How Does Your Garden Grow?

I haven't posted in a while, and I'm sorry... but I've been busy with cool stuff like this project.

I remember buying this album from Better Than Ezra when I was in college, and listening to it non-stop. I had never heard an album quite like it before... and when my good friend (and frequent collaborator) Rich LaBonté asked me to be involved with the release of his 5.1 surround remix of the album, I didn't really need to answer.

Together, we plotted and shot a documentary for the piece — one that inadvertently ended up telling both the story of the making of the album and the recreation of the mix for the 5.1 version. We were so struck by all the behind the scenes stories that we felt obligated to tell some of them as well as the one we initally set out to tell.

By the way, the album sounds amazing in surround audio and it's pretty clear that it was made for this. Head over to musicvalet.com to buy the disc or watch the documentary.

Star Wars!

If you haven't heard of Star Wars Uncut, you should really check it out (www.starwarsuncut.com)... assuming you like things related to Star Wars. Here's the deal — fans from around the world, or galaxy, claim a 15 second clip from the film and recreate it... then all the clips get edited back into the full movie and we have a wicked-cool version of Star Wars to enjoy.

So anyway, the first one was a success, and it's time to recut The Empire Strikes Back... and I'm jumping onboard. I plan on sharing the process as I go — all the decisions, and how I'll do what I'm going to do. Should be a rip-roarin' good time (or mildly interesting at the least). Stay tuned.

The Heartgard Plus Chew Strikes Again

I love this little guy. As a follow up to the Hooks and Rounds animation we did for the Heartgard Plus folks, this is a little piece that they asked us over at Brighton to create for heartworm awareness month. It's a simple, but effective piece... and seriously, how can you not fall in love with those little chew guys? This particular fella happens to have the exact same sunglasses as I do.

Heartgard Plus Presents: Battlin' Hooks & Rounds

This has got to be one of the most bizarre, fun projects I have been a part of in a long time. It's a little animated short I created with those crazy kids over at Brighton (near the end of this project, I joined their ranks... so it's a little crazier now).

See, there's this Heartgard Plus chew, and it's this magical little treat for dogs — it not only prevents heartworm when properly used, but it also prevents stuff like intestinal parasites... and in all honesty, that can be some pretty scary stuff if it's not prevented. The idea was to tell the story and get people to ask their vet for more info without terrifying them.

So, in the interest of making something accessible and easy to remember, I worked with the Brighton team to write a legal-friendly, yet catchy song (not an easy task) and then animated a nutty video to go along with it. It's probably easier to 'get' if you just watch the silly thing, so do that if you haven't already.

The characters even made it into a coloring book that vets will be giving out, so that's a pretty awesome side-accomplishment. 

From The Farm To The Bag

This has got to be, hands down, one of my favorite projects in a while. The short story here is that Innova is a brand of all natural, real-good-for-your-pet food, and they've just started stocking the food at Petco... so they wanted a fun little video to promote this idea of "from the farm to the bag", so I worked with Brighton Agency to create this animation: 

Working with a few of the cool kids over at Brighton, we came up with the general concept, wrote and recorded the song, scripted and storyboarded the visuals, and then I animated for a few weeks. With a super short deadline, we cranked hard on this to get it to come together, but even still it was a great time. It kept me up late at night and had me up early to start working on it again each day, but even at the end, I was still laughing at how the carrot dances. He's a pretty bad dancer, since I used myself as the basis for his movement.

I'm going to be putting together an epic tutorial (let's hope epic wasn't too big of a word to use there... we'll see) on how all of this was put together, as it's a great example of how the Adobe Creative Suite can work pristinely with itself in the right circumstances. This stuff started in Photoshop or Illustrator, went to Flash, and then was smooshed together in After Effects... and later edited in Final Cut Pro... although I would probably opt for Premiere to edit now. Oh well, the chain is broken. Still, I learned a ton of cool tricks and would love to share them.

Anyway, more to come on this later. For now, enjoy the video.