I recently had the wonderful opportunity to work with Lindsey Stirling to design some artwork to accompany a narration for part of her show. The project had a fairly quick turn around so the style consisted of elements that I stole from myself, basically for the sake of time and simplicity. Things don’t look as polished…
Here is a semi Star Wars style spaceship built from scratch. Please excuse the messy workplace, when I get on a roll, that stuff happens… Also, the pink poster paper was left over from some props we build last year, figured it could get put to use as long as there was paint involved;) …
It has been a wile since I’ve made a new demo reel, early 2013 was the last one, and the one before that was in March of 2011. I figured it was about time to whip out a new one, especially as I will be graduating college shortly and will likely be asked to show…
In a nutshell, the trick is to give some color variation to those subtle yet tricky gradients. The techniques can also work in other programs as well. Here’s how to approach it inside After Effects: Make sure you’re working in at least 16 bit color. Blur things a tiny bit. Add some noise/grain. Watch the video to see the…
Here it is! The first official Swemsley film of all time! In all of its SD glory! (or grossness… whatever) Our first movie was full of enjoyment and learning. Here is the trailer: And here is the effects shot that started it all:
Back in action! Lethal Abilities is the second official movie my brothers, cousins and I made; (I say second official movie because it was when we started to get serious about making movies. We had been filming ourselves for years: skits, plays, short stories, whatever, but it wasn’t until we had the ability to edit…
I wanted to make some kind of shield, work in wood, and get some new tools. I used this project as an opportunity to do all 3! 🙂 I am a huge fan of The Replica Prop Forum, the creativity in those forums is amazing, so here’s a shout out to all you inspiring people!…
This was a short film for a class, loosely based on another student’s script. Very loosely. Filmed on an iPhone 4 and a Nikon DSLR. We shot for an hour and a half starting at 9:30PM, I transcoded the footage, and then edited all night and burned a DVD by 6:30 AM, just in…
This is a short Batman parody we did as an old group project for school. We were supposed to “swede” a popular film. So, we decided to do some Batman stuff, we mixed The Dark Knight with the 1960s shows. It was shot in one night and cut in the following day or so, just in…
For a class assignment I get to make a mask of some sort. I decided to try Hiccups flight armor from How to Train Your Dragon 2. I started with the helmet. I wanted to do this freehand instead of from a pattern or pep files. Though I am not done yet, I’ve learned a lot.…
Directed by Curt Holman Lighting Design by Benjamin Sanders Projection Design by Justin Hemsley
When Adobe released CS6 in 2012, I was more exited for the addition of the Global Performance Cache than anything else. I was in love instantly. No really, instantly. The first time I toggled a layer off and back on again without having to re-RAM Preview was a spectacular moment. I’ve been using After Effects since…
There are two versions of this one sorry. The original isn’t really a tutorial, it’s more of an overview/afterthought. I originally built it as a test then recorded myself walking through the project, making it a nice sneak peek for advanced users but nigh impossible to follow along and create from scratch. So I eventually got around…
In the spirit of school starting up again, here’s a few thoughts on taking notes in class. I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t particularly care for going to school, although I love learning. Now that I am finally almost done I’m starting to find bits here and there that make the…
The making of a short intro cartoon for an online finance course. Each segment had an intro of its own, featuring the professor of the course. Here is a link.
