Quarantine Learnings

There were a few things I wanted to tackle in the down (jobless) time of the COVID shelter in place order. One of them was animation. Despite my proximity to the world of design/animation, I had never dedicated any serious time to learning either. I’ve always (luckily) been on a team of creatives that had excellent designers who understood more about animation than I did.

I decided to make my quest practical and asked one of my coaches at my CrossFit gym for the Illustrator files of our gym’s logo. I was also very unfamiliar with Illustrator. My first attempt, I didn’t know how to resize in Illustrator and did a really wonky of job of transferring the .ai project into After Effects. After doing all of the animation very manually (because of my unfamiliarity with the program), I shared this first attempt with animator friends for feedback and advice.

Thankfully, my friends sent me to some very helpful tutorials on Illustrator to AE workflow which led me down of a path of learning about…”Trim Paths” in After Effects which made everything so much better. AE is a beast of a program. I know I’ve barely scratched the surface in learning what it can do. Despite the simplicity of the animation below, I’m proud that it’s practical and made the owners of my gym happy to use it.

Rajasthan

I spent a day and a half in Rajasthan back in February. I haven’t cut any of the stories from there yet, but on a whim cut this together tonight just to see the footage again. 

5 years 2 months

Back in high-school when my imagination ran wild, I only dreamed (and did not believe) that one day I could have a career that would let me travel the world. And by the grace of God and faith of a few who took a chance on me, I actually got my dream job. Twice. 

First, with a tiny crew in Nebraska who believed that the small stories that add up to the bigger stories of our lives were the most important ones to tell. It was a magical 2.5 years of traveling the U.S. together. We knew what we had was special. It was my training ground for what was next.

When our little show ended, I was beyond fortunate to join the creative team at charity: water. My mind was blown by the vision that the Harrisons had brought to life. This idea that beautiful storytelling & design could open people's hearts and minds to be generous and change the world. I could feel myself growing and coming out of my shell. My world was bigger and smaller at the same time. 

I've now been to nine developing countries that have expanded my view of the world. Recording stories of individuals in the remotest parts of the world, have proven to me again and again the power of story through video. And never more strongly than when we launched our VR film, The Source, which allowed viewers to step into Ethiopia and see the water crisis through the eyes of a 13 year old girl. 

I don't know what the future holds, but as I look back at the last couple of years, I'm grateful. Not many get to do what I've done- work in a creative environment, see the world, & help people at the same time. It's unique and beautiful and I will cherish these years forever. 

May 2015. We wrapped our first virtual reality film, The Source

Ethiopia 2013 after hiking up Miriam KorKor

Letting the kids see themselves on camera.

Setting up for an interview with Bagina in Rwanda.

Surrounded by school kids. Rwanda 2012

Before I was even hired. Loved this crew.

My first charity: ball

That one time I was peer pressured into eating a tarantula.