The project was completed in After Effects entirely. Vector tools like Overlord by Battle Axe made the workflow very seamless for client design changes. Several of the designs had minor changes up until delivery day, but the changes they requested ended up making the piece simpler and more visually comprehensible.

I started putting together this reel in 2018, but lost a lot of steam between client projects and life’s adventures. I finally came to a place when I could complete it with client work and give the intro the attention it deserved in September 2019. I had completed some client work and wanted to get a collected update out into the world

I start every reel as a small personal project - bringing in favorite elements, editing, and character animation to kick off the piece in a way that draws you into whatever comes next. In particular I worked on this character before the reel ever started: a fall-themed, flannel wearing puffy man with a beanie. I liked his boots as well. Usually I integrate the character into the end tag, but opted for snappier ending this time around.

The timeline was on the tight side and I completed this outside normal booking hours. I had to be efficient with the hours allotted and ended up using some AE rigs and cel animation combined to expedite the completion.

I started the project by sketching out characters. I knew that the project would be focused on the characters and adding diversity to their appearance and location would add to the comedy of the moment. I used this project as an opportunity to make myself laugh.

I used a couple rigging techniques for the head and torso. The torso was time remapped and could adjust the turn via slider, as well as puppet tooled for an IK rig to adjust the bend.

I used Limber for the legs on the second character. I also created a torso bend rig that uses the rotation value of the base pin. I added custom smears in for each character’s movements.

The tie dye color splash at the end was a simple effects stack time remapped and duplicated with another color palette.

The first step to creating the nuclear high five was to map out the movement. I roughed a simple mirrored sine wave in AE, and matched the movement for the arms. It was about 30 frames total, so I animated straight through into the final pose using Rough Animator, then cleaned up in Animate.

I cleaned up the mid-air pancake as well as combing through the 2D elements. The most challenging section was matching the scene elements from the first character twirl through to the yoga mat. Integrating each element in a way that was not distracting, yet playful like the concept.

My favorite of the lot, I had fun with the vehicle shots, and animating the kid jumping into the pool at the end. The van bumping along the road was gratifying to animate, as well as the the sway of the vehicle in the first shot.

The comedy of each piece was in the writing an and character expression. It was a joy to stitch together beautifully executed elements.

Sometimes the most bonkers concepts don’t make it down the line of decision making with a client - this felt like a rare occurrence where our most creative, wildest ideas for how it should look and feel were welcomed and ultimately implemented.

Animating the dealership shot was a back and forth between designer Kirksey and me. I laid the initial composition framing down, and he roughed out a design. I roughed out an initial animation pass based on our concept, and he finished the design. Then I cleaned up the characters.

In retrospect, I think I complicated the cherry tree shot by breaking each limb onto a different layer. The effect helped give life to the character struggling against the slingshot rope, but I think I could’ve reduced the number of poses to keep it simpler and save some time. However, I am still pleased with the end result.

The penny farthing shot and the Tahoe shot were what I struggled with the most, and in retrospect I see plenty of mistakes and ways I could’ve accomplished the same effect with more cleanliness.

A few sections didn't fully make the cut to keep up the pacing of the edit. Working in Flash for more complex character moves made certain actions of Suzy's more efficient.

Throughout the project I would use a hybrid approach for different things - the complex moves of Suzy landing in the room, picking up her dog and spinning around necessitated a traditional approach, while the latter half of the final shot was more time efficient to animate using a rig. Some of my favorite moments in this shot are the quick smears when she makes a rapid turn.

The artwork was for a poster series, and was originally much more dense of a scene - a hodgepodge collage of houses, animals, and people. Meredith separated out a few scenes and these were the basis for the different shots in the sequence. I changed only one of the scenes and characters for utilization in the edit, the singing lady (for which I also provided the sound effects).

I roughed out each character pose using Rough Animator for iPad, and then came into Photoshop for creating more cleaned up line pass. I enjoyed using Animator’s Toolbar in PS to separate passes for the torso, limbs, and head.

My workflow evolved as I went along, and using more layers inside Photoshop became more comfortable. With the exception of the first bird shot, I used shape layers in After Effects with hold keyframes to clean up the moves. I’m not sure if this was the most time-efficient way to clean up the shots, but it worked well enough. I’m always trying to find ways of cutting down on time and retaining cleanliness and quality.

The film was born out of a genuine desire to capture some of the feeling of friendship and adventure, as well as create something of my own. I let myself design and animate what I liked, and worried less about form than story. The vignettes of our activities are an expression of real memories, codified by this film.

I could not have completed this film without the tremendous help of Jeff Moberg on Sound and Score, Andrew Embury, Zak Tietjen, and Erich Reimers with help on a few of the shots. I am indebted to them infinitely and thankful for their generosity.

A few of the shots I blocked out with fewer in-betweens and really enjoyed how it looked. The stark, chunky feel of the walks and actions made this goodbye moment in particular feel more bare and melancholy.

I also experimented with a few other techniques, including blocking out a shot in Cinema 4d, roughing the character movement in Animate, and completing the rest in After Effects. I’m thankful I tried some processes a bit more out of my wheelhouse.

Varying the composition and color densities across the film helped me decide which shots would take the most time, as well as which ones would have the most emotional impact. Color choices across the storyboards were made in for the same reason: from pale, empty greens in the broken down van section to the somber brown, black and grey toward the end.

Broken down in the parking lot of Arcata, California. The van’s alternator died and we ran the battery down to nothing, sputtering to a halt. We got a tow to the nearest Napa Auto and waited for the new one until the next morning. We we’re back on the road the next day.

A stop in the redwoods after the van was repaired. We were transfixed.

We had spaghettios and beer for lunch out on the water on Klamath Lake. The water was super glassy and we saw all kinds of birds. It felt doubly victorious after getting back on the road.

One of the prompts was to take some stock vector graphics and incorporate the style I was working in. The characters had to remain whimsical but operating specifically in this composition.

The challenge was to illustrate an error that occurs with some home devices, when the mobile device comes into proximity with home wifi and unlocks the doors. Smart devices are not without fail, and Nest's system does a more intelligent job of working correctly. Eventually we landed on this design to illustrate the proximity problem. 

Second clip in a series showing the proximity problem. Showing the phone in her purse with her attention diverted underscores the severity of a problem this can cause: the user may not only unintentionally set off their home device, but also never even realize it. 

Superwide illustrations of the main floor of the house were used as reference to recreate the scene in full 3D to achieve the last shot's parallax effect. I helped create depth in 2D first, placing delicate lined objects in the background. The challenge was to integrate all of Nest's home devices working seamlessly in the art style given to us.