Stale Sandbech Animation
2021
Stale Sandbech, professional snowboarder and popular YouTuber, creates a yearly edit every year to showcase his favorite snowboarding highlights. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the production and editing of the 2020 year edit with Gimbal God, also known as Spencer Whiting, by adding some supplementary animations to bookend the video.
As a longtime fan, snowboarder, editor, and starry eyed young professional this was a very exciting opportunity to show off my skills and talent. For this particular video part, I was tasked to create a three to four second animation to title, and end the video.
Brainstorming & Drafting
The beginning of the brainstorming process usually starts with listing off all of the necessary conditions that need to be met: introduce the title or topic of the video, entice audience, fill a time slot, and fit the theme of the video. Fortunately, this was a snowboarding video, which I am very passionate about. Creative ideas flow easily from what you're passionate about. Usually, I can imagine some sort of snowboard trick that has perfect composition and motion.
After the Brainstorming process, the drafting of the animation begins. I gather all the necessary references and inspiration that will assist in creating rough designs. Mood boards are always helpful to gather color palettes.
Above, you see the preliminary sketches, colors and inspirations.
Finalizing & Conclusion
After I have sketched the compositions and motion, chose the color palette, and found the inspiration and reference video, I begin bringing everything into my animation software, Adobe Animate.
Frame by frame animation is a grueling task that requires a lot of patience. However, when everything is planned out, ready to go, it makes the process much easier to get through. Then again, loving animating and snowboarding helps too.
Understanding the requirements and limitations of the project you're about to embark upon critical to a successful piece of work. In this work, I was given a small portion of time to give a powerful, interesting visual accent that bookmarks an entire year of professional snowboarding.