Culmination of Animation Project
It's been a very interesting week. One of the high points of the week was when a long and involved project culminated in a release party and the product was officially available to the world. I would love to share some of it with you all.
There are two videos created by Tai Chi instructor CJ McPhee in a new workout she has created called Energy Moves. We have posted two clips to YouTube. One is for the basic, beginners workout and the other is the seated workout. I believe they both have the same intro. Midway through, she shows three sample moves from the workout DVD. I did not create the video itself, but I did create the animated visuals you see. If you can take a moment to look at it and give it a rating, I'd be much obliged!
Energy Moves - Beginners Workout
Energy Moves - Seated Workout
The story of how it all came together...
A friend and client, CJ McPhee, is a very gifted Tai Chi instructor. I can't remember exactly how much experience she has, I know it's at least fifteen years, but I think it is more. We began working together in little bursts right after my first round of photo shoots at the Hawthorne Wellness Center. That's a story all its own, but suffice to say that a lot has changed in the years since I did work for my first major freelance client. After I took CJ's pictures, I was amazed by what resulted. She had this orange glow to her that I could not explain by outside sources, nor did it appear in photos I took of other people in the same location only minutes before. I also liked her very much, she had a serenity and calmness of character that I found very appealing.
I created a web site for her as she embarked upon this new endeavor called Energy Moves. She was trying to create an energy workout, inspired by Tai Chi, that was more accessible and more like a moving meditation. The movements are interchangeable and easy for anyone to learn.
I took her classes and got to know her and her work better. The movements did indeed work and were a lovely way to add mindfulness of the body to a meditation routine, or to simply be done on their own. It was a great way to get to know what she had created, for the project that was to follow.
She was starting to consider making exercise videos. A series of circumstances led me to discuss a cinematographer friend with her (my friend needed to be connected to someone CJ knew), and then I realized, of course, CJ needed to talk to her. My friend, Cynthia Lopez, owner of Story Bureau, does great work. She has a lovely, casual and conversational style to her work that really captures the uniqueness of the people she is filming. Her editing work is superb. And it turned out to be a great introduction. They ended up working together and loving it.
At some point in the process they began to consider somehow illustrating the energy movement. The illustrator they interviewed did not quite strike CJ as the right sort of direction... Eventually she asked if it was something I could do. We had worked together for so long that I had a second sense for what CJ was envisioning, and I found it extremely easy to visualize the energy in the movements. In fact, I had always wanted to do a project creating visuals for energy.
We worked on the project for a few months. I learned Apple Motion and used Photoshop to create the elements. I also received help from my friend Eric to create the basis of some of the graphic elements. I was too busy at the time to do it all myself, and it turned out to be perfect, because he has a knack for illustrating space-y type visuals. It all worked out quite well.
It was a long process, but I had a great amount of fun collaborating with Cynthia and CJ on this project, and it was definitely very rewarding.
I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in an easy to learn energy and meditative workout, or even someone who might be interested in something like Tai Chi who is afraid it is too complex for them, to purchase her DVDs. She also has a really nice meditation CD available. And yes, I designed all the cover art for those, too!
There are two videos created by Tai Chi instructor CJ McPhee in a new workout she has created called Energy Moves. We have posted two clips to YouTube. One is for the basic, beginners workout and the other is the seated workout. I believe they both have the same intro. Midway through, she shows three sample moves from the workout DVD. I did not create the video itself, but I did create the animated visuals you see. If you can take a moment to look at it and give it a rating, I'd be much obliged!
Energy Moves - Beginners Workout
Click to viewEnergy Moves - Seated Workout
The story of how it all came together...
A friend and client, CJ McPhee, is a very gifted Tai Chi instructor. I can't remember exactly how much experience she has, I know it's at least fifteen years, but I think it is more. We began working together in little bursts right after my first round of photo shoots at the Hawthorne Wellness Center. That's a story all its own, but suffice to say that a lot has changed in the years since I did work for my first major freelance client. After I took CJ's pictures, I was amazed by what resulted. She had this orange glow to her that I could not explain by outside sources, nor did it appear in photos I took of other people in the same location only minutes before. I also liked her very much, she had a serenity and calmness of character that I found very appealing.
I created a web site for her as she embarked upon this new endeavor called Energy Moves. She was trying to create an energy workout, inspired by Tai Chi, that was more accessible and more like a moving meditation. The movements are interchangeable and easy for anyone to learn.
I took her classes and got to know her and her work better. The movements did indeed work and were a lovely way to add mindfulness of the body to a meditation routine, or to simply be done on their own. It was a great way to get to know what she had created, for the project that was to follow.
She was starting to consider making exercise videos. A series of circumstances led me to discuss a cinematographer friend with her (my friend needed to be connected to someone CJ knew), and then I realized, of course, CJ needed to talk to her. My friend, Cynthia Lopez, owner of Story Bureau, does great work. She has a lovely, casual and conversational style to her work that really captures the uniqueness of the people she is filming. Her editing work is superb. And it turned out to be a great introduction. They ended up working together and loving it.
At some point in the process they began to consider somehow illustrating the energy movement. The illustrator they interviewed did not quite strike CJ as the right sort of direction... Eventually she asked if it was something I could do. We had worked together for so long that I had a second sense for what CJ was envisioning, and I found it extremely easy to visualize the energy in the movements. In fact, I had always wanted to do a project creating visuals for energy.
We worked on the project for a few months. I learned Apple Motion and used Photoshop to create the elements. I also received help from my friend Eric to create the basis of some of the graphic elements. I was too busy at the time to do it all myself, and it turned out to be perfect, because he has a knack for illustrating space-y type visuals. It all worked out quite well.
It was a long process, but I had a great amount of fun collaborating with Cynthia and CJ on this project, and it was definitely very rewarding.
I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in an easy to learn energy and meditative workout, or even someone who might be interested in something like Tai Chi who is afraid it is too complex for them, to purchase her DVDs. She also has a really nice meditation CD available. And yes, I designed all the cover art for those, too!