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.
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.
SEPTEMBER 2022 Skift Global Forum 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
2022 RECAP: Skift Event Logo Animations
With 2022 over and behind us, I’d like to present a post with some of the awesome Skift event logos/ session cards that I got to add motion to throughout the past year.
I would be remiss not to shout out the very excellent design of Skift Senior Designer Beatrice Tagliaferri, and the unifying work of Skift’s Head of Creative Strategy Matt Heidkamp. We went about creating a system that could be easily expanded upon throughout the year to create exciting “new” designs that felt cohesive and “on brand” without having to reinvent everything.
The background shapes started off simpler and relatively random in March with Skift Forum Europe, and by September the shapes coalesced into a complex grid for Skift Global Forum; a grid that we were able to use as a framework for the two events that remained (Aviation Forum and Global Forum East).
DECEMBER 2022 Skift Global Forum East 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
NOVEMBER 2022 Skift Aviation Forum 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
JUNE 2022 Sustainable Tourism Summit 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
MAY 2022 Future of Lodging Forum 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
APRIL 2022 Travel Loyalty Summit 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
MARCH 2022 Skift Forum Europe 2022 Logo and Background Animation by me | Art by Beatrice Tagliaferri
MOTION GFX: Design The Future 2021 Logo Animation and Bumper
I created this animated logo and bumper sequence for the Design The Future 2021 conference:
Design the Future Animated Logo + Bumper Sequence. Motion graphics by Me.
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.
Screen grab from IRT 2021-2022 Season Announcement video. Click on the image above to go to video.
EDITING + MOTION GFX: Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) 2021-2022 Season Announcement
I edited and did motion graphics for this season announcement video for Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT).
The theatre provided me with the beautiful poster art for each show (original artwork created by Tasha Beckwith and Kyle Ragsdale) and about a day to work. These video typically feature sIow “Ken Burns” vertical movement, which makes sense because the posters have portrait orientation. Working within that existing framework, I added camera motion, moving elements (fire, snow, ash particles, etc), and paced it to an epic track—which I had to edit to be exactly 60 seconds and hit enough beats for each section of the video. So, basically just another day for an editor :)
Below are some .gifs of my favorite sequences from the video. (Might vary somewhat from published final version… you can see the full video by clicking the post header image above.)
LEFT: Original show art by Tasha Beckwith | RIGHT: .Gif of sequence, editing and additional graphics by Me
LEFT: Original show art by Tasha Beckwith | RIGHT: .Gif of sequence, editing and additional graphics by Me
LEFT: Original show art by Kyle Ragsdale | RIGHT: .Gif of sequence, editing and additional graphics by Me
Skift Global Forum 2021 Logo Animations by me (Jose M. Marmolejos). Art designed by Skift designer (Joanna Gonzalez).
MOTION GFX: Skift Global Forum 2021 Logo + Scenic
For Skift’s landmark Global Forum, I was tasked with creating video assets, like the above animated logo, as well as some very cool scenic elements for the 14’ x 10’ wall that will sit on stage behind the speakers.
Skift’s creative team came up with some fantastic fluid waves that mimic the forms of the TWA hotel.
Original Art by Skift designer (Joanna Gonzalez).
That left it to me to take the forms and give life to them. and make them loop seamlessly.
Sample of Animated Scenic by Me. (Scaled way down so forgive the picture quality.)
Additional Scenic Asset Rendered + animated by Me. Based on design by Joanna Gonzalez,
You’ll notice that the lines on the waves got significantly thicker and less complex… these were iterations developed after initial screen tests to combat some unintentional Moiré effect on the LED screens with the small pixels (which you can probably see playing a role in these scaled down sample shots).
I will update with shots of the scenic in action during the Forum once it goes down (which by the way, is happening Tue, Sep 21, 2021 – Thu, Sep 23, 2021… more info at live.skift.com.)
JMM
Still from Skift Global Forum 2021 Trailer Edit and motion graphics by Me (click image to go to video)
EDITING + MOTION GFX: Skift Global Forum 2021 Trailer
I edited and did motion graphics for this trailer for Skift Global Forum 2021.
JMM
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.