Every so often we get to work on projects that let us flex our creative muscles. Even better, when we get to work on something millions of viewers will see. This sort of thing has recently happened for Nate Vanderplas, our animator extraordinaire. AMC recently invited him to create an animated piece for their new show, The Walking Dead. Nate created the animated “outro” at the end of the piece – where you see a pistol being held in the foreground with blood running down it, while some gnarly zombies approach in the background.
Nate did a lot of Photoshop prep and animated this segment from the original comic book, The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman. It took Nate about 40 hours to create what you see–he started by breaking the artwork from the comic book apart from the backgrounds, and then had to animate the final product you see in the piece. This work demonstrates Nate’s great talent for not only animating, but prepping difficult imagery for animation.
You can watch the entire animated teaser on AMC’s website below:
Great Success! (in my best Borat voice). This year, Gorilla is presenting the Addy’s event by creating the awards reel, an animated showcase of winning print, online, and film/video work. Last night, all of our hard work paid off when Gorilla proudly presented the Awards reel. Creating the reel was a long road marked by no sleep, communist factory worker employment hours, reoccurring states of delirium, and and even less sleep. But it was worth it. And the work presented was fascinated. For the naysayers in West Michigan, creative ideas exist and can compete with the nation’s best.
It’s been an intense couple weeks, and a big reason has been fulfilling our commitment to sponsor the 2010 Addy Awards. Gorilla personally took home four Addy Awards to add to the collection. Even more important though, due to the sponsorship, we had a lot of great exposure throughout the night. For this, a special thanks goes out to Todd Chatman, who really worked hard to help make the Awards Reel the best it could be. Also, huge props to our new friends at VisualHero for some remarkable graphics and design work.
The work has been tireless (literally) as the last couple nights have been sleepless, barring an occasional office couch nap. But the end is in sight. Today the presentation will be delivered for technical review, and then tomorrow night the fun begins.
In the end, who can say what future film making fun will derive from the night’s success but rest assured that it was a great experience for Gorilla. Check out the intro to the Awards Reel we made for last night’s presentation.
The 2010 Addy Awards will be held in downtown GR at The Intersection, with the fun kicking off at 6:00 p.m. Hope we see you there!
Also, if we fall asleep during the awards reel don’t bother to wake us up. We’re gonna need the rest. We’ve seen it about ten thousand times at this point, anyway.
