2016 Reel
A body of work showing the projects I have worked on over the years. Roles include: Director, Creative Director, Art Director, VFX Director, 3D/Animation Director
Microsoft asked Fuel to create a web video series spotlighting developers developing on the windows platform. The shoot took us to Munich, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Portland, Raleigh and Washington D.C.
director: Jim Manduca
Connected Cities VR is a remarkable example how our team's creative vision and technical know-how combine science and technology in a first-of-its-kind VR experience that will help define how we comprehend and manage civic big-data.
All who experienced Connected Cities VR experienced something they hadn’t experienced before. Inspired to imagine the enormous potential of Connected Cities VR as a real Enterprise tool. Among the more memorable reactions was the testimony from Ed David, former Chief of Police for Boston, who was in office during the marathon bombings:
“…what I just saw is revolutionary for management of crisis and serious events in cities. Even Day to Day operations would be greatly enhanced by this virtual reality in the gaming sense. But I never really thought about their potential assistance in things that happen day to day. In every city across the country utilizing this technology will make people more informed… and really, knowledge is power…”
Creative Director: Jim Manduca
Disney has done an amazing job keeping its most beloved character relevant over the decades, including a great new series of online animated shorts, and a hit preschool TV show. With the challenge of bringing Mickey interactively to mobile, Disney came to Fuel to create a quality experience that would hold up to the high brand standards, while allowing fans to interact in ways they never had before. Enter Disney Junior Magic Phone, a FaceTime-with-Mickey app to let little ones communicate directly with the star himself!
Apple featured the app for two weeks during the highly-sought-after Christmas period.
Creative Director: Jim Manduca
Before the current J.J. Abrams film was even announced, Lucasfilm had a question: how can we keep existing and new Star Wars fans visiting StarWars.com and engaging with our brand? The youth market craves entertainment brand experiences that sync with their digital lives and demand for creative play – and Lucasfilm approached Fuel to help create the next great online experience for the franchise.
The result is a piece of Star Wars lore that lets fans make and grow their own Ewok Village, creating new buildings, workers, and monuments. Featuring beautiful music from the original film, and a host of newly imagined elements and content, the game pulls players into an addictive and creative world, where no two player experiences are identical. With a new Ewok character and world design created entirely by Fuel, Ewok Village brought a new platform to the Star Wars universe, and delighted fans of the film and gaming in general.
Still live on StarWars.com, the game became the #1 more played experience on the site, and garnered and average engagement time of a whopping 24 minutes.
Art Director: Jim Manduca
With the youth media and entertainment landscape in a constant state of change, and play patterns evolving with new technologies, branding and customer loyalty experiences must be adapted accordingly. McDonald’s Europe undertook the challenge of reinventing the traditional Happy Meal experience for today’s tech-savvy, rewards-oriented youth audience.
We began creating strategies to extend the restaurant experiences beyond the few minutes of play at the table. This meant linking the myriad of monthly brand promotions into digitized play.
Beginning as an online theme park, supported by 360 media promotions, kids could create their own avatars to play with the licensed characters they receive in their physical Happy Meals. Happy Studio also represented the first time licensed characters from so many entertainment properties have come together in a single experience with a brand.
Eventually moving into a richly featured app experience that included Augmented Reality and Digital Books, the global strategy reached over 7 million registered users for extended play times, and was localized into over 40 markets.
3D Art and Animation Director: Jim Manduca
In a true mall Santa experience for the digital age, Fuel helped DreamWorks Animation create a virtual trip to the North Pole that incorporated a 2,000 sq. ft installation, gaming, and a flight to visit St. Nick himself.
Fuel created the digital experiences within the house and helped with the design of the physical sleigh.
Creative Director: Jim Manduca
Co-worker and one of my closest friends Will Reid asked for some help on his title sequence for FITC Toronto 2016. I provided Photomicrography and my skeleton collection for the piece. The final product is stunning and I couldn't be more proud of my involvement and Will's success. It was up for an award at SXSW 2016. Although he didn't win, it was an amazing experience and I thank him for the privilege to be a part of something so compelling, vivid and profound.
This piece also obtained a vimeo Staff Pick and The Art of the Title hunted him down for an interview, again I was lucky enough to be a part of that as well. You can read the interview here:
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/fitc-toronto-2015/
Will's website: http://www.willreid.ca/
Photomicrographer: Jim Manduca
A commercial for Microsoft's Dev Center Benefits (previously the DVLUP platform). Although the video was completed and approved by Microsoft, the product platform wasn't complete in time so this piece was never formally released.
A Co-worker and good friend of mine Sean MacPhedran was explaining the requirement for the video to me while we were at a local pub. His whole delivery and the environment seemed a perfect way to tell the story to the masses. The way he explained the whole system to me seemed perfect and we shot it at the same pub and same table a couple weeks later.
Director: Jim Manduca
Fuel helped Mattel launch the new Barbie.com for the future of girls’ play online for 33 markets around the world. Featuring responsive HTML5 design for web, tablets and smartphones, the brand new Barbie.com allows fans to customize their own digital B Dolls for the first time in the brand’s history.
With the ‘Explore’ feature – a beautifully-scrolling social gallery of user-generated dolls, costumes, and videos, including Mattel’s award-winning Life in the Dreamhouse series – girls on Barbie.com can filter content by their own preferences with categories such as Fashion, Sports, Fairytale, Mermaids, and Dance. Barbie girls can then head over to the new e-commerce store, to browse and purchase toys and outfits for their Barbie collection. The new digital experience brings Barbie to girls in new ways that encourages them to discover their inner sparkle through creative play, games, and exploration.
3D Art Director: Jim Manduca
Fuel was approached my "Call me Smith" agency to produce a final shot for an Oh Henry TV spot. I haven't been able to hunt down the final spot but here is the render of the shot we provided.
VFX Director
A teaser video for SMITH labs
Director/MGFX
Yvolution approached Fuel for a TV spot for their product Neon Streetrollers.
Director: Jim Manduca
Da Vinci’s Demons is a hit show from the Golden Globe nominated television network. This app has 60 different puzzles that are based on Da Vinci’s real inventions, which will test your problem solving abilities and creativity. Along your journey as an apprentice you will collect artifacts and achievements which allow you to move on to harder and more challenging levels. The app was created for the iPhone and iPad both of which are available now in the apple app store.
Art Dirctor: Jim Manduca
Fanta Fruit Slam 2 is a mobile game that extends the universe of its well-known ad campaigns. The team created a new play mechanic that allows users to become the characters from Fanta’s TV spots in first person in an intense mobile fruit battle game.
Players swipe to fire fruit, and tap and swipe to take out opposing fruit, making the game fun and challenging. Available on iOS, Android and Facebook, Fruit Slam 2 uses fast-swipe action play to draw in players and keep them engaging, competing and sharing.
Art Director: Jim Manduca
Co-founders Gard Hollinger and Keanu Reeves created ARCH Motorcycle Company to push the limits of design, engineering, and craftsmanship in the motorcycle world. Fuel created a site to reflect and enhance the elegance and beauty of the motorcycles themselves.
Visitors are greeted with an engrossing full-screen video experience showcasing the stunning imagery of the Arch’s flagship KRGT-1 riding along California’s coastal backdrop.
Navigating the site brings users closer to the advanced tech and engineering of the bike through a beautiful 3D exploded view of all the bike’s components, a 360 degree interactive render, and photo and video galleries. All in a fully responsive shell.
This site was built in 2015 and has since been updated
Producer/3D director: Jim Manduca
Continuing the success of a previous integration of the 2012 London Summer Olympics with Happy Studio, McDonald’s Europe and digital youth agency Fuel expanded the online world with a new takeover and games section dedicated to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Russia’s Olympic Happy Meal programme brought the camaraderie and energy of sport to children across Russia with mascot-themed toys.
Developed in consultation with Leo Burnett Moscow and the International Olympic Committee, the site included new content tailored to the event, including an all-new front-page takeover, a fast-paced speedskating game, and a visit from the Polar Bear, Hare, and Leopard mascots gracing this year’s event – making this the first time Olympic characters have appeared in the virtual world.
Children on the site can interact with the mascots, and earn in-game currency by competing in coordination-based sports challenges. The virtual Sochi experience ran on HappyStudio.com in Russia from February 1st through the 22nd.
3D Art/Animation Direction: Jim Manduca
Hit Entertainment wanted to celebrate their 25th anniversary of the creation of Barney with a digital campaign. The campaign included sharing Barney hugs with your friends in order to help promote the awareness of the successful brand.
Art Director, Director: Jim Manduca
Fleet wars was a Facebook game Fuel was developing in 2009/2010. We decided to create a 3D animated trailer for the experience. This piece was one of my "high school football stories" at Fuel as it was conceived, modeled, animated, shot, rendered, composited and posted in 2 weeks.
Director: Jim Manduca
We helped Google create a fun experience for families that would teach them about Internet safety through entertainment and interactivity.
In conjunction with their their expert safety partners Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, and the National Consumers League, Google wanted to build an initiative to help people navigate the complicated waters of digital living at home, at school, and in public.
At the core of the experience are a series of short interactive videos about the fictional Parker family exploring common everyday scenarios. Users determine which path the family members take at critical decision points. Do you text the person back? Do you cite where you found your information? Do you make that purchase? All the videos are snapshots of more complicated issues, but the intent is to make people aware using a fundamental message to take a moment to think before acting on impulse.
With interactive hooks that promote completion of the lessons and return visits, the site remains a key part of Google’s digital literacy toolkit for all ages.
VFX/MGFX
Logo Build and two trailers created for Random Salad's Simple Solitaire and Simple Word Search.
Joining forces with DreamWorks and McDonalds, Fuel created an experience that took a child from their Happy Meal to an online experience. This game allows a child to become their own superhero in order to battle it out with the evil Megamind or save Roxanne from danger through different games.
3D Direction/Animation: Jim Manduca
Director
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