Animation and Motion Graphics

Parker Yarborough

Grass Test created in Blender 3D by Parker Yarborough, 2023

Motion Graphics for Covert Devotion

“Womcom Media’s current documentary production, COVERT DEVOTION: THE AURORA RITTER STORY, is the true WWII-era story of Aurora Ritter, an Alabama school teacher who is deceived by her German-immigrant husband, Nikolaus Ritter, when he emerges as the leader of one of the largest enemy spy rings in American history. Over 20 years later, Aurora taught 8th grade English, and Greg Womble was one of her students.”

For Covert Devotion, I created a total of 7 map animations using period-accurate maps of the world. These maps were designed by hand, as well as all of the textures, lighting, animation, and other miscellaneous elements.

Map 4 - Illustrating that the action is taking place in Bremen, Germany.

Map 6 - Illustrating movement of the characters from Hamburg, Germany, to a smaller town: Ratzburg, Germany.

Map 5 - Illustrating that the action is taking place in Hamburg, Germany.

Map 2 - Illustrating movement of the characters from Verden an der Aller, Germany, to New York City, New York.

These motion graphics and the additional motion graphics that appear in Covert Devotion were created in Blender 4.1, with some minor work to the textures done in Sketchbook Pro.

Motion Graphics for They Never Left: Indigenous Return and Reclamation in the South East

Directed by Quinn C. Smith

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS: Native Lens, World Culture Film Festival, The Archaeology Channel International Film Festival, George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, St. Augustine Shorts Film Festival, Social Impact Film Festival

Some Indigenous people were never forced to leave what is now known as Alabama, and many across the continent are still intimately connected to their sacred homelands. Meet three Indigenous people who are answering their ancestor’s prayers to reclaim traditional lifeways, protect the environment, and teach us all how to better our relationships with the natural world and Native Nations.

For They Never Left I created a total of 4 map animations using accurate maps of American Indigenous populations. The base map used in the animations was hand-drawn by me, with colors and styles picked out by the Quinn and the creative team.

These motion graphics were created in Blender 3.5. The map was drawn from a reference in Sketchbook Pro.

Motion Graphics and Title Cards for A Slam That Saves

This is some of the work I created while working on the documentary A Slam That Saves.

  • The map animations were created from scratch using adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and Sketchbook Pro. These map animations where played anytime a location was mentioned.

  • The title cards were created using Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and footage from the documentary.

Sensationalization Station (2023)

Senior capstone

Dr. Hollis original sketch | July 2022

Sensationalization Station is a mini series that follows Dr. Hollis, a rat, as he makes a web series with the same title. This web series highlights the dangerous ways in which research can be misinterpreted and misconstrued by news outlets and social media in order to gain more attention. In each episode, he takes a piece of research, sensationalizes it himself by making a fake newscast, then breaks down what specifically was misinterpreted or simply false.

While the idea was to make a mini series for the purpose of my capstone, Sensationalization Station switched to only one episode. The hardware requirements proved to be too much to render a photorealistic rendering of the show and the time requirements of making a show on your own proved too much as well.

Dr. Casey Hollis (felt) | December 2022

After some time, I began working on other 3D projects, primarily decorative art.

The show has since halted development as my advisors felt I met more than the requirements for my capstone with the work I had done.

Additionally, the show halted development when I discovered a love for 3D design and industrial design. To view some of these designs, view the links down below.