Growing up skating, there were always certain videos we would watch before a sesh. Videos that would get us all hyped up, amped, and ready to hurl our carcasses onto a handrail down a flight of stairs without a second thought. This video is right on par with that… but for drifting. It incites that same urge to do something ridiculously dangerous with little regard for consequence, and I CANNOT get enough of it!

* I did not edit this piece, only helped with some mograph muscle. Huge thanks to Andy Laputka (director/editor), Brian Casse, Mark Lenardon, and Chris Szczypala, Chris Boon, Hertrech Eugene, and Mike Vogt for their efforts shooting.

It’s about time, right? I nearly killed myself making this documentary… so it sure feels great to see this up there. I also found out recently that the retail release that nobody ever saw is up on Netflix as well. It would be interesting to know who got paid for that. Regardless, it is awesome that such a large audience has access to it like that.

Be sure to visit the Slide America IMDb page and give it a vote/review!

Back in November at Artistic Image, I was tasked with creating an animated book trailer for Thinking Small by Andrea Hiott about the history of the Volkswagen Beetle. Armed with photos from the book and a script… I tried to come up with a look that was remnant of the classic VW ad campaigns by DDB, while trying to take the viewer on a journey through some the history behind the car. I enjoyed utilizing some typographic muscle to try and pull all the moments together with a cohesive look by using various weights of the Volkswagen typeface.

This project was right up my alley in so many ways… and was a lot of fun to work on! I learned so much about Volkswagen’s history in the process, and can’t wait to read the book!

Back in September, I was part of the team at Artistic Image that got to work on the player introduction for the Falcons Jumbotron. This piece plays at each game before the players leave the locker room and run onto the field. The player footage at the beginning is mocked in for placement where they shoot a live feed from the locker room/tunnel area.

Ed Dye directed the piece, while Daniel Wiggins and Daniel Barnes handled the 3d animation. Lee Kordel and Jeff Ling did the texturing, shading, and lighting. Owen Chikazawa animated the mid-section with the rotoscoped player footage, while I was responsible for compositing/effects. I learned a TON putting these elements together and helping bring this piece to life. This was an awesome piece to work on, and it is definitely exciting to know that a stadium full of people see this every game!

The rivers will run red with the BLOOD of the non-believers. East coast drifting will never be the same after this video hits.
Trust me.

*I didn’t edit this video. I only slung the plasma around for the titles.

In this age of digital media, it is always rad to see your work in printed form. Ryan Tuerck was recently featured in the August issue of Inked Magazine wearing the American Steel Tee that I did for Drift Alliance.

Just about every time I wear this shirt, someone says “great shirt… you ever seen them live?” I always reply “yeah, many times”… even though I’m talking about Drift Alliance, and they are talking about Judas Priest!

Over the summer I have had an insatiable urge to shoot video. Since my car has been out-of-order, I have been catching rides to out-of-town drift events every chance I get. While it is seemingly easy enough for me to go and shoot an event – life ramps up it’s speed, making it seemingly impossible to edit anything. This video sat nearly complete as a rough cut, sans a few effects and grading for two months. Well… over the holiday weekend I was able to put the finishing wrench-time in and complete my first drift video in two years.

I tried a lot of new things with this video, which is really my driving force behind making them. I want to learn something with each project. This edit is no exception. I tried a lot of new things both behind the lens, and behind the keyboard. This video was a ton of fun to create… and even though it took me forever to finish it – I think it was worth it.

The biggest change in my realm, is undoubtedly work-related. In late November, I was contacted by a local Atlanta studio to freelance on a showreel of animated print advertisements. The studio is Artistic Image, located in the King Plow Arts Center in west Atlanta.

The studio is really awesome, and does amazing work! After working on the showreel I got to work on some really fun spots for Cartoon Network LA. I was given all of the graphic elements to animate, and the concept was that ordinary back-to-school items would transform into giant aliens and battle it out. Really really fun spots to work on!

Then in January, the crew at Artistic Image asked me on full-time for a 6-month contract to work as a part of the team to revamp the historical Stone Mountain Lasershow.

The project would entail video-mapping technology to create the illusion that the mountain comes to life… giving the show an added element of dimension that the traditional lasers could not provide. It was an incredible project to work on, and took an immense amount of work to complete. Everyone on the team at Artistic Image did an amazing job. I had a chance to see the show’s opening July 4th weekend, and judging by the crowd’s reaction – this renovation was a HUGE success! I feel very honored that I was able to work on a project of this magnitude, and one that has such a historical significance to the state of Georgia.

This spot on 11alive.com gives a little more insight to what we did.

June marked the end of my contract, at which time, I was offered a full-time position as an animator. I graciously accepted the position, for I have been wanting to transition away from designing for web/print for well over 5 years. I was finally able to make the jump to motion design full-time, and I am incredibly happy about it. Everyone on the team at Artistic Image is super-talented, and most of all – really great to work with! I’m really excited that they gave me the opportunity to come on board and be part of the team!

It had been a while since I had done anything artistic that didn’t involve a computer… and while a computer was used in the process… for the most part – it was pretty hands on, leaving me smelling like burnt wood and sawdust. These aren’t completely done… but I’m at a good stopping point so I thought I would share.

First thing… I set the type and set up some separations to cut some vinyl.

Sir Alex was gracious enough to help with the plotting (THANKS DUDE!!!).

Gradation detail.

Tools for the job. Some stuff I had on-hand… but I bought a few new things to try and make this work… including a router for the Dremel.

Lieze found some killer slabs of wood on eBay. This cost $40 and was exactly what I had in mind.

So I slapped one on for placement so I could measure my cuts for the rest of the signs.

After that, I sliced and diced them to size.

Then it was time to try and test things out and figure out the process for the rest of the signs. I had an idea what I wanted to do… and as I went, things sort of changed.

I applied some wood finish over the vinyl.

Originally I planned to paint in the gradation…

But when I pulled the vinyl off… it was a MESS (no photo). The wood stain seeped under it really bad. Because of this, I broke open the router and gave it a whirl. I would like to point out that my Grandfather Whitney’s awesome shop glasses helped me make this signs what they are.

So with that starting to look okay… I decided to start in on the rest.

And repeated the process.

The router-attachment makes it easy… but kind of hard too. If it runs too deep then it catches the wood on fire. The sawdust makes things difficult enough, but add smoke to the mix, and I’m flying blind for sure.

Then I decided to torch the tops and bottoms. I thought they would look better black, and I didn’t want to paint them. Plus some of the stain dripped down, and I didn’t like how that looked.

So this is where they are at now.

Stage 1 complete. Stage 2 will include pulling the remaining black vinyl off, and then possibly use a wood burner to darken them up. The black vinyl as-is, will not stand the test of time out in the elements. Then I hope to be able to re-apply the gradation vinyl and get those lines on the letterforms. I may possibly try to take another pass with the router for a deeper cut. Then I think they will be ready to hang. Lieze also found some killer ol’ rustic barn nails on Etsy for the finishing touch.

I will post more as I make some more progress!