Recent Work

I recently finished an animated birthday card for my girlfriend's sister, whose birthday was March 17. She is very into St. Patrick's Day every year, and for her 16th birthday, we wanted to do something special for her. Together with my girlfriend, we conceived and developed this card. Then I built the elements in Illustrator and animated it in After Effects. I completed the editing and sound design in Final Cut Pro.

Check out the project titled "Not-So-Sweet 16."



I was exploring using pre-composed elements and simple particle systems to construct complex motion graphics when I came up with this short animated Valentine's Day card for my girlfriend. It was designed with very few graphical elements that were compiled to create a very populated final product.

Imagine the possibilities:

Student Work from RIT

I recently uploaded my major student projects that I completed while I was working towards my BFA at RIT. I wanted to make them available on my blog. They can also be viewed on my vimeo.com channel at http://vimeo.com/peterblank.

Pete's Fish

Pete was conceptualized in the third quarter of my Freshman year while working with my friend Brian Baldwin. The assignment was to complete a final project for the year, while simultaneously working on other class assignments. It became a full 1-quarter project and consumed a majority of my time. It quickly became one of my most beloved projects to date, and I still get asked by people if they can view it online.

Between the two of us, Brian and I completed every aspect of the project. It was shot using basic equipment in a dorm in a 10'x16' dorm room full of furniture and two residents. Quite the achievement, if I do say so.

Make New Friends

Make New Friends was a 1-quarter project to which I devoted an entire class at the end of my second year. The assignment was to conceptualize and complete, either alone or in pairs, a fully developed story idea. With only 10 weeks to complete the project, we attempted to devote equal time to pre-production, production, and post-production. I felt, as a stop-motion animator, that I was least likely to succeed, having to do all of the work myself.

I feel the end result is charming and engaging. There were a few things I would have done differently given the time, but all things considered, I was happy with the result.

Niche

Niche was a 2-quarter (20 week) project. The class focused mostly on pre-production for the first 10 weeks, leaving a rush to finish the project in the second quarter. It was my first experience shooting with a DSLR camera, which was a challenge in itself. I am very happy with the look of the piece, but I feel the animation suffered because of the lack of focus on actual production time. I learned a lot by completing this project.

Gopher-B-Gone

Gopher-B-Gone was my 3-quarter (4 if you count the planning, conceptual, and approval stage) thesis project. I was advised on the process by my friend and mentor, Tom Gasek, famous for his own contributions to the stop-motion community over the past 30 years. Tom and I worked on developing my abilities as an animator, focusing on character performance. I had the liberty of being able to re-shoot scenes that lacked strong feeling and really emphasize the acting for animation skills I learned while studying at RIT.

I also found building the sets fun and challenging. I learned new armature and puppet construction techniques for the project, widening my skill set at the same time. The project was exciting and well-received by the school. I learned many things I will never do again, as well as many ways to cheat, both in production and post-production. I also learned the value of outside assistance when my own skill and time are not available for certain aspects of production.