Russell Cory

I have been dying to post this project. This is hands down my favorite motion graphics project from the last year. The whole thing started out as a conversation between myself and two other Guitar Hero fans at work. We decided that it would be a lot of fun to create a promotions spot that spoofs the Guitar Hero franchise. From there we started sketching out ideas. Two months later we got approval on the script and got to work.

The graphics work was done in both Cinema 4D as well as After Effects. It was challenging timing up the animation to the music and required quite a bit of hand keyframing. We were really pleased with the final outcome and I really feel like all the hard work paid off.

Rockimation Heroes
Click Here to view the video.

I have always been fascinated with race cars of all shapes & sizes. Drift, NASCAR, WRC Rally, Autocross, F1, Gymkhana. It doesn’t matter, I like them all. So when Peck Motorsports approached me to provide unique graphics for a one off race car I jumped on it. I provided a squid design & my logo roundel and the guys with the vinyl machine went nuts. They were even cool enough to print my name in 8 inch tall day glow green on the rear quarter panel.

As promised, the new motion graphis spots are up! These are 4 of my most recent projects. They feature heavy 3D work out of Cinema 4D and a lot of After Effects compositing and post effects work. Two of the spots (Operation Animation 2 & One on One) were created as full 720p HD but have been downrezed and letterboxed to make them easier for web viewing.

MDA Camp 2008 Intro
Click Here to view the video.

One On One - Baltimore’s Sexiest Sportscaster
Click Here to view the video.

Operation Animation 2
Click Here to view the video.

Best Catch
Click Here to view the video.

Oh man do I have some cool stuff coming up! I’m in the process of preping a whole bunch of new completed motion graphics for you guys. I’ve got a gaggle of BMW & Audi spots that feature that ever so popular clean room look and an underwater scene featuring swimming LCD screens. I’ve also got some great HD content! Operation Animation 2, football promos, and a really cool sports themed promo spot. Check back after Thanksgiving…

I‘m proud to announce my first free giveaway! Introducing iPack 01. 24 free desktop images for the iPod Touch and iPhone. The graphics consist of various digital art, photographs, and After Effects screen captures that I’ve created over the last few years. I’ll be putting one of these out every once in a while. I hope everyone enjoys them.

iPack01
Click on the image to download the .zip file.

Much to my surprise I won the Emmy! It’s kinda surreal having a real-deal statue in your house.
Emmy and her book shelf possie

Recently I found out that I’ve been nominated for an Emmy! My motion graphics piece “Operation Animation” has been nominated in the “Best Promotional Announcement” category. I created all the 3D & 2D assets & animations in the entire spot. You can check out the video below.

I also won a Bronze Telly award at the National level in the “Non-Broadcast Productions - Sales” category for the project “Fairy Tales, Myths and Make Believe”. I worked with a team of people on this project for close to 6 weeks. My role as Lead Animator had me completing the bulk the of 2D animations as well as the 3D intro and title sequences. All in all, it was a team effort and it really paid off for everyone.

Operation Animation
Click Here to view the video.

So this year Mr. Alex got some sweet shirts for his birthday that were created by yours truly. The designs, like my previous ones, are one off hand cut, hand painted stencils. These particular designs I’ve been tweaking in my head for a while and it was really nice to get them onto fabric. Mr. Alex seemed to really enjoy them so I feel like I did a good job.

Alex Shirt 1.

Alex Shirt 2.

Alex Shirt 3.

I‘ve got a bunch of artwork in the pipeline right now. Unfortunately I don’t have much time to work on any of it. You know how it goes, life is busy, blah, blah, blah. It’s a lame excuse, but it’s all I got. The projects are really varied so here is a rundown.

1 New T-shirt designs. I had a couple of cool ideas for new shirts and I am refining the artwork. The new color schemes will be green / tan and yellow / black / red. Should be cool when it’s finished.

2 Desktop background photo illustrations for your computer. I created a couple of horror themed desktop backgrounds a while back. I haven’t had the time to post them for download yet. But when I do, they will be free (of course) and should scare the crap out of your mom.

3 Multimedia extravaganza. Recently I teamed up with a long time friend who also happens to be a great fiction writer. We are collaborating on a comic / podcast / movie mashup thingy. It’s hard to explain but I’m working on the storyboards now. It will be dark, dirty and a lot of fun when it’s finished. It’s just taking me forever to do. I’m not happy with my storyboards yet so I’m holding up the entire project.

4 Stories. I have a couple of short-short stories that I wrote almost a year ago. I need to go back & edit them. After they are edited I will post them here on the site.

5 iPod mod. I have 2 iPods taking up space in my closet because neither of them works. The one I busted the hard drive on & the other was given to me because it had a fried mother board. It occurred to me that I could swap the working parts around and possibly have one working iPod instead of 2 broken ones. Long story short - it worked and I have an extra case that is just itching for me to paint it up. White & chrome iPods are so 2004…

After 7 years of ownership my beloved 1996 Nissan 200SX SE-R “Shimmy” was showing signs of needing some major repair work. Shimmy had over 160,000 miles on him and was an extremely fun & reliable car. Unfortunately he was showing his age. It looked like he would need a new suspension, CV joints, & something was up with the steering rack. I figured at 160K he would also need new brake & fuel lines plus, I still had the same rotors on the brakes from when I bought him in 2000.

Plus I had a potential mutiny brewing. My wife declared that she wouldn’t ride in the car anymore. She waved her little hook hand in my face and declared “Arrr… That vessle ain sea worthy an I ain sailin in it no more.” So 6 weeks later I decided to do something about it. On our first bright sunny spring day I took Shimmy out on his last cruise & came back with a Pepper White 2004 MINI Cooper S. Pics to come…

The good news is that with the new year came a new job for me. I am now a Graphics Designer for Sinclair Broadcasting. So basically, I get to make cool animations and news graphics for Fox 45 in Baltimore. I will post pictures and movies A.S.A.P.