A recent trip into the world of contest design had me taking a break from “paying” work and using my talents for a prize of much different value. Contests that involve design are not usually enticing enough to draw my interest, but this particular contest meshed two of my passions into one: beer and design.

For the second year, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company held a contest where participants were asked to make a two minute video explaining why they should be chosen to attend Beer Camp.

What is Beer Camp you may ask? It is a two-day foray into the life of brewing beer at Sierra Nevada. Winners of the contest not only get to sample the offerings of the brewery, but also collaborate on a beer recipe that will be brewed by the participants (under the watchful eye of the professionals) in the pilot brewery within the confines of the Chico, CA headquarters.

When i first heard of Beer Camp and the opportunity to enter the contest, it was late in the game in year one. At that point I knew I had to gear up for year two of the contest and throw everything I had at it. One key “disadvantage” was the fact that I am not a home brewer, and have actually never brewed beer. Many of the enthusiasts who enter the contest shoot video of their home operation where they are either quite successful, winning ribbons and awards, or quite the opposite claiming they need instruction from a professional brewer. All I had to offer was passion for the medium, so that is exactly what I based my video on.

I have taken video production classes, but had no decent equipment at my disposal. Video production also requires the assistance of a least another person, sometimes many more, so I decided to make my entry a solo project by using animation. Although beer has only been a passionate hobby of mine for part of my life, the advertising and design of beer is something I remember all the way back to my childhood. My parents always had a mug with the Budman on it, or a serving tray with the Hamm’s Bear. This quickly got me thinking about the mascots that play a large role in the marketing of some of the best craft breweries such as the Stone Gargoyle and the Gnome from Brasserie d’Achouffe. These characters would be the main players in the story of how my love for beer grew from a college-based ignorance to a true appreciation for the liquid artwork.

Animation on this scale was no simple task. I had a good idea of how the story would unfold and got it into storyboards pretty quickly, but building all the components that would make up the characters and scenery took many hours to work through. I was able to break the story into four pieces which made it easier to keep file sizes low and organize my assets and animation files. I built out most of the assets for part one and animated the entire thing before realizing it would be a better use of my time to illustrate all my assets ahead of time, and leave the animating for the end where I could simply pluck each asset and drop it into the timeline. Much of the work was tedious and time began to run out rather quickly. I was scraping the edge of the two minute video time limit, so I had to make some tough decisions and cut some scenes from the video.

It had been some time since I had used the tools in After Effects, but once I got into the animation phase, much of it came back. I added some lighting to each scene which took away that “flat” look that illustrated pieces can have and added some much needed depth. I also made use of the time stretch function after removing some small sections of the animation. Two minutes is not a lot of time to tell a story, and I felt the imagery was moving too fast. Once the timeline was to my liking, it was time to add the sound. I had recently been listening to some old jazz while working on the project and found a few tunes that fit nicely with the piece, but those would be dropped in last. First I scoured the internet for sound effects that would compliment the action in the animation. For those sound effects I could not find, I recorded some with my microphone/USB input setup. Next I recorded the voice over audio in about 3 takes. Again I split the story into four pieces, but ran through each section until it sounded acceptable. I find its best not to cut and re-record too much voice over as it will sound edited and unnatural. Audio production is admittedly a weakness of mine, but to the best of my ability I meshed the voice overs with the sounds effects and background music and the render was underway.

My entry was submitted the night before the deadline and it was time for the waiting game. I received word that I had made the final cut, and about a week later they were asking for my information to verify my age and state of residence. I was selected as a winner and tasked with a new design project: collaborate with the other beer campers in my group on a killer beer recipe to brew at Sierra Nevada.

Posted by admin under Animation, Beer, Contests, Illustration
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