Todd Kolbuck Design

Asked to develop a 30 second kinetic typography piece in our Motion Graphics class, I chose the trailer for “Comedian” which I have always found hilarious.  The piece took 17 hours to produce, and was an interesting exploration of what After Effects has to offer.

We were asked to develop a living room, decorated to appear as if it was lived in.  This piece has a number of small details that really complete the piece, including a 1950’s TV guide on the table (beside a coffee cup), a proper, detailed window crank and window rails, and period photos on the walls.  In addition, I lit the room from several light sources, the hallway, the moon outside, and the television.  Every part of the room is accurate to the style of the 1950’s.

The challenge in this project was to develop an animation that would evoke emotion using only spheres and cubes.  In addition, it could be no longer than 30 seconds.  I created a warehouse scene using cubes, then added some atmospheric lighting.  Finally I animated the ball and cube in an intense 12 hours to produce the tragic story of the little cube that couldn’t.  I hope you enjoy it!

My first attempt at a fully animated piece, on a very tight deadline.  I gave myself a near-impossible task of creating an animated piece over a minute long, but in only 5 days.  I settled on creating a title sequence, and even though I had to cut a huge chunk out of the story, I think it was one of my favorite projects from my time in college.  The animated bits were created in flash, and the piece was put together in final cut pro to create the seamless transitions.

The creation of this how-to video was an adventure.  Our group set upon the idea of creating a school safety video, complete with animated interludes.  We shot in several locations, including green screen, in a large, but poorly lit house, and a terrifying hill down into a quarry (with 3 foot deep snow).  I had the privilege of working with some truly amazing people on this one, and we produced a product (with about 30 seconds to spare in the 1 week deadline)  that I think we were all really proud of.