One of my favorite projects at Zendesk used mixed media to underline the unlimited possibilities inherent in an open source platform. This blend of motion graphics, stop motion, 3D, and pixilization informed the house animation style as it evolved during the 2022 brand refresh.
Zendesk - Sunshine
My responsibilities included:
- Animating stop motion sequences
- Animating motion graphics sequences
- Developed the visual style and execution of textural mixed media sections
- Directed all 3D animation components and their composite into the 2D pipeline
- Used knowledge of solid-body parametric modeling (Fusion 360) to supply model maker with CAD drawings of models for production.
- Created system of After Effects rigs that standardize the way windows animate, to ensure consistency across all brand touchpoints.
As a generalist, it was gratifying to use nearly every category of animation in one project. It was important to me that even though we were blending many styles, they all felt like they existed in the same universe. I created textural overlays with scans I made using a broken copy machine to stitch the 2D and 3D realities together.
I modeled low-poly prop objects in Autodesk Fusion 360, and delivered dimensioned sketches to our modelmaker for assembly.
With models in hand, I repurposed a ceramics turntable to function as a stop motion platform. I divided the rotation into 60 equal sections and captured a 360 degree rotation of the paper model to create a seamless loop.