Adobe After Effects projects

Some fun effects with Adobe After Effects. I have had some time recently to learn some FX techniques and rather enjoy it.

Kenny Chesney Concert

A great concert the other night with my brother, Aaron, and his wife Heather...and some random drunk lady who couldn't keep her hands off me.

Neon Canyon/Cathedral Canyon trip-Escalante, Utah

A video I put together after our trip to hike Neon/Cathedral Canyon in Escalante, Utah.

The Birds Meets Finding Nemo

"The Birds" Meets "Finding Nemo" from Nick Serr on Vimeo.

I recently watched Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "The Birds" and whereas I remember as a child being freaked out by it, as an adult, all I could think of now were those darn seagulls on Finding Nemo with their incessant "mine, mine, mine!" So I sat down and created a film trailer just to appease my imagination.

Special Effects Attempt

Toby Jones from Nick Serr on Vimeo.

Here is an updated version of a film my cousin and I created a few years back while working as tour guides in Alaska. It took all of about an hour to direct and shoot-I mean, Toby could only run the mile so fast. :)
The whole project was done just to see if it was at all possible to create a film using my cheap-o Sony point and shoot camera. The special effect were added after the summer in Alaska was over in After Effects. Sound design was done in Soundbooth. I am pretty happy it turned out so well for my first try at motion tracking and rotoscoping.

Be sure to wait around for the special "easter egg" after the credits. ;)

U2 Concert-Salt Lake City

A video I created of the U2 concert here in Salt Lake City on May 24, 2011. We got front and center and I was able to capture some great shots of the band.

U2 Concert-Salt Lake City May 24, 2011 from Nick Serr on Vimeo.

Caricature

Walter Matthau

Glenn Beck and Woodrow Wilson

Vladimir Putin

Woodrow Wilson

More caricature from the recent past.

On a roll here...

Barak Obama

Pawn Stars

More caricatures from the past few days. This is too much fun. Oh, and the world is supposed to end tomorrow according to some random guy on the news. So if I don't post anything else from now on, you will know what happened. See you at the pearly gates! :)

More Caricature

Brit Hume-News Anchor

Hillary Clinton

A few more political caricatures. I have enjoyed working in Adobe Illustrator creating the final artwork for these. Maybe one day I will get back to the digital painting.

Going political

Al Sharpton

Moammar Gadhafi
The scariest man I have ever drawn.

Michael Moore
No, that doesn't stand for Boise State on his hat.

Nancy Pelosi
Huh? Come again...

Osama Bin Laden
From Tora Bora to Bora Bora by sea. Courtesy of the U.S. Military.

George Soros

"Spooky Dude"

Here are a few caricatures I have done in the past week of political and/or famous figures. I enjoyed creating these immensely and trying out different media and styles in the process. The initial sketch was done on paper with red Prismacolor pencil and then scanned into the computer where I used a combination of Photoshop and Corel Painter to paint Al Sharpton, Moammar Gadhafi, and Osama Bin Laden. The caricatures of George Soros, Nancy Pelosi, and Michael Moore were done in Illustrator.
I find it interesting in myself how it is difficult for me to take my sketches to a final product-not because it is too time consuming or a hard task, rather, I find myself preferring my sketches best in the end. Something about finding the best, hard, finished lines to lay down over my sketchy lines takes away from the learning that happened during the initial phase of each of these projects. Or maybe this is just ADD talking. :D

Hey! That celeb has great taste in shopping bags!

Thanks to a former co-worker of mine who frequently peruses the celebrity photos on the People.com website, I was informed that a paparazzi photo had been snapped of this unsuspecting celebrity carrying one of the eco-friendly shopping bags that I had designed for Ralph's grocery store in the southern California area last year. In case you don't recognize her, her name is Holly Madison...Hugh Hefners ex girlfriend(okay, not the most classy of celebrities, but...) but the class that she has retained has all been saved for her taste in hand bags.