Forward Thinkers

Here's some new editorial work for Professional Engineering magazine for a feature on Forward Thinkers. The brief was to create a cover and a number of spot illustrations showing the future and past of a particular field of engineering including aerospace, rail and energy. For the cover I modelled the zero emission concept aeroplane in Cinema 4d  then worked with collaged elements throughout the five images. A fun one. You can see a previous commission for Professional Engineering here.

Battling Campus Antisemitism

Next up, another cover commission for the current issue of Hadassah magazine. This one for a feature on 'Battling Antisemitism on Campus'. The brief required a campus college gate scene with students engaged with social media to provide a message bubble backdrop for various slogans based on the topic. I also worked on an essay illustration for this issue entitled 'We Are So Glad That You're Here' about a Jewish Studies academic's experiences. See further work for Hadassah here.

People Watching

Time for a bit of an overdue work update, first up a recent editorial cover illo for North America's MG Magazine for the discerning cannabis professional no less. It's for a feature on 'The People Worth Watching' in the industry so I designed a colourful collage based on a central figure engaged  in a spot of cannabis talent watching. I had the chance to select the masthead colours to go with my palette on this one. Love me some orange n teal. 

Ideas for '22

Here's a new animated cover for the current issue of BBC Science Focus featuring a cornucopia of Ideas You Need to Understand in 2022. It was a fun looping collage to put together and bring to life with a combination of 2d and 3d elements in After Effects. See more Focus work here.

SOI Illustrators 64

 

Happy New Year to all! Pleased to be opening 2022 with news that my recent BBC Science Focus animated cover art, Where Next?, has been accepted into this year's Illustrators 64 Annual and Exhibition at New York's Museum of Illustration. That's a 'whoop!'.

Pinball Blizzard

Here's an enjoyable 3d animation commission that kept me busy for most of November. MIT's McGovern Institute tasked me with designing and modelling a pinball machine for a Season's Greetings animation that would also run through their 2021 brain research highlights.

I firstly looked at classic pinball machines for inspiration before the challenging work of designing the 2d 'playing field' in Illustrator. The ramps, bumpers, orbit and flippers had to be configured to guide the brain-ball's path way sequentially through the research areas. Once the layout was designed, some Illustrator paths went into Cinema 4d to create the 3d game architecture, combined with some cabinet modelling, while the playing field and exterior graphics were designed in Photoshop.

With the 3d model built I storyboarded the action before going on to create an animatic that was given a punchier, quicker edit before rendering the final scenes. In After Effects I added outdoor snow scenery, screen animations and 8-bit themed holographic info pop-ups for some of the research highlights. Lastly, sound design was fun to create in AE and the Jingle Bells theme chosen to finish a satisfying job overall. You can see this and other animations on the site here.

2 Fast 2 Furious Editorials

Two whole months have managed to pass in the blink of an eye somehow so have a bit of catching up to do with posts. Here are a couple of recent vehicular web illustrations to rev things up for Car and Driver and Road & Track in the US. Speedy commissions mixing up the digital collage with 3d enhancements, fast and furiously. See further work for Car And Driver here.

Dune

Here's a recent editorial for BBC Science Focus' latest issue on the upcoming Dune movie, which I'm particularly looking forward to seeing at the cinema. The brief was to create three vertical illustrations that interacted with the feature section titles, Ideas, Science and Design. Being more of a typography led assignment I approached it with a simpler , decorative style for clarity and I'm happy with the results. See further work for Science Focus on the blog here.

Manufacturing an Adenoviral Vector Vaccine Video

Earlier in the year I worked with Feed Films on an animated explainer video for AstraZeneca on Manufacturing Adenoviral Vector Vaccines. The lengthy design process involved creating a number of visuals and storyboards as the script went through various technical revisions. I've attached a few early style frames that I liked but were deemed a little dark so the final palette was developed to work with the AZ brand and up the positivity overall. Most of the viral, organic and manufacturing elements were modelled in 3d at the storyboard stage so once the production began I could go directly to animating them in Cinema 4d. These animations and loops would then be composited together in After Effects using the software's 3d camera and many layers of 2d enhancements. Quite technically challenging overall. The final video was edited together with music, sound effects and voiceover at Feed. The video is also available on the AstraZeneca Youtube channel amongst their other educational videos here.

Future Skills

Here's a recent cover illustration for Professional Engineering on the Future Skills that will be required of engineers to tackle tomorrow's challenges. Had fun creating this composition around the central type for the cover and making it work on a white background for the feature. Love a tech collage, me!

SALC Decarbonisation Project

Over the Summer I was commissioned by Lancaster City Council to create an animated video to showcase the work being done at Salt Ayre Leisure Centre (SALC) for their extensive Decarbonisation Project. The brief was to create a stylised 3d representation of the leisure centre and surrounding area with a dynamic and clear overview of the project aims and phases. Modelling the leisure centre in Cinema 4d proved to be the main technical challenge for me, as the building is quite a complicated set of architectural shapes, but I was pleased with the result after more than a few puzzling moments. Once the centre and other elements were constructed I worked with the client to put the script together, develop the visual style and storyboard the action. Once that was all approved the 3d camera moves were set up in Cinema 4d before rendering and compositing it all together in After Effects. Finally, the voiceover was commissioned and the music chosen to wrap up a satisfying and relatively smooth job overall...huzzah!

DNA Highway

Here's the latest cover illustration and animation for BBC Science Focus on DNA alteration's potential to offer 'A Cure For Everything'. I worked through a few approaches during the process, which I've attached above, before settling on the prog-rock style DNA highway concept. It's created with a combination of Cinema 4d, After Effects and Photoshop and the cover animation loops seamlessly for the Apple News version. You can see more work for BBC Science Focus on the blog here.

Cyberwarfare

First post in a while, been a little preoccupied with moving home from the big city to the seaside whilst juggling a few work projects. Here's a recent cover for French magazine L'Express on the recent spate of ransomware attacks and how cyberwarfare is the new pandemic. Was commissioned for an editorial feature originally and it ended up as the cover - which is always nice!
 

The Universal Question

Here's the latest cover illustration for BBC Science Focus, that I've also animated for the digital shelf of Apple News' global corner shop, on Why Does The Universe Exist? A bit of a mind-melter at the outset but the brief was completely open to interpretation and the approach could be abstract and shape-based so I had a lot of fun creating rough ideas, some of which are collected here. The final 'Möbius strippy' illustration was created in Cinema 4d before being polished in Photoshop and After Effects for the looping animation. I never quite found out why the Universe exists, must get on that. See more work for BBC Science Focus on the blog here.

Play Your Part

Here's a project from earlier in the year that I worked on with Feed Films for IAB UK (Interactive Advertising Bureau). It's an animated call-to-action video titled 'Play Your Part' promoting their Gold Standard in digital advertising. The brief was to homage old war recruitment poster messaging, particularly the classic Lord Kitchener We Want You 1914 poster, and update them with a modern stylistic spin. I created five illustrations for the video and animated them in After Effects along with IAB branding design elements. Always great to draw inspiration from classic war poster artwork and this was a fun creative challenge overall. You can see the full final video above along with the animated illustrations separately.

Foe To Friend

Here's a commission for the National Army Museum that I started work on over a year ago now at the start of Lockdown. It's a poster illustration for an exhibition, that has finally re-opened to the public until July, on the relationship between the British and German armies since 1945. The brief was to create a photo realistic scene of British soldiers in 80's Germany enjoying chips and bratwurst from the legendary Wolfgang's takeaway van that fed troops during training exercises in the Cold War. The people and woodland were tackled with some strategic photo-collaging techniques and the vehicles were sourced 3d models of a Chieftain tank and a Mercedes van. The 3d models were lit and rendered in Cinema 4d then texturally enhanced in Photoshop for added realism. An enjoyable technical challenge this one.

Where Next?

Here's a novel cover commission for BBC Science Focus that needed to work for the usual illustrated print version and also as an expanded animated version specifically for the Apple News Plus service. I'd worked on animated versions of their covers in the past but usually as a supplement to the illustration. This time the animation took precedence with storyboards being created first and the illustration evolving out of the animation direction. The theme was exploration and the creative brief required a traveller character surveying a cinematic scene composed of the earthbound and interplanetary destinations covered in the issue, from pyramids to asteroids. I thought the most dynamic and exciting approach would be to build the scene in Cinema 4d and fly a camera through it for the allotted 15 seconds before looping back to the start. The central figure, pyramids, mountains and astral bodies were created and rendered in Cinema before being composited into cloud, sky and space scenery in After Effects. Really enjoyed creating this one and I'm pleased with how it all came together in the end. You can check out more Focus work on the blog here. 

Monorail Memories

Here's a recent collaboration project with the talented Black Country Type, an old buddy from my home town of Kingswinford in the West Midlands. His ongoing Black Country based photographic project applies his unique aesthetic to the region's post-industrial landscapes, typography and ephemera. He approached me with the idea of creating a t-shirt design based on the Merry Hill Monorail, a short-lived vision of future transport from 1991 that shuttled consumers between department stores at walk-speed. The monorail eventually succumbed to technical difficulties but nostalgically lives forever in my electric dreams. I jumped at the chance to pay design homage and took inspiration from Black Country Type's visual mood board featuring 80s cool graphics from Epcot Center posters to JVC video cassette packaging. I've posted a few of the initial designs here before simplifying for the final three colour design. The excellent Provide Birmingham printed and launched the limited run of 50 t-shirts which I'm happy to say sold out pretty quickly with prints possibly available soon.