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 live action editing, match moving, 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 was a way to bridge the cultural and language gaps. The gecko character had to blend seamlessly with the live action, while still maintaining appeal.
To make his small scale more apparent, plants gently blowing in the wind were added and tracked in. Effects such as a glowing tail and glowing logo treatment unified the look to go beyond the realism. See the whole project here.
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 real people which entailed some sophisticated compositing as seen "In the Kitchen" above.
One task was to change the chicken pack label from 13 grams of protein to 15 grams. Two more grams of protein goes by quickly! But required every shot with the pack to be revised.
Compositing / VFX
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 Library in 2017. 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 that the content had to be designed for flexibility, because not only did the words 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 romp through 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 that I worked on that use the vertical space well for AT&T, Carmex, Lucky Charms and a loop-able one for Kiehl's. I mostly composited, including keying, tracking and effects for Lucky Charms. 2D Swirl effects for AT&T. Projects need multiple formats and not just cropping or resizing (there are plugins for that), so I design or compose them correctly for maximum impact from the start.
Social Media
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 traditional 3D approach, though we acted out the actions first as well. I did some paint touch up in Nuke to to get Medusa's smile working too. But the animation was more controllable, especially all the snakes, which would have been difficult using AI.