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Innovative Individuals: Gerardo Samano Cordova
When digital animator and developer Gerardo Samano Cordova’s name came up for recognition as an “Innovative Individual,” I was curious to learn more about him as I have to admit that I was unfamiliar with his work. After spending only a minute with his portfolio site, I knew this guy had talent. I then noticed that he recently started his own digital media company based in Mexico City called Bowtie, which provides website design, game development, animation, iPhone apps, and e-commerce infrastructure to its clients. His company site was recognized as the site of the day for The CSS Awards, and I’m pretty sure I know why. Check out his work and you’ll also know why we were eager to track him down and feature him as this week’s Innovative Individual!
Browse, find, promote and post motion design work via Reel Roulette
Ever wanted to browse a ton of motion design videos simply for inspiration? Or, maybe you needed to find a particular motion designer to hire for a specific project? OR, perhaps you are the motion designer who needs that job and wants to inspire those seeking it. Introducing “Reel Roulette,” the site that tackles both of those distinct user groups by enabling designers to promote their work, which is then aggregated into a pool of inspirational content that is organized in real-time by crowdsourcing techniques. Users can easily browse different videos and indicate their preference by clicking the obvious “Like this reel” button to then “bring the best reels to the top.” What an excellent resource to connect people within this industry!
Move over! Motion graphics’ rise to stardom
Lately, I have noticed an increase in multimedia projects that utilize motion graphics and animation to visually depict a story. While this medium has been used for years in the film industry, I would argue that it has been mostly underutilized in our field until now. Using Adobe After Effects, producers can either combine animation within a traditional video format, or use motion graphics as the entire video.
Advice from Alberto Cairo on animated infographics
In my quest to read everything related to multimedia and interactivity in preparation for my master’s thesis, I came across this excellent Q&A with UNC assistant professor Alberto Cairo titled, “Animated infographics and online storytelling: Words from the wise.” Although this interview was initially published in the Online Journalism Review in 2007, arguably all of his statements still hold true today. If you missed this article, make sure to read it now to get some great infographics inspiration from one of the best in the field.
Five examples of innovative step graphics
Step graphics are a type of interactive presentation, which present a variety of graphics organized sequentially in steps or nodes. Illustrations, 3D models, animations and explanatory text can all be combined across a variety of frames to tell a story. Best used for successive information, these presentations excel at breaking down complex information into visual, digestible bites for users to learn at their own pace.
Aaron Koblin visualizes flight patterns in innovative video
Designer Aaron Koblin blew me away with his data visualization efforts to display U.S. flight patterns. Using FAA data, Koblin animated a variety of maps to allow users to come up with their own assumptions from the data. This is a great example of how an otherwise overwhelming amount of data can truly tell a story through graphics, design and animation. For those curious about the back-end, Adobe After Effects and/or Maya was used to create this visualization.
Solid 3D graphic production throughout National Geographic’s "Mapping Memory in 3D" interactive
National Geographic’s “Mapping memory in 3D” combines great 3D production with interactivity to simplify the complexity of the brain. It garnered an “Award of Excellence” at SNDies, and was certainly well-deserved!
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