Blog
Pisgah MTB Meet Up
On 28, Apr 2013 | In MTB | By Collin Waldron
Over the weekend The T.O.D. crew headed to Brevard for a early season MTB meetup. What we didn’t know at the time, we were about to ride the most intense mountain bike loop in the Looking Glass area. The 16 mile loop has a 6,500ft elevation gain in just 2hrs followed by a hike bike descent that takes you through some of the most remote old growth forest in Western North Carolina. This ride was a beast of a climb, but the payoff was well worth the effort. We all managed to pull it off without any major mechanicals or injuries.
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- This is home, all of our gear had to dry out in the afternoon sun.
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- Prep for the ride, all bike and riders were ready for a full weekend.
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- Camp, every morning we awoke to chilly 38 degree weather.
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- The Baja submarined through a flooded river to make it to camp.
Tour De Wilson Creek
On 28, Apr 2013 | In MTB | By Collin Waldron
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- Collin and Charlie crossing a 200ft waterfall.
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- Eric taking in the views.
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- Collin enjoying spring
Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition
On 08, Feb 2012 | No Comments | In Featured | By Collin Waldron
The 9th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition selected one of my adventure photos for the Turchin Center at Appalachian State University.
My entry is title “Backcountry Chef” and it was shot on top of Grayson Highlands on a Harvest Moon night in October. Here is the image that I captured using a long exposure and a lot of post work to bring out the subtitle details.
Cooking up a midnight meal at 5,000ft in the Blue Ridge Mtns
Stop Motion
On 23, Jan 2012 | No Comments | In Design | By Collin Waldron
Behind the Scenes of: TobyMac – Christmas This Year
Take a look at the new Toby Mac video by www.samaritanspurse.org Learn how creative stop motion techniques help tell a story.
This past December there was a need to produce a creative stop motion project highlighting Operation Christmas Child music video. The goal was to partner with Toby Mac song Christmas This Year and get the message out for the Christmas holiday. So how do you get a three-minute video cranked out in two weeks using cut-outs, construction paper, and bunch of wrapping paper? That was the question I had only three days to work out in our small studio. Hundreds of elements had to be created and shot frame by frame in just three days we had for production. Once all these elements were created the post-production process began, and the movie magic started to unfold.
Movie Magic in Action
Once all these elements were processed and organized into scenes, I began my work in After Effects. The major tool used in AE is the time remapping tool. All the scenes needed to conform to 23.976 frames per second at a HD resolution of 1920×1080. Well that is fine, but each image was more than twice that size and had two times the number of frames. This was the first hurdle I had to over come. The fun part begins with bring each element to life by timing the animations with the music. The reason all the shots were larger and longer than I needed for the product was to allow room for changes. You never know what you find until you start digging into a project. So the more room you have for changes in post the better your project will turnout.
Bringing it all together
Finally all the scenes came together and they were sent to the edit bay for final delivery. This project was a fun and creative way of getting back to the basics of creativity and having fun with common everyday art and craft elements. I would encourage you to play around with your own stop motion ideas and give it a shot. Stop motion is fun graphic technique that adds energy and fun to any project.
Until next time!
Opening Day: Ski Patrol
On 04, Dec 2011 | No Comments | In Sports | By Collin Waldron
Taking it all in, slope side.
Beech Mountain Resort: Opening Day on the Slopes
This Saturday we opened the mountain for the 2011-2012 season. After temps in the 30s snow making and some natural snow allowed a great day of skiing and riding. The Ski Patrol started early preparing the slopes for a great start to the season with some of the best snow I have seen on the mountain. The crowd was full of stoked skiers and riders. The day was the perfect blue bird day on the snow.
Stay tuned for snow reports and resort updates!
See you on the slopes.
TimeSquare Video
On 11, Nov 2011 | No Comments | In Design, Featured | By Collin Waldron
So this week our team headed to New York City for a media Blitz in Time Square. With the help of a good friend we were able to team up with Time Square Squared, and have our motion graphics displayed on the NASDAQ and Reuters signs. This was really fun and amazing project. Usually when things are do good to be true, they are! Well what was the catch this time? Well the catch was I only had two days to create a 30 second animation for a 8 story building. The last I create something that big was just half past never. So what did a do? I jumped into go go gadget mode and cranked out something fun a cool!
Anytime you have a job two big or two quick for one person you call in help! So Jun, my co-motion graphic wizard divided up the work and got to work. He took the task of animating the 14 story Reuters building, and I started on the 8 story NASDAQ building. The NASDAQ building was round, and allowed me to fake a extra dimension, so I played off the shape in my animation. Jun used the height of his building to create a dramatic logo dropping out of space and triggering the rest of his animation. Both these designs worked together to fill Time Square up with color, hope, and energy!
Check out the quick clip!
What’s on your mind?
On 25, Nov 2010 | One Comment | In Design | By Collin Waldron
Creative Meetings? No problem, just keep your favorite blog or motion design site within arms length. Go for something from Wire Magazine or Motionographer and you will be set. Want to be the coolest kid in the class, throw down some new gadget from ThinkGeek.com.
So cool…..Now to the next slide.