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My name is Alex Mapar.
I am an Australian director, animator, illustrator...
I kind of vary between all three of those roles
I live in Brooklyn, NY,
which is about my most favorite place in the world.
I moved out to the States about 6 years ago
and I lived in LA for about 4.5 years,
and worked at a great studio out there as an Art Director
and I really got my head around the whole motion graphics industry there.
I think that these days gave me my whole background in graphic design
and branding, but these days I really enjoy
illustration and art and more hands-on mediums like
stop motion and cel animation...
and I found that stuff really informs my work going forward
I think a lot of us got into motion graphics
because it was a varied medium and you can try out doing
any approach that you wanted.
If you wanted to make a song for it, that was totally game.
If you wanted to animate stick figurines that was cool too.
But I think, now that mediums and techniques we've tried them all through and through,
it's going back to the traditional approaches
that really reward a lot of us - at least myself.
So with the fast pace of the whole pitch process
and trying to win a project in the motion graphics industry
you really have to be nimble and efficient
and leverage everything at your disposal
in trying to make a few styleframes or a storyboard
to communicate your idea to the client
so that they give you the project
At times, whether you draw something on your own very quickly
if it's a graphic spot, that's cool
but sometimes you need to work with photography for a live action
and that's a good spot as well.
And, you know, at times it's great to use your digital SLR
and go out there and get your own photography, and I do that a lot,
but occasionnally, there are times when I can't go out and take a photo
of people in a hot air balloon in ten minutes outside
So, when it comes to those moments
I tend to go online, use a lot of stock photography as well
mix that in with 3D, and just use all those different building blocks
to create the final imagery.
Once that idea is sold on
you can basically hope to win the project
if you've communicated your idea with the right imagery
that tells the right story and the right emotions.
Hopefully that connects with your client
and they like you and you get to win the project.
I've worked with clients that were based in network branding
advertising commercials, music videos,
print illustration, some editorial as well...
I really tried to not stick myself to any one field
I think that if you've built skill sets in a number of different fields
then you may as well treat it as a big playground to play in.
It's like Art College kept going for me.
I think that, at times, I look at all the people
that have specialized over their carreers
and just stuck with the one thing
and I think "Have I done that as well?".
I think I have; I've mastered maybe 2 or 3 different fields
with visual effects and compositing, motion graphics and animation...
Now I'm working towards building a bigger carreer as a Director
so hopefully, over time, my voice will mature and mature as I get older.
Some of the projects I've worked for?
There are brands like NBC, FX, CBS...
Everything from Coke to Mountain Dew, ESPN...
There are so many to name!
But I think that that's part of the exception,
it's part of the motion graphics world
where there are so many ads getting made all the time.
And you can pitch on these things and you can design very quickly
and work with a studio here,
or remote work with a studio somewhere else across the world !
So, in the future I'd like to work more on my own short films
potentially even work on some feature films, too, down the road...
I think I'd like to work with some more groups,
different individuals and collectives.
I've been working with the Depth Core guys recently,
which I think is really cool;
also the Fotolia guys as well.
If you'd like to go and see my Fotolia selections
they're on the website, I think there are some really inspiring things in there
that might help you win your projects as well.
Thank you for listening.