Grand Closing

It's been a great ride, blogger. For the past 5 years I've been posting randomness to you, but it's time to shift gears and step it up.

RIP Plate-techtonics.blogspot.com......feel free to come check out www.benrussell.tv
Lot of bugs i'm still working out, but all the old posts from here are there now, and that's where im going to continue posting work+adventures.

It's definitely still a construction zone over there, so don't judge too harshly- html isn't my forte....

Benrussell.tv.
or
www.ben-russell.com

Mt Jefferson Loop

With an inclination to get out of the Boston area and to go climb on some rocks is what led me up Mt Jefferson yesterday. Woke up at 6am and decided I wanted to get out, so I hit the road by 630, and 180 miles later, I was at the trailhead in Jefferson Notch.
The above shot is about a mile or so up the trail when you finally pass treeline. The parking area is the highest for a trailhead in NH, so it doesn't take very long.
This part of the hike was going up the Caps Ridge Trail, and it like a hiking highway- I'd hate to see it on a weekend day....

Even on this very used trail, there are some sections that require a little more than your average hiker may be expecting. Some easy scrambling over large boulders- I ran into a man who was pushing his 80's it looked like when I was about .4 miles to the top.

These are the castles that the hike refers to, going up the caps ridge trail. I thought that perhaps these were just caps, and the other ridge had the castles, but i haven't gotten a second opinion on that one yet. Since it was pretty busy on the way up, I didn't hang around and look at these as much as I would've liked to.

The above shot is a man working his way up the rock face. I was glad to be wearing my sneakers that have rock climbing soles on them, i find they grip more reliably on rocks then vibram soles do, which are on most hiking boots. I pretty much walked right up this face in the above shot.

This tower and building in the distance is the summit of Mt Washington.

Around this part of the hike my camera decided it was too tired to go on, which was a shame, because my descent on the Castle Trail was much more enjoyable than my ascent was. I scarcely saw any hikers, and the trail was much more challenging in some areas. I had a couple camera worthy moments when I sat ontop of one of the castles, but they'll be there next time i hike it.

Dogs Vs Cats

After SLICED wrapped up/got cut off short, I moved onto a new project for Powderhouse called Dogs VS Cats. It's an hour long, one episode deal that premieres on July 24th at 8pm on Animal Planet. Here's the website link:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/dogs-vs-cats/

I developed the graphic look for the show- the open, the logo, the lower thirds, the scoring. My friend and co-graphics worker named Dave Strand did some history animations as well that are pretty damn funny.

Did a lot of this in cinema4D, and outputted it to After Effects for all the score changes.

Presently I'm puppy sitting while my parents are off on a european vacation, and ive been brought back into Hasbro for some more graphics work.

Oh yeah- and i'm getting married next summer, so we're doing a lot of planning for that.

Also: The Playskool Webisodes (or Playskool VIgnettes, for a more eloquent term) received two Telly awards- one Silver for Online Content-Infomercial, and a Bronze for Online Content-Brand Campaign Identity. If anyone actually follows this blog, they would remember a post from last year about this project. Originally it was a pop-up book idea, and then it morphed into me doing medical animations and the graphics package for all the episodes. Found that out recently when I went back to hasbro. Interesting....

SLICED- Toilet Clip

SLICED premiered on the History Channel on April 22nd, 2010. This clip is from the Bathrooms episodes, which I'm not sure if it's hit the air yet, but it's an example of some graphics I've done for the show. A lot of the early episodes- 1 through 3, were done before I got working on the show. This clip has a pretty quick and easy 3D earth fly around to show weather patterns change depending on if their in the northern or southern hemisphere. This episode has a lot more bathroom animations I worked my way through as well.

Right now I've been working on the Bowling episode, and came up with a pretty cool after effects animation of a pinsetter....

School Scrabble

It's been a long time coming on this one. Links to the 4 video's live here. A little background: After the Playskool Webisodes concluded, I was eager to keep working in Cinema 4D and this was a perfect opportunity to do that with Scrabble as a subject. I did all the graphics on these four videos, all starting with the intro, then built the whole look from there. Working with an editor named Kevin Brewster, I supplied him backgrounds, transitions, wipes- the works, and he cut them all together.

These pieces feel like eons ago now- really I'm just glad though that they finally went online so I could do a post here on them, even for just archival purposes only. These videos also mark the beginning of Orphan Boy's rise to stardom (featured in these videos as the kid with the cabby hat on). In one of these videos he points at the camera and says "don't forget about those hot spots!" I put him in a starburst, laughing my ass off, totally expecting that to not make it into these. Well it did alright, and even though it probably won't make anyone laugh as much as it did us,

Boston: From My Roof

Boston: From My Roof from ben russell on Vimeo.

This is something really simple I did a few weekends ago. The photo was taken from my roof. I duped it, put some distance between the two, added some fractal noise in between the two. Aside from that there's the burns and the film scratches, but not a lot to it really. Quick and easy.

Here's the photo I took and used below:

Reflective and Refractive Blocks Tutorial

Reflective and Refractive Glass Blocks Tutorial from ben russell on Vimeo.

I found this tutorial at Grey Scale Gorilla's tutorial site and made one today. The playback on this is kinda choppy, might have to look into that.

http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2010/04/reflective-and-refractive-glass-block-tutorial-part-1-cinema-4d/

SLICED premieres this thursday at 10pm on the History Channel. I didn't do any of the graphics for that first episode, my contributions will begin on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th i think- there's 20 altogether, and I've been working on about 5 in the last month.

I should probably look into getting the History Channel...

Playskool: More Than Play Webisodes

This post is to finally acknowledge something that I started the end of last September, and finished sometime in January. Initially it was pitched by the executive producer as a pop-up book style, so my first 2 weeks on the project was working to R&D the look they wanted for the pop-up book, and the result was the above still image- part of an animation that's roughly 20 seconds long for an intro. Worked on that with another graphics guy, that I also happen to do a lot of snowboarding with, named Matt Armstrong. After the R&D period he left it up to me, and the meetings that followed turned into an ordeal/training of sorts to really figure out the best way to convey the message Playskool wanted. The project morphed into something else entirely- they wanted it faster paced, so we met those demands. I got with an editor named Kevin Brewster, and he went through the process of finding the absolute best pieces of footage, and worked it all into the moving frames look it has now. My role in this was now the intro/outro graphics, and all the medical animations.

A lot of the work I do I forget to post, because when it finally goes on air, or online, it's been awhile, and I'm always on to the next one by that point. Maybe I'm posting this for historical purposes then, just to have it down here as something I worked on. What it comes down to is that these vignettes were a bear to get right, but they were very informative in both how to convey things in a simplistic fashion without going too in detail, because truth be told I am not a medical animator, and didn't have time to do this as scientifically accurate as some of the animations definitely called for.

Still on my list of stuff to post when it becomes available- some School Scrabble videos (4 of them) I did with the same editor as the Playskool Webisodes (Kevin) and the project I'm working on now- SLICED for the History Channel.
Here's the link to the Playskool though,

http://www.hasbro.com/playskool/en_US/discover/more-than-play/vignette-videos.cfm>stuff

I'm Still Here...

...Another update to my WTF cube. Playing with layering textures lately, trying to get some decent results. Doing all of this in Cinema 4D. Below is a screenshot test still i saved from my updated reel layout. Got a decent intro to it going, but haven't had a chance to finish it off and take it further. Starting some new work next week, so im sure by the time im looking to re-do my reel again ill be thinking of something totally different...

All those red screens in the monitors can be replaced in after effects pretty simply after the workflow is all figured out.
Everything gets simple once the workflow gets figured out actually.....

You Still Here?

..because I sure wasn't.
Been doing the hasbro gfx thing a lot, about to start some new work for a history channel show.
here's some wtf cubes i made today while exploring texturing.

Exploding Rings Desktop

Here's my latest desktops i made in c4d. They are stills from an animation of those rings spinning around and then shattering. The second one took like 25 minutes to render just that frame. The first one was a little faster, but not much. I opted not to render out the entire animation. At least not yet.

Working From Home

It's been a long time coming that I've been working towards having an efficient working setup from home. The past 5 years or more I've been using the laptop on my desk for all my design and video work, and that made sense since I was moving around a lot back then. This new setup will allow me to take work home from time to time (especially of late since I've been sick off and on.)

Last weekend the nyc crew came up to see our new apt, go bowling, and eat bbq. The last day they were here we started making a music video. I think the video was cooler than the song, but neither was really finished, and perhaps maybe I'll post the whole thing. Until then, this still says more than enough.

Desktops, Snow, Sickness...

An odd flu-like sickness has put me down the last couple days. Lotta couch time, and some illustrator when i'm in the mood. I've been working the last few months straight on these medical animations, so no time for anything to put online of my own, animation wise.

A second monitor arrived yesterday, and I should be getting a desktop in the next few weeks. In the future I might animate some of the desktops i've made, but as it is my laptop chokes to do as much that it already does.

Last weekend it snowed, big fluffy flakes, for most of the day. Being that it's october, it melts as soon as it hits. Still has me thinking on the winter though.

This one I did today. It was inspired from this lookout cabin trip i did. More shots from mountain biking on that mountain located here.

But Wait- There's More!

Free desktops to fit a 1920x1080 monitor resolution, for anyone who's interested.

Changing my desktop has become routine, akin to vacuuming i suppose. Since I do this stuff for a living, making my own is the only way to go. Here are two recent desktops, and I suppose the last post of the photo from my roof falls into this same category.

I made the abstract one in illustrator, and the grass one in pshop.

It is what it is...

From the Roof

New place, similar story.

4th of July Photos

I used to come to Boston with the whole fam in my younger days for the 4th, and we'd hang out on the blanket all day waiting for the fireworks. So there was some reminiscent familiarity while walking through it all, but mostly after cruising through i was good to leave and stay away from all of it. Above is Storrow drive, closed for traffic, open to walking.


Although this makes perfect sense to advertise, too see it written out is kinda funny/odd...


The hatch shell is the hive of the nest/festivities. I ended up walking to it, and walking back subsequently after, wondering the whole time why i walked to see it in the first place. The journey was more the point of the trip, but I get anxious when I feel like human cattle, all moving at the same pace. There was a lot of interesting human activity going on that was worth photographing, but it was too busy to stop all that cattle and take photos.


Generally people find places next to the river and camp out for the day, roping off their sections and leaving one or two people there to hold down the spot while the others join the cattle in walking around. This rare section where no one was sitting was because the long stretch of porta-potties were next to this area. Who wants to watch fireworks and listen to 50+ people go to the bathroom?


But truthfully I was just killing time down there with my photo journey- my real aim was to meet up with my old college roomate Pooba and his wife Melissa. They were on a east coast bus roadtrip with the whole clan- both her and his families. They must all be very close and enjoy each others companies- how many people could swing that trip? I think the bus ride in itself is a lot to ask. So the graveyard above is in the Common, and it had always been locked in the past when I was taking classes down there, and I knew hundreds of people who were dug up when they built the subways through there had been buried in a mass grave in there, along with a lot of other wealthier denizens of old Boston. So I wasted some time here taking photos...


Eventually I met up with Pooba and Melissa, but we pretty much just went out to eat a lot and their trip was short, so no photos of all of us. Maybe next time- no, till next time....

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....