To learn more about me and see examples of my work please visit Website not available. Sign in: https://www.twine.net/signup
I have been producing videos, motion graphics, and 3D animation for 30 years. In our industry, it’s a bit of a bad word to be called a generalist because our work culture relies on specialization. An editor is usually great at editing videos, but won’t know how to make graphics because that is a whole different field with different training and education, for example.
This is completely antithesis to how I see the world. I started producing videos in 1995 when I was 15 years old, truthfully out of necessity. But I was very passionate about it. I love visuals, film, video, design, photography, drawing and painting, video games, animation. I studied art history. The great artists of the world never did just one thing. They used the knowledge they had in one filed and applied it to another. I meet so many directors that don’t know how to use a camera, and I think that’s ridiculous. I think it is absurd for people to have thriving careers directing a visual medium to not understand exposure, resolution, really basic visual technical skills. For me, being a good at say, photography helps me improve the lighting and composition of my 3D scenes.
In 1997 after making a bit of money editing and producing videos professionally I bought my first PlayStation and that inspired me to get into 3D animation so I started to learn Maya. By 1999 I produced my first, what would later be called, motion graphics for a for a feature length documentary.
I wanted to learn everything, and then I did. I have a need to be excellent at everything I do and I am. I wanted my work to stand toe to toe with anyone who specialized in the one thing and I’ll let my work speak for itself. I have been fortunate and competent enough to work on all kinds of projects in every different medium and have won plenty of recognition and awards.
I used to have the hardest time describing what I do because of that thing where generalist is kinda a bad word. I used to tell people I was a storyteller, just with visuals instead of words. However, during the pandemic, I realized the negative consequences of putting my career first. I realized I was letting my work define me. After getting married in 2023, I don’t care about any of it. I don’t care if I’m working on a film or a big commercial; I’m tired of crunch culture. No recognition or financial reward is worth how unsustainable and unhealthy that lifestyle is. I really just want to spend time with my wife and family and engage in the hundreds of hobbies I have.
Now when people ask me what I do for work I say I’m an adventurer, a Doctor Who like figure that gets into zany adventures by using my lifetime of visual expertise to help people if I can.
Experience Level
Language
Work Experience
Education
Qualifications
Industry Experience
The Royal Canadian Mint wanted to create a spot for traditional 16:9 aspect ratio screens such as broadcast and YouTube that could be repurposed for vertical and square social media posts. The script not only highlighted the gold coin, but also the fact that it is made from end to end in Canada using Canadian talent and resources.
I did all the creative direction, directed the spot, and did all the motion graphics and 3D animation. The two main tools I used were Autodesk Maya and Adobe After Effects.
Back in 2016 I recorded a quick vlog on location at the Toronto International Auto Show in one of the exhibits I designed for Kia. At Varipix I always used to do the main Kia wall. My main tool was Maxxon Cinema 4D as that was the 3D suite the studio chose.
The screen Kia uses is extremely wide. To complicate matters, depending on the location they add or remove panels that change the aspect ratio of the screen. Our solution was to create a 3D environment that the content could live in. Every year I would create this 3D tableau and then animate it into different states using C4Ds instancer and mograph toolset. The challenge in using C4D for production is always rendering.
I would always render my scene in multiple passes as it only existed to have video composited inside it. If you pay attention to the show loop, every 3D scene is a transition into another scene. By stacking these 3D transitions and time remapping the animations I was able to create some truly compelling visuals without having to render a bespoke animation for each asset.
The layouts were chosen to include 16:9 aspect ratio videos in their extremely wide screen. I treated the extremities of the screen as pure decoration as those panels would be removed in smaller locations. I developed this notion of simple transitions in a stack as rendering was complicated and time consuming, we needed a way to easily change things and swap assets out.
One thing I liked about Kia is they were very thoughtful on their shapes and colours. The basic gag was the same every year, but the shapes and designs were constantly evolving. The brand also focused on lifestyle. They would always provide me with beautiful abstract visuals in addition to all the shots of cars. It was some of the best agency work I’ve done that precisely targeted a specific demographic.
It’s kind of funny to me that the most data driven, quantitively effective videos I’ve worked on are straight up advertising.
A feature length documentary
Hire a Visual Effects Artist
We have the best visual effects artist experts on Twine. Hire a visual effects artist in Toronto today.