Show and Tell - The Beginning

I am currently a student studying animation and visual effects, because besides being passionate about art, I love storytelling with wonderful characters and interesting backgrounds to support them. However, I never thought it could be a feasible career path for myself until quite recently (probably because I never considered myself to be so glamorous as to work in TV, movies, or commercials).

So, while I was studying for my Bachelors in Economics at UC Berkeley, I couldn't help spending all my free time making art for fun. Econ1 was one of my favorite classes there, and I liked studying the concepts and theories behind economics, but I couldn't exactly see myself being so passionate about it everyday, especially when I became more and more aware of the fact that I was actually distracting myself with little side art projects.

Anyway, here's a preview of some of the stuff I did on the side for fun, beginning with graphic design, advertising, and then transitioning into animation (when I finally realized it was something I could possibly do). Now that I look back at this stuff, I'm pretty embarrassed at some of my work, which is a good thing right? No more live trace in Illustrator for me now! I'll post more relevant stuff that I've done recently for art school soon.

Here's an advertising idea that I had for Slap Chop. 

At my imagical interview, they asked me, "What is a product that you think is really bad?"

Me: Slap Chop! (They actually do a good job marketing that product to get stuck in your head, but I always thought, man, I have to force food into that little chamber to chop? So I thought it was a bad product design. Anyway...)

Interviewers: What's the most difficult target market to sell to?

Me: Us! College kids! (We're so finicky and frugal, and want to be cool, but independent, and we don't like to be sold stuff, but we like stuff, but it depends on what stuff.... Hahahha.)

Interviewers: Sell Slap Chop to college kids.

Me: 

I thought about it, and here are three main things I considered:

-College kids are lazy about eating, especially cooking.

-They like eating junk food, but also feel guilty about it, since we're still insecure and care about how our bodies look. 

-It's hard to get our attention.

So for Slap Chop, I came up with this idea (poorly executed with inconsistent and bad lighting and bad masks, but wanted to create some visual for this idea.)

A college guy getting slapped in the face to convert their bad eating habits into using Slap Chop for good habits. A slap to grab their attention, and also draw it to how fast/fun/easy it will be to use the product to WAKE UP and eat healthier.