British holograms will be star attraction at Abba Museum

SquareZero has updated its holographic representations of Bjorn, Agnetha, Benny and Frida ready for them to take centre stage at the Abba Museum, which opened in Stockholm this week.

SquareZero previously created holograms to tour as part of the Abbaworld Touring Exhibition, but the new holograms will be even more lifelike than their previous incarnations, having been created using advanced motion capture techniques, followed by full CGI builds and rigging in 3D. Fans will be able to perform alongside the band in the museum, and performances with the SquareZero holograms will be captured and stored on the interactive tickets, which can be accessed remotely post visit.

The award-winning creative company spent nearly a year researching and animating to create the installation, which is expected to be one of the museum’s most popular attractions.

Ismail Hanif, chairman at SquareZero, commented: “Creating a holographic representation of one of the world’s biggest bands is a dream brief, so we were thrilled to lead the process. The holograms have been a fantastic success while on tour, so it makes perfect sense for them to be given a permanent home at the Abba museum in Stockholm”

Ingemarie Halling, curator at ABBA The Museum, commented: "Having seen the happy faces of our visitors up on stage with the ABBA holograms, I believe that the holographic technique is about to change the whole scene for museums and big touring exhibitions, allowing exhibitors to tell a story in a brand new way, whether that be you acting a scene together with Marilyn Monroe or discovering the ocean with Cousteau… the fantasy is the limit, and the guys and the girls working at Square Zero are up for it, I’m sure!"

The museum opened on Tuesday 7 May 2013.
A filmed tour of the museum by the Guardian's Alex Petridis is here - the holograms are at  2.30 in

Click on movie to see the Dancing Queen movie

Animated elevator pitches

How do you put your elevator pitch onto a website ?

We have seen an increase in video explainers on many a website. SquareZero has been providing animated and engaging digital promos for online brands.  As a recently appointed patron of the International Video and Communications Association SquareZero outlined this emerging trend and other recent work in a recent focus news article. Read the full article on the IVCA website.

click on image to read about Unii.com our latest explainer web animation

Oil and Gas Visualisations

Click on pic above to view showreel

SquareZero has over the last six years worked on specialist info-graphics sequences for the energy sector. We have created animations for documentaries and training DVDs as well as for marketing movies which are made for sales of products and services.  The use of fly throughs and cut aways allow the complex systems to be explained in the most effective way possible.   Our work has illustrated a wide range of energy processes from exploration methods to drilling, field construction and safety processes.

Olly Tyler is creative director on all info graphic technical visualisation projects at SquareZero.  He has 20 years experience founded in creating info graphics for TV series and documentaries.  Gaining a thorough understanding of the material and conceiving the best way to visually represent the process in a good appealing graphic design style is our speciality. Our team of highly experienced 3d and 2d animators can put together the most sophisticated visuals using the latest rendering and design software.

'Vib' seismic exploration truck

Some applications we have created for 3d visualisations in the energy sector :

1.  safety video for  oil and gas refinery
2.  training / promotional video explaining 'Fraccing' process
3.  DVD promoting services and extent of a nationally run oil and gas industry
4.  Promotional video for sales of exploration equipment and services (  for demo, web and trade show)
5.  Explanatory video for new sea exploration technology
6.  Fly through of deep sea oil field network for large O+G  multinational.  see movie here
7.  Explanatory DVD for proposed wind farm field showing final layout and construction techniques.
8.  Reconstruction of gas refinery disaster in a 'what if' scenario safety training documentary.
9.  Animated renders and demonstration of seismic acquisition product line.
10.  Explanatory video for marine exploration product range.
11. Animated geological diagrams of underground visualisation data  and drilling techniques

Pop promo for Eurovision 2013

The UK might have a questionable history at the Eurovision Song Contest, but the country is already in with a chance of glory in 2013 as SquareZero has been tasked with creating a unique video for with Ukrainian starlet Zlata Ognevich.

We were asked to create an immersive animation for Zlata’s entry, Gravity, which will be performed at the Eurovision Finals in Malmo, Sweden in May.  After years of Eurovision disappointment, the British fans will have something to celebrate as the work of our Shoreditch-based outfit flies the flag for British design.

Square Zero, the award winning digital and 3D hologram content providers, previously scored a hit with another Eurovision favourite ABBA.

see the promo on YoutTube here.

Ismail Hanif, chairman of Square Zero, commented: “The decision to team up with Zlata was an obvious choice for us.  The Eurovision song contest is a fantastic opportunity to showcase Square Zero’s work in front of the whole of Europe, and we are confident that Ukraine and the UK will both have something to cheer about in Malmo come finals night!”

Viktoria Nekrasova, director for Zlata, commented: “It has been a tremendously creative and exciting experience working with the Square Zero team and this video really enhances Zlata's wonderful performance of Gravity.”

The Eurovision song contest will take place over 4 days, 14-18 May in Malmo, Sweden

Square Zero would like to thank producer Jamie Bourne and creative director Najma Bhatti for their work on this video.

About SquareZero

SquareZero is a digital motion graphics company for the creation of broadcast titles, special effects and character animation.

About Zlata Ognevich

Zlata Ognevich is an award-winning Ukrainian singer, and has been selected to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, with the song Gravity.

3d Animation showreel

CGI animation has been a principle offering at SquareZero. We have expert 3d generalists and technical staff with many years combined experience using our principal software platform Maya. Our reel shows the wide range of applications and styles which have been rendered from our 3d machines.

Healthcare Showreel

With the our recent interactive app work last year we decided to update our showreel of healthcare projects. We have worked on three healthcare product TVCs as well as a range of explainers, TV graphics, medical visualisations and modes of action ( MOA ). Our work has ranged from complex full 3d animation to live action editing and motion design work. We have worked for diverse clients and agencies such as Ogilvy Health, Digitas, Sudler + Hennessey, the BBC, Paling Walters. We offer our expertise in any projects whether it requires clarity and detail through to slick editing or interesting design.  Contact here for more details.

SquareZero goes to Unii

Click on pic to see the movie

An exciting new networking website exclusively for UK university students called Unii.com launches on Monday 11th March 2013 and SquareZero has produced the video to tell students all about it.

Unii.com approached SquareZero as they believed a video explainer was the best way to communicate with their audience in the clearest way possible what their new website was all about.

It was quickly agreed that an animation would be the best approach as it could convey the messages in a simple, fun way and avoid lots of jargon and complexity.

SquareZero's Sarah Klan designed the animation which fitted the Unii website themes but added a lot of colour and fun to the way the site will look at launch. Critically the video brings out the key messages that the Unii team wanted for their audience; that it was exclusive for students and unlike other social networking sites your content would not be visible outside of this community. Three degrees of communication is also a big difference for this community and you have ability and communicate and share what you want with your friends, your University or all the Universities in the UK!

The clients reaction to the video was incredibly positive with their CEO" just loving it". Funnily enough, our Sarah was the pick of the voiceovers for this production too.

As Unii.com develops it will bring more opportunities to it's community and we hope the chance for SquareZero to produce some move videos which explain why it's so great to be a part of Unii.com

The only downside for the SquareZero team is that we won't be able to join it?
Take a look at Unii.com and if you or your kids are at University you can get involved in the competition http://competition.unii.com or simply sign up and join Unii.com now.

Two awards at IVCA Livecom

SquareZero won two awards for our Showgirl hologram for the Laboutin retrospective at the Design Museum. Here is Ismail, the chairman of SquareZero with director Najma Bhatti ( far right ) from Four55 Ltd. Holding the other award is Rachel Brandwick and centre is Cat Staffell, both from Laboutin. The awards were for Heritage and Culture & The Arts. 

More can be seen here about the hologram which featured favourite Laboutin model Dita Von Teese.