VFX Animator & Compositor
The Chaser's Media Circus
Senior VFX & Motion GFX artist
Client: Giant Dwarf
2014
Broadcast on ABC Australia
from Oct-Dec 2014
Software:
3D Studio Max
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Photoshop
This reel shows a selection of the animation work I did for The Chaser's Media Circus, a satirical comedy program that aired on Australian TV on ABC1 from October - December 2014.
Working for and alongside The Chaser team was a great experience, and not just for the obvious reasons. The briefs were sometimes hilarious if not fun to do -- I mean, where else will somebody ask you to put a clown car into Tiananmen Square?! Often, though, the briefs were fairly open, and the writers were hoping to see -- indeed, were counting on -- the creative output that the graphics team brought to the table. With this in mind, we could often pitch ideas or even interpret the brief to sneak in a few extra jabs at the subject of ridicule.
It was even quite satisfying to do the Photoshop work. Though often the script would call for a headline to be pulled from an article, other times a prominent figure (most often of a political nature) would have their likeness put into a new -- and generally hilarious -- new setting.
My absolute favourite from the series was one in which Tony Abbott, Australia's Prime Minister, explains the Senate (pictured). This got the biggest and most sustained laugh of any graphic I have ever worked on. It's not VFX, but still very gratifying!
At the time of writing, it is not known if another season of Media Circus is in the works, though I will be re-teaming with Giant Dwarf and ABC for the next season of The Checkout.
