Rick Ellis

Art of the Story

2011-10-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

I built this to play on the side screens of a show in the Walt Disney Theatre before the show began. Its 4:3 because the screens in the theatre at 4:3.

Morning Show

2011-10-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Whenever we do a long repositioning cruise like the Atlantic crossing we do a Cruise Director morning show. This is from the logo loop, but I did everything from keying to lower thirds and scrolls and bugs.

Escort Carrier 3D Model

2011-10-10T11:30:00.001-07:00

This is a 3D model of a World War II escort carrier that I build from scratch in Cinema 4D. It will be used in the visual effects of my short film on Taffy 3. Whenever I get around to it that is.

Disney Channel All Stars

2011-10-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here is another.

Superstar Karaoke

2011-10-10T11:24:00.001-07:00

Some of our venues are covered in screens but not all events in those venues have content. Here is one event I built a screen for to have something more themed.

Tea With the Mad Hatter

2011-10-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is a still from a graphic I built for an event called Tea With Alice on the Disney Magic. Sometimes Alice couldn't be there and the event was changed to Tea With the Mad Hatter and I built the screens for the venue.

Disney Dream

2011-10-10T11:08:00.001-07:00

This is one of the first screens I did for the Disney Dream when it was opened in January. Quick, clean, simple.

Business Cards

2011-10-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to creating some business cards. Created the logo and in Cinema 4D and After Effects.

Music Video

2010-10-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of full disclosure this is not the official version. I was the second person to edit this music video and when I left the area a third editor was brought in to recut the entire thing. To the best of my knowledge that is the official version. This is just a small sample of my post production work.

Foreign Language Guide

2010-09-29T11:23:00.001-07:00

When we implemented a Foreign Language movie channel I was asked to create guide to let our guests know in their own language what times the movies would be playing. I was happy to have the opportunity to create a TV Guide in my own design, even if the information involved was much less complicated.

Infocaster Templates

2010-09-29T11:13:00.001-07:00

These are templates I designed to a test a new system that allowed us to display content from multiple sources on a single screen. There is a large window for the primary content. Variations include a window for a clock face, smaller windows for additional signage and an area to overlay a text crawl. The templates are named Mickey Classic, Donald Duck and Pluto Night.

Unoriginal Work

2010-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

These are projects I built from start to finish, but I did not do the original design. For example, the TV Guide was built by another motion graphics designer on another ship. The company wanted to implement the TV Guide design on all ships but there was no project file. I rebuilt the project by eye. This was an enjoyable challenge, but the heart of the work was organizing the project files so they were easy to update, fast to render and discernable to anyone with the least bit of knowledge in the software. The TV Guide originally took 90 minutes to render. By pre-rendering the elements inside the project, render time was reduced to 45 minutes.

2010-09-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

I created a new look for the channel that displays information from the bridge such as weather, speed, direction and our location on the globe at various zoom levels. Unfortunately I can’t show you the screen because the design was assembled in the HTML style coding within the software. I was not able to grab a screen shot. But I was asked to come up with a background over which the weather information could be displayed. The first screens I made were said to be “too advanced”. A very complimentary way of telling me to try again, so I came up with more cartoony looking screens and they were pleased with that look.

Sidebars

2010-09-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve created many versions of sidebars. I am quite happy with these sidebars created for a theatre show. I am much more pleased with the content I built for the show than the show itself. In particular I like the texture and depth in this entirely unsung graphic element.

No Satellite

2010-09-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

When my ship did the Atlantic Crossing from Florida to the Mediterranean I was asked to build something we could display in the 2 days of dead space between the North American and European satellite footprints.

WDT Logo

2010-09-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is a default logo played on the channel dedicated to the Theatre Channel when there were no shows to display.

Crew Awards Show 2009

2010-01-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

Crew Awards 2009 Logo Loop from Rick Ellis on Vimeo.

These are video elements for a big awards program we run annually on the Disney Magic. I got to design the look and feel of this live show along side my friend and lighting designer David. There were over 200 video elements and 250 lighting cues. On top of designing the show, I operated show control and directed a 3 camera shoot. David and I are quite proud of the contributions we made to reward and celebrate our coworkers and friends.

Crew Awards Nominee Example from Rick Ellis on Vimeo.