Other Fun Stuff
Welcome to this collection of additional commissioned work. There are various reasons that these projects appear here, (some are early work, some I only had a small role in, while others simply don't fit anywhere else), but they have all helped shape me as an animator and are worth sharing. The above clip, for example, is an independent video for the Ice Bucket Challenge, produced in order to raise money for ALS research. The client wanted a video game-style fight with the eponymous ice bucket, so I filmed and digitized his rad martial arts moves and staged an epic battle. SUPER PUNCH!
The documentary "Lifting Dreams," I worked closely with director and mentor Barbara Malmet to animate artwork drawn by the children of the Sri Ram Orphanage in India. Using a mixture of paper-cutouts, digital animation techniques, and live-action footage, we were able make these drawings come alive and "interact" with their creators. The film was used as a fundraising tool for the orphanage.
Along with pretty much everyone I know, Legos were a fundamental part of my childhood, and thanks to David Pagano at Paganomation, I was able to participate in an official Lego-endorsed stop-motion production! My contribution to this choose-your-own-ending episode of "The Adventures of Max" was as a background compositor, painstakingly making sure the starry sky didn't bleed into any of the foreground elements, one frame at a time.
Organized by the geniuses at //kneeon, this music video for "The Gold" by reggae outfit John Brown's Body was a massive collaboration featuring an array of animators and styles. This was done long ago, during my college years, but I'm still proud of my humble little segment, which begins at the 1:24 mark.
We're digging deep here, with one of my earliest non-personal animated projects. This short, surreal pop-culture mashup was made for comedy troupe Cannibal Potluck. Looking at it now, it has its fair share of rough edges, but it got a nice response at the time and encouraged me to up my game.
I always look forward to working with Mark Robinson at Deer Whale Media. Our most significant project together has been a series of internal corporate videos* for a pharmaceutical company. Collaboration is so valuable, not only for the chance to work with new people, take direction, and develop ideas, but also to pick up new animation techniques. Thanks, Mark, for those tips on character rigging!
I recently ventured deeper into the worlds of branded content and HTML with a number of web banners.* I was hired by Boston-based ad agency Brand Content to animate these banners for a variety of their clients. In these cases, they typically take care of the design and direction, and it's my job to carry out their specific, polished vision. (Please contact me if you'd like to request an interactive sample banner.)
One of my very first commissioned works was a voting PSA for the Mexican government. I was among about a dozen artists tasked with animating cartoon mascots over live-action footage.
*Due to non-disclosure agreements, the visuals accompanying the marked segments are not actual footage.