As Senior 2D Artist/Animator, I served as the Animation Director for a series of ten instructional shorts created to introduce aerospace concepts to new players (only 4 of which were published before the unfortunate demise of the studio)
Duties included:
- Storyboarding all 10 shorts
- Contributed character & motion graphics animation
- Supervising team of freelance animators, background artists across 4 time zones/2 continents
- Final editing and VFX
- Concepting, rendering and compositing cinematic stills for loading screens
- Animating short, in-game motion graphic loops
tutorials
A sampling of the instructional shorts featuring my direction, character animation and motion graphics work
Animation: Missing the Ground
Asset Design: Adobe Illustrator
Animation, Compositing, Video Editing: After Effects
Animation: rocket tips
Asset Design: Adobe Illustrator
Animation, Compositing, Video Editing: After Effects
Animation: Cadet Orientation Film
Short video that plays for first time users
Storyboard/Animatic: Adobe Photoshop
Asset Production: Adobe Photoshop, Unity 3D
Compositing/Video Editing: After Effects
Storyboards
Animatic: Orbits Are Weird
Animatic edit of storyboards with temporary audio
Storyboards: Storyboarder
Compositing/Video Editing: After Effects
Animatic: mun landing
Animatic edit of storyboards with temporary audio
Storyboards: Storyboarder
Compositing/Video Editing: After Effects
In-game animations
"Helper" Animations
Quick animated loops that demonstrate concepts within an interactive tutorial
- Storyboard: Adobe Animate
- Final Animation/Compositing: Adobe After Effects
Heat Shield Demonstration
Remote Data vs. Physical Sample Collection
Collect Samples Anywhere
Missions + Experiments = Earning Science Points
"Triumph" Animations
Short clips, imagined as snippets of a live feed from Mission Control, play when players achieve in-game milestones
Asset Design: Adobe Illustrator
Animation, Compositing, Video Editing: After Effects
Tier 1 Milestone
Tier 2 Milestone
Tier 3 Milestone
Tier 4 Milestone
Cinematic Stills
Interstitial screens intended to add a subtle narrative thread between game modes, since by design the game lacks an actual story mode
Concept
- worked with creative director and lead designer to identify key narrative beats
- storyboards made in Photoshop
- iteration based on feedback rounds, visual joke development, new in-game fiction
final
- scene staging using in-game Unity assets
- 3D character customizing and posing
- created custom non-realtime cameras, lighting, shaders/materials
- additional 3D prop modeling in Maya
- plate rendering from Unity 3D editor
- Photoshop compositing and post production
Additional Cinematic Stills
Title Card: Cadet Orientation
Vintage-style digital painting of the marketing keyart, used as title card in orientation video
