So, at about 9pm, after a full day of shooting and data wrangling, I had basically nothing in my timeline in terms of story for this rewind. I knew I had great content, but couldn’t get it to weave together. Worry was beginning to set in, but soon thereafter God provided.

After a short walk outside to reset my perspective, the helpful input from some friends, and the sheer Grace of the Spirit, this edit came together faster and more clearly than the others so far. The joy was palpable. At one point, I even startled a convention center janitor with my singing… turns out we both thought we were alone. Pretty funny. Very gracious.

So, enjoy the rewind. I know I did. As time goes on, I have a feeling this edit will stand out in my mind as a milestone of God’s grace not to be forgotten.

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Day 2 of Challenge 2010 is complete.

Already, we’re exhausted from production, but God continues to provide endurance and ability. I even got a 20 minute nap in between sessions today. It’s amazing to be a participant in what is developing here in Columbus.

This Wednesday, May 26, I have the privilege of presenting an hour long demonstration showcasing the top new features of Adobe’s latest release; After Effects CS5, on behalf of  Adobe, Easel Solutions, and The Minnesota After Effects User Group. It’s going to be great!

When you come and stop by, this will be more than a traditional software demo. Of course I’ll be showing off some of the latest features of the application including native 64-bit support, auto-keyframe, and built-in LUT support, but I’ll also be doing an in-depth demonstration of the rotobrush and how to use it with “real world” footage.

During this free event, I’ll be presenting two sessions (11-noon and 3-4) along with participating in question and answer sessions between demos. There will also be free food, drinks, and a chance to win your very own copy of Adobe Creative Suite 5 Premium. I’d love to see you there.

Sign up Here.

Here’s a short promo I put together for the new series we’ll be starting at Calvary this weekend. I’m really excited about it.

As far as the project goes, I had a lot of fun playing with Depth of field on the title animations and incorporating live action smoke and dust with the particles to make everything sit together.

Anyone interested in seeing this as a tutorial? :) Yay, Nay, or Meh? Leave a comment and let me know.

I went to NAB with two goals: First, I wanted to touch a bunch of gear that I’ve only had the opportunity to read about – things like technocranes, enormous switchers, and 3D camera rigs. Second, I wanted to meet face-to-face with a bunch of my motion graphics friends and heroes from around the world; many of whom I have worked with remotely, but never met in person.

It was a real treat for me to get some one-on-one time with After Effects legends like Eran Stern, Nick Campbell, Aharon Rabinowitz, Harry Frank, John Dickinson, Rob Birnholtz, Topher Welch and several more.

Some of my personal show highlights included watching C4D demonstrations at the Maxon booth, getting to (briefly) play with a working prototype of the 5K Epic-X, and talking with some members of the After Effects development team about what I’d like to see in future releases.

All of this was amazing – and it made the trip a worthwhile success. After this year’s experience, I’m definitely planning on making NAB an annual event.

But even with all these wins, I left Vegas feeling pretty small – which is a really gracious thing. After all, the whole experience is designed to make you feel significant – at least temporarily.

And here’s what I thought was really interesting; the Stratosphere, the hotel where I stayed, did a great job of advertising their 108 story casino tower and it’s “breathtaking views” above the strip. They knew that a change of even a couple hundred vertical feet could radically change a person’s perception of reality. From the street level, all the buildings look enormous. But from just a little higher up, relative to the surrounding mountains, we begin to see how insignificant we really are.

So this is what fascinated me; if the deepest joys in life came from chasing everything that Vegas has to offer, there would be no need for an observation deck on the Stratosphere tower. It simply wouldn’t exist. We wouldn’t long to see splendor, or beauty, or have our breath taken away by a desert sunset. Instead, we could all stay happily indoors forever playing with our software, shooting our cameras, or playing the slots without the slightest longing for something greater.

But the reality is this: we long for something great – something that will last forever. And the biggest exhibitions, casinos, or personal successes can never fill that gap. At least not for long. As one of my other heroes says, “even the Grand Canyon will not do. We were made to enjoy God.” And looking out my window at night, over the streets and to the surrounding mountains, helped me remember that all of this without Christ, will never satisfy me.

So, I left Vegas feeling happy and small.

I’m thankful for the experience. I’m thankful to be home. And I’m thankful I get to do what I do. Being around the most advanced production equipment on the planet and the people who know how to use it masterfully, only further reinforced my gratitude that life does not consist in the abundance of my possessions.

We love our church. And having moved a couple times in the past few years, we recognize this as a tremendous gift.

So, this Easter, I wanted to take some time out of my production schedule to make a promotional video for Calvary Community. But as I was writing and thinking about what I hoped people would say, I kept thinking of how this contradicted a blog post I had recently read by Josh Harris.

Basically, he argued that we shouldn’t love the church because of the people there, the programs, the building, or the leadership… which didn’t leave me me with many topics remaining for a traditional promo video. Instead, Harris states we should love love the church because of “who shed his blood to obtain the church”; namely Jesus Christ. So, humbled and rightly corrected, I scrapped the idea and decided to make a video that promoted Jesus specifically instead of a local gathering of His people.

May this video, by Grace, help you see  how sweet it is to “love the church because Jesus loves the church.”

Text Copyright Josh Harris, 2010, Excerpt from “We Are Here To Love the Church” Used with permission.
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this video provided that you do not alter its content in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on your website is preferred.

Either way, it was fun to see someone I’ve had the privilege of working with  – Len Dawson – get some air time during the trophy presentation at the big game. And even though I’m not a die-hard sports guy, getting to work with a Superbowl MVP and NFL hall of famer was pretty cool.

Anyway, a couple months back we did some testimonial videos for Associated Audiologists, in Kansas City, and Len Dawson was the main spokesperson. The project wasn’t heavy on effects, but it communicates well to it’s target audience and we had a great time putting everything together.

Click on this link or the photo below to view the final project.

Client: Associated Audiologists, Kansas City

Agency: Glacial Multimedia

Redeemer City to City from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

As I posted yesterday, I think it is critical for every motion graphic designer to constantly be learning. And it’s even better when that learning yields tangible results. Although work and learning can be separate endeavors, they shouldn’t always be mutually exclusive. Which means, if you’re taking time away from paying work to learn something new, that new knowledge should eventually show up in your projects in order to make it profitable.

This whole personal learning diversion started with an actual paying job. I’m currently working on a logo identity piece where the client asked me to make the logo look less like plastic – roughen it up just a bit – and at the time I didn’t know how to achieve what they were asking for. So, armed with a manual, Google, and couple tutorial sites, I got to work and was able to create the results they desired. And now that I know what I’m doing, I can get back to the real job, finish up my project, and make my discoveries pay for themselves.

On top of that, I thought I should make my discoveries profitable to you as well. So I’m offering my test scene from yesterday as a free looping background for use in your own work. Feel free to use it as an animated background in a project, use it as a displacement map, put it in your worship software, or use it for whatever else you come up with – and if you end up with something you are really proud of, I’d love to see what you did. After all, we’re all supposed to be learning.

Stats: TMG Cube Loop

Frame Dimensions: 720 x 1280
Duration: 3600 frames, 2:30 @ 24fps
Number of Cubes: 50 x 50 grid array; 2500 – Render Instances
Render Time: 19.45 hours – C4DR11.5, Mac OS 10.5.8, 2 x 3 Ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon, 10 GB

Download the Full Resolution Cube Loop here or click the banner for a preview.

I am a firm believer that leaders are always supposed to be learning. Not only because you can’t take others where you’ve never been, but because that’s the nature of being in the motion design business.

To get into the industry you have to do a lot of learning. And I’m not just talking about the technical side of things – although there’s no argument that this is critical.

But to stay in the industry you have to learn even more and at a much quicker pace. There’s new versions, new app’s, new gear, new territory, new techniques, new clients. new jobs, new plugins, new business angles and more. So instead of just doing your full-time production job to pay the bills, You always have to be learning as well to keep up with your clients and your own personal goals.

As a father of five with our sixth on the way, it’s sometimes difficult to find a balance between work (paying gigs) and play (non-paying, or for hire learning opportunities), but both are required for a business to succeed. If I get too unbalanced in either category, the business will fail.

So today was a day for learning. I’ve been receiving more frequent requests for 3D work in the past quarter, and actually done a few jobs dabbling in Cinema4D, but now it’s time to get serious. I have so much to learn – and it’s a great reminder of what it is like to be a student after spending some time being the teacher.

All in all, i think it was a day well spent. I’ll be back on the other side of the business model tomorrow.