PASSION PROJECTS - SHOW PACKAGE

I first had a conversation with Dave Swain at Cream Studio about this project in January 2020 and needless to say, I was so excited to get an opportunity to create a full graphics package for a show pilot that was supposed to air late spring. After getting the chance to watch the first cut of the pilot episode, I became even more enthusiastic about the project - the content, pacing and music bed really pulled me in.

"International journalists Amar Bakshi & Michelle Moghtader had a thought after traveling & writing stories for an American audience about the far off places they visited & the interesting people they met along the way: what if you could create direct conversation between people on opposite sides of the world by building a space that made them feel like they were actually in the same room together?"

We came into this knowing there was a limited budget to work with and we really needed to be considerate of how we'd build out a comprehensive graphics package given the circumstances. With Dave and the Cream team recognizing that the budget might be a little limiting, we came to a mutual understanding that we would inject our own "passion" into this project and push as far as we could reasonably go with it. It didn't take long to hone in on an approach that felt right in line with the direction of the show... we were off to the races.

I first had a conversation with Dave Swain at Cream Studio about this project in January 2020 and needless to say, I was so excited to get an opportunity to create a full graphics package for a show pilot that was supposed to air late spring. After getting the chance to watch the first cut of the pilot episode, I became even more enthusiastic about the project - the content, pacing and music bed really pulled me in.

"International journalists Amar Bakshi & Michelle Moghtader had a thought after traveling & writing stories for an American audience about the far off places they visited & the interesting people they met along the way: what if you could create direct conversation between people on opposite sides of the world by building a space that made them feel like they were actually in the same room together?"

We came into this knowing there was a limited budget to work with and we really needed to be considerate of how we'd build out a comprehensive graphics package given the circumstances. With Dave and the Cream team recognizing that the budget might be a little limiting, we came to a mutual understanding that we would inject our own "passion" into this project and push as far as we could reasonably go with it. It didn't take long to hone in on an approach that felt right in line with the direction of the show... we were off to the races.

Passion Projects Promo

Passion Projects Promo

Every once in a while a project requires a certain pacing and tempo that lends itself to motion tests actually being integrated into the early design and discovery phase. Instead of styleframing six frames that represented a single quick interstitial sequence, we let some of the animation style dictate the feel and design of the piece as a whole. My experience with this approach has been hit and miss, but it worked like a charm on this project and went a long way in consolidating our time spent on this part of the process. While our ultimate goal was to create a full comprehensive and mallaeble graphics package, we focused our early efforts on the Main Titles - If we got something that worked both in design and movement for the titles - we'd be able to extrapolate that language across our full suite of elements much more quickly and cohesively. Again, it worked like a charm. With these early victories and momentum building, we were blissfully unaware of what 2020 had in store...

Initial Styleframes

Initial Styleframes

Early Motion Tests

Early Motion Tests

Given EVERYONE experienced some form of this or another I won't dive into the details, but needless to say, the project took quite a hit once COVID peaked it's head here in the US. We went from a late spring/early summer release date to one push back after another. Unlike many of my friends and family, I was very fortunate to have stayed quite busy throughout quarantine, so this set back on the project wasn't much more than a minor inconvenience for me personally. With that said, I do have a history of obsessive behavior when it comes to my work, so I used the opportunity to try and test my patience (with varying degrees of success) - "With time" I'd tell myself. "With time".

With a couple months of quarantine and my wife's bout with COVID behind me, Dave Finally reached back out to let me know production was back on track. We eagerly got the train rolling again and began laying out what needed to be accomplished:

Given EVERYONE experienced some form of this or another I won't dive into the details, but needless to say, the project took quite a hit once COVID peaked it's head here in the US. We went from a late spring/early summer release date to one push back after another. Unlike many of my friends and family, I was very fortunate to have stayed quite busy throughout quarantine, so this set back on the project wasn't much more than a minor inconvenience for me personally. With that said, I do have a history of obsessive behavior when it comes to my work, so I used the opportunity to try and test my patience (with varying degrees of success) - "With time" I'd tell myself. "With time".

With a couple months of quarantine and my wife's bout with COVID behind me, Dave Finally reached back out to let me know production was back on track. We eagerly got the train rolling again and began laying out what needed to be accomplished:

FULL GRAPHICS PACKAGE REQUIREMENTS

Main Titles
Date + Location Identifiers
Name Supers
Quick Transitions
Quotes
Summary Text
End Credits
Special Sequences

Main Titles
Date + Location Identifiers
Name Supers
Quick Transitions
Quotes
Summary Text
End Credits
Special Sequences

First thing's first - take our initial motion tests and impliment them to build out our Main Titles with the updated footage and music bed supplied to us by Overcoast Music. Within a couple of days we had regained our momentum and had a title sequence that was feeling pretty damn good.

With that out of the way we could start trying to tackle the issue of how to make this whole package mallaeble enough to fulfill the needs of an entire season and not just the pilot episode. Of course the best way for that is to build out individual elements that were encapsulated within a single After Effects Project file. So, I invested time into building out an all encompassing templated project file in which you could easily insert text, change various colors, easily move animated elements and I took it one step further to offer a variety of easy to use design options which changed from one element to another. Now, I'm sure Dave could speak to how well I actually pulled this off, but here's the list of elements we created to be templatable:

First thing's first - take our initial motion tests and impliment them to build out our Main Titles with the updated footage and music bed supplied to us by Overcoast Music. Within a couple of days we had regained our momentum and had a title sequence that was feeling pretty damn good.

With that out of the way we could start trying to tackle the issue of how to make this whole package mallaeble enough to fulfill the needs of an entire season and not just the pilot episode. Of course the best way for that is to build out individual elements that were encapsulated within a single After Effects Project file. So, I invested time into building out an all encompassing templated project file in which you could easily insert text, change various colors, easily move animated elements and I took it one step further to offer a variety of easy to use design options which changed from one element to another. Now, I'm sure Dave could speak to how well I actually pulled this off, but here's the list of elements we created to be templatable:

Date + Location Identifiers
- Two different versions
Name Supers
- Lower left + lower right
Quick Transitions
- Two animations
- Each animation included an alternate version that was flipped on the x-axis for variety
- Four total
Quotes
- Two animations (One centered and one corner design)
- The corner design included four alternates simply scaled for all four corners
- The centered design included an alternate that animated upward instead of downward
- Six total
Summary Text
End Credits

Date + Location Identifiers
- Two different versions
Name Supers
- Lower left + lower right
Quick Transitions
- Two animations
- Each animation included an alternate version that was flipped on the x-axis for variety
- Four total
Quotes
- Two animations (One centered and one corner design)
- The corner design included four alternates simply scaled for all four corners
- The centered design included an alternate that animated upward instead of downward
- Six total
Summary Text
End Credits

This RIDICULOUSLY simple tactic really went a long way in building out a full suite of possibilities with relatively little effort when compared to creating sixteen individually animated and designed pieces. Long story short - when on a time crunch or budget limitation, don't over look the power of flipping your comps!

Individual Assets for GFX Package

Individual Assets for GFX Package

Once our final tweaks were made to these base templates and the Main Titles, Summary Text and End Credits were all signed off on I handed the project file over to Dave and he took it from there. I can't tell you how excited I was to see this full piece come together. While I have had a whole lot of experience in this KIND of work, I'd never actually been apart of a full television show before with several moving parts. This is the kind of work I've been slowly trying to position myself for since going freelance. To be apart of the process with such an AMAZING group of talented professionals reminded me just how fortunate and lucky I am to be doing what I love.

It was about a month and a half or two of hearing minor updates from Cream and my friends at Overcoast before Dave reached out with a set air date. My wife, step-daughter and myself sat down with a bowl of spaghetti after a long day at the office and enjoyed every minute of this wonderfully crafted episode. I am equal parts optimistic and excited about the future of this series. From the story telling to the compelling music and sound design, it was a thoroughly enjoyable watch and something I feel so honored to have played a small role in.

Once our final tweaks were made to these base templates and the Main Titles, Summary Text and End Credits were all signed off on I handed the project file over to Dave and he took it from there. I can't tell you how excited I was to see this full piece come together. While I have had a whole lot of experience in this KIND of work, I'd never actually been apart of a full television show before with several moving parts. This is the kind of work I've been slowly trying to position myself for since going freelance. To be apart of the process with such an AMAZING group of talented professionals reminded me just how fortunate and lucky I am to be doing what I love.

It was about a month and a half or two of hearing minor updates from Cream and my friends at Overcoast before Dave reached out with a set air date. My wife, step-daughter and myself sat down with a bowl of spaghetti after a long day at the office and enjoyed every minute of this wonderfully crafted episode. I am equal parts optimistic and excited about the future of this series. From the story telling to the compelling music and sound design, it was a thoroughly enjoyable watch and something I feel so honored to have played a small role in.