Special Effect Videos
You Won't Believe These Amazing Products, YouTube, 4:37
May 2023
Similar to I Love Wendy's I wanted to create a comedic skit video where I combine digital assets with self-recorded footage but this time using 2D characters rather than 3D ones. All the characters and facial expressions were drawn using Photoshop and then animated together in Premier Pro with The Rick and Morty portal and light effects being made in After Effects. Originally I intended to have a lot more physical interaction with my characters but it proved to be quite challenging without having any indicators as to where I should position my hands and body. The extensive lighting setup and meticulous prop-making added a rewarding layer of complexity once the final product was put together.
This was the first time I had to voice and lip-sync a character. At first, I only drew a closed, half-open, and open mouth when animating the lip flaps but it looked a bit too campy so I drew extra lip flaps for specific letters.
I made this Rick and Morty portal by following an After Effects tutorial on YouTube. I also installed a plugin to get the initial glowing outline of the portal which makes the effect look more aesthetically pleasing.
For this scene I really wanted to touch the one of the scutes on this creatures back to make it change colors but proved to be quite difficult when not using any real life indicators like golf balls. I tried to use an office trash can that had blue basketball shorts covering it to so that it matched the blue screen in the back but it wasn't working since they were two different shades of blue and blocking parts of my body that I wanted to be visible.
If it was not obvious I had a lot of fun making props for this video, the misprinted declaration of independence being my favorite.