Denatured Concept
(Project 1/4)
Concept:
This is an extra from my work on the “Denatured” project—the scope of this animation lent itself best to a shorter proof of concept. This piece is inspired by digital art I created a number of years ago with my work in Geometry Dash, presenting nature in an unnatural way. The motion and composition combine digital precision and organic bounciness for both a fun exercise as an animator and an interesting juxtaposition.
Jobs:
Ideation
Creative Direction
Animation
Motion Design
Visual Design
Audio Design
Editing
Optimization
Revision
Process:
This piece was first designed in Illustrator. I wanted to lean into elements of perfect geometry and natural imprecision, so I created a composition with 6 unique angles that make up all the lines, then distorted them slightly to establish a relationship between the parts of the tree, how a change in position and angle influences the rest of the composition.
The final layouts were exported as PNGs, then the shapes were recreated in After Effects for maximum editing flexibility. The relationships between the sections of the composition were built out in the motion, then a cascading effect was made by giving each branch a small time-offset, then reconnecting the vertices that were separated by that offset.
The cascade was created by creating the primary motion, then separating out individual sections with a time-offset.
The process from there was adding the colors and shapes that were in the original static design, with some added gradients, as well as other detail and complexity.
Made using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects.
Summer ‘25 Website update video
(Project 2/4)
Concept:
I wanted to bring attention to the animation work on my website more, so I created GIFs to display on the homepage in a new “Motion Design” section. I decided, what better way to bring more eyes to my animation than making another one?
So I did.
Jobs:
Ideation (Concept, Brand, Ecosystem)
Creative Direction
Animation
Motion Design
Visual Design
Audio Design
Typography
Editing
Optimization
Revision
Process:
This could be described as a design sprint, I made the entire video within a 24 hour window as an excuse to learn more and improve my After Effects skills.
My original idea was to post a screen recording to my LinkedIn, but I had nothing else to do in the moment I had that idea, so I decided to do more—starting with a mockup of sorts. I wanted to improve my digital illustration skills, so this was perfect! I scaled the recording I had to fit within the monitor, and by this point I was in the zone. I wanted to keep going, so I did—I brought in the GIFs I had exported and highlighted the slight change in style.
Some of the changes today included the little bounce of the monitor, the music, and the distortion on the text animation for the website link at the end.
Fun little project!
Made using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Media Encoder.
SPRING ‘24 logo animation showcase
(Project 3/4)
Concept:
This video features five logo animations made in April and May of 2024, the first two being from companies partnered with Markentum, a marketing agency I worked with until the start of May. The remaining three were created by myself as an exercise of not just animating, but also brand ideation and creating a cohesive message and ecosystem. The purpose of the showcase was to show a range of execution for a range of companies with unique messaging.
Jobs:
Animation
Ideation (Brand, Message, Ecosystem)
Composition
Editing
Optimization
Revision
Process:
After making the first two animations for my then-job, I knew I wanted to create more to have a showcase with a good amount of variety. The remaining three were made in 1–2 days each based around new effects and methods I was interested in trying out. For the personal-branded ‘RT’ logo, I documented my process in more depth with screenshots:
The first step of my process was creating guides, which enabled me to chunk out the logo into simple shapes.
Next, I extended the shapes into sets of perpendicular and non-perpendicular lines. The non-perpendicular pairs converge at a point, meaning I made sets of long triangles. The perpendicular pairs created bars acting as masks to separate the final shapes.
I keyframed the triangle shapes so that they would start off-screen and very quickly move into place, creating the illusion of the segments filling in. This was also the first step done in After Effects rather than Illustrator.
My final step was adding mattes to conceal the shapes outside of their desired area, for visibility I have set the mattes to 50% opacity and a gray shade.
Following this was a lengthy process of refining movement and adjusting the calculated movements to make them perceptually consistent, and once that was finished we ended up with the final product:
Made using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects.
Fall ‘23 Motion reel
(Project 4/4)
PHOTOSENSITIVE WARNING—CONTAINS FLASHING LIGHTS
Concept:
This video features clips from 11 projects made over the course of Fall 2023. The progression of the clips is more or less chronological, showing improvement and a more refined look as the clips continue on.
Many of these projects were made with the intention of learning a new feature or skill within Adobe After Effects, however I will highlight more distinct work within these clips:
(0:00) Title Sequence—The first clip shows the opening moments of a title sequence designed for a romantic comedy set in a tropical location. This clip included rotoscoping footage of a bird flying and utilized Adobe Media Encoder to convert various frame rates.
(0:14) Audio Visualizer—This clip comes from a project with accompanying music, directly linking the decibels of the audio with the width and opacity of a set of bars offset from one another. Color changes and secondary animations were added to enhance the viewing experience and highlight distinct moments of the song.
(0:22) Web Story—This clip is a segment of a 10-tile web story designed for an Instagram story or any other video medium. The information is spread throughout the tiles with small additional animations to keep viewers engaged and reinforce the concept.
Jobs:
2D, 3D Animation
Ideation
Composition
Music Selection
Editing
Process:
The projects behind each clip were created starting with my first exposure to Adobe After Effects. As you can see, earlier clips in the video are simpler as they were more reliant on the traditional animation experience I had prior to learning this software. As the clips continue, more knowledgeable work within After Effects translates into more sophisticated, dynamic animations that take advantage of the effects and techniques specific to the software. This final reel demonstrates not just my learning process, but also the variety of motion work I have experience with from Fall 2023.
Made using Adobe After Effects.