Beginning of Summer Update

Just some random thoughts and happenings…

1) I was featured on ReelRoulette’s Top 20 reels. I came in at #7. Nick Campbell continues to do wonderful things for the design and mograph community. Loving it.

2) Twitter has easily become my #1 visited website each and every morning. It gives me behind the scenes, fascinating news, advice and inside scoop on people/companies I actually care about. I have some pretty interesting people following me as well (@stinkdigital, @Attik_US, @nailguntv, @motionographer, @juxtinteractive, @razorfish, @b_reel, @struckaxiom, @click3X, @snowboardermag, @driftlab…) to name a few. 🙂 Go follow them!

3) Wrapping up some freelance projects and hopefully jumping back on a project I started with ToyNinja a couple weeks ago. Great brand and clothing.

4) I got a dope iPhone case from Nailgun, a motion studio in NYC. http://twitpic.com/1nau3e

5) Go check out my friend’s website: http://www.writingthepine.com for some entertaining sports insights.

6) Did a small interview with a student from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I actually learned a bit more about myself in the process of answering his questions. Will share that on another post.

7) I’m making a big move next week and really excited. More on that later… 🙂

Reel Critique by GSG!

Nick Campbell who is a motion designer at Digital Kitchen Chicago has a wonderful blog which has become a weekly bookmarked visit for me. I spoke once before about his 5 second projects and how it’s a great way to play with an open brief to experiment and learn. His new thing is reel critiques. Basically you can send him a link to your reel and he’ll do a real time critique of it. I was 1 of the 3 reels chosen for his 2nd episode. He had some nice words to say about my reel which is very encouraging and offered some insight into how I could improve it. Thanks Nick! And thanks to everyone else who’s left comments, emails, advice and everything else.

Watch the critique here.

New site update

I’m a bit late to post this but a couple weeks ago, I decided to change my portfolio website: thewiimix.com. I grew a bit tired of it’s layout and presentation. Although my flash site was created in such a way that following simple XML and SWF naming conventions would change the contents of the site, I wanted to go down an even more efficient route. I’ve always been a fan of cargo collective and indexhibit and decided to give the latter I try. I love the simplicity and the power of the CMS and it’s actually quite refreshing to go back to an HTML/CSS website. I have some new work to post soon as well as a new reel so keep your eyes out for that.

In other big news, I’m upgrading my HD camera. Although I seriously considered the 5D Mark II and the much-anticipated 7D, I fell in love with the Lumix GH1. DSLR cinematography is the new big thing – didn’t you know? 🙂 Although Panasonic has been slow to release it, I should be getting mine in 2 weeks. I’ve already jotted down numerous ideas for short movies and what I’ll do for next year’s snowboarding documentary. Going to take my amateur shoots to a whole new level. Can’t wait!

May update

1) Went to Bermuda in early April. Captured some great footage and had an awesome time. Still doesn’t compare to Hawaii though..

2) Attended the Industry Spotlight VII hosted by Siggraph NYC at FIT. Seemed like the usual talks from all the nyc big shots. Nathan Love however were hilarious! They showed a studio project they were working on about some horror animation movie. It was amazing and grossly entertaining. Curious Pictures are also working on a 3D short.

3) Had to say goodbye to a wonderful coworker/friend and what better way to do that than drunk bowling! You will be missed..

4) I used to hate indexhibit sites. They seemed to all look the same and lacked any sort of personality. After installing it and messing around with the CSS file, it’s hard NOT to love this little tool. It’s an easy, efficient way to create a portfolio site. I work in Flash all the time but sometimes, it’s just not the right tool to use for a website. Sure, it’s flashier (no pun intended) and more engaging, but when I have to wait 3 minutes for a site to load, that’s 2 minutes too long of wasted time. I never thought I’d say this but I may cross over to the HTML side…

5) Wrapping up (finally) some big projects at work which I hope to include in my portfolio soon. And of course, more new and ongoing personal projects to come as well…

digup tv

In need of some inspiration? Check no further than digup tv. Digup tv is a “video documented review on digital design.” I personally loved the interviews of Mate Steinforth (Psyop), Rob Chiu & Chris Hewitt, and Pierre Magnol (Gkaster). All the interviews are well shot, edited and put together to really tell a fantastic story and keep you totally engaged for the full ~10 minutes.

On a side note, I contacted Pierre a few months ago with some questions about two of his projects. He was very friendly and helpful and it’s nice to watch his interview in retrospect.  Just goes to show that if you have questions, JUST ASK! I still think his reel is one of the 3 best I’ve ever seen.

Thanks for spreading the love

My new reel is linked out from Feed and Original Linkage. Pretty happy since I’m a fanboy of both. 🙂  When I emailed in to share my work, I also found out that Original Linkage is run by Bob Sakoui, who is the head of art direction at MRM Worldwide, part of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup. I’m a fan of all inspirational creative resources, especially when I know it’s run and managed as a side gig. Plus it’s always good to know the backstory of a site I visit frequently. Anyways, thanks to both!

Website Update

Updated my portfolio along with a brand spanking new showreel. Check it out!

www.thewiimix.com

Random sidenote: Duke advances to the Sweet 16! That made my entire weekend. 🙂

2009 has been a blur

You know you’re busy when you cannot find a decent chunk of personal time to maintain your blog. It’s a chaotic feeling I welcome and it forces you to be a little bit more organized. What have I been up to…?

• Last Exit recently launched the new Piaggio USA website which I helped work on under the direction of Fred Wheeler and the rest of the LX team.

• A great video portal website which I’ve been heavily designing is in its building stages. I cannot go too in detail just yet but it is sure to be a great launch in the coming months.
• Just this morning, I received an email invitation to participate in the preliminary rounds of the Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament here in New York City.

 
• OBAMA is officially our 44th President! 🙂
• Some freelance jobs were starting to pile up on my TO-DO plate. Things, a great task management application for the MAC has been a savior these past couple weeks. But now my trial period is over and I’m contemplating whether to use our dwindling economy as an excuse not to purchase the $50 software.
• We’re starting a new presentation forum next week at work called “LX Lecture Series” which we hope will be a nice platform for further discussion, collaboration and inspiration.
• And finally in the most important news… I tried my first 360 off a jump. I wrecked after only spinning 270 degrees but like anything, will pick myself back up and try again. 🙂

thewiimix on pagecrush.net

Just wanted to thank Pagecrush for featuring my portfolio site! 

Vespa USA

We recently launched the new Vespa USA site here at Last Exit. A great looking site that is already getting some nice recognition.