The variety of styles and tight deadline in this AI aided spot for Waterloo Sparkling Water in 2023 required working with and managing other compositors and effects artists. This is a good example of editing, tracking, and composting I've done.
This shows how we were flexible with the many iterations of AI responding to client feedback. It was cutting edge for 2023, but, yes, I had to paint out some six finger hands. We also used rotoscoping and 3D match moving in Maya.
Timsun, a Chinese Tire brand, needed to market worldwide using a mascot to bridge cultural and language gaps. The gecko character had to blend seamlessly with live action, as seen in the clip above. See the whole project here.
Lucky Charms "Transportasty" responded to an adult market, blending live action, effects and 3D into a whimsical spot. I composited, added effects, tracked and keyed the live action.
Starkist Tuna benefits from a very recognizable icon with Charlie the Tuna. Calabash Animation brought him to life in a 3D world in Modern Charlie, which I also composited. In later spots he interacted with people which entailed some sophisticated compositing as seen "In the Kitchen" above.
One other task was to change the chicken pack label from 15 grams of protein to 13 grams. Two more grams of protein goes by quickly! But required every shot with the pack to be revised.
Compositing / VFX
For Greek Gods Yogurt, I edited, tracked live action, created effects, composited and ... acted! Using a 3D model of Poseidon, by Nick Oropeza, I acted as Poseidon to drive the 3D model with AI. Additional animation was needed in Maya, but the end result really captured my smile and gesture.
The spot with Medusa used a standard 3D approach, though we acted out the actions first as well. I did some paint touch up in Nuke to get Medusa's smile working too. But the animation was more controllable, especially all the snakes, which would have been difficult using AI.
I directed and animated "Homage to the 27" for the 80th anniversary of the Chicago 27 Designers and the exhibit “Selling Design: 27 Chicago Designers 1936-1991” at the University of Illinois at Chicago. You can check out the individual designers at this link: http://www.chicagodesignarchive.org/
Steelcase Global Report involved making a design work for five languages to truly be a global report. This was designed in Figma originally, some illustrations tweaked in Adobe Illustrator and then I composited in After Effects, adding sound as well.
The still above shows content designed for flexibility, since not only did the words in translation change but the order, so style templates had to be flexible and standardized on what worked overall.
For the Ex Populus online game Final Form, I designed logos for each house, added logo effects, audio, and composted all elements using After Effects.
Motion Design
A fun look at the health care system in 2017.
A quote from Robert Hienlen motivated me to explore type and motion to tell a story.
Above are four vertical format projects I worked on that use vertical space well for AT&T, Carmex, Lucky Charms and a loop-able one for Kiehl's. I composited, including keying, tracking and effects for Lucky Charms and the 2D Swirl effects for AT&T (with the yellow canary). Projects need multiple formats, not just cropping or resizing (there are plugins for that), so I design / compose correctly for maximum impact from the start.
Social Media
Ex Populus needed a variety of formats both as teasers and for in game assets. Chromos was designed to leave some mystery.
In the game, it slowly changes from a smooth shape to a complicated molten gold encrusted form as the user gains more points. I used Maya and Nuke to composite.