On the first day of Christmas...

Merry Christmas from me and the wifey! 

This year my wife wanted to start a 12 Days of Christmas set for our Christmas Cards. With the first day being "Partridge in a Pear Tree" I couldn't pass up the opportunity to include my favorite Partridge, Danny. 

The back said "Come on get Happy Hoildays!"

(UPDATE) Here's the back as well.

Technicality Poster

This is a poster for Theoretical Films latest short Technicality. The filmmakers gave me free reign and, I must say, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

I had planned on the poster having a strong Saul Bass feel to it, but as it is with all projects I was seduced by more color and dirt. As the film developed, the tone, and specifically the acting, began pushing the design away from my original aesthetic and more towards what you see now.

Below are some of my sketches and process.

Crib Life Promotion

Quick little spot I did for a Crib Life promotion through The Hub. I did everything you see here from creating graphics, modeling, animating and even editing the audio and shooting the doll stills. I'm particularly happy with the way the crib turned out, all cutesy and bouncy and shit.

ABC's 13 Nights of Halloween

It's been a while, but that's what happens when you move to a new city. This was the first project I worked on at my new digs, Monkeyhead. I came up with the style, drew the boards, and modeled, animated and composited most everything.

The few bits I did not do are the opening logo dissolve, the Kmart ad, any texturing, and building/compositing the toon shaded bits with the wobbly lines.

Check out the boards below!

This next one eventually was turned into a toon-shaded/sketchy/wobbly-lined look 

Like an M-4

Who knew Med Student's were so gangsta?

This was a labor of love for my wife's med school. I recorded and mixed the song in Sound Booth, shot on a Cannon 5D, edited in Premiere, and did a bit of VFX and final color correction in After Effects.

I'm pretty pumped with the way it turned out, and the Medical student's loved it!

3rd and Bird

One of the clips I did for 3rd and Bird, a children's show on the BBC. This was by far the coolest After Effects project I've worked on! The set-up for these characters was so innovative, yet so simple in concept it was mind boggling.

NBA Playoffs 2011

Who needs dynamics? Not I, said the animator!

For one reason or another I animated all them dominoes by hand (well mostly, there are three shots that used dynamics - Hollywood sign @1:00, corner turn @1:27, and the logo @1:40).

Powerball...or not?

Apparently you're not allowed to say "awesome" in Lottery-Land! I animated this piece of redacted goodness.

Elly

My first project with Mad Monkey! A whole lotta After Effects and a whole lotta caffeine! Other than a few design board, this is all me.

Riverbanks Zoo

Ever used Anime Studio? Then you'll know how much *fun* it is to animate in! (who needs undo?) Anyway, I animated the giraffe.

Rush's Logo

Fun bit of animation for Rush's, a local fast food chain in South Carolina. I even got to do a bit of modeling here too!

LeBron, Come Home

Another cool spot for TNT. I absolutely love the editing here, it totally makes it.

We did the shots of the Eiffel Tower being torn down and being put back up in Rio; the Great Wall being torn down, shipped, and delivered to NY; missing Lincoln; Lincoln in the Acropolis; and the fireworks over Athens.

NBA Allstar

Fun spot I got to work on for the 2011 NBA Allstar Game. We did all the shots that don't look like basketball footage. We shot the guy building stuff against a green screen and added all the background bits after. Crazy tight turnaround, but I think it was worth it.

South Carolina Lottery

Stop Motion!! Finally, a shoot I got to go on. This is the "making of" for the spot, but the actual commercial is at the end.

We shot with the Canon 5D and composited everything in After Effects. The only shot we faked was the end shot with the sign. We ran out of time during the shoot day so my boss (guy at the end) and I shot an empty road and added the ball from other shots later as well as the 3D sign.

Famously Hot

I got to "research" in the children's section of the Library for this.
This whole thing was animated in After Effects and was a blast to make!

KAIRE

Amazingly this is all After Effects. Well, okay, that's a lie, the car is 3D, but the texture for the car was done in AE. It was crazy stressful figuring out how to make the 3D text in AE, but it turned out pretty great. I think this is one of my favorite things I did with Mad Monkey

Bouncy Loops

Sometimes the simplest loops make me the happiest