A Creative Collaboration

Hello, my name is Caitlin Crooker!

I am a Motion Designer, Illustrator, Director, and Storyteller. I have been visually communicating since I could hold a crayon. This is my story. This is my life in work.

Ever since I was a child, I have been drawn to visual communication styles. Anytime I would feel a certain way or needed a way to express my needs I took to drawing. By the time I reached middle school, I decided to teach myself the fundamentals of drawing and since then, the rest is history.

Now, I attend the Savannah College of Art and Design as a Motion Media Design Major. I am on track to complete my degree in the spring of 2024.

Let's talk collaboration.

A huge part of my process involves collaboration. Even if I am working alone, I am never actually creating on my own. 

I am always bouncing off ideas, talking out my process, searching for critiques, and asking for help. There will always be something for me to learn and a friend to make along the way.

For this 2D illustrative animation, I collaborated with Lauren Neu. Together we discussed narrative, design, music, and direction. What we ended up with was a brief animation for Green Eyes by Arlo Parks.

In her song, Arlo discusses topics of internalized homophobia and public shame around being a queer woman. She sings about a love lost early to insecurity and fear caused by public discourse seeping into private life. Lauren and I wanted to do this song justice by matching the tone of the song whilst also hitting the mark on the underlying message.

While this song is warm, inviting, and dreamy. The subject matter is reflective, pensive, and hurt. 

We drew a huge amount of inspiration from The Ordinary Folk's work for Christianity Explored. 

The mood of this piece is meant to be warm, welcoming, and dreamy. Exactly what we were aiming for. However, it contradicted everything we were trying to represent. Religion, especially Christianity has a history like oil in water with the LGBTQIA+ community. Often times it is this religious belief system that perpetuates homophobia and trauma.

Yet, this was a good problem to have. Despite the clash of themes, it worked perfectly adding a layer of depth that we were missing. The song dresses up as a clear summer day but the reality is it's a memory stifled by religious trauma, homophobia, and fear.

(styleframes 3-7)

(completed design board)

Together, Lauren and I were able to get 15 polished frames, a clear story, and a fully rendered animation done within a 1-2 week turnaround. We made sure to keep a tight schedule of meeting up regularly for discussion, correction, and sharing files. 

For more of our process including color choice, mood boarding, and a closer look at our frames check out the process book here.

More Assets, More Collaboration.

Another great example of a collaborative effort is something that I have been working on recently with Tucker Ziegler. Together we decided to work on a branding package and social media promos for the OXYGEN True Crime channel. We felt that the current branding of the network was inconsistent, lacked a true crime feel, and overall just barely hit the mark. To us, it seemed that the network was cherry-picking and misusing valuable assets already created for them causing jarring shifts in tone. 

We derived our inspiration from Trollback's previous work for OXYGEN's rebrand. We loved their use of color, type, and the overall vibe the final montage offered. With the problems mentioned above in mind, Tucker and I wanted to take this idea and elevate it making assets that were far more immersive to take that true crime feel to the next level.

(bump in & out progression)

Our intended goal was to combine cliche elements commonly associated with true crime while also creating something with subtlety. The result would be a well-integrated mix of the cheesy nature of the imagery and the intense, grungy, and dark tones of the cases.

By the end of the project, we achieved what we intended. We created something cohesive, and grungy, and added just the slightest hint of cliche to create a near-perfect mix of assets.