News and Postings

June 30, 2010

1 Month to the ROC!!

My wife and I had a great trip to Rochester last weekend and we have an incredible apartment. Had a great chat with a couple of video people in the city as well, so I am really excited to come to Rochester. I will be sad about leaving Milwaukee too, but it has been a great 4 years.

May 31, 2010

L.A., Las Vegas, and Rochester

Once again the busy season has started sending me to NCTA in Los Angeles. The NCTA Cable Show is one of the largest showcases for the various television networks in the country. Stamm Media counts several networks as end clients including Turner, Fox, MTV, and TV Guide.

While I pitch in for all of these clients, my main responsibility is the Turner booth. I serve as the Watchout technician, which often requires a lot of last minute media changes, from switching of live events to creating graphics for specific appearances.

For pictures from NCTA 2010, please see the Mythtaken Productions Facebook page.

Next week I fly off to the AHIP Conference in Las Vegas, hopefully allowing me to also pop into InfoComm 2010, which will be happening at Vegas at the same time.

Later in June, I will be headed to Rochester, NY to look for housing and to meet with local media and advertising companies. If you are a Rochester-based company that would like to speak with me between June 23-25, please send me an email here: geckorion@gmail.com.

April 30, 2010

"CS5 is Here" Talk with C2

This Friday I had the opportunity to speak as a representative of C2 Graphics to introduce the new feature set of Adobe CS5 Production Premium to two audiences in Milwaukee.

It was my great pleasure to be able to work through the Betas of Adobe Premiere and After Effects and show off some of the new highlights including 64-bit support, Roto-brush, and the Ultra Key. While most of the audience in both sessions were print designers, there were a few videophiles in the audience, and even the print designers were 'oohing' and 'aahing'.

The first talk was at the T3 Training facility in in Brookfield. Of note, this session was introduced by Adam Pratt, a Senior Systems Engineer at Adobe. Around 30 - 40 people attended this session.

The afternoon talk was at Proven Direct in Milwaukee. Again around 30 people attended.

April 12, 2010

Rochester Bound

So many of my close friends and family are already aware of this but by September 1 my wife and i will be moved to Rochester, NY. Renee is going on her internship year at University of Rochester and I will hopefully be leaving at the same time, barring finding a job sooner in New York. I would like to thank all of the friends and colleagues here in Milwaukee that I have had the opportunity to work with and spend time with.

March 3, 2010

Student Portfolio Judging

I was honored to serve as a judge for a Student Portfolio night held at MATC. There was an eclectic mix of projects with a wide range of skill levels. It was a little dissappointing that more of the entrants from Marquette and UWM did not show up for the screening and critique, but the showing by MATC students more than made up for it.

The event was hosted by MCAI-Milwaukee and attended by around 40 professionals, students, and friends.

February 5, 2010

Future of Web, Interactive, and Motion Graphics: Eisner Museum Talk

On Wednesday, four panelists spoke at the The Eisner American Museum of Advertising & Design about the broad topics of Web, interactive and Motion Graphics. I was lucky enough to be one of the panelists on this talk and it was an exciting opportunity to talk with people in the community about the options, future, and general information concerning these areas of the creative world.

We had a good turnout of about 50 people. Most of the attendees were students at MIAD and MATC, not surprising since the event was part of the College Lecture Series, but there were also some professionals from the community there.

It was an interesting time as the four panelists had a great variety of experiences and focus that they brought to the discussion. The panelists were Micah Eberman of Fullhouse Interactive, Jason Evans of GS Design, Nick Waraska of Blend Studios, and Alexander Lucas of C2 Graphics and Stamm Media. The experiences touted included: high-end broadcast motion graphics, interactive websites, iPhone apps, trade show displays, and flash applications.

The panel agreed for the most part on the prepared questions concerning whether you need to continue to educate yourself, where to find the sites, and the importance of knowing broad skills but also specializing in a specific skill.

One topic brought up at the panel, of no great surprise, was the question of the future with the iPad and other tablet computers. There was again mostly consensus on this issue that while the iPad does not support Flash that it would not be an instant Flash killer and that it will take a long lumbering time for the internet to fully embrace HTML 5.

The two biggest questions which split the panel, however, concerned the role of social media and the future of the web/interactive/motion graphics space. Some of the panelists saw social media as being of the most importance and something that is the wave of future revenue and expression, while others admitting not really having a firm grip on where to proceed in this realm and what to do with it.

The only main consensus in the future debate: a sense of uncertainty of exactly what will happen. But that is what makes the future so interesting. We can still be surprised and be creative with emerging technologies.

january 18, 2010

Children's Hospital Donor Wall

Currently working on an animation for Children's Hospital which will span eight 60" plasma screens. The animation is being done in After Effects and delivered via Flash.

The vector drawings are being done by local illustrator, Mike Kasun.

November 19, 2009

Arts@Large Seminar Talk

Today at the Arts@Large office in Milwaukee, WI, fellow C2 instructor, Jake Stroh and I spoke to around 25 educators and administrators. Our topic was mainly about the contents of media kits that they were receiving to use in their classrooms. We also answered a number of questions abot various media related topics, mainly product based.

It was an honor to speak there and a lot of fun. It was a nice follow-up to the two-day workshop that both of us taught over the summer for Arts@Large at Cardinal Stritch University.

For more information about Arts@Large.

November 12, 2009

Frequent Flier Miles!

Over the last two months I have been on the road a bit doing shows for CVS and Altira. These trips have taken me to Atlanta, Las Vages, and Orlando.

Each of these shows was very different, employing different technologies. The CVS shows use seamless plasmas, the later show in Orlando using 10 of them! The Altria show featured a variety of traditional plasmas and a 360º six-projector blended image.

LIke most shows my main responsibility is to ensure the proper playback and functioning of the media (though for all three shows I was also designing the media). But like many shows I also need to assist with the physical installation of the A/V as well.

The Altria show seemed to be especially successful as the media was repurposed and modified to be used for an executive meeting two weeks later.

November 1, 2009

4th Straight NaNoWriMo Attempt

National Novel Writing Month. No time to talk. Let's see if I can do it again.

UPDATE. Already hitting a snag I have changed to a new writing topic. The original story was a somewhat typical detective murder mystery story which centered around social media manipulation. However this story was feeling a little flat - probably mostly due to the fact that I did no prep for it.
Instead I am now doing another type of murder mystery but this one based upon a centuries old family feud dating back to the early Renaissance. I had done some writing about this backstory in the thought of having that be the main story but decided instead to write a new story using this as backstory.

UPDATE 2. Due to updates to the website and a variety of other convenient excuses I am essentially abandoning NaNoWriMo 2009. I had over 20,000 words but without planning all this out, the writing is proving to be all over the place.

September 18, 2009

Stamm Technologies Recognized as "Future 50" Business

Not much I can say beyond what is in the article at BizTimes. Very proud to be part of a company that is honored in this way.

See Article and Picture here. I am the one on the far right of photo.

July 30, 2009

Overhauling the Old Website

Since it has been a year I am starting to revamp the site. This style is only the temp style while I get the rest of the design going and the samples finished. Most of the information has been updated, however. Check in again for progress.

July 20, 2009

OnRamp Video Completed

I had the honor of getting to work with the wonderful people in the Onramp program here in Milwaukee. The program is exposing inner-city students to the hands-on world of design and advertising. The kids mentor with design professionals and take field trips to various design related locations.

I worked as a videographer, editor, and motion graphics designer on the project. The final project can be seen here: OnRamp on YouTube

March 28, 2009

Backwoods Bloodbath Sold!

After two and half years, the little movie that could has sold to York Entertainment. This horror film by Donn Kennedy is about what happens to a group of friends when they come face-to-face with the Wisconsin legend, the Hodag.

I worked on this film as the editor and motion graphics designer since September of 2007, shortly after I moved to Milwaukee. It is both a relief and a nice sense of accomplishment to see this film finished.

I hope that people enjoy the film, and you can see updates on it here: York Entertainment

Also here is the IMDB page for it. My name is in the full crew details.

August 12, 2008

Creative Transitions Conference

I will be speaking at the Creative Transitions Conference in Milwaukee, on Friday, August 15, from 9-12. The session is a hands-on session titled "Premiere and After Effects Tips and Tricks". Registration is closed, but keep your eye on the site for more info and resources from the conference.