NEW PRODUCTION SIZZLE REEL Fall 2024

I have spent the last few days gathering up assets to update and spruce up my portfolio. I decided to start off with the below general production reel. Up next are more specific reels for editing, motion, etc. Contact me with any questions, thoughts, or to inquire about potential projects.

CONFERENCE EVENT GRAPHICS: Global Forum 2024 Logo Animations + Motion Treatments

For this conference I had to design a motion graphics template and package for an external production company to execute for the live event. This includes logo animations, stage session cards and transition templates.

Clip of an Onstage Session Transition. Using the transition and session animations designed by me.

I started with the logo and logo mark animation, so that I could reuse the shapes and movements from the logo throughout the motion treatments. The logo had a colorful rainbow version, and also solid black + yellow versions. I decided to start the animation with the rainbow version and transition to the solid color mark so that the end state (solid color) could work on any background it might end up on.

After experimenting with a few spiral and scaling effects, I settled on two main logo mark treatments to present, shown below. The first (A) using a cascading path trims around the circle combined with some rotation, and the other (B) using some offset scaling effects and “bouncy” key frame settles. We ultimately went with choice A, which I agree with because I like symbolism of the upward motion of the arrow animation and because choice B felt a little too busy.

Skift Global Forum 2024 Logo Mark Animation Tests. Motion graphics designed by me. Logo mark art designed by Beatrice Tagliaferri.

We ultimately went with choice A. for the logo mark, which I agree with because I like symbolism of the upward motion of the arrow animation and because choice B. felt a little too busy.

Skift Global Forum 2024 Full Logo Animation. Motion graphics designed by me. Art designed by Beatrice Tagliaferri.

Different color schemes would be cycled through as the event moved on. Specifically, there were 4 different looks: red, yellow, purple, and blue treatments.

Because the color scheme would be shifting from session to session, I wanted to establish clear transitions for the production team to use so that there were never dissolves or other transitions that might result in colors blending unintentionally and creating off brand moments.

I used the arrow and bullseye elements from the logo mark plus a straight forward hard cut and linear wipe to come up with a set of 6x transitions that were used during the production

Skift Global Forum 2024 Transition Guidelines 1 of 2. Motion graphics and guidelines designed by me.

Skift Global Forum 2024 Transition Transition Guidelines 2 of 2. Motion graphics and guidelines designed by me.

Forum Session Scenic Progression Example Animation. Motion graphics designed by me. Art designed by Beatrice Tagliaferri

ANIMATED GIFs: Eclipse Route Map + Clock for Editorial Use

Animated GIFs created for the Skift editorial feature “Here Comes The Sun: The Eclipse is This Year’s Top Travel Phenomenom” published in March 2024.

The challenge with GIFs intended for online editorial use is that file size needs to be kept to an absolute minimum (to not hinder page loading times), but they cannot be compressed or scaled down to the point of damaging the quality of the image or the legibility of the information being communicated.

Screen shot of article “Here Comes The Sun: The Eclipse is This Year’s Top Travel Phenomenom” by Dawit Habtemariam published in March 2024.

LARGE FORMAT VIDEO + GFX: 10 Year Forum Retrospective

10 Years of Skift Global Forum The final video viewed in both the full stage and 16x9 crops. It was designed to work as well watching in-person on an 80ft stage as it would watching at home on a laptop.

Project Description and Planning

The 10th annual Skift Global Forum was held at The Pavilion on The Farm at Javits Center in September of 2023. Leading up the event, I was asked to create a video celebrating 10 years of Skift’s iconic forum and its stage sessions. The video played on an approximately 80ft long x 16ft tall LED stage panel to start the conference, and played concurrently to the virtual audience streaming in a 16x9 broadcast online.

So that was the challenge: Make it work on an 80 ft screen and on an iPhone. The mandate was to make it exciting enough to open an event but to not be overly frenetic in my edits.

My solution: Focus all of the actual session clips in the center 16x9 portion of the stage screen, having animations start and move through the extremes of the frame. This makes use of the impressively large canvas for people experiencing it in the room, but leaves everything that could not be missed (the content) live in the center of the frame so it could be easily cropped and broadcast to the at-home audience.

Early rendering of the pavilion layout, stage and screen, provided by the production company Legend.

Onsite image of the assembled stage, side panels, and seating at the pavilion. The screen was approximately 80’ wide x 16’ high.

Our design team had created a 10 Years of Skift Global Forum step and repeat that was physically printed and installed at the event. I copied and expanded on this pattern to serve as an intro and room settle graphic. From there I quickly came up with the idea of transforming the yellow circles in the 10 years of SGF pattern into the dots on a timeline, since the heart of this video was a retrospective of the last 10 years of this event. The timeline conceit was very useful. It served as a transition to the content, labeled the content for the viewers’ benefit (i.e., this is a clip from 2014, 2015, etc), and graphically it allowed me to spill out of the 16x9 virtual crop to the full screen crop, adding movement that seemed organic and dynamic, while not being over stimulating or over done.

Intro sequence of the video, utilizing and building upon the “step and repeat” art that was created for a physical installation at the event by the Skift design team.

The “step and repeat” art as used in the actual physical space at Skift Global Forum 2023.

The last visual element was my decision to use the unique branding from each year of the event as my backgrounds and unifying elements. For the audience in the room, they would get the full branding experience, including the logo lock ups + animations over on the lefthand side of the frame, while the virtual (16x9) audience would see the backgrounds as a small frame around the edge of the session clips.

Diagram showing the full stage vs 16x9 crop of the intro video. It was critical that the video work both on the 80ft stage screen for the audience in the room, as well as for the virtual audience watching on their phones or computers.

EDITING + CAMERA OP: Play (Theatre) Promo Video

I shot and edited this promo video for The Chinese Lady at The Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) in 2022. All of the action was captured live during a dress rehearsal.

I shot and edited this promo video for The Chinese Lady, a play that ran from October 11 – November 6, 2022 at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre (IRT) in Indianapolis, IN as part of IRT's INclusion Series.

MOTION GFX: Tungston Beach (Band) Stage Projection Animations

I love working as a motion graphics designer, but I’d be lying if I said that it doesn’t often feel like work. When it definitely doesn’t feel like work is when I get to do cool stuff for my friends, and that’s the case with this project. My friends in the band Tungston Beach were touring behind a new release and they asked me to create some animations from their existing art (created by the very talented iKainu) to use as stage projections during shows.

I had a few files from the artist, but no Illustrator files. The art was also portrait oriented and these would need to be landscape to make full use of a typical 16x9 projector. That is to say, I had to get creative manipulating the awesome source material. Below are short GIF clips from my favorite series of animations made from cover art for the band’s cassette release of “Flesh”.

ORIGINAL ART BY IKAINU ⬇

 

Above: Original artwork by iKainu for the album “Flesh” by Tungston Beach.

ANIMATION FOR STAGE SCENIC BY ME ⬇

Clip of Flesh Animation by me. From original artwork by iKainu.

Clip of Weird Things in a Ball Pit Animation by me. From original artwork by iKainu.

Clip of Ball Pit to Flesh Animation by Me. From original artwork by iKainu.

THE PROCESS ⬇

After converting the PNGs to vector art that I could use in Aftereffects, I spread the googley-eyed creatures apart and gave them jiggles to match their worm-like bodies. Of course, I also added some blinks and looking around for those big peepers to add lots of subtle (but still dynamic) movement that appears to move to the music at almost any tempo. All of this had to be done so that the projections could be perfect loops*, which I accomplished by having the very last frame of the video be 100% identical to the very first frame.

*Loops not shown above due to size/length.

EDITING + CAMERA OP: A Christmas Carol Promo Video

I shot and edited this promo video for A Christmas Carol at The Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) in 2021. All of the action was captured live during a dress rehearsal.

I shot this and edited this promo video for A Christmas Carol, which ran from November 26 – December 26, 2021 at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre (IRT) in Indianapolis, IN as part of the OneAmerica Mainstage.

EDITING + MOTION GFX: IRT Health and Safety Video

I edited and did the motion graphics for this health and safety video for the Indiana Repetory Theatre. This was made specifically for COVID-19 protocols for their A Christmas Carol run in the winter of 2021:

I designed the motion graphics for this safety video in addition to editing it. A Christmas Carol ran from November 26 – December 26, 2021 at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre (IRT) in Indianapolis, IN as part of the OneAmerica Mainstage.

EDITING + CAMERA OP: The Book Club Play Promo Video

I shot and edited this promo video for a run of The Book Club Play at the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) in 2021.

I shot and edited this promo video, and made the graphic end card. The Book Club Play ran from October 6 – October 30, 2021 at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre (IRT) in Indianapolis, IN as part of the OneAmerica Mainstage.

LIVE STREAMING + MOTION GFX: Skift Design the Future Awards 2020

It was a blast to help Skift’s creative team craft the vibe of their very vibey Design the Future design awards virtual event, for which I was technical director (live stream), on top of doing the editing, direction, and motion graphics for the interstitial content.

Working from the art and stills that the Skift team developed, and a lo fi sonic aesthetic as the inspiration, I put together some of my favorite bumpers and interstitial content of the many covid-era virtual events that I’ve worked on. Here is one of those… a guided breathing exercise set to a lo fi beat as a break between sessions, for which I animated a set of serene circles to visualize the pace of the breathing… just watch it you’ll see what I mean:

Skift Design the Future Awards 2020 Wellness Break Interstitial Editing and motion graphics by Me. To be clear: I did NOT make the awesome dot wave from the opening bumper, I merely found that stock footage :)

You can watch the full broadcast with the above interstitial and much more on Skift's youtube.