99% of the work I create nowadays is car commercials. Compared to anything and everything else you see on TV, they set the quality bar pretty low. You know exactly what I mean.

I’ve done hundreds of them. My work tends to look better than those extreme examples, but nonetheless, most car commercials are doomed before I even get to edit one thing.  I can only imagine that most people who see car commercials on TV either:

a. Tune it out completely, rendering the advertising message useless.

b. Change the channel.

c. Groan/roll eyes/ sigh/other symptom of aggravation.

d. Some combination of a, b, and c.

They are what they are: cheap and quick. I sometimes make 3 commercials in one day from start to finish. The deadlines are tough sometimes, as I work furiously to try and crank something out that is so subpar. Occasionally my attempts to add a bit of style to the car spot are vanquished. Plenty of times I’ve been told to change a commercial I worked on to severely downgrade its overall quality simply because the owner of John Smith Cars wants it that way. Nevermind that I am the artist, I just have to give the client what he wants. 

BUT! Occasionally I get to do something creative, something that can showcase more of my skills. This is part of a commercial I made that is a bit nicer than any of the harsh reality I spewed proceeding this clip.

Here’s my take on car commercials:

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I added my website to coolhomepages.com. It’s a good reference for web designers; it provides inspiration and examples of all sorts of designs. So when you submit your site to their database and they think it’s cool, YOU WIN AN AWARD!!!!!

So yeah, my site is one of the top few hundred thousand or so web sites listed on coolhomepages.com. Yea, kinda of a big deal. In other link news, I have removed ColorPrintUSA from the blogroll because the guy who emailed me about offering me work in exchange for a link never sent me one single thing to work on.

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So here is a clip form a commercial I did that had to do with UCF Athletics. Instead of just using regular-old text, I constantly try to think of different methods to present title work. In this sports themed commercial I added the title work onto a material in Cinema 4D and created a waving pennant using the cloth tag.

I would recommend using the cloth tag to create any sort of waving flag like this rather than the wind deformer. The Cloth tag is very easy to set up and with some trial and error you can create a much more natural looking movement than with the simple wind deformer. Don’t forget to make it a child of a hyperNURBS object to make it even smoother.

There are several tutorials on this subject already out there, including this one.

I’d really like to get more in depth with the cloth tag to better understand how the settings can alter the movement and reaction of your object. I haven;t been able to find an in depth review of what certain things like flexion, global intersection analysis, global drag, etc. actually “do” when changed. If anyone has a breakdown of this to link to or would perhaps put it in writing please let me know.

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My oh my they grow up so fast…my blog is turns 1 today. I first posted on it last year at this time.

Since then I have graduated and been hired. I’ve probably made over 100 commercials that have been on TV all over the country.  At this point last year I knew nothing about Cinema 4D or pretty much all 3D animation in general, and now I can hold my own with it. I look forward to another year of personal and professional growth.

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I updated my demo reel by adding and subtracting a few things. I added a few clips like my Adobe Contest Entry and my Paper Stacking Desk. Most of the stuff remained the same, I just added a few more things I have done in Cinema 4D.

Overall, I tweaked the rest of my site as well. I removed the links page off of the main part of the site, because it was pretty much useless. All the pertinent links are on the Blogroll to the left. I adjusted some of the formatting of my blog, updated my resumè, all sorts of exciting stuff.

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Head over to www.colorprintusa.com if you need just about anything printed or designed.

I’m looking to freelance as a designer for the services they provide, so contact me or them to get started with any print design you need.

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I finally got on FLICKR and to upload some of my photos. I’ve always liked photography, which lends itself to many motion graphics and 3D design related techniques I use. I’m not too great at it yet, but I always keep my camera handy ready to capture that unforgettable moment…

Like when a tortoise wanders into your backyard.

Originally uploaded by bigmikedesign

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Judging by the date of my last post, I really haven’t done much on here lately. I have been doing plenty of motion graphics work while I’m actually at work, so I haven’t been chomping at the bit to work on extra stuff for this site when I get home. I’ve been playing plenty of Grand Theft Auto IV instead.

A demo reel update is in order…soon.

Anyway… I recently did this in a commercial for a company that builds swimming pools. I used Trapcode Form and this preset by Harry Frank. I tweaked a few things and thought it came out pretty cool. Swimming Pool Commercial Clip from Michael Szabo on Vimeo

I added the ripple transition using the aptly named “Ripple” effect in After Effects. By masking on and off the titles along with animating the width, height, and radius of the Ripple, the water appears to wash the titles away.

I like the widescreen shape I made, the slight bend in it is something a little different, and the spark that traces along the edge adds a little something to it. Expect me to use this element entirely in too much of my work.  

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So it turns out I’m not a master of PHP. I fiddled with my code so much that some how I pretty much prevented visitors from being able to use comments on my site.

So I scrapped the old design and came up with this. I think it work’s better with the look of my homepage.

Anyway, comments seem to be working again. I guess I should of figured something was wrong since nobody said anything for over a month. I mean come on, my site’s not that useless.

Anyway, go ahead and give comments a try to help me see if they work, and if you run into any issues please let me know.

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Well my search for employment went well, a little too well. Who knew having to pick between 2 good job offers end up being so complicated and stressful?

Anyway, in my spare time I would like to do some freelance motion graphics, animation, almost anything to diversify my work. If you are looking for some help, contact me so we can see if we can work something out.

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