retro, simple, and complex at the same time.
They usually create videos made up mostly of shapes, solid colors, and typographic play, with great mastery of animation across all their elements.
Telephone me
A good example of their talent is their latest project, a short film called Telephone Me
The film revolves around the alphabet and the supposed power that certain words have when spoken. For example, the phrase Never Kill a Snake With Your Bare Hands, when heard, supposedly has the power to trigger a state of lethargy in the recipient’s brain, making the person receptive to future mind control manipulations... That’s the pitch!
- MK12 developed their own technique to separate the RGB layers of each element, and for those interested, I highly recommend this great Pixel Bender plugin: Separate RGB.
- Since words play a major role in Telephoneme, a custom typeface was designed specifically for the film and is available here: MK12 Chadwick
The sound was the starting point for Telephoneme. It’s a darker reinterpretation of the soundtrack from a 1960s film, The Alphabet Conspiracy. The voice then became the guiding thread, driving MK12’s animations throughout the events described. The film incorporates visual elements from several other educational films from the sixties, and the retro feel through color choices, editing, and voice treatment works perfectly!
Showreel
Below you can find MK12’s summer 2010 demo reel, showcasing all their latest work. And for those who want to see even more, check out their website — in the “work” section you’ll find plenty of amazing projects ;)
Stranger Than Fiction
MK12 are also the ones behind the stunning intro and outro sequences for the film Stranger Than Fiction, blending 2D pictograms and typography, 3D tracking, and live action. It’s a great example of simple yet rich animation techniques, where tracking is used brilliantly. The ending sequence, featuring rotoscoping, cutouts, and playful use of colorful geometric shapes, is also very enjoyable.
If you like this kind of animation, I recommend my earlier post dedicated to this style;)
Interface Design
Interface design deserves a future post of its own, but here’s a preview. You may not notice it, but in most action, sci-fi, or police series like NCIS & co, all those super fancy computer systems and UIs… are fake! On set, the screens are usually green or turned off with a few tracking markers, and then all the interfaces are composited and animated in post. Some studios specialize entirely in this branch of motion design — and MK12 does an excellent job at it too!
Always the same formula:
- Simple shapes where design outweighs technicality
- Controlled, dynamic animations
- A multitude of elements to mislead the eye and simulate complexity
As a bonus, here’s the James Bond opening sequence created by MK12. Personally, it’s not my favorite, but maybe that’s because I was traumatized as a kid by those endlessly long Bond intros before the movie actually started ^^
Motion Graphics in Its Purest Form
To wrap up, here’s a series of sequences created for the Beatles edition of the video game Rock Band, once again by MK12. I wanted to highlight them because they perfectly represent the creative potential of our beloved software, After Effects.
A strong graphic design foundation in Photoshop, followed by some smart work in After Effects:
- Offset the layers in 3D space
- Apply a few simple appearance animations (scale, position, rotation, masks...)
- Add a camera to move through the composition...
And you get some very cool retro-style spots for the Beatles, made entirely from photos. Motion applied to graphic design — that’s right: Motion Graphics!
I hope you enjoyed discovering this unique and atypical studio, MK12. Personally, I also recommend checking out their cousin studio Prologue, which shares a similar, equally delightful style, if you’d like to watch more awesome videos!
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About the author
I am the Founder of Mattrunks. I work as Creative Director and Motion Designer in my studio. I also create video tutorials to share my passion of motion.