Our Energy Client came to us and request a set of 4 videos to pomote their energy efficiency programs. The videos needed to capture the audiences attention, and entice them to enroll in the energy efficiency programs. We developed a unique papercut out look to evoke the charm of a cozy home, and the comfort that knowing your energy bills are as low as possible with help from our clients programs.

On this video I worked with the Art Director and Motion Director to develop the look and feel of the videos. This was the first video produced and would  inform the look of the entire set of videos, as well as inform our production pipeline. 

The storyboarding process was entreemly important. Our client had many mandatories for both the information the video needed to convey, as well as audience insights we needed to adressed with our visuals.  Detailed storyboards and animatics were very important to ensue an efficient pipeline with such complicated scenes.

The animation and compositing process was extreemly collaborative, with myself animating Trevor's flat vector designs and applying the paper 'lighting' effects I developed, and Trevor tagging back in to add the textures and final polish while I moved onto storyboarding the next video. 

Produced and Directed by ICF
Design:   Trevor Piecham, Amanda Moody
Animators:  Amanda Moody, Trevor Pecham

On this video I worked with the Art Director and Motion Director and provided animation, Design and storyboards. Additionaly, I oversaw a designer contributing aditional designs to the video, and provided guidance on the specific needs for designing for animation.

I provided inital storyboards for the animation, creating the groundwork for the composition and visual direction of the story. The storyboards were done by both myself and Trevor Piecham. We ping-pong the storyboards back and forth to keep the visual ideas fresh as we addressed team and client feedback.

The animation and compositing process was extreemly collaborative, with myself and Trevor collaborating on design and animation, myself applying the 'lighting', and tag-teaming final texture and polish with Trevor again!

Produced and Directed by ICF
Design:   Trevor Piecham, Amanda Moody, Lauren Bell
Animators:  Amanda Moody, Trevor Pecham

On this video I worked with the Art Director and Motion Director and provided animation, Design and storyboards. Additionaly, I oversaw a designer contributing aditional designs to the video, and provided guidance on the specific needs for designing for animation.

I provided storyboards for the animation, crafting the composition and visual direction of the story from the ground-up.

This particular video was collaboratly designed by myself and Lauren Bell. I worked with Lauren Bell and provided guidance on the designs. The animation, lighting and texturing was done by myself.

Produced and Directed by ICF
Design:   Trevor Piecham, Amanda Moody, Lauren Bell
Animators:  Amanda Moody

Developing the look was an incrimental process. Our first step was to create an internal 'proof of concept' to show that my team could develop a sophisticated paper cut out design and feel.  I created the below image very quickly in after effects to show that we could mimick true studio directional lighting and shadow gradients of layer paper in aftereffects, and stylize it to craft a world that would best suit our story.

The bellow illustration showcases my 'toolkit' of lighting techniques for the animations- 'folded overlap' shadows (the background mountain), inset shadows (the background trees), and directional shadows (the foreground trees).

The second step was to translate our approved storyboard into motion, craft a motion look and develop a pipline for the 4 videos. I animated the very first shot- a cutout map of Michigan- our clients service area. From there I refined the method for crafting the distictive 'slightly raised' edge look of the faux contruction paper. 

After defining the motion, and finalizing the lighting, the third step was to apply the texture and develop a clear pipeline for applying it. Applying the texture was taxing on our machine so we knew it would be the very final step. 

Before we completed the motion on the first video,myself and Trevor worked together to craft a texture look that complimented the lighting and layers of the illustration. We applied texture to a rough animation pass of the video so that we could finalize the pipeline before moving into full production. Bellow is a before and after applying the texture so you can see how much life such the texture pass brings to the final product!