Lights in the Sky (and other games)
I have recently finished, for a month-long winter challenge, an interactive gaming experience called “Lights in the Sky”. Here is the trailer for it:
This was a few months after a game I worked on based on my old "Tasty” comic, which you can also play here.
There has been a sharp trend towards interactive experiences whether they are for entertainment, tech or advertising.
One of the things I have been spending time on is developing my own interactive projects, not just to get acclimated in the developments of the trend, but also because of my own continued exploration in the interactive space.
Games is a large part of people’s past time, some statistics cite over 65% of American Adults play videogames. It’s a unique way to tell stories that video by itself cannot do.
Working on my own projects have been an incredible learning experience and absolutely bonkers fun. I hope you enjoy the games that I have been able to develop on my own.
Patreon Social Media Animations
I’m thrilled to see that some of the work I’ve done for Patreon are being featured on their Social Media feeds. Here are some of the posts.
It was alot of fun to get involved in this series, and be able to do multiple illustrations and animations for Patreon. This was largely done using Illustrator and After Effects.
2021 Can't come any sooner!
As New Year’s Approaches, I made a small fun animation that wishes all of us… a far better 2021!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
Happy Holidays from CatTrigger
2020 has been a rough year for all of us.
Plans had to change, ways of communication had to be different. For many, this was a time of reflection and appreciation for the many friends and family we have.
Thank you everyone for being part of my life through this year and beyond.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday.
Here is a small animation I did for you all, I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
Patrick Cheng
Tasty Comic Anthology (and Other News)
I am happy to speak about the successful kickstarter launch and funding of the sixth “Let’s Make Comics” Anthology: “Tasty”.
Here is the video I edited and did some animation for:
I have been an admin of Chicago’s “Let’s Make Comics” for the last several years, and continue to be proud of what our group continues to produce. This has been the most successful campaign yet as our organization continues to grow and we continue to be an organization that helps encourage artistic development in the City of Chicago.
It has also been an incredibly busy year, especially during the later months for me. I hope to be able to publicize some of the things I’ve been involved in during this year later on. I know it has been a very unfortunate and troubling year for many people in this country (and the world), and I continue to appreciate the service I can still provide to people as a Motion Designer and Artist.
After the big push, I hope to update on some of the new material produced this year, and a break down on one of the projects I had kept my lips sealed on for a while.
Small Animated Loop
A quick one I did over a night with friends.
Protection fit for a King
A small 3D Animated piece I had worked on utilizing some of the 3D Models that were developed for the “This Makes Me Sad” Anthology.
Marwen Career Fair
I am so delighted to let everyone know that I will be at Marwen Career Fair, once again, on March the 7th to speak with young aspiring artists on how to pursue a career in Animation and Motion Graphics.
It is always a thrill to work with Marwen to inspire the next generation of creative minds coming to the professional fields, be it entertainment, advertising, technology or other major use cases that need people such as Motion Designers, Artists, and Animators.
If you have any children interested in pursuing a creative career (or if you are one, yourself), you may find this career fair very useful.
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/marwen/marwen-career-fair-2020/2425783117684925/
Style Transfer "Rotoscope" Animation
I’ve recently started experimenting with “Style Transfer”, a new way to get painted animation implemented over actual video footage. The technique resembles the end goals of Rotoscoping where you draw over your video frame-by-frame.
Rotoscoping, in its essence, is typically a slow form of stylizing a video. I have done rotoscope for a few projects here or there looking for a painterly or drawn feel to existing video work. The problem is that it takes longer than people anticipate.
A lot of the attempts at implementing “art filters” over footage, like through After Effects, has been haphazard at best… giving people “certain” kind of stylization to their footage, but not looks that they expect or want.
“Style Transfer” promises to get whatever style you draw or paint in, and implement it onto your video in its entirety. It certainly has its (largely logical) limitations, but it so far seems incredibly promising as a possible replacement for rotoscope.
The video above took roughly a couple hours to do, running it through Style Transfer, and then doing some work in After Effects to give it a bit more “oomph”. If this was done using Rotoscoping technique, I could only imagine it taking upwards of tens of hours… for a little gag.
Like all new technologies in animation, there is always a worry that the “older version” of an animation technique becomes obsolete.
Industry-wise, you have seen a large replacement of paper-drawn animation with painted cels to digital means. “Puppet Animation” that utilizes 2D character rigs have long replaced its older brother of cutouts, for instance.
And for Style Transfer, I can definitely see that this becomes the way to implement “rotoscope” faster. And for most people’s use-cases is great as a complete replacement.
The technology though doesn’t mean that it solves every single niche case of rotoscoping, just like Digital Puppet Animation doesn’t solve every single niche case for cutouts.
But for the lot of what’s needed, I believe it would be the future.
Happy Halloween
The last of the Halloween animations have been posted for Fanta, it has been incredibly great to work with them for these videos.
Another fanta animation
More and more of the animations I had worked on are dropping prior to the amazing Halloween season with Fanta!
For anyone wondering, the animations were done with a combination of different Adobe tools, including After Effects, Illustrator and Adobe Animate, the original design was done by an excellent Illustrator by the name of Luis Pinto.
Even more Fanta Animations!
As more of these videos trickle out, I’ll be posting them.
Yet another animation I’ve done!!
The First Trickling of Halloween
So honored to be part of the team that worked on the upcoming series of animated social videos for Fanta’s new Halloween Campaign.
There’s more coming, and they will be posted here in the following weeks, stay tuned for more!
Fanta AR Snapchat Filters
Really excited to see that some of my work for Fanta's new snapchat AR campaign is in full swing!
If you'd like to check out the work, use the snapchat app (available on both ios and Android) and scan the codes, available on fanta posters or through this article :
So Excited to see "BISC Floating Gardens" get nominated for a Cannes Award!
It’s been incredibly exciting to hear about another project I was involved in that has just been nominated to receive an award at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.
Big ups to Richter Studios for the opportunity, the Cinematography and Editing team was what made this one happen.
Logo Animation for "Let's Make Comics" Chicago.
In a week, I will be posting on social networks more news about the upcoming anthology I am involved in, including a video I edited along with this small logo animation.
“Let’s Make Comics” is an organization that helps encourage artists to draw and produce their very own comic stories. I’ve been part of the organization for over 3 years, and been part of its administration for 1 (and a half), and it’s been a pleasure to be part of a group that helps its members grow creatively.
I started doing comics when I was a kid, and if you see through the official Instagram , I’ve been working on it ever since. Comics have been the great entrance for me as an Animator and Motion Designer. It makes alot of sense, since comics are basically a branch of storyboarding that is essential in telling a video’s story.
Any aspiring motion designers and animators may want to consider comics as a hobby, even if you do not particularly fancy yourself as an illustration artist. You may quickly realize that working on comics will dramatically improve your ability to tell stories through video.
Besides, I would love to see more video people come to our meets! If you are even curious about working in comics, feel free to drop by one of our bi-weekly meetings!
Check it: https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoLMC/