Fresh Animations

Random Animations from ben russell on Vimeo.

Working freelance provides both money and work in lumps at a time. On the flipside, there's the times, that also come in lumps, where you don't work, and money doesn't come in for awhile. That's how it goes, I suppose.

What do I do with myself during these off times? Well, I've found that some people use their time to get their business cards in order to better market themselves to potential job opportunities. I have no such interest in doing that kind of stuff, so I read tutorials online, and make animations, to get better at what I do...

Here's a random assortment of animations I've made in the last few weeks. Some were from tutorials, and there's a few random things I did for work in there- some roto jobs I did- the one at the end was a back to the future knock-off for some internal video, and the other is a car hitting a wall, but the walls/floor were the incorrect color.

I'll post more of these as they come up. Maybe eventually I can post some of the larger projects I've done, when they actually go public....

Happy Fathers Day

It was nice to be around yesterday for Fathers Day, first time I have been in years...
Above is the card I gave to him, made it the morning before. Sometimes we work best under pressure...

Roadtrip Animation- Mass to Montana 2005

Roadtrip 2005- Mass to Montana from ben russell on Vimeo.

Like a bird, I suppose, I used to seasonally migrate between summers out east in Mass and NYC to live out in Montana in the winter times. The drive used to be an endurance test, and generally I enjoyed them for the most part. I would go alone, drive straight from Mass to Chicago, which was around 24 hours, then hang out there for a few days. Then I'd go straight from Chicago to Montana, which is also around 24 hours. During the voyage, I would sleep in the back of my car at rest stops when I needed a couple hours of rest, but never in motels, because I knew I wouldn't sleep long anyways.

Those trips used to give me a chance to reconnect with old friends across the country twice a year, which was something I really enjoyed about them. Around here you can read my original post(s) about the trip.

The technique I used in animating these photos is the same one I used in the Morphing Hands video, using the pixel motion frame blending technique in after effects.

Mr. Lee comes for a Visit

The last time I'd seen Mr. Lee was in Montana two years ago. He flew into Boston, a place he'd never been before, and we made the usual New England Tour. This is him on the cliff walk in Newport, RI.

Here's Mr. Lee again, taking a photo of a duck I think, or maybe it was a Canadian Geese?

We walked by the Museum of Fine Arts, but didn't stop in, because there's a really cool museum a little further down, that was unfortunately closed that day. Here is a massive baby head that's out front.

This is the two of us down in Newport. Lee was taking a photo of some thing, probably a boat, and I'm imitating his camera face. Everybody puts out their camera face when taking photos, I'm trying to bring attention to that with this photo.

The Barking Crab is such a cool name, I really wanted Lee to get a piece of memorabilia from this establishment, but he wasn't budging. Seafood really became the item of choice for consumption on Lee's trip, and I'm good with not eating any of it for awhile now that he's gone.

Two more shots of Newport here, one is of a mansion on the cliff walk, and the other is some random one that says "Lobsta & Crabs". I couldn't pass it up.

The Celtics were playing the night we got back from Newport, and while we were discussing which restaurant we wanted to go to to watch the game, we decided to just take a stroll down to the Bank North Garden and see if we could get tickets. The whole time we were doubtful, but there was still seats available. So the two of us got to sit with some seriously die hard Boston fans (who probably weren't even paying attention to basketball a few years ago) and eat some cheese dogs+drink some beers way above watching some NBA finals Bball. Too bad they lost the series, but not that game!



I unfortunately didn't get any pics from when the nyc crew came through at the beginning of Lee's trip, however I don't think photos or words could summarize that whole experience....

Search Bar

"Search Bar: Imagine a not-too-distant future, where a person’s movements can be accessed via a search bar, and illustrated with current public mapping technologies."

This was a project I recently finished for my studies in digital media class. I was interested in topics surrounding surveillance.

East Coast Snowboarding

It pales in comparison regarding number of days on the hill, but I've had a pretty good winter this year, taking my new location into account. Yesterday was my fifth day out this season, and all of the days have been fun ones out there. It's been a great mix of fun people to ride with and decent mountains. Nothing has compared to Big Sky in size or pow days, but I've had some fresh snow days out east here, along with some great warm sunny ones too.
Work has been busy. Every day I've been creating new projects at work that will be used either internally in the company or will get used on television at some point. Skills have been increasing, so work has stayed challenging + exciting.

These two photos are from a few weeks ago up at Jay Peak with a two co-workers and my lil cousin. I'd love to ride Jay on a pow day because they have a lot of tree runs, but this day out was pretty fun, aside from the packed bus ride up there.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future I'll post up another video- maybe something combining a few different small pieces I've been doing at home, and maybe even a few things I've done at work with that.

Camera Flies Around Lone Peak

Big Sky- Camera Fly Around from ben russell on Vimeo.
This is the first installment of my work in computer animation for a class I'm taking right now. I built Lone Peak in Maya, then added the sky and intro titles at home in After Effects. Later versions of this project will include more of the mountains in the area.