I recently had the chance to work with the guys over at Rubbish Is Gold on an Explainer video for Mingle: An Agile Project Management Solution. All the artwork was created by Nick Santore and then animated by myself and Matt Stone.

Enjoy!

I was approached by the guys at Sprout Social to create an explainer video along the lines of Groupon. Sprout Social is located in Chicago and is pioneering the “SRM” space with its social media platform, allowing businesses to connect to customers in a more meaningful way. Justyn Howard, CEO and co-founder of Sprout Social and Gilbert Lara, designer and partner of Sprout Social both really liked the Groupon videos I had worked on and wanted something similar. And since Sprout Social received a Series A round of funding from Lightbank, the recently launched investment vehicle created by Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, It made sense to keep things similar but also a little different. If you have been following along with me on Twitter it’s likely you’ve seen a lot of this process and more as the video evolved.

I started out by creating some style frames. I wanted to make sure the characters looked different then Groupon so I created a new set of characters that had clothes, different skin tones and did not use the same textures as Groupon. The characters were created in After Effects using solids and masks. By using solids I was able to adjust the colors across all the frames if needed.

Once the style frames were approved, the next step was to create full storyboards to make sure the story was going to flow and everything being featured was covered.

I then went ahead and created a board-o-matic for pacing purposes. This helped myself and the guys at Sprout Social get an idea of what need to be filled in and flushed out a bit more.

From there it was just a matter of getting the animation put together and making sure the message was clear. There were a few rounds of back and forth as new elements for the site needed to be dropped in. The final video turned out great and met the needs of the client. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Explainer video for Sprout Social, business tools for the social web.

Client: Sprout Social
Illustrator: Brad Chmielewski
Animator: Brad Chmielewski
Audio: Maeve Price

I recently finished up work on a new music video. There were three motion designers on this video each taking a third of the video; Jeff McBride rocked out the first part then E. J. Hassenfratz came in for the middle and then I finished it up. My part of the video starts at 3 minutes and 20 seconds. We all came up with our own looks for our sections off of references sent from the director. All three sections have their own unique looks but I think they flow from one to the other very well.

Director: Ravi Sinha
Prod. Co.: Ravi Sinha Productions

Creative Post: Coat of Arms
Producer/Editor: Jonathan Lacocque

Motion Designer (1st Section & Title): Jeff McBride

Motion Designer (2nd Section): E. J. Hassenfratz

Motion Designer (3rd Section): Brad Chmielewski

Groupon is an easy way to get huge discounts while discovering fun local activities in over 50 cities across the US and Canada.

Client: Groupon
Illustrator: Vanida Vae
Animators: Vanida Vae & Brad Chmielewski
Audio: Matthew Hane

This commercial was never aired and in order to put it online we were asked at Daily Planet ltd. to change out the logo and promotion.

Agency: EuroRSCG
Animators: Jon Adler, Jess Donofrio & Brad Chmielewski
3D Modeling: Jess Donofrio

With Stanley Cup action in high gear, Daily Planet ltd. created an update of “Hit the Ice,” the pre-game video that plays on the United Center’s Jumbotron to jazz up the fans — as if they need it at this point.

Director / Editor: Sara Evans
Animatiors: Jon Adler, Brad Chmielewski, Jess Donofrio, Katie Weber, Scott Pellman, Scott Marvel, Casey Swircz, Lindsay Zimmerman, Terry Hahin, Kyle Cogan, Yi Cui, Anne Rooney
Audio: Matthew Hane

After you’ve used a Groupon, you now have the option to award or flag a business. If your experience was exceptionally good, give the business an award and we’ll know to feature them again.

Illustrator: Vanida Vae
Animators: Vanida Vae & Brad Chmielewski
Audio: Matthew Hane

Maeve Price, Ken Hunnemeder and myself were invited along to document each step of the brewing process for the 2010 Symposium Ale for the Craft Brewers Conference that is happening this April in Chicago. The video was shot over the course of four to five months and edited my Maeve Price. It was a wonderful experience to help produce a documentary from start to finish. Hope you enjoy the final product.

As many of you know I have a video podcast I co-host with Ken Hunnemeder about craft beer. Its main purpose is for Ken and I to share our love of craft beer with the world and highlight some of the great stuff that is happening in the industry. After almost two years of doing the Hop Cast with Ken Hunnemeder, I’ve finally re-done the graphics for the show. This is just the opening title animation, the entire show has a whole new look. The first episode to feature the new graphics will be episode 90 and should be on the Hop Cast site later in April.

The team at Daily Planet ltd. put out some more great work for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Credits
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

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.

Credits
Camera: Joel Kapity
Editor: Maeve Price
Animators: Brad Chmielewski & Erik Jensen

In this video I see if rendering with the caps lock key pressed really does save you time.

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.”

Starting off the new year right! Here is a new spot that we recently finished at Daily Planet ltd. for GetGo.

Credits
Client: Giant Eagle
Agency: Y&R Chicago
2D Animation: Jon Adler and Brad Chmielewski
3D Animation: Jess Donofrio

In this tutorial I look at how we created the character walk cycles in the Groupon videos over at Daily Planet ltd. The character is animated using a combination of parenting layers and the puppet tool. This character was built entirely in After Effects but the same concept can be used if you were bringing in Photoshop layers.

This tutorial is recommended for beginners. Some basic commands and effects are covered.

Download The After Effects File.