My spirit animal, the American Buffalo.

I have to admit that I am more of a fan of the term Buffalo but it is because of the symbol of the creature and not so much the actual factual about the creature. I love that historically they had their own territory as they roamed the vast North American continent. These amazing creatures roamed from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico. Although these most powerful creatures once numbered in the excess of 10’s of millions they were once hunted to near extinction and only with massive intervention have they recovered to roughly 31,000, even if these numbers are restricted to only a select number of national parks and a few reserves. 

The sacred white buffalo “Big Medicine” represented all the sacred power of the mystic and real world around us. The buffalo symbol represents the sacredness of live and the abundance of resources around us. The buffalo is a symbol of self sacrifice and it will continue to give until nothing is left to offer. 

I love the idea of living up to the symbol of this great creature and one small way for me was to create this fun little drawing. 

Drawing a doodle from a word!

This most epic creature has been talked about and written legends since antiquity as a strange and unusual beast with a singular, magical, spiraling horn that protrudes from the exact middle of the head. The Indus Valley Civilization has described in the ancient seals white even the ancient Greeks included the unicorn in various texts. 

The more modern folklore has the unicorn described as a white horse or large goat sorta animal with the aforementioned long spiraling horn. During the Middle Ages and the renaissance the wild animal that lived in the woods, it was seen as a symbol of the grace and purity. This strange creature could only be captured by a virgin. There are some that believe the legend is based on the Narwal and its tusk has been sold as an actual unicorn horn.

Today, the unicorn has an important place in pop culture. We see it as a special symbol of the magical and fantastical world in which we want to believe.

I can’t say all that was the inspiration for this Unicorn but I hope you can have as much fun drawing along with me as I had sketching it out!

Who doesn’t love a cat… drawing?

I really like my cartoon cat, I can’t say that I like cats but the cartoon is cool. I know that the Felis Catus is one of the less cool carnivorous mammals although it is quite the domesticated specimen of the Felidae family. I don’t know that this small animal that has cousin are all wild I don’t know if I agree that just calling this sort ‘domestic’ makes it any better or more distinguishable from the relatives out in nature and not in your home. I don’t believe it for a minute that this house pet is any much different from the ‘feral’ variety free ranging and fooling the rest of us that it’s not coming into contact with me or bothering my daughters who are currently scared to death of cats. 

I recently of the term “catio”? What an interesting idea to provide for your cat an outdoor recreation area that will be enjoyed without the risk of harm coming to the cat or worrying your own pet is going to getting into trouble roaming the neighborhood. There a many ways that we can take the temperature on any given society and wonder if Mahatma Gandhi had some insight into one possibility with his quote, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I am a huge fan of being a good steward over the things we have in hour care, and yes this does include the animals with whom we adopt into our lives. I can’t say I agree with the humanization of pets or the idea that they are our “children”. I think we need to think responsibly on all commitments we take and all living things needs our full attention and the way we treat all living things is a very accurate estimate of a moral barometer. Now that I’ve been way to philosophical I would like to remind that I am encouraging you enjoy a fun little cartoon drawing of a cat and I encourage you to draw along!

BlackRock Model Portfolios Investment Philosophy Explained

This animated video that Wienot Films produced for BlackRock started its visual conception on my desk as I had the honor of working through the storyboard and how we might visually see the narration come to life. It is always exciting for me to work work on an explainer video like this, in which I will not follow it all the way to a whiteboard video but will see another artist, illustrator or animator take my storyboard and create an awesome product video or explanatory video like this one. I really enjoy seeing the visual seeds I get to plant and watching them bloom into an incredible garden of activity in animation.
This was particularly fun for me as at first I wasn't clear on it not being a sketch or hand drawn video in the whiteboard style. I only have myself to blame for the unclarity but I believe this one was part of a few others that were in production at the same time and I do tend to get confused on which is which when there are multiples in the pipeline at the same time.
When the realization finally occurred to me that I would not be drawing on the whiteboard for this video I was almost a little sad as I had imagined a lot of the fun drawings to try and portray the difficulty the climbers were going to have reaching the summit.
I think the animator did an amazing job in their style to create a really cool video and you too can now watch our guest couple reaching their financial goals as they metaphorically reach the top of the mountain!

Chinese New Year

Why would I want to talk about Chinese new Year in May? First of all I just recently had the pleasure of accompanying a friend to the Maker Faire in the Bay Area. 14 years ago I had the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese over in Monterey, CA and on a few occasions I ran over to the Bay Area to visit China Town San Francisco. It was quite fun for me as at that time in my life I had not been outside the country and this was the highlight of seeing other cultures for me. I had so much fun attempting to speak Chinese with all the good folks in China Town and enjoy the fun food offered in the Chinese Food restaurants in the area. I was not in the area for China Town New Year now was my visit to the Bay Area in May over Chinese New Year but the trip this time was filled with lots of hearing, listening to, and speaking just a enough of Chinese to again get me excited to try and better my proficiency in the intricate and amazing language. 

As I looked back on the fun videos I have worked on at Wienot Films and this one was a favorite. I got to do a large portion of the actual directing and worked directly with the illustrator and animator to get to the final product. I believe it is a great example of the sort of animated video that would work well on someones landing page or the style that could be a amazing explanatory video. It was a fun change from the normal whiteboard animations we produce and one that we look forward to making more of in the future. 

No matter what time of year it is, I wish you a happy time to celebrate, what ever time it is!

CX: Epic video in the Mud

I get to work with a guy that is awesome with the editing and fantastic with some sweet action shots. I just get to claim the association with the guy that makes these awesome action videos. Wienot films has done some really awesome action videos. I can’t say I know a whole lot about cyclo-cross bicycle racing but if this landing page video were on the website it would totally get me excited to be part of the action. This is what it looked like at the USA Cycling National Championships in Austin, Texas. I can image a cool product video having this level of excitement in the way of a cool bicycle or maybe even an energy drink. It would be tough to do this level of action in a whiteboard animation or an animated video using the style we do for other explanatory videos but we could definitely do some other great explainer videos that could be more educational on the subject! 

For now you’ll have to check out this cool cycle-cross video!

Super Sleeper A Music Video!

I didn’t know I’d ever get to work on a music video. I never really know what each different project is going to bring at Wienot Films and this project was a ton of fun to storyboard. Super Sleeper wanted a landing page video for this cool pillow they have. We got to work with a unique song that told their fun story of a young lady and her adventure in sleep or dream land. It was a great animated video. We only had to do a few revisions on the storyboard and then the adventure through the production of the hand drawn video was a true adventure as it did have the opening and closing had live action. 

Check out our friend in her dreamy adventure!

Binoculars Explained

We have a good looking ‘animated’ couple out on many adventures as they help us create an awesome explanatory video. This whiteboard animation was really fun to see the motorcycle scenes as they each progressed a little in different ways throughout the explainer video. Although it is a product video, and it very much as that feel, we really wanted to bring some life to the video by including this couple on their different adventures to the ballgame, the national park birdwatching, and even a romantic scene as they are stargazing. It is always exciting to work for the big time clients and being able to have Canon on the brag list is a bonus!

Follow along our pair of friends on their journey together!

Word art video

We, at Wienot films, are always trying to new ways to share our art with you. These videos and the idea of taking words and drawing images that reflect the word has come from the inspiration of our children and their desire to draw and love of learning from others drawings. 

I thought at first that drawing an image from a word would be super easy until I started on trying to work up my own image to draw on the whiteboard. I could not believe how challenging it was to not simply copy all the other fun ideas that you can see out there. 

I’ve had a ton of challenges and successes working on and finding some nifty ideas to draw and I look forward to getting more suggestions on future projects. Although this is not a replacement for our regular client work that includes explanatory videos and corporate videos, we are trying to challenge and push our creativity and expand the ways we can share with more friends. 

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