The team at Daily Planet ltd. put out some more great work for the Chicago Blackhawks.
http://www.vimeo.com/10008577Credits
Producer: Scott Marvel
Director / Editor: Sara Evans
Director of Photography: Andrew Dryer
Sound Design: Matthew Hane
Graphics: Jon Adler & Brad Chmeilewski
Storyboards: Vanida Vae
Art Direction: Angela Finney
If you have any interest in Dogfish Head or starting your own business then “Brewing Up a Business” is a must pick up. Sam Calagione talks about how he went from home brewing and took his passion for off centered beer and turned it into one of the most innovative breweries in the country. He explains some of the success and failures he had with the day to day struggles in building a business, from startup, to marketing, engaging with customers and even turning the brewery into a profitable business. I thought I was pretty familiar with Dogfish Head beer but this gave me a whole new insight into what they have to offer. You learn what Sam was thinking when he came up with each of his beers along with what worked and didn’t work in the process. Besides making you thirsty while reading the book its filled with some great advice and outstanding business lessons. With Sam’s entertaining and humbling stories, you end up walking away with a renewed passion and some great lessons learned. I can see myself reading this again soon as I move forward with future plans. Get yourself some Dogfish Head beers and this book, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in the time spent.
Here is the “Swagged Out With Tags Out” music video for KJ-52 that I recently finished. This video was shot entirely on green screen and animated in After Effects and 3ds Max. For more info about the process of the project check out my behind the scenes post.
http://www.vimeo.com/9864539Credits
Camera: Joel Kapity
Editor: Maeve Price
Animators: Brad Chmielewski & Erik Jensen
Week 35 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts that I’ve come across for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
I came across this neat little application called IOGraph and figured I’d give it a try and see what it would create. In a 10 hour work day this is the path my mouse travelled. The dots indicate where my mouse took a rest. The larger the dotsize, the longer the rest duration was. If you look closely at the bottom half you can see a rectangular box that makes up the After Effects timeline.
Week 34 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts that I’ve come across for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
I want to first point out that I got this book off audible, so I didn’t “read it” I listened to. Which did cause some problems at times since many of the chapters ended with a lot of links to different websites. Also there are a good amount of numbers mentioned in the book which makes it hard to follow at times. So if you’re going to pick up “The 4-Hour Workweek” get the book and not the audio version.
The book isn’t targeted at those who don’t want to change or those that want to change but cannot, but rather it’s targeted for those who actually want to and can change their life. I don’t think I could live the way Tim describes in his book. I really enjoy what I do and doing less of it seems like it wouldn’t make me better off. But the idea of doing less work isn’t what I dug about about the book. One of the ideas was that Tim challenges the notion that people have to work 30-40 years before they can retire and enjoy life. There is no reason why you can’t and shouldn’t take those trips around the world now. You will likely enjoy and appretricate it more now instead of when you are 60. He also recommends eliminating things which cause stress and waste time. An example of time wasters are events such as meetings, constantly checking e-mail, and even social media. Reducing these actively can help you be more productive. Perhaps something I need to learn how to do. Especially since I am someone who finds myself on twitter and checking email all the time. Although I enjoy those work interruptions perhaps they are not the best use of my time. Tim also recommends firing stress causing clients whose projects produce very little revenue for yourself and just add more stress into your life. I’m making the book sound like a self help book and it’s really not; It’s also not a get rich quick book. Instead think of “The 4-Hour Workweek” as a guide book. Along with the ideas of the elimination of excessive clutter from work and home Tim provides steps for you to start automating your life. Showing you how to create income streams that don’t require you to be involved in the equation. I’m not sure that everyone can optimize the way that Tim and others have. A majority of people who read it WON’T follow any of the advice in the book. People like stability, routine, and security. If nothing else it’s inspirational and will likely get you motivated. It will make you wonder why you work so much and travel so little. Rediscover your time.
In this video I see if rendering with the caps lock key pressed really does save you time.
http://www.vimeo.com/9528416I’ve been using Behance for about two years now. The focus of the Behance Network is to help creative individuals and organizations boost productivity and present themselves in a professional way. I use Behance for mainly two things. First it’s a great place to showcase your work. Even if you already have a website showcasing your work, it never hurts to be showcasing your work in more places. Promote yourself as much as you can. Behance has millions of visitors to the site and why shouldn’t some of those people take a look at your work. You never know who might be looking.
Behance offers a neat feature for free called “frame view” so if you don’t happen to have a website (which you should) you can send a simple, stripped-down gallery of your portfolio to clients. Sure there are plenty of other sites that allow you to upload your portfolio and create a page for yourself but that’s all it is a page you can link and send to people. On Behance the content (or “projects”) in each portfolio has a life of it’s own. Users can comment, add to collections, share them and even just click the appreciate button. You can take this a step further and use the site to network with other creatives too.
Besides using Behance for your own personal showcase you have to take a look at some of the other work on the site. I am constantly blown away with the quality work I come across on the site. Whenever I hit a creative block or just need some fresh ideas, hop over to Behance
It can be tricky to sign up for Behance, you can’t just create an account like most sites you need to be invited by another creative. If you’re looking to be invited let me know. And be sure to check me out on Behance! http://www.behance.net/beerad/
Week 33 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts that I’ve come across for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
Interruptions at work are going to happen and no matter how many ways you may attempt to reduce them they all can’t be stopped. They come in the form of a phone call, e-mail, instant message, twitter, facebook, a game of ping pong or someone hovering over your desk and asking ‘If you can take quick look at something.’ As a result of all these interruptions it seems like more and more people are working longer and stranger hours. But I don’t think it’s because there is more work to get done rather its having to make up for not getting work done at work. You may reduce some of these interruptions by coming into work an hour early or taking lunch at 1 pm instead of at noon with everyone else. But this only reduces the interruptions from other people. This isn’t a post about how to minimize interruptions, there are hundreds of them on the web. Instead I say work with the interruptions. I’m the kind of person that probably should of been diagnosed with ADD, I’m constantly jumping from one idea to the next. I’m just not wired to focus on one task for long stretches of time. I need interruptions to be able to get what I need to do accomplished. Although the idea of task-switching has shown to have a negative effect on concentration…
In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites. (NYT)
Right there the New York Times is telling us that focused creative work and interruptions just don’t mix. But what I’ve found is that it makes me work with more focus for those brief points of time. An example of this, is when I was working on this post I was also chatting on Instant Messenger. If I’d get stuck on a sentence or word so I’d just jump over to IM and talk with whomever for a moment, just taking that break from writing allowed me to think about what I wanted to say. It’s these sort of micro breaks that allow me to actually stay creative and focused as strange as that may sound. It’s very easy to get sucked into a compulsive state of mind while working at the computer, which can lead to mental tension. That’s why I think I welcome interruptions; without them I may have a mental breakdown. Bring on the phone calls, the emails and twitter updates. They go wonderful with my cluttered desk.
Week 32 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts that I’ve come across for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
Week 31 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts that I’ve come across for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
Week 30 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts that I’ve come across for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
In this tutorial / tip I show you how to save use animation presets in After Effects.
In this After Effects tutorial I show you how to use Trapcode 3D Stroke to create the arrows and lines I have in the Animate Objects music video “El Dorado.”
Week 29 of Type Tuesday. Each week I’m posting five free fonts for you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.
