Animation
2018 - Professional Generalist Reel
Due to the nature of the automotive industry, some of the content within this reel is not view-able for the general public yet, and so this reel is *PASSWORD PROTECTED*. If you wish to see my most current demo reel, please reach out to me via the contact page and I will get back with you at my earliest convenience.
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Software Used - Maya, HDR Light Studio, Nuke, Mari, Deadline, Insta360 Studio, Syntheyes, PTGui, Bridge, Photoshop, After Effects, Media Encoder.
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If you would like to read a full description, and my personal contribution breakdown for all the shots you see in the reel, please click HERE!
Dam Short Film Festival 2018 Submission
Dam Short Film Festival Intro Animation
In the early months of 2018 I had an opportunity to work with Ken Cioe on this animation for the Dam Short Film Festival. The festival takes place in Boulder City, Nevada every year in late February. They get submissions from all over the world, and have been steadily growing for 15 years now. My co-worker Ken Cioe used to be heavily involved with the festival when it first began, and had been contacted to help create the intro animation. The nature of the request was to put together about a minute long intro video that would serve as a beginning signal for each respective film block during the festival.
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The vehicle model for the Challenger and the Subaru came from Turbosquid, but the Mini model was a custom concept done by my good friend Ben Marouski. Ben also helped out adding some custom accessories and unique textures to each of the vehicles to make them stand out.
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The animation, lighting, rendering, compositing, and editing were all done by me. I utilized Houdini to make a terrain generator tool, and the environment that is seen for the desert portions of this animation was a result of that tool. The bulk of the 3D was done in Maya using VRay. The compositing was all done in Nuke, and the final edit was completed in After Effects.
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Bridge Cinemagraph Breakdown
Cadillac XT5 Cinemagraph Breakdown
In the summer of 2016 there was a sudden jump in automotive advertising using Cinemagraphs. Whether it was a vehicle photo where the clouds looped in the reflection of the windshield, or a woman, frozen mid-jump across a crosswalk, while her scarf rippled in the breeze, you could see them anywhere people could advertise them. Something about the subtlety of just one singular moving item while the rest of the image remained frozen was really catching to the eye.
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The idea behind this project was to try and push the limits on what was possible to animate in a cinemagraph before it began to feel unnatural, or overbearing.
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The backplate was acquired from CG Backgrounds, and I was able to stitch together different elements to create the HDRI dome used to light the vehicle. The vehicle data was provided to me. It was rendered in Maya using Mental Ray, and was composited in Nuke. The fluid particles were a mixture of Maya fluids, and RealFlow wetmaps and simulations. I was responsible for all aspects of this project from beginning to end, and the project took me about 4 days to complete.
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Pontiac Film Hanger Projection
Sonic_Animation_Breakdown
While I was on a photoshoot back in early 2015, I stumbled across this movie studio hanger during the tech scout. The massive building made me immediately think of the lair where Batman pulls up in Chris Nolan's latest interpretation of the Batmobile in Batman Begins. The seamless concrete floors with the column after column of fluorescent lights above just made me think, 'man, this would be a cool environment to do animations in.' So, the next day after we completed the client photoshoot, I brought my cameras, my notebooks, my measuring tape, and went to town.
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I captured a grid of HDRI Domes, as well as accurate measurements for the dimensions of the hanger. Once I had that info, I roughly blocked out the model in Maya, and then placed cameras based off of my location measurements/tripod heights for each respective dome. Then, I took all of that into nuke and fine-tuned the projections, and the result gave me a fully dynamic HDRI environment, that I can not only pull blackplate footage from an animated camera with, but can also spit out a full-range HDRI sequence to light with as well.
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The overall building of this asset took me roughly 3 weeks cause it was definitely a learning process. At the time I had never worked intensely with projection systems in Nuke, however now I can whip this same type of work in a fraction of the time. The animation of the car, once the camera was imported from maya to nuke, took about 2 days to complete.
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The Dome capture was done using my Canon Mark II, Adobe Bridge, and PTGui for the stitching. Basic modelling was done with Maya, and the projections and compositing was all done within Nuke.
Ford Focus RS - Badge Video
2016 Ford Focus RS - Tune+ Highlight Teaser - Ted Grabow
This past summer me and my group of friends have been frequenting race events. Whether we rent out Waterford Hill Race Way to our small group for a weekday, or drive out to South Haven for GridLife, I always try to bring my camera along to capture the memories. One of my good friends Ted Grabow approached me about the idea of doing a video for his car, and I wanted to try and do something that was unique and personal for Ted.
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We got to talking, and we are both big fans of Marvel, and so we came up with this idea to do something that paid homage to the Marvel logo in the beginning credits of their movies, while still being unique and tailored towards his vehicle.
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All of the footage was shot at Waterford Hills Race Way in Waterford Hills, MI. I captured everything using a combination of my Canon Mark ii, my GoPro Hero5 w/Karma Grip Stabalizer, and my DJI Phantom 4 Pro. Once I had the footage captured, I modeled out the Badge and placed screens along the inner faces. I cut the video to the music using After Effects, and then mapped the movie back onto the geometry. From there I rendered it out using VRay Light Materials and Maya, and finally composited it in Nuke. Once the CG portion was complete, it was integrated back into the final edit, and delivered using Adobe Media Encoder.