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'Natural Wired' VFS Grad Project

2023

For my VFS grad project, I decided to take some inspiration from 'Serial Experiments Lain' an anime from the 90's, and honor its message of overgrowing technology and AI advancements. This was made in tandem with a fictitious AI ethics agency I created which acts as the theoretical commissioner of this piece (see case study below).

Animation & Trailer

Natural Wired details 'Askii' wondering whether she should take the plunge and integrate her life further with technology. As she hesitates, reflecting on what she may lose of her autonomy, the technology takes over and makes the decision for her.
Perhaps you will also notice some easter eggs and secrets dotted around too!

Case Study

'SAAM' is an AI ethics board designed as the theoretical sponsor that would have commissioned this cautionary tale. And this case study as well represents the balance of work I was managing with this project.

Animatic

The animatic/storyboarding for this project was integral to this piece being finished on time. Exploring what was truly necessary, the establishing shot intro was completely cut, as well as various other details.

Concept Project

Earlier in the school year we were given a 'do anything' project. I decided to do some character conceptualization tests for Askii.

Poster

In designing a full motion package, it was suggested an intriguing and representative poster may be the right move.

Style and Assets

Initially I did not find style frames to come in as useful as they were, especially in explaining my ideas for this project. Thank you to my project mentor for that advice.

Rig Tests

Given this is a character animation project, honing in a versatile and readable character rig was integral to creating this project efficiently. (Thank god for Duik!)

Closing Thoughts

This is the biggest motion project I had ever worked on and I could not be happier with how it turned out. I am thankful to have had a mentor from the industry lead me through the pipeline.

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Monster Walk Cycle

2022

I've always loved the idea of character animation, and naturally was very excited for this project. This was my first introduction to Duik, the rigging software in After Effects, and went well with my previous understanding of rigging concepts. Lots of inspiration was taken from the animator David Firth (the 'Salad Fingers' guy ;)

The Animation

The animation process was perhaps the most exciting part of the workflow for me (as I'm sure EVERYONE would agree). I planned to have an inevitable twist at the end for some challenge and intrigue. I designed the music and sound to reflect that same vibe.

Character

I wanted to bring across the feeling of 'dead-weight' this character had, given it's look and story.

Character Design

I settled on a 'skin stretched over bone' body type like some subjects found in Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński's work

Background

Again taking inspiration from Zdzisław Beksiński, I wanted the background to feel surreal and barren, with a level of depth (parallax) to add some expanse and emptiness.

Closing Thoughts

This project was definitely a challenge, but very enjoyable to hone in a believable and intriguing animation and overall style that I was proud of.

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YouAreMachines.com Mechanical Heart Logo

2023

'You Are Machines' is a surreal online art gallery and journal run by a group of friends, including myself. The site needed a logo fitting of the name and concept of the site. Something mechanical, but grounded in something human and recognizable. Visit the site here!

The Animation

What fun is an untextured, static logo? Make it move! It's alive!!!

2D > 3D

I had a concept to represent the 2D in a way that said '3D'. Here is the proof that this is all just the puppet warp tool in After Effects :)
(Excuse the lag of this clip)

Naked Logo

Here's the logo without any clothes on. Sometimes to get intimate with the design of a logo is to get intimate with a logo...

Closing Thoughts

This was the first major motion project I uptook after graduating and a creative break. It could not have been a more worthy project to jump back into design and animation.

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'Spectre' Personal Icon

2024

In changing my Instagram handle (follow me ;) to something less pretentious, I decided it would be a good idea to get a new profile picture. I also had to throw out all my old business cards, so don't put IG handles on business cards...

Some Motion for the Icon

A static icon sounds boring, so I gave it some weird digital elements. Bonus points if you know where the little ghost character is from! (But the music is from Alias Conrad Coldwood)

Additional Elements

Sometimes a project supplies you with some interesting visuals, so I made sure to capture them before I lost the project file forever in the completed project folder pile.

Closing Thoughts

After years of an old half-thought-out previous profile picture and branding, this was a very refreshing project, with glitchiness and pop culture elements I hold dear. In the end, this is a great representation of myself and style.

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'A Clockwork Orange' Mock Title Sequence

2024

The book was better than the movie, and this mock title sequence I made is just as exciting as ultraviolence.

The Project

From the visuals to the music I did my best to stay true to the original vibe of the book (and movie) with this mock title sequence.

Rough Cut

With this project, the rough cut came in between the assets, and put me on the right track to timing out the proper beats of the title sequence, while allowing enough time for legibility and readability.

Style Overview

We were tasked with creating a bit of a single-page style overview. Despite its simplicity, it helped in honing the simplistic, somewhat gritty, and off-kilter style I was going for from the start.

Closing Thoughts

I have a deep respect for those that create truly engaging title sequences with respect to animation, credits, timing and representation of the original media.

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'Dakota Bear Sanctuary' Geodesic Projection Dome Infographic

2023

This was a client project contest at VFS (the best team was selected). The client needed a way to easily explain how a geodesic projection dome, which they made themselves, works. This client works for the Dakota Bear Sanctuary and was holding a exhibition which included the projection dome and visuals of the forest. They as well needed a website to go along with it. A team member made the 3D dome, but I did everything else.

Infographic and site intro

The infographic had a few key points to explain in a simplistic way, understandable to a general audience including children. The video was intended to loop in the background of the exhibition area.
As well, upon entering the Sanctuary's website, our team planned to have a quick 'intro', zooming into the dome, and immersing yourself in the forest.

Closing Thoughts

This was one of the more important projects at my time at VFS as we were working with an actual client. We got some really great feedback from an notable outside perspective. We dealt a lot with the re-iteration process on this project, and I think it was definitely for the better.

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'Perfect Enough' Rolling Title Graphic

2023

Does it spoil the fun if I tell you I was inspired by the timer number selector on an iPhone? This is intended as a title card for a (theoretically) ongoing slice-of-life series.

The Project

This was created with a few variations in the words and phrases on the barrel, fitting the overarching themes of the series, and can be edited dynamically in the project file. Coming up with all the phrases was perhaps the funnest part.

Use in the Wild

It's not good enough, it's Perfect Enough that our friend Ozymandias exploded I suppose.

Closing Thoughts

This was a simple yet engaging project. The execution of the 'rolling text barrel' is a concept I always wanted to figure out, and glad I was able to tie it into an interesting, larger project.

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Kinetic Typography Collab

2024

I was FORCED to work in a group with other motion designers for this VFS project. But it's alright, we all got along. Collectively, we came up with a word, theme, colour palette, font, and other various points to practice staying within style-guidelines in a group setting.

'Ephemeral'

We selected 'death in mythology' as our theme. For my selected letters (P, E and L), I decided to represent death in various ways from Nordic mythology.

A Closer Look

I chose Thor's Hammer, a Viking Funeral, and Jormungandr respectively.

Closing Thoughts

Working in a larger group and getting everyone to stay on the same page was quite an enjoyable challenge. Had we had more time, I believe there are a few more areas we could have discussed to keep more in-line with each other.

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CGI Intestines

2024

People have called this project gross... Great!
An introduction to Cinema4D and the AE tie-in pipeline, I wanted to make something out of the ordinary, to stay interested while working in 3D.

Realism

My aim for this was something grotesque and realistic. There was some clever material masking use for the veins and such but most of it is the blurry VHS effect hiding some crimes.

Pre-Effect

After Effect's lesser admired cousin, the pre-effects of this project are alright, but it's not quite as realistic as I would have wanted. To leave some of it up to the viewer's imagination, it's definitely in-need of that gritty polish that makes it feel a bit more real.

Closing Thoughts

I may not always enjoy 3D, but I believe this project served more to practice my skills in art direction, and in creating something that would garner an emotional reaction.

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'You Are Machines User Manual (YAMUM) Volume 1' Magazine

2024

'YAM' was turning one year old. We (the 3-person YAM team) had done a lot of work on this large gallery/journal website, and we wanted to commemorate the effort and process we had gone through over the year. I handled quite a lot of the layout and design on this project over the 2-3 week course. Read the magazine here!

Real-Life Prints!

We might not be popular enough yet for a massive print order, but we really wanted to make sure we got a physical copy of this project, and it was designed intentionally with that in mind.

From Draft to Final

The drafting process was necessary for collaborating effectively, and to organize the huge ideas we wanted to cram into every page.

Drafting Process

Figma, while it may be primarily for web layout, was a key component in the conceptualization, collaboration, and drafting for this print layout, including some structuring tools for our Windows 98 style pages.

Closing Thoughts

It was a great motivation to work with a deadline (the website's birthday), despite the added stress lol. It really got me working quite hard, but not allowing me to be an ultra-perfectionist about it. I've learned a lot about print design, and am excited to refine the process for this next year!

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'Vivitape' Retro VHS Boxart

2023

For a general 'design whatever' type Photoshop project at VFS, I decided to improve on a previous concept I had made (see the 'Gateway' Boxart project). This time going for something more realistic.

Mockup and Design

I did my best to create a clean base VHS box design that was as accurate to the time as possible, including as many little details and words as I could, while also creating a visually intriguing design. The texturing and faux-3D done in Photoshop brought the whole project together.

Closing Thoughts

Lots of people seem to be surprised that I even know what a VHS is given my age. I take great offense to that, so hopefully this will show em. This was definitely a fun passion project, even if it was an actual project to be handed in for the class.

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SAAM
"Ethics Committee for the
Safe Advancement of AI and Machine-Learning"

2023

I believe the current developments in AI as of recent have been quite unethical and have largely gone unregulated. It is taking the human aspect out of art, music, teaching, and a multitude of other jobs. At VFS, I took this branding class as an extracurricular to to focus on creating an independent ethics board. Read the brand overview here.

Logo

Arguably one of the most important parts of a brand, especially when it is customer-facing and extra especially when it is human-focused. A logo that conveys the complete idea of the brand while staying simplistic and easy on the eyes is necessary.

Mockups

What do shareholders like? Pretty pictures! An important part of presenting a brand, rebrand, or new product for consideration, funding applications, etc. is to present the brand professionally and in a way that will get as close to the final look and feel as possible. Mockups are extremely helpful in presenting such concepts effectively before any production begins.

One Pager

Read the brand overview here.

Keeping up a brand's look consistently is extremely important in order for customers to recognize the brand, and know what to expect without any surprises or irregularities that may make them lose trust in the brand. Defining that simplistically is ideal for any designer to quickly understand what mindset they should be in.
(P.S. Ideally, a custom font may be made for a company like this. But in lieu of that, there is the compromise of combining two typefaces for this project.)

Additional Asset

Something that helps unify a brand like this is an intriguing and consistent visual element representative of the brand. The idea behind this background element was in regards to brain synapses and wires, but made to look a little more digital. In a sense it's like human and machine together, which in this day-and-age is technically already a reality. SAAM was designed to ease that transition and ensure everyone is safe when it comes to this sort of digital integration, and a friendly techy design like this helps get that idea across.

Closing Thoughts

This brand acted as an expression to my concern and distaste in how AI is currently being handled. It was a good outlet for me at the time, and I hope there will be more ethics boards and various committees that come up in the next few years to combat AI's currently unregulated nature. This brand was a good exploration of making something more in-keeping with the modern tech market, and it was fun creating all the assets and graphics to suit that.

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Anvander Headphones

2022

Anvander was a branding project I had in VFS. I've always liked staying true to artist's intentions, and studio-grade headphones convey the artist's original piece as accurately as the artist heard it. So naturally, making an attempt to design a high quality brand for high quality headphones sounded like a fun challenge. Read the brand overview here.

Logo and Brand Pyramid

In order to convey this sense of sleek and high-quality, and in-keeping with other high-end headphone brands, I decided a typeface logo would suit best. I selected a charismatic serif that assisted with that expression. It comes off as classy, but some of the irregularities and edges give it a slight sense of imperfection. Music, without the gimmicks of bass-boosting or other party tricks that other headphone brands might use, should be heard with all the imperfections and irregularities that the artist intended.

Mockups

Sleek headphone design, packaging and presentation is important in customer trust and pride in their purchases and trusted brands. Knowing the customer is important in any design. We know our target cares about the quality of the headphones on a much deeper level than most. Deeper info and technical language about the headphones such as SPL, impedance, frequency response, etc. are all listed directly on the package, and is something our target audience would understand and appreciate.

One Pager

Read the brand overview here.

Keeping up a brand's look consistently is extremely important in order for customers to recognize the brand, and know what to expect without any surprises or irregularities that may make them lose trust in the brand. Defining that simplistically is ideal for any designer to quickly understand what mindset they should be in.

Closing Thoughts

I've always respected high-end audio gear very much. This branding project was a way to discover and research a lot more about something I was passionate about. I enjoyed the attempt at designing something that was sleek and professional without ending up with designs that felt overly corporate or clinical in their design.

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UTGP2020 T-Shirt Contest

2019

I won. My design ended up on the shirt and in the stores of a multi-billion dollar company, sponsored in part by the MoMA, along with so many other talented winners and great designs. This is one of my proudest achievements in design.

The Shirt

With the theme 'Design Your World' my design, 'Sprout', was pulled from the style of Vaporwave, which was more popular around 2016-2018, and was the root of my love for design. It was really endearing to have a design style so important to me be selected as a winner.

Reward

To see my work in a plaque, and in official company branding, I could not be happier, let alone see my shirt in real stores or on people. If you would allow me to boast some more, I'm also one of the first results when you Google 'UTGP2020'!

Closing Thoughts

I am very grateful to have won such a massive annual t-shirt contest out of thousands of contestants. This was a massive boost for me as a young designer that something was going right, and that I should keep going. I really must thank all the judges, Uniqlo, and the MoMA for the opportunity.

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'Radiohead's House of Cards' Poster

2023

At VFS, I was tasked with creating a simplistic poster representing a song or music video. I chose Radiohead's House of Cards.

The poster

Taking a look at the music video, I think you will understand the inspiration for this piece. The best way I think I could represent Radiohead's overarching themes in their lyrics, and in this song, was to portray the suburban middle-class house, disintegrating.

Closing Thoughts

This was a fun project to work on. A simple poster for one of my favourite bands, and one of the best songs by them (or in general). I ended up very happy with how it turned out.

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'Gateway Driver Installation Disc' Retro PC Boxart

2020

This is the orignal project that inspired the 'Vivitape' Boxart project in my portfolio. At the time, I thought it would be fun to create a some sort of packaging design. I chose the concept and story, and let all that feed into the design.

The Design

I did my best to engrain this design in reality with texture and setting. I believe I did a fairly good job, but I know now (with the 'Vivitape' project) that I can do even better.

Base Graphics

Before any lovely texturing, honing in believable and meaningful base graphics and copy text is a must for a project like this, INCLUDING a misspelling of 'Illegal'! :D

Closing Thoughts

This project was a lot of fun. I uptook it in my free time around the end of highschool to keep my design eye sharp, and it was one of my favourite pieces for quite awhile.

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Minimalist Radiohead Album Cover

2023

As a warmup project at VFS, I were tasked with creating a simplistic re-design of an album cover. Naturally, I picked one of the the best albums ever, Kid A by Radiohead.

The Redesign

What I thought was important to get across from the original was the isolated, empty sort of feeling, while still keeping inline with the aggressive imagery of mountains and volcanos. Hence, the sharp, asymmetric lines.

The Original

Closing Thoughts

It was fun thinking about how to represent one of my favourite albums. It really made me think deeper about what the cover's art truly represented. What does a boiled down version of all that meaning look like?

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Traditional Media Pencil Sketches

Yes, I can draw too :)

Sketches

I had various ideas and concepts I wanted to get out. The main idea I focused on at this time was surrealism. The initial two designs are anthropomorphized plants, where as the last one fed into a larger story idea I had for a character that I never ended up completing.

Closing Thoughts

I definitely need to draw some more. I have lots of ideas for illustrated books and the sort, it's just a matter of taking them on.

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YouAreMachines.com (YAM)

2023-Ongoing

'You Are Machines' is a surreal online art gallery and journal run by a group of friends, including myself, and is absolutely the best project I have ever been a part of! It has been an amazing project for me to learn some web development as well. To be honest, get off my portfolio now and go visit the site here!

A Year of Work

By this point it has been a little more than a year since the project had started. There were many plans that changed multiple times throughout the process, but most of the site's art direction was inspired by the name 'You Are Machines'.

The Logo

There is some more detail about this project to be found in the 'Mechanical Heart' project page on my portfolio, but the tl;dr of this project is we needed an intriguing logo that was representative of the site and stood out from what was traditional in a logo.

Physical Media

We found it important for us to be able to create some physical media for our site. It was a fun idea to actualize our project in a more real and tangible way. There is some more detail about the magazine to be found in the 'YAMUM' project page on my portfolio.

The Radio Station

Yes, we have a live radio station! Still in its early stages, we have been very passionate about music, and wanted to find some way to curate and share a lot of these wonderful songs and projects. We have been doing our best to get proper credit to utilize these songs as well! Listen to the radio here!

Conceptualization

We had a lot of fun collaborating and coming up with cool ideas for the layout of the site. Something about it was very natural and didn't go through too many iterations to find something we were happy with.

Closing Thoughts

After college, I took quite a long time off of working in any design field. This is why. YAM is a massive project that continues to grow and has no end in sight. We have a lot of plans and are very excited to share them with everyone. It has been great working with a dedicated and passionate team.

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'On A Roll' Sysiphus Game Animation Assets

2023

"Animate 20 clips on a 3D rig in Maya in about two weeks with no prior experience in the program." "Okay, sure."
Despite not knowing Maya, I know how to animate, and I did my best to pick up the program and get some character animations done for this (shelved) project.

Some Animations

I've picked my favourite animations of the 19 or so that I ended up doing. The title/idle screen (first example) being my favourite, as it was the most personalized. A lot of these were left in a sort of semi-refined state, some better-off than others. (For the last example, he was meant to be hit by lightning then run over by the boulder).

Some Context

This project was playing off the idea of Sysiphus and his boulder. It was meant as a mobile high-score runner, and I had to keep that small screen in mind when animating, meaning I had to be obvious and big with my motion.

Closing Thoughts

Learning a new program in such a short time with so many required deliverables (20+ if I continued working), it was a challenge to say the least. But I was excited to have been offered the position and explore some new areas of animation, with some real motivation and pressure behind it.

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'Recoil Raiders' 7DRL Challenge 2024 Game Jam Assets

2024

One of the more 'official' game jam groups I joined, I had a few weeks (more like days) to get comfortable with importing my assets into Unity, as well as work on the assets themselves and their mockups. It did not turn out well... Play the game here and see for yourself!

Logo and Characters

I was responsible for all the character designs in the game, as well as the title. They came out pretty nice in my opinion, but I've included only my favourite pieces here.

Mockups

Communicating my animated vision to the programmers and other integrators definitely requires some understandable mockups. We had a 3/4 topdown style, with a 2D/3D (2.5D?) effect, so the sprites needed some love to respect the cameras angle and 3D environment, but still suit their 2D style.

Closing Thoughts

In my opinion, the project was not particularly a success. With a team of about 7, and it being the first time we had all worked together, there was a lot for everyone to manage, and not such a clear direction with everyone wanting their ideas heard. There was lots of miscommunication within the artist's department, and lead to a strange mismatch. The idea from the start was more pixel/voxel art, but the environment ended up stylized-realistic. Some people were difficult to work with and that's ok, sometimes you have to get along with people like that and do the best work you can. Overall, I am glad I had some experience in a 'when it goes wrong' project, to learn from and move forward.

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'Project Roadside' Horror Game Assets

2021

Your truck breaks down in the middle of the night near a rural mining town. The lights are on but nobody's home. Where has everyone gone?

Asset Showcase

I was responsible for a few key 3D elements and mechanics, and had lots more planned before we put this game on the shelf. (I did not create the truck or television. My friend was responsible for the shader effects, level implementation and programming)

Map

One of the fun parts working in small indie game teams is that you can explore many more areas of design including general game design, mechanics, and map design! Everything was meticulously planned out, with every light post having a spot on the map.

Sound Design

I got to practice preparing some audio assets (foley), which unfortunately never got used.

Closing Thoughts

Sometimes the classic 'modern PS2 graphic horror game' is the perfect type of game to really explore some fun asset design. Especially when you're working with friends. I may not utilize 3D tools too much, but this was a great exercise in 3D for me.

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PricklyPear.ca

2023

I picked up a part-time job after college while spending most of my time working on YouAreMachines.com. Because of that webdev skill I came to pick up, I was approached to re-design the obsolete website of my workplace. Visit the site here.

Desktop View

This is just a simple informational website. No logging in, no dynamics, no bells and absolutely NO whistles. It was a perfect type of site to work on with my new-found novice web-dev knowledge.

Mobile View

With this site being more traditionally-designed, it had to be responsive and as accessible as possible. There was lots of checking across browsers and devices to ensure the content had as much parity across platforms as possible.

The Old Site and Redesign Process

2014 was likely the last time the site had been touched. Not just by a developer, but by anyone. Luckily for me the very first draft and mockup I had made in Figma was accepted by the client (wonderful news for me!), so I got to work right away, and didn't try to make anything too fancy, as it wasn't necessary. I prioritized what the typical user may use the site for, which is contact, hours, etc. Thus, information like that is the most easily/firstly accessible.

Closing Thoughts

I left them with a guide about how to change the photos properly with the server provider they use and still some of their uploaded photos were too small and thus blurry, so don't blame me haha. This may not be winning any design awards, but for the purposes of this mom and pop shop in my local area, it worked just fine for the shop and anyone that will be using it.

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'Evolution Chess' Game Title Screen

2021

A simple game title screen for a friend's class project.

The Project

I was approached to design a title screen and some buttons for a multiplayer chess game my friend was tasked with at the time.

Closing Thoughts

This was a simple project, but was indicative of the sort of work I was really interested in at the time, and even till now. Making general game assets and little game jams were a really fun and new area of exploration for me soon after high school.

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'Botany' Extra Credits Game Jam #6

2021

This was one of the few game jams that I had begun working on semi-regularly with a few friends years ago. This specific game was our proudest achievement, and final game together under our little novice studio. Play the game here!

My Contribution

I was responsible for the environment design, as well as sound and music.

Closing Thoughts

Much of this was not my best work, but definitely something I was very proud of at the time given the 3 day timeframe. We were all very excited with it, and there is quite a bit of nostalgia to find in this project for me.

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