K9 Studios
K9 Studios was the animation studio that I worked with during my high school years. It was actually a class, but it functioned like any other film production studio. I attended the class my freshman, junior, and senior years. I worked as an animator, background artist, writer, director, producer, and editor.
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That class was a great experience for myself and my peers because it allowed us the opportunity to work as a team of 30-40 students towards the singular goal of creating a film. The program was among the first of its kind, being a film studio operating within high school curriculum, connecting students to industry professionals, and preparing them for a potential future in production.
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It was a high school experience that I wouldn't trade for anything else.
Internet PSA
This project was a quick assignment that tasked us with creating a public safety announcement. I chose to do one on being safe on the internet. I also decided to do it entirely on paper using a light box. If I remember correctly, I made the decision to switch from digital to paper within the last days before it was due, so I had to really quickly recreate what I had started on paper.
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With much of my own personal projects I did in high school, I made it a point to not take it seriously. What I mean by that is I wanted to get weird with what I made and really have fun with it. With the limited tools and time at my disposal, this is what 15 year old Nate came up with.
TV Falling
This short animation wasn't related to anything in class, really. It was actually something I made rather quickly on Photoshop while I should have been paying attention to instruction. It's simple, it's dumb, and I think it's the first animation I ever made, which is kind of cool.
Handlebars music video
This music video was the final project in my Animation 1 class my freshman year. My friends and I worked together on this project, having a ton of fun along the way. The final project for that class was to make a music video using a South Park character creator tool online, the primary focus being the story of the video, not necessarily the art.
David Garibaldi DVD Trailer
This trailer is a short edit I put together of a performance I and classmates filmed of David Garibaldi and the CMYK at our high school my senior year. He and his dancers are performance painters and dancers who achieved a degree of fame from thanks to their competitive run on America's Got Talent. The full DVD of this performance was to be sold to students and parents, but unfortunately other projects within our program took precedence over editing a full DVD, so a finished product never saw the light of day. It was still incredibly fun to produce, though.
David Garibaldi and his CMYK music video
This music video was the final project for the studio my junior year. It was the first full project I contributed a great deal towards. My duties primarily focused on ink/paint and animation. I wasn't super psyched about animating, because at the time I really wanted to do live action film production, but it turned out to be a great experience and I'm grateful for it.
Super Commute
This short film was the final project for my senior year. That year I worked up the ranks of the class to become the head editor, tasked with not only editing the film, but teaching a couple underclassmen so they could take over once I graduated. I also assisted in the development of the story and foley artistry.
My House by Mic Nice
This is the final project I worked on with k9 Studios. My senior year, I was given the awesome opportunity to direct a live action music video featuring our school's D1 basketball team with the help of k9 Studios alum Eric Hann and his RED Scarlet camera. It was an incredibly fun project because we were given ultimate permission to shoot what we wanted how we wanted with state of the art equipment. The music was provided by music artist Mic Nice.