Some new layouts & custom illustrations for a video re-skin.
Archive for the ‘Motion Graphics’ Category
Reworking Some Mograph Stuff
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012Experiments In Three Dimensions
Monday, March 12th, 2012After years of flirtation with the idea, I finally called some friends in the industry, asked some questions and settled on a 3D modeling/animation software package: Maxon Cinema 4D. I’ve just begun experimenting with this and am hopelessly hooked. To sum it up, this is fucking rad.
Here’s a quick test of the basic 3D modeling, using a logo I designed about 10 years ago: NWFT, for Northwest Fat Twins, a brand for a friend doing some cool videos in the local ski industry. This is just the beginning…
See a very short animated version on YouTube
Here’s one more. This is a logo comp from about a year ago. On the right is the 2D logo concept. But I always pictured this as a sculptural glass piece, like a lobby sign. Now I can bring that vision to life. Great!
Finally, a crystal. This was an experiment in making a few simple polygons, freehand. But I wound up getting interested in some of the internal, optical distortions that occur in natural crystals. I made a couple attempts to include some bubbles, cleavage planes and fissures. It was a quick attempt, but I like the results. A little detail can make all the difference.
And the animated 360 rotation here.
Animated Ad
Saturday, November 6th, 2010Done. Illustrated and animated by myself (and most of the copy writing too), within the fertile creative environs at Phinney Bischoff Deign House. Check out this post for some behind-the-scenes, sketches, etc.
I love this Atomic Age, kid’s stuff, and it happened to align with the client’s needs. Perfect.
Sneak Peak – Animation Process
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010I spend my days toiling in the creative candy mines of Phinney Bischoff Design House. This week I’ve been working on an animated ad which will appear in movie theaters. Here’s a quick snapshot of the process so far.
After a script is approved, it is sketched as a loose storyboard, to figure out the basic idea of how the words and graphics will relate to each other, timing, etc. This is a messy process, which involves many eraser crumbs.
A sketched storyboard is usually accompanied by one or two frames, fully rendered as examples. This is a detail of one such illustration. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to make this look like an authentic, vintage sci-fi poster, taking exception in certain details like color saturation etc, for effect.
After the storyboard and sample illustration are approved, the whole storyboard is fully illustrated so that the client can approve all visual elements and final image sequence. That will happen this week. The boards are ready.
After final storyboard approval will be animation. I’m looking forward to that. Should be lots of fun.
FIlm Leader Animation
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010I’ve always wanted an excuse to animate a film leader – loving anything old, dusty and blurry. Finally, I have a client who wants one! I made this entirely from scratch, using Photoshop, Illustrator and some of my own photographs and scans, then animated the whole business in After Effects. It was a great exercise in animating. It probably looks simple, but I learned quite a bit in the process and uncovered a couple neat little tricks in After Effects.
Motion Graphics Experiments
Friday, March 19th, 2010At work I’ve been taking a lead role in developing our motion graphics capabilities. Everyone has been really supportive, buying me software and encouraging innovation. Thank god. It’s a big task and trying to do it without support could easily turn into frustration. There is plenty of that anyway. In the past six months, we’ve expanded our capabilities and have produced a few short pieces already. The BECU pieces were scripted and illustrated at PBDH and animated at Lustre Communications. Everything else was wholly designed and produced in-house at PBDH.
Here is a recent test of a few little techniques. It doesn’t really tell a story – just a test. This was made with Adobe Illustrator and After Effects.
Here is another recent test…. time lapse!