Chicago Freight Car Documentary

Chicago Freight Car Documentary - animated docs

Chicago Freight Car Documentary - animated historical documents

As an animated interlude in a documentary about CFCL, we "dissected" a couple of their [very] old b&w promotional materials and gave them some life. (Originals posted below.)

Art Direction: Steve Juras
Client: Winding Road Productions, Kathleen Quinn

Description

As an animated interlude in a documentary about CFCL, we "dissected" a couple of their [very] old b&w promotional materials and gave them some life.

Art Direction: Steve Juras
Client: Winding Road Productions, Kathleen Quinn

Fields

Motion Graphics, Photo Manipulation, Documentary

Date

2010

PRQ//reel.2010 Reel of Work 2o1o 2010 Motion Graphics
Live More Weigh Less Re-Brand Freshly spruced for version 2.0, here's the new Live More Weigh Less trailer with a couple new touches to update with Sarah's awesome "roadmap" re-brand. Love this woman! 2012, 2013 Motion Graphics
Class 5 Films logo design + bumper

I've got to thank the guys at C5F for really letting me indulge the creative process on this one. They came to me early in the summer with a very open creative brief to design their logo and animate it to open their newest release. While the final approach was incredibly simple, the process of defining the style that would fit this group of contemporary writers whose company name comes from their shared adventures in white water rapids was one that inspired a sea of creative references for me.

The legend of wilderness photographer, Ansel Adams, was my first character of inspiration of this project. His vast black and white landscapes encompass all the themes of backcountry adventure with timeless stately glimpses of the natural world. Specifically some of his water photography inspired the high-contrast, gritty texture.

The animation concept opens with a classic countdown leader that stops on the five. Then, as if sliding back along the tracks of Ansel's view camera, the letters are sucked backward in depth behind a perfectly centered view hole. The client really wanted to see the C+5 come together, so the final letter C does a quick wipe as it encircles the five and it ends on that bold, clean mark.

Sound design by Parabolic NY
2012 Animation, Motion Graphics
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Wendy Simard's Sprouted Content Wendy Simard is making the newsletter game a little easier for advocates of nutrition and healthy-living homies. Check out her site at sproutedcontent.com 2013 Motion Graphics
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And yeah, this was the first time I've had to motion track my own body, so that was both fun and weird. 2012 Motion Graphics
BAMMO In December 2011, I produced these crazy vfx-driven promos for BAMMO including the branding and design of the channel's logo. BAMMO is one of YouTube's "super-channels"--combining such famous-on-the-internet talents as MysteryGuitarMan, Mike Diva, DeStorm, and Corridor Digital. 2011 Motion Graphics
ManVCandyMachine This short film directed by Angeline Gragasin is undoubtedly the most in-depth, out-of-this world project I have worked on in my young career.

Though this is just a teaser to one half of a dual-screen narrative, you can see how much can be done with a single character shot on green-screen.

This portion is a HUD-style perspective of Candy Machine as it views Man. I started by keying the 5D footage and compositing it into a stark, but textured environment for Man. Then I built out the future-weird tech-ish graphics that constitute CM's brain at work. As Prologue might agree, it's mega fun to imagine and design for a near-future dystopia.

The full length film is something to experience in person, as the dual screens and brilliant sound design live much better off-internet, but you can sneak a peek at manvcandymachine.com 2010 Motion Graphics
PlayOn Logo Bumper Back in March, young film director, David Midell, came to me with the task of redesigning his production company's logo and building it into the opening bumper for their films. The special thing about David's company is that the vision for the company is built out of David's work in special education.

So I presented a handful of concepts and they chose this snowflake design. Since a life with "disability" contains an extra component--that PlayOn aims to deal with in its narratives--I created a 7-pointed snowflake: an icon of individuality with an extra story to tell.

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In my Chicago days, I loved jogging along the Lakeshore path, and sometimes I'd go late at night just as fresh snow was falling all around me and I swear it feels like you might be magically running in the clouds. Just maybe.
2012 Animation, Motion Graphics
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Client: Agency EA
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The beautiful footage was shot and edited by Adam Stein of Bloomgarden Films. He brought us in to work some magic and turn a few "ho-hom" bank charts and transactions into sleek "iPhone-y" touch screen experiences that we tracked and composited into the screens. The subtle end result is a testiment to the seamless execution. 2011 Motion Graphics
Our Children Our Future Ballot Initiative A little bounce on some simple illustrations and a peppy whistle go a long way.
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Health Care Reform teaser Teaser to Health Reform: a visual explanation! A series of videos to educate the public about Health Care Reform.

Illustration by Ray Noland 2009 Motion Graphics
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Brand Development for Mindhearted provided by Birkdesign, Inc.
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Produced by See3 Communications
Sound Design by Dave Fischoff 2011 Motion Graphics
MOCRO winter greetings! Inspired by the fluffy winter of '09-'10, we built this holiday greeting just for fun. (Also, my first foray into the C4D Hair module (pine needles) for the geeks.) And yes, winter's a bitch. 2009 Motion Graphics, Animation
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