Home page design for Sputterbird and the Tuna Teaser

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Over the past several months I have completed a couple of video color correction projects for a client in NJ, a logo design, website design and cookbook design for Quint Publications in Rockport, MA, a website design for Saucy Lures, a 2D and 3D animation project for Waters Corporation showing how Size Exclusion Chromatography works, and a corporate identity redesign for the Concord Feminist Health Center in Concord, NH, which is changing its name to Equality Health Center.

Most recently, I have done a corporate photography shoot for a client in New London, New Hampshire who needed a more professional look for his head shots.

3D can do a lot of things to kick up the quality of your project: your logo can be converted to 3D, technical illustrations which were formerly flat can exist in 3D space, products you might have in the CAD world can be made into products the customer can “hold in their hand”, and many other possibilities too numerous to mention here. You are limited only by your imagination.

If your logo exists as an Adobe Illustrator file, I can convert it to a stunning 3D model very quickly. Products you have that exist in the CAD world, designed with Inventor, for example, can be textured, lit, and animated, to add depth and realism to your imagery. Flat technical illustrations can be given life and movement, so that the most complex processes can be clearly shown.

As part of my Motion Graphics offerings, I’ve included a section on Special Effects. This includes Chroma-keying, Tracking, Particle Effects, and Kinetic and Physics-based Text Animations. I can pull keys from blue or green screens, getting results that, with a background which matches the lighting on the keyed subject, are hard to detect. I can track objects, placing 3D elements into 2D scenes, and vice-versa, and match cameras and lighting between 3D Studio and After Effects.

I’ve created set designs for several high-profile, presidential debates over the years, as well as all of the set graphics for the WMUR-TV on-air News and Debates sets and the large-screen on-set graphics for the NH-1 news channel. My designs include creation of light boxes and monitor wall graphics.

Set Graphics and Monitor Loops

A major part of any set design project is creating the electronic graphics which populate the monitors, large and small. In the left-hand shot, every element you see in the set is my creation, from the flat inkjet graphics on the set faces, to the lightboxes, as well as most of the video loops you see in the set monitors.
The set in the photo to the right is the Moderator’s Set for a national debate. The monitor facing the camera contained a looped logo animation for the debate, and the podium monitor contained show content which was used to cue the Moderator when their segment was coming up. top

Pre-Visualization is Important

A vital step in the set design/build process is pre-visualization, or making sure that what you are planning to build will fit the studio space, that the set elements will fit the camera compositions decided upon by the Director, and that the overall scale of the set pieces does not overpower the talent. I use a combination of rough sketches, combined with careful measurements of the studio space, and input from the Senior Director to make sure that all of the above prerequisites are met, before the hard set is built and the graphic and electronic inserts are created. It’s much less expensive to change a design in 3D than to rebuild a set after it’s done and delivered.

Sometimes you’re at the very beginning of a project. You know what you want in a broad sense, but you have no idea how to get there.
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I’ve been writing copy and scripts for the spoken word for almost thirty years, and I’m very good at what I do. I have written everything from radio commercials for retail clothing companies to long form scripts for documentaries and highly technical product orientation videos.

The trick to my long-running success? There is no trick. Lots of time spent learning my clients’ products and services, combined, in some cases, with a content expert who knows the product or process inside-out, making it possible to create a convincing story that will connect with the viewer, and tell your story.

I created the news graphics package which is currently being used on WMUR-TV, as well as the graphics package for New Hampshire Chronicle, a daily, half-hour news format show which airs on WMUR. Read more »