RCAD Senior Thesis
Collaboration with Kelly Warner
VALVE
VIDEO
COVER
LETTER
This is the culmination of 4 years at Ringling College of Art and Design, the equivalent to two years of professional experience. My senior thesis project provided a familiar and personal endeavor in regards to production. The sound design was done by Kelly Warner.
Within this piece is a condensed reflection of all of my talent. Its meant to grab the attention of those I aspire to work alongside. On display is an interpretation of my personal journey of overcoming insecurity and gaining confidence. To be intimidated out of applying for your aspirations is to concede defeat.
I claimed that I'll "See You in Bellevue".
Valve is based in Bellevue, Washington.
When applying to Valve, there is a section to include a cover letter. After careful consideration to make my thesis an animated cover letter to Valve.
Valve is a company that is ubiquitous for its flat corporate structure, and requiring its staff to be able to manage their own projects. Self-sufficient direction is key at Valve, and I had to be completely self-sufficient
while producing See You in Bellevue.
This project is cel animated. This might seem innocuous at a glance, but its a very resonant design direction. I've been denied almost any available opportunity to produce cel animation at Ringling, which was a shame since its one of my strongest talents.
See You in Bellevue was MY project, and I could make art that I felt genuine passion for.
EVOLUTION
ANIMATIC
The pacing was excellent from the initial animatic stage. There were a few elements that ended up being dropped, and a couple shots were broken up to provide more variety.
Previous design directions were settled to be a hybrid of vector and cel animation. A variety of cinematic compositions would help communicate the message without narration.
SECOND PASS
The second iteration saw a greater redesign of the avatar character. Vector elements were brought in for the head to replace the comparatively simple "club-head". Shots were completed on an efficient self-organized schedule, the later vector animations coming later.
FINAL PASS
Concerning the final pass, everything came together to form a wonderful animated cover letter that I remain proud of. The cel animation was continued with the style change, being done in Illustrator for the shot of Gabe Newell. Those who understood Valve had also clearly understood the meaning of this animation.
If you are a Valve employee checking out this Case Study, thanks for reading. Hope I stood out!
