No fear: fxphd prof Tom Green and the art of mograph

Tom Green is a creative director at Shilo, production company that has always provided a broad mix of animation, live-action and post production work. This term, Tom is teaching AFX224: The :15 Mograph Spot in which students will learn how to make an interactive spot featuring a dynamic equalizer light wall and a 3D car.

Here’s a free preview of the first class in the course running this term. It’s still a great time to join.

 

 

We talked to Tom about his career path, how he currently uses After Effects and what students can expect from his course.

fxphd: How did you get into the motion graphics industry, Tom?

Tom Green.
Tom Green.

TG: Back in high school there were only really two things I enjoyed doing – I took these drafting classes. You’d have to use the blue tech pens and big rulers and it was a very specific mathematical equation to figure out things – they were almost like CAD classes but freehand. I really liked making these mathematically correct drawings. I also enjoyed my art classes where you’d do sculpture and drawings with pencils or as paintings. It was a real 180 to what the drafting class was – there were no rulers – you could really open it up.

So I figured the next step was graphic design. At the time (around ’98) the motion graphics industry didn’t really exist but I did know you could do art in the computer. I went to school for this and I got to draw pictures, scan them in and manipulate them. About a year before we graduated from school we had to get an internship. I thought it would be cool to work for ESPN and design magazine layouts – I hadn’t even comprehended motion design work. I found this place called Digital Kitchen in Chicago. I showed up the first day that Summer and realized I was in over my head! They were working on the Six Feet Under titles and Nip/Tuck and doing animation and film and design work.

So I was overwhelmed but I was amazed by the clients they were working with and how they were using so many techniques and styles to make these spots. You had directors, 3D artists, designers, animators, Smoke artists and editors. So I went back to school for the final year and threw my idea of doing print work behind and decided I would dive into motion design.

fxphd: What’s the primary work you’re doing now at Shilo?

TG: It’s diverse. Right now I’m working on a spot with FCB, Sims the video game – a full 3D animated character spot. And we’re doing a spot for Wicked Tuna that is live action with some After Effects animation. We’re also doing a pitch for The Walking Dead for AMC which again is a hybrid.

– Above: Tom directed this Syfy MXF spot at Shilo.

fxphd: There doesn’t seem to be any fear in whether you do it live action, CG or mixing over the top.

TG: There is no fear – anything can be done now. If you can imagine it, you can make it. Then it comes down to is there enough time and is there the right budget. I feel like 10 years ago there were distinct limitations of what we were able or what we were capable of doing. Actually, today I was going through my old storyboards for a job we were doing – some Deadwood opening titles pitch. I was so naive and I had said yeah we’ll have this big field of buffalos running across the field and then we’re going to have cowboys running this way. They were all looking at me in the room saying how are we going to do this, Tom? We can’t film it or do it in CG. It’s going to cost $10 million to make this! I had no idea.

But nowadays with the right team, you could pull something off like that with Massive or other ways of pulling that off. The tools have allowed you to have no boundaries. Sometimes that gets you into trouble, that’s for sure! A client knows you can figure this out some way, somehow. So sometimes I like when you have boundaries because it forces you to think creatively. If the whole canvas is just open, you could literally make whatever you want. So maybe for the buffaloes, for instance, there’s a more metaphorical way of executing that that’s designed better. It’s make you think and dig a little deeper.

Tom on set for the Syfx MXF spot.
Tom on set for the Syfx MXF spot.

fxphd: You’re using multiple solutions in the fxphd course too – how did you design the course?

TG: In the course my main goal was that I didn’t want to just tech students how to use After Effects. I went ahead and designed the stuff out before it was built. After Effects is going to evolve and there’ll always be a new version ahead and so it’s more important to learn how to think and how to design. With the course, I was trying to break things down into mixing a little CG – we use Maya to render the car passes and then we export the camera out of Cinema4D. We blend it altogether in After Effects.

After Effects is a very useful tool for working fast and to experiment and generate ideas quickly. At Shilo and for this class, we’re not trying to make realistic looking effects – we’re trying to mix design and storytelling. So the idea is to pull in all corners of After Effects, tinker with compositing, work a little in 3D space but that’s been used more and more with AE. There’s also just so many tools out there that let you generate ideas and concepts. For the Wicked Tuna spot we’re doing right now, some of the guys actually designed their storyboard frames in After Effects with a black and white photocopy look and we sent them to the client, and the client approved the stills. So we just went ahead and kept working in AE to make it move.

– Above: Tom was the art director on this spot for Qatar TV.

fxphd: And how are you finding the fxphd experience as a prof so far?

TG: I like it! I like talking to the students. One of the good things about being a creative director at Shilo is working with people. At fxphd I’m learning with the students and we’re having fun without a client deadline breathing down our necks. For these classes I had to actually do a little research to learn some things so it’s opened my eyes to some stuff, and on the forums I’ve learned some stuff from the students as well. It brings me back and makes me feel ten years younger when I got into the industry! I love seeing the students get it and watch them feel rewarded for the hard work they’ve done. You really get what you put into it, and there’s nothing better than having students continually ask you questions.

Thanks to Tom for letting us find out more about his career in motion graphics and his AFX224: The :15 Mograph Spot.