2008 is here! Matt and I are eagerly looking into the new year with excitement and anticipation of great things. We already have some wonderful big events on the calendar and know that the rest will quickly fill up.
2007 was a terrific year. Matt and I started the year in California and continued to experience all the state had to offer including an earthquake! We traveled to Southern California in April for a wonderful trip to Disney, LA, and to visit Matt’s cousins. We also made several trips to Napa, and the cities surrounding the Bay Area and one trip to Indianapolis, Indiana to see Matt’s cousins Ryan and Kiley get married. Traveling near and far was a highlight of 2007 that we hope to continue in 2008.
Matt was blessed with many great opportunities through Expression to showcase his work this past year and even win a couple of amazing awards. In addition, we were thrilled to see his work on the big screen when it appeared on MTV, VH1 and now on the NBC network. Matt is now freelancing in Fort Worth, TX with Artworks, an NBC company which creates graphics for NBC affiliate stations and other NBC owned companies.
I also had the opportunity to change my career slightly this past year. When I returned to Texas I shifted from working as a special education teacher to working as a school counselor at the same middle school I attended! It’s great to work with 11-14 year olds; they bring new challenges each day! I will begin my final semester of grad school this spring and plan to graduate in May. Matt and I are looking forward to a time when neither of us are students!
Half way through 2007 Matt and I also celebrated with my family the birth of our nephew and Godson, Logan. We have had a blast this year watching Morgan, Logan and Emma grow and change. We have enjoyed every minute of 2007 spent with them. In addition, Matt and I celebrated our 1st anniversary in June of 2007. We couldn’t believe we had already been married a year!
So, we close the chapter of 2007 with great memories and look forward to 2008. Of course we have made our resolutions and have grand goals for the New Year but most of all we’re looking forward to all the excitement it’s going to bring. You know we’ll be sharing it all with you here, so keep reading! Until then…
Oh, and if you didn’t click on the link at the top of the post, make sure you do before you leave.
Last week I wrapped up my first major project with ArtWorks, the NBC owned motion graphics company where I am freelancing right now. The project was a redesign and animation package for the online and soon to be on-air channel Digital 4.4 and their headlining news show News RAW. 4.4 is a part of KNBC, the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles.
Here are the animations. There are 14 of them, so it may take a while to load. Click play and then pause until it has had a chance to load so it doesn’t stop on you.
With our video being one of the winners, the band got to play a show put on by The Owl Magazine, 7×7, SonicLiving, Pandora, Live 105 (San Francisco rock station) and Gibson. I’ve linked the YouTube version of the video as opposed to a better quality Flash version of my own. This is so it will load up and play faster for you. I figured you wouldn’t mind sacrificing a bit of quality for speed. If you’d like to see a cleaner, crisper version of the video you can check it out on my portfolio site here: http://matthopkins.tv. That one plays pretty fast too.
Welp, I’m just wrapping up my last 2 days of school this week. Tonight we presented our campaign for the San Francisco Horror Film Festival, Another Hole in the Head, during the final meeting of the Creative Direction class. It was quite a group we presented in front of. About 30-40 other students, current and former, as well as a bunch of staff memebers from the school. It was a bit nerve-racking as it was an unexpected turnout! Dispite a few nerves, the presentation went great.
Here is the broadcast piece of the campaign. I played the role of Creative Director as well as Lead Animator. This was one of the most fun, and most challanging projects I’ve ever done here at Ex’pression. Enjoy!
Here are some photos from my AMAZING trip to the Best in the SW – Animation and Motion Graphics conference in Albuquerque, NM a couple of weeks ago. Ex’pression College was so gracious to send myself and 11 other students on the trip. It was such a great educational and eye opening 3 days. What a great way to get motivated and inspired right before diving into my new career!
**Lindsey editing Matt’s entry – Oh and Matt would never tell you but he won an award at the conference!!!! I’m so proud of him and the work that he did. His award was for best movie title sequence. Way to go honey! ILU! ***
