Digital Animation

I just wrapped this animated thirty second television commercial. This spot was a combination of green screen HD footage and some motion graphics. These usually take a week or 2 to complete. Depends on the approvals and graphics needed. I do most of my own illustration work and will do some photos or video footage if the budget allows. This spot contained footage that I shot at the beginning and some stock images in the middle. The smashed egg effect was done against a clear glass frame in front of the HD camera and a lot of painting drop cloths around the work area. The egg was a little too transparent with all the lights so I duplicated the layers within After Effects to increase the opacity. It took about 6 egg smashes to get the right effect I wanted. After each egg, I had to completely clean the glass before the next take. The other grocery items were suspended by fishing lines, spun and cleaned up during editing. VO and Audio for the spot were provided by the agency.

 

This is an animated motion graphics TV spot for the 2013 ADAMM Auto Show Gala. The client provided a poster for the reference art which included the type treatment for the gala’s theme title “Carnevale”. I added some musical notes along the bottom that act like mini spot lights shining up onto the main graphics. There’s also a spotlight effect placed on the Carnevale logo when it appears. This helps to provide some excitement to the event’s announcement. To help fill in the HD edges of the spot I added a pair of large musical notes on each end. I used the painted textures of the poster to fill the notes with the same look and feel as the original artwork. I had access to a couple still shots of 2013 car models for the spot but the HD video footage is from my shoot at last year’s 2012 auto show. The audio was supplied by WISN’s production studio with Mark Richards providing the great “Carnevale” style voiceover. I still have the words “Hot”, “Hot”, “Hot” in my head. Jack Brill provided the fun script and the project coordination was done by HMR marketing.

This digital animation for a Wisconsin credit union was created using a series of photographs to simulate a video effect that’s a little like stop-motion animation. Most of this was done in layers and masked out in sequence. The hardest part of the whole project was trying to find a few antique sundae dishes. I went to a couple restaurant wholesalers but they only offered up the modern glass or plastic. I should have started at a resale shop. Goodwill had a bunch of them for 50 cents to a dollar each. I grabbed a couple extra for backups. You never know – the one time you only have one prop it’s the one that breaks or falls apart. After a couple quarts of ice cream I had a decent looking sundae. I had to make sure it was perfect – everyone in the house including the cats didn’t mind the extra treats. I used some video lights for the photos so I had to work a little quicker to get the ice cream before it melted. The MVP whip cream lettering animation was shot as a one piece and masked out in reverse to create the animated writing style. The audio and script was supplied by the agency. More animation samples.