Mapping the Mystery of Humanity
Animation, editing, sound designed, mixed (2025)
The Global Flourishing Study is a longitudinal study of over 200,000 participants in 22 countries, spanning six continents. Grey Matter Group was tasked with creating a video that could try to convey the immense quantity of data that would need to be reckoned with. We begin our mapping video showing literal maps of all kinds imaginable, quickly expanding and eventually evolving into collages erupting with data points. A variety of motion styles all in one video is tied to together holistically with balanced sound design- meant to bolster but not distract from the story.
An Evolutionary Perspective Summary
Stop-motion, animation, editing, sound design, mixed (2024)
Researchers Dominic Johnson & Michael Price explore how the relationship between science and religion is perceived differently across cultures. While this video exists as a summary of four separate research projects, that theme was tied together using a visual motif of two different puzzle toys. I worked closely with the keyframe designer to capture stop-motion photography for every scene, and used After Effects to stitch everything together with the rest of the design.
Religion is Always in the Room: Faith Angle Europe
Animation, sound design (2023)
Faith Angle Forum is a program designed to help journalists develop a broader perspective towards religion where its influence on news stories may not be obvious. The portion of this video I was involved in was the introductory setup depicting chaos amongst rapidly switching & overlapping headlines. A challenging audio mix to say the least! This took time to maneuver these elements with actions that might seem random, yet remain balanced. Transitions needed to flow from one composition to the next as seamlessly as possible, and the utmost care was needed in layer organization. This video won our agency a Gold Addy as well as a Judge's Choice Addy!
Music as a Bridge to Spirituality
Animation, editing, sound design, mixed (2023)
George Corbett, a professor from the University of St Andrews studies the connections between music and spiritual realities. Much like music, I often use multiple "subdivisions" of framerates within scenes. Not only does this pair well with the hand-drawn style of the design, harkening back to frame by frame cell animation, but also reinforces a hierarchy of visual importance between layers. While this was one of my early projects I completed with Grey Matter Group, it remains one of my favorites.
Omnia Sol
Editing, animation (2021)
Based in Naples, Florida, the Neapolitan Community Choir provided me with 46 greenscreen footage files for each musician contributing in their arrangement of Omnia Sol. I chose a celestial theme and began building a rig in After Effects which could randomize the positions of each figure while still allowing them to cleanly collapse into a 2D grid for the finale. This project features generous instances of Deep Glow, Stardust for 3D particle effects, and a custom nebula generator I specifically built for this project.
Grand Isle (Lyric Video)
Videography, editing, animation, original music (2021)
During the summer of 2020 I began filming a lyric video in my hometown of Grand Ledge, MI. Since gathering footage took place over several days, my main challenge for this edit was color matching shots with sometimes drastically different sky conditions. I edited and colored in DaVinci Resolve and used Adobe Illustrator & After Effects for graphics. The lettering uses an unmatted alpha channel rather than luminance to create variations in shading. This approach lets the text "hang" better within the spaces of shots, with the background having subtle influence on its appearance.
Mute City Presents...
Animation, recorded, mixed (2019)
A promotion created for a Kalamazoo venue's Halloween show. A heavy-handed analog look contrasts a more modern influence with highly smoothed keyframing. I wanted the motion to look pleasantly fluid and concise. Visuals are paired with a homebrewed cover of the "Stranger Things" theme I recorded using my Nord Lead 2X.
If Walls Could Talk
Assisted videography, assisted engineering, mixed (2017)
In 2017-2018 I was highly involved in a series of weekly session videos shot in the campus studios at Western Michigan University. For this particular session I had the pleasure of not only filming, but mixing the recorded audio as well. As we honed our shooting skills throughout the lifetime of this project, we grew more effective in matching the musical performance to our camera "performances."