I designed and animated the lettering What Does Assassination Mean? for a feature film art installation by artist Alex da Corte.
Alex da Corte: What Does Assassination Mean?
Let’s Be Real: Ellen’s Fun Flips
I designed and animated this little Ellen’s Fun Flips bit for the FOX puppet comedy sketch show created by
Robert Smigel. The Ellen character is drawn to be based on the puppet design. Writing, voice, and sound design was all handled by the production.
Here’s my animation with temp tracks above and the edit of the animation as it appeared in the episode below.
UArts Animation
In my position as an Assistant Professor in the animation program in the School of Film at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, I utilize my animation, motion design, graphic design, and illustration abilities to create demos, posters, show graphics, and interactive installations throughout the year.
Aldous Harding “Tick Tock” Music Video
Director: Aldous Harding + Chris McD
Animation / Design: Chris McD
Animation Color: Angela Visconti + Austin Pettit
Composite: Harvey Benschoter
Producers: James Doolittle + Laris Kreslins
Production Company: All Ages Productions (PHL)
Made with the support of NZ on Air
St. Vincent “The Melting of the Sun” Music Video
The Melting of the Sun is the second single off of St. Vincent’s new record, Daddy’s Home. I designed, animated and edited the video with a written treatment and direction from Annie Clark and Bill Benz. The live action was shot by Kylie Hazzard and the video was produced by Loma Vista Recordings.
The music video is an official selection in several festivals, including the 2021 editions of the Happy Valley Animation Festival in Pennsylvania, the LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine, the ANIMASYROS International Animation Festival in Syros, Greece, and the Denver Film Festival in Colorado.
Blue Ribbon Content Logo Animation
Working with Peter Girardi of WB Animation/Blue Ribbon Content I developed this super fun variety of mixed media animated logo directions for Blue Ribbon Content to play as the final slate in closing credits.
Top: The clay animated logo has been used multiple times (according to the internet).
Below: The digital collage was another fully finished and refined version, while the pasta, live-action, and shapes are other possible directions that were explored.
Techniques used here include stop-motion clay animation, digital cut-out collage animation, live-action and animation compositing, traditional 2D animation, and stop-motion pasta animation.
All the music and sound was created and recorded by me, except for choice public domain sound effects which I collaged into the mix as textural elements.
There is even a fandom wiki article that mentions the BRC logo here!
WeTransfer: Don’t Go Changing Net Neutrality!
I designed and led animation on this informational original music video produced by WeTransfer. It’s currently approaching 1.5 million views on YouTube!
Executive Producer: WeTransfer
Creative Agency / Executive Producer: Doubleday & Cartwright
Executive Creative Director: Aaron Amaro
Creative Director: Matthew Reed
Producer: Adam Argersinger
Production Assistant: Cary Nakamaru
Animation Director: Chris McDonnell
Singer/Songwriter: Adam Roth
Music: Granted, Allen Blickle
Sound Design: Granted, Allen Blickle
Animation Assistant: Colton Barto
Animation Assistant: Angel Kawash
Animation Assistant: Gia Pedicone
Lady Dynamite
I designed and animated a variety of sequences for the two seasons of Maria Bamford’s Netflix comedy series Lady Dynamite.
Tour de Pharmacy: The Red Blood Cell
We executed this animation in a retro educational film style for the HBO film Tour de Pharmacy (2017) using TV Paint, Photoshop, and After Effects. The soundtrack and finishing film reel effects and color grading were done by the editorial team.
Animation assistance by Colton Barto, with character design and storyboards by Brian Wilcox.
Cause + Effect Productions Holiday Promo
I worked with Cause + Effect Productions to animate some micro animated gags that their team had written to use as promotional video to send to their clients. Cause + Effect had recently produced Food Network bumpers that featured graphics that looked like an animated holiday sweater. To have fun with that concept and extend it to their promo video, these new animated bits were also to be processed through the sweater effect. The animation was also requested to have a low frame rate, animated .gif quality.
The promo video (Cause + Effect is responsible for writing, editing, text and audio design. McD Workshop is responsible for the cartoon design and animation):
Mike Tyson Mysteries: The Wizard
For the fourth episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries “Is Magic Real?” I designed and animated a special visual interpretation of Mike Tyson’s imagination. Tyson has a theory about a bearded man being a wizard and a professional gambler. Warner Bros. Animation produced the show and this episode first aired on Adult Swim, November 2014.
Comedy Bang Bang: Back to Basics
The episode Rashida Jones Wears a Black Blazer & Flowered Pants from season 2 of Comedy Bang Bang on IFC featured the song “Back to Basics” during a Rashida Jones interview in which Scott and Reggie demonstrate their carefree lifestyle in a “Hakuna Matata” / ”Bear Necessities” send-up. I designed and animated all of the drawn stuff: plant life, bugs, bears and Rashida’s cartoon vomit.
Kroll Show: Blisteritos
I animated this intense ten seconds of Kroll Show in which C-Czar feeds Blisteritos to an unsuspecting kid which has mind-expanding results. Also B-Czar.
Cautious
I wrote, designed, and animated a complete short about the word “cautious” for the educational software company, Amplify.
Comedy Bang Bang: Zero to Hero
Zero to Hero was a two-part segment that I designed and animated on IFC’s Comedy Bang Bang. My animation assistant was Vlad S.
Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!
Brody Stevens: Enjoy It! was a project that spanned several years, starting as a pilot episode that worked on that was then picked up by HBO. The limited series of six or so episodes initially aired on HBO GO, and then was picked up by Comedy Central, re-edited and expanded with additional material and episodes. I was again brought on to animate more short bits to go with the new series format.
The series was produced in part by Zach Galifianakis, who also makes several appearances in it with dozens of other comedians and actors. My animation assistant was Vlad S.
Brody recently has passed on. RIP Brody.
Eagleheart
I designed and animated the Silly Sammy song featuring Ben Stiller and Brett Gelman, using rotoscope and masking techniques with directional motion blurs to match the animated objects to his hands in the first shot.
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!: Lucky Duck
I designed and animated the Mr. Lucky Duck character which appeared on a Season Cinco episode of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! on Adult Swim.
Yo Gabba Gabba: Story Time
I designed and animated the “Story Time” jingle segment for Yo Gabba Gabba on Nick Jr., featuring the music of fellow Philadelphians, Dr. Dog!
Because of a mix up on the production, I had half the original time allotted and half the budget to make the whole thing by myself. It’s limited in some areas but holds up in others, for me, anyway, and of course… it’s got Dr. Dog! Definitely a reason to keep this in the portfolio.
Yo Gabba Gabba: Remixes
For about one half of season one Yo Gabba Gabba episodes I animated and composited the remix segment at the end of each show. The idea was to create new animated backgrounds or new combinations of previously used backgrounds to have something behind every single shot of the characters dancing. These were challenging, fun assignments since the turn-around was always next-day and the pressure was on to whip up interesting and appropriate shots, sometimes fifty or more at a time depending on the rapidness of the cuts.
Two of the characters were always shot on blue screen and two were shot on green screen, almost always individually so they could be composited together or separate whenever needed.
Tom Goes to the Mayor
I was an animator/editor on the complete two season run of Tom Goes To The Mayor, the first television show that Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, better known as Tim and Eric, created.
McD Workshop 