Category: Animation
Why Drive NYC
In 2017 Blank Space featured the Driverless Future Challenge. I was invited to participate with an international team and submit Why Drive NYC, a concept developed in collaboration with Mitchell Reardon, Daly Brown and Sebastien Goethals. Working remotely with these talented urban planners resulted in a three-minute video proposal. The challenge in this project was limiting the very extensive plan for this new model of strategic urban design. The concept encouraged the public to participate in the design of public space, green space and autonomous mobility networks in neighbourhoods throughout New York City using gamification. Developing the materials from offices scattered across three different continents meant finding creative ways to depict the information. Google Street view and Google Earth provided an interesting medium to explore the streets and traffic of NYC and depict the need for a healthier balance between autonomous vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists in the future of the city.
Why We Cycle – Animation
Arne Gielen and Gertjan Hulster from the production company, Nieuw en Verbeterd, contacted me to animate an opening title for their documentary about the cycling culture in the Netherlands. Working with the talented designer, Riccardo Russomanno, an art direction was developed and a series of font styles were made into an hierarchy. From here, I rotoscoped footage of a group of cyclists as they crossed a red bike path and then added the logo along with texture elements to make it appear weathered and as if it had been painted in place. I also animated maps to show patterns of cyclist movement throughout cities.
TH!NK Pocket R&D VIdeo
IBI Group contacted me from their offices in Vancouver in order to produce a video for their new programme, TH!NK Pocket R&D. Using footage from planners, senior managers and executives shot in offices across Canada, I animated, narrated and edited the footage to explain the purpose of the programme and encourage new participation. A lot of rotoscoping mixed with a hand drawn style made the video a fun and approachable.
Smart Buddy Santander
Smart Buddy was a project growing from a competition held by the European Regional Development Fund’s Urban Innovative Actions. The project included a new take on localized tourism by giving citizens of neighbourhoods the power to share their favourite restaurants, galleries, shops and more to visitors to Santander. Tonin is a visitor’s “Smart Buddy” guiding a visitor through the city and giving useful tips. The Smart Buddy team hired me to design, script, animate and edit a one-minute video to showcase the online service, both in English and in Spanish. Fortunately for them, I did not narrate in Spanish.
Centre for Urban Studies, UvA
The Centre of Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam started a department called Houwel to research the state of housing and welfare policies in governments from around the world. The team won a grant to fund the dissemination of their work in new and creative ways. Researchers in this department contacted me with the intention of making a three-part animated infographic series. Over the next several months, I worked alongside the research team to script, record, animate and edit the content into 3-4 minute videos that shared the main findings from their multiyear research. As part of the process, I developed the art direction, audio engineering and extensive animation. The results were shared across social media and published online in the Telegraph.
10 Golden Rules of Bike-Sharing – Velocitta
Velocitta was an EU funded project to determine the best policy goals for cities to implement and maintain an efficient bike-sharing schemes. At the end of the three-year project, all of the collected data was compiled into “10 Golden Rules for Bike Sharing.” A video was designed to showcase these guidelines in and interesting and accessible way. I worked alongside the facilitator of the project, Pascal van den Noort to write and record a script, develop a storyboard and animate the video into a three-minute video. The results were shared at the final conference of the project and have been circulated extensively in the active transportation arena.
Sustainable Amsterdam Promotional Video
Sustainable Amsterdam is a consultancy firm based in Amsterdam that showcases the city’s many innovative approaches to urban planning, resiliency and sustainable mobility. Part of the research formed the basis of “Are Streets for Cars” a short video demonstrating the changes to Amsterdam over the past few decades, changing into the liveable city that it is today. I worked extensively with Sustainable Amsterdam to showcase the positive message in their research and encourage people to learn more about the city and its transformation. My work on this video included scripting, recording, video editing and animation. The results have been published in many international media outlets and have appeared in conferences around the world.
ENVD Animation – University Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado, Boulder, has been the site of an intensive environmental planning programme, called ENVD, for many decades. The dean contacted me in order to make a 3-minute video to encourage prospective students to learn more about the programme and what skills the students could expect to learn in studies. For this project I helped with storyboarding, scripting, animation and editing.
North Sea Canal Animation – Urhahn Studio
Urhahn Stedenbouw is an urban design studio based in Amsterdam. Working with APPM, Decisio and various governmental bodies including Rijkswaterstraat, Urhahn was hired to make a strategic plan for the spatial intensification the Noordzeekanaal. Once the report was completed, a summit was scheduled to exhibit the plan to the various stakeholders. The team at Urhahn contacted me to make a two-minute animated infographic covering the key points of the report to be presented at the summit. My responsibilities included storyboarding, illustrating, animating and audio engineering.