Concept Driven Motion Designer
Concept Driven Motion Designer
Client: HBO
I worked as part of a team of 3 motion designers on the graphics heavy HBO comedy show “Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas.” Below is some of my featured work from the 2 seasons the show aired.
The legendary MK12 created the show opener and overall visual identity of the show. A major part of the identity of Problem Areas were two characters they designed called “Tally” and “Shorty.” They acted as mascots for the show and were frequently used to illustrate concepts that were being discussed or as avatars to represent various people.
The first season was completely focused on policing in America and the various issues related to it. The A block introduced the theme for each episode and loosely tied into the aspect of policing that was being examined.
There were many instances where Wyatt wanted to interact with the type and have it illustrate the concept he was talking about. For this one he’s discussing how billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really want to go to space to establish a new society in space for extremely wealthy people.
Wyatt interviewed Charles Tucker, a “Reconciliation Facilitator” who works to improve relations between communities and police departments through open and honest dialogue. In this clip he describes how humbling it is for a police officer in full uniform to struggle with turning off a kitchen timer during a meeting.
During season 1 Wyatt’s body acted as a stage for punch ins. Here are a couple of examples of his hair being used as a stage.
Animation illustrating the concept of “Problem Oriented Policing,” which aims to tackle the root causes of crime as opposed to just arresting and punishing people.
The second season of Problem Areas revolved around public education in America and the myriad issues surrounding that subject.
In this clip Wyatt discusses the complicated issues pertaining to funding public schools, charter schools, and everything in between.
Rough sketch of Mr. Moneybag which I rigged and animated in AfterEffects using DuIK and Rubber Hose.
The B block of each episode was treated as a non-sequitur to break up the episode and inject some silly humor into the show by proposing unique solutions to common problems.
This clip shows how an app called “Good Boy” would alert men whenever they were doing something that could be considered creepy or downright misogynistic. It would also educate them on how the patriarchy manifests itself in different ways throughout society.
I designed the logo in collaboration with Wyatt and did the main logo animation. Accent animations (long drop shadow & circles) and all compositing throughout was done by Milton Ladd.
I also got to do some minor visual effects work while on the show. In this clip I composited an arrow and a model pigeon in order to make it look like Wyatt catches the arrow before striking the pigeon.
Wyatt cries in shame when he realizes his Spanish isn’t as perfect as he thought it was. Inspired by the stylized crying often found in anime.
Designed, rigged and animated these numbers to illustrate a crude joke Wyatt made.