I had the opportunity to help Escape Velocity Content with their short Star Wars film, Birth of a Monster. I handled several VFX shots throughout the video—several paint-outs, including character manipulations, developing the look of the monocular POV as well as the droid POVs, facial animation, and adding various smoke/spark effects.
This was an amazing project to work on—not just because it was a Star Wars short (duh)—but also because several of the shots pushed my skillsets and forced me to develop new techniques. (But mostly Star Wars).
Point-to-Point wanted to showcase their new PLPM Construction Adhesive by putting it in real-world (and slightly exaggerated) situations. The client's concept was to have this all take place on an active construction site. But with the timeline and weather being an issue, we decided on a VFX approach, compositing in all of the necessary elements in post—including full backgrounds, weather effects, extras, and graphics.
Practical rain rig
Director: Karl Hein Producer: Christa Cox Technical Director: Brian Finney Line Producer: Tami Jones DP: Ray Rushing AC: Cory Nabor Gaffer: Danny Wollenberg Key Grip: Dean Hayashi Wardrobe: Christine Lee PA: Paul Smith Editor: Kurt Keaner VFX Artists: Brian Finney, Karl Hein, Liz Martin Color: Kurt Keaner Sound Design: Kody Orris
After designing Wolf’s Ridge Brewing’s specialty labels for the better part of four years, they approached Spacejunk to help them redesign their full line of packaging to allow more speed and flexibility when creating new and limited-run beers. They also wanted to maintain a strong and eye-catching brand presence on store shelves, as they were beginning to distribute further outside of the Columbus region where they’re well known.
The main goal of the designs was to allow the internal WRB team to create and modify beer labels in-house. So I set about creating a template that would work well for their wide range of beers (~25 at the time of the project) while also being easy enough to navigate that a non-professional designer could work with the Illustrator files.
The designs had to be “simple,” with large blocks of type and minimal need for additional graphics. The team at WRB is deeply connected to the Columbus community, so showing that connection was very important. Another part of their history is their name actually comes from the old name for this area of Ohio. So, the main (and oftentimes only) graphic, outside of the logo, is a custom topographic map of Columbus, to tie into the history and location of where WRB is located.
Credits:
Client: Wolf’s Ridge Brewing Art Director: Karl Hein Designer: Christine Lee 3D Artists: Dan Hildebrand, Karl Hein
Spacejunk worked closely with Green Growth Brands to help launch their Seventh Sense line of CBD products. The shoot consisted of 5 days of filming and over 1500 miles of driving—locations included Dumont Dunes in California, Snow Canyon in Utah, and Red Rocks in Colorado.
Location Edits
Desert // Natalia
Red Rocks // Riley
Canyon // Alex
Director: Karl Hein Producers: Allison Maier, Kate Wilke Production Coordinator: Mike Gillespie DP: Brad Knull AC: Todd Robles
Editors: Karl Hein, Xavier McAllister Colorist: Xavier McAllister Animator: Karl Hein Sound Design: Kody Orris
The JamesCare Explorers is a program at the hospital designed to help kids cope with the emotional stress they can experience when one of their parents is diagnosed with cancer. The James approached Spacejunk to create a video that could serve as an overview to show to kids, both at the hospital and abroad. I oversaw the entire production of this piece—from concept, to scriptwriting, art direction, directing the live-action puppet shoot, and all of post-production (all-in-all about 8 months).
We landed on the idea of using puppets because of the fantastic examples already in place, thanks to Jim Henson and programs like Avenue Q. We centered the story around a family of puppets, the Mitchells, and follow them as they all learned to cope with the mother’s diagnosis. We also decided to shoot it in a typical, three-camera sitcom style.
The puppets were custom made, in collaboration between The James, Spacejunk, Joel Jackson, and Bo Pacheco (link).
The set was also custom built five feet off the ground to accommodate the puppeteers. Production ran over the course of a week at Central Grip & Lighting in Columbus.
Director: Karl Hein Producers: Richard Charney, Christa Cox Line Producer: Andy Murphy-Young Production Coordinator: Mike Gillespie Production Asst. : Isabella Silveira Continuity: Belle Fransisco DP: Wayne Sells Asst. Cameras: Andy Eggert, Alberto Vigilietta Video Supervisor: Brian Wells Key Grip: Brad Keplinger Gaffer: Jared Greene Wardrobe: Kelly Lane Prod. Designer: Heather Glass-Oaks Set Designer: Shane Bonnette Audio: Jay Alton Editors: Kurt Keaner, Xavier McAllister Colorist: Kurt Keaner Sound Design: Kody Orris
Puppet Designs: Joel Jackson Puppet Fabrication: Bo Pacheco
PUPPETEERS Spencer Lott - Ben Heather Asch - Taylor Sam Gold - David Chris Palmieri - Maria Beth Josephsen - Maria (ADR)
Safelite wanted to showcase their industry-leading Automated Driving recalibration technology, and looked to Spacejunk to create a video that delivered their message while also pushing their creative boundaries. The final concept direction involved a complex 360° “bullet-time” shoot with talent and putting them in full CG environments in post-production.
Every stage of the process had to be planned out and visualized before it went into production. That included a heavy R&D period where we created full CG tests of the spot, developed the CG environments, and educated ourselves on the intricacies of a bullet-time shoot. We captured all of the footage in a 2-day shoot. We then took all of the shots into post, where each frame was cut out and stabilized before finally going into final compositing and color correction.
We used 120 DSLR cameras in a 180° arc, all firing at the same time to capture the "moment frozen in time."
Director: Karl Hein Producer: Richard Charney Production Asst.: Nick Lantz Production Asst.: Sam Thompson DP: Brent Jackson 1st AC: Mitch Martinez 2nd ACs: Rob Lakis, Umair Jangda Key Grips: Dean Hayashi, David Jefferies Best Boy Grip: Jason Thompson Gaffer: Jason Perkins Best Boy Electric: Jerod Nawrocki Wardrobe Stylist: Christine Lee H/MU: Jennifer Walker Prod. Designer: Alexis Schuknecht Technical Director: Brian Finney Rotoscoping: Trace VFX 3D Artists: Karl Hein, Jeremy Patterson, John Peterson
With (at the time) the biggest MLB scoreboard being installed in their stadium, the Cleveland Indians approached us to completely overhaul the design and animation of their in-stadium program.
Our team did an in-depth analysis at the information hierarchy of the scoreboard, taking into account what the people in the stadium needed to see, wanted to see, and would be nice if they saw.
Previous Design // Proposed Design
Previous Design // Proposed Design
From there, we developed an updated graphic look for all of the in-stadium materials including bumpers, big play graphics, and player intros. To manage the huge amount of animation this project took, we developed a custom animation template that could be share between artist easily. This kept all of the graphics consistent, no matter which artist was working on the project at that time. All in all, this was an amazing project to work on, especially for the Indians fans in the studio. Go Tribe!
Final Scoreboard Stringout
Additional Graphics
Director: Karl Hein Producer: Richard Charney Designer: Karl Hein Animators: Steve Tharp, Marco Cardenas, Morgan James, Josh Studabaker, Jeremy Patterson
The Ohio State University was making food insecurity a focus of their philanthropic arm and looked to Spacejunk to help them produce a video that helped raise awareness of this very serious issue. This project was a collaborative effort between myself and two other directors, Brent Jackson and Mike Beaumont. All three of us needed to quickly learn about the issue and how we could approach such a complex subject. We chose to have our interviews speak into the camera and combined that with a black-and-white grade to make sure the message was as impactful and direct as possible.
Awards
Best in Show - Columbus Society of Communicating Arts Creative Best Awards Best in Category (Video) - Columbus Society of Communicating Arts Creative Best Awards Silver ADDY - Public Service Online Film Silver ADDY - Branded Content & Entertainment
Credits
Creative Director: Mike Beaumont Directors: Karl Hein, Brent Jackson Director of Photography: Brent Jackson Producer: Richard Charney Food Stylist: Alexis Schuknecht Editors: Kurt Keaner, Karl Hein Motion Designers: Karl Hein, Alex Trimpe On-Location Sound: Jay Alton, Jon Fintel Grip & Lighting: Jared Greene, Brad Keplinger
For the second season of their hit show Baskets, FX Networks came to Spacejunk asking for a creative pitch for the promo graphics they would run throughout the season. We presented 3 concepts, all based around the show's main themes, with a dash of Paris in each. While we ultimately didn't win the pitch, the work was stellar and we all had a blast developing the ideas.
Initial working type layouts
Confetti on a Parisian Street
Velvet Renoir
Objets d'un Bouffon
Director: Karl Hein Producer: Andrew Schneider Designers: Karl Hein, Alex Trimpe Animators: Chris Meister, Alex Trimpe
This is a short film that I created as part of the Spacejunk Satellite Series (with a ton of help from the entire creative and production departments at SJ, Central Grip and Lighting, Ohio HD video, and the Harrisons for coming through in a pinch).
The story follows a family as they struggle with a loved one with a mental illness.
Writer & Director: Karl Hein Producer: Mike Gillespie Prod. Coordinator: Allison Maier DP: Brent Jackson AC: Todd Robles Prod. Designer: Alexis Schucknecht Audio: Kody Orris Editor: Karl Hein Color: Karl Hein
CAST Tom - Daniel Kiely Kate - Tiffany Arnold Ellie - Riley McKenna Bintz Jay - David Gaylor
