Larry Caccavale

This animation wasn’t really planned out as much as it just sort of happened.  The beginning opens with a factory of sorts, preparing and activating little jet-pack astronaut like things, then they go exploring.  As the video was being produced the themes shifted a bit so, by the end, the inferred meaning of the beginning is entirely changed.  Overall I think it all conceptually came together well enough for something that I made up scene by scene as I went along.  Although there are a few rough spots in the animation, I'm happy enough with this creation from some Sunday afternoon past.

This was one of several concept pieces created for a documentary that was ultimately never created.  The themes included automated data collection, invasion of privacy, digital profiling, domestic spying and other various forms of both potential and intentional rights violations and exploits that occur within networked environments.

This was a proof of concept piece for a credit sequence of an indie film.  Choppy, highly edited audio, aggressive modern synths blended with more traditional orchestral instruments behind frankensteinian techno-medical-horror inspired visuals.  Thank you Mary Shelley, for being a freak.

This is a short bumper I put together while experimenting with quick methods to produce sticky viscous looking stuff from simple shapes using plain vanilla After Effects.

Here is another short sample for a suggested credit animation sequence.

This animation is related to the fourth amendment video above.  The theme of this clip is the use of drones as automated data collection and monitoring devices.  The drone parts were created in Illustrator then brought into After Effects as separate layers.  Multiple copies of certain parts were created and offset to create a 2.5D object which can then be rotated in 3d space.  This same technique was used in the ‘macroMap’ video.

This is a bunch of other videos, including several of those on this page, edited together into a demo

This is another video that was completed over an afternoon, maybe also a small slice of the evening.  I was going to revisit an animation that I had previously created, ‘lifeEvolution’, which appears further down the page.  I got started on making new protozoa, created a few test animations, then created a handful of different audio loops, each a bar or two long.  I strung them all together and made a few edits and transitions between clips.   It never ended up being the ‘lifeEvolution 2.0’ that I was originally considering, but I’m happy with it just the same.  I like little microscopic lifeforms, I find them fascinating.

I like tracking elements onto footage.  I had some video of a beat up old barn and I decided to add a few ‘digital-ish’ overlays.  Maybe there’s something about the juxstaposition of century old barnwood and digitally created art-deco flairs that I find artistically appealling.  The video pans up the barn while the little animations play, then at the end, the video does a quick rewind back to it’s starting point.   I like the effects but I can’t help but wonder about them.   I mean, this is digital video, it’s not a VHS where you get the video glitches while rewinding, but yet - here they are.  A pseudo-nostalgic throwback to a deprecated format in the form of a very intentional stylistic choice.

And you thought the last one was short.  The video only runs about 3 seconds but took slightly longer to create.

Clips from workfiles, test files, little bits and pieces strung together as samples.  There are several pseudo 3D looking sequences in the last half of the video that were created from 2D photos.  The 1951, Kitchen, Hallway and Destruction clips all started as flat photography, then vanishing point files were created in Photoshop before being imported into After Effects for animation. 

This is a proof of concept video demonstrating rapid VFX prototyping.  The effects are not meant as finals, only as rough samples.  They all look pretty good though, considering the speed at which they were produced.  There are a few sample 3d composites as well as a very quick and dirty day to night with a simulated flashlight effect.

Stretched out audio. Very stretched audio.  I think that this is very interesting.  This video takes a minute to get going but give it a chance and you may find new inspiration.  I recorded a short clip of a creaky door, then used Native Instruments Form to stretch the audio out to about 2 percent of it’s original speed.  I have to say, the result is just slightly more than creepy.  The 2 second audio clip of a creaky hinge turns into a full blown horror soundtrack.  The creaks get drawn out into strange melodies.  Things get weird.  The same audio technique was used in the ‘shakuhachiBirds’ video located down the page a bit.

Made it up as I went.  Geometrics and oversaturated colors are featured in this very short animation.

Every so often I’ll just make… whatever.  I will occasionally decide to sit down for a few hours and produce something, anything.  The goal is usually to produce a 30 - 60 second micro-music video or promotional bumper.  I’ll find or create a few unusual assets, compose and produce a short piece of music, then create some sort of animation to go with the audio.  This was one of those pieces.  I found a piece of slow motion stock footage of a spinning pepper, imported that into After Effects and further slowed the clip down.  I like seeing how far you can pull a piece of media.  I used Maschine Studio to produce a piece of music, and brought that into After Effects as well.  The rest was a matter of adding a few effects and tying them to the audio.   Some additional particles to simulate more little droplets and some text was added and here are the results.  The same basic process was used to create the ‘eatPeppers’ video down the page.

This was an experiment in speed ramping and quirky effects set to a clicky little wobble-bass loop.

Here’s a quick VFX piece.  What is it?  I’m not entirely sure.  It looks like a rainbow flavored hole popped up out of a beat up old table.  I guess that’s what it is.  On a side note, I've been using rainbows since before they were made mandatory by the latest Design Kommissar.

I occasionally make Drum&Bass tracks.  Who doesn’t love the ‘Amen’ break?  I composited several different layers to create the vehicle interior along with a video of driving around... Las Vegas perhaps?  Sure, we’ll go with that.

This is a video that was created to go with a piece of music that I produced.  Most of it is really simple stuff, looping graphics, audio waveforms, a few color shifts all in time with the music. The actual objects and effects themselves weren’t the focus here.  This was more about setting a video in time to existing audio.

So a piece of audio was created using a fairly standard drum kit and a bass.  Each drum gets it’s own icon and animation.  The visuals are tightly and accurately timed with the drums of the audio.  When the snare or cymbals sound, the corresponding drum animation plays - you get the idea.

This video is very much like the ‘curiouslyCreative’ video at the top.  I produced a short audio loop Using Maschine Studio, then digitally slowed down some already slow-motion footage.  After adding some additional particle effects and a few other subtle visual elements, this happened.  If you’re working for big pepper and need someone to help create call-to-action style pepper propaganda, please peruse my page!

This is just the ‘ectoplasm’ sequence clipped out of the 'conceptualRapidVfxPrototyping’ video located up the page a bit.

3D composite over 2D footage. This was created very quickly. The 3D plants/fungi were tracked onto some footage of an old table, This same table footage was used to make several composite samples. I think this was also used in the ‘thaumaturgicDimensionalSplicer’ video towards the bottom.

Like many of my creations, this is an entirely synthetic sequence, meaning that there were no source files or existing assets used.  I started by opening After Effects and creating everything from within it.  I imagine this as a Point Of View video from some poor soul trapped in a near-future dystopian trauma machine. I feel for ‘em.  Oh, the feels.

This video is another play session involving speed ramping and compositing. The text is all very quick and very glitchy. The little tracing lines are pretty cool.

Someone asked me if I ever made space related stuff.  I really didn’t have much in the way of galactic show and tell, so I put this together.  Like many of the little videos I make, this completely synthetic sequence was more of an experimental piece.  This was about figuring out quick and easy ways to get the look I was going for.

This is an expression driven video. A fractal noise map was colored and keyframed to create a panning ‘map’ in the background. The small grid pips are an array of clips whose current frame are set by the noise generated ‘map’ that pans behind them. As the map moves, the pips are automatically animated using a series of expressions that sample the pixel values of the ‘map’ at their location.

This is a simple loop of a grumpy little illustrated pill character.

This is an animation of a hyper-stylized automobile-like vehicle designed to provide a smooth ride on New York state roads.

This was a project that I worked on a while back.  I don’t know if you remember, or were ever even aware of, the Intel Identity Protection Technology debut, but it did it’s part in helping speed up communications, specifically identity verification as it pertains to banking.  The majority of my professional videos cannot be displayed due to contractual restrictions.  Most of it is very proprietary or sensitive in some way and covered under verious NDAs.  I mean, I’d like to show my work but I also don’t wish to place myself in an actionable position just to get an interview.  Even worse are the projects that were created in Flash.  Hundreds of hours of content unavailable and undisplayable because of the discontinuation of the Flash player.  What is one to do when in need of portfolio pieces?  Well, in my case I just put together a few showcases using old screen shots and text descriptions.  They're at the bottom of the page, below the video links.  Go have a look!

just a bunch of animated rings, but the end result is sort of reminiscent of my last name with all of the little loops suggesting c’s and a's

This is a quick kinetic typography sample.

Another very quick ‘here’s my name’ promo made from a green and pink pile of 3D junk.

Mr. Walters was an outsider.  The established parties did everything they could to prevent him from being on the ballot for a house seat in his district.  It was clear that the ‘real’ politicians did not want him to run.  Jeremy ran a campaign on fumes.  He had no PAC money, no sponsorship, no lobbyists were courting him with hooked donations.  He walked door to door and met with his constituents to talk to them about fiscal accountability through a complete forensic accounting of the budget and ending the state income tax.

As I mentioned, Jeremy envisioned transparent fiscal accountability and full audits on the government.  As you can imagine, the established politicians were not extremely enthusiastic about Jeremy’s run.  When Jeremy started talking about legislative reconciliation… well, you can imagine how well that went.

Here, we have a manually created kaleidoscopic effect.  No, this isn’t just a filter :)  I used a series of nested, masked, and flipped clips to create it.

This is an experimental piece.  I used various noise generators in Reaktor to source several different clips of background noise.  These clips were brought into After Effects and I attempted to create text animations that I thought would visually match each section of noise.  Another longer noise clip was generated and used as a sort of ambient track behind all of the noise clips that were strung together.

Here’s a fun little geometric themed video.  The visuals were created entirely from within After effects.  It’s mostly just animated shape layers augmented by a few effects.  Fun Fact: The background music from this video was used to create the music for the 'rollupRemix' video.  Although the feel of the music used in these two videos is completely different, it’s just two different mixes. They both run at 120 beats per minute but ‘lazyTimeGeomancy’ has a more laid-back half-time feel to it while ‘rollupRemix’ is a bit more frantically upbeat.

This started as a general idea to create some sort of representation of evolution or pond life or some other microscopic scene. The piece was created over the course of about … 6 or 8 hours? It was definitely done within a day. I first made a quick assortment of simple assets in Illustrator. All of the little creatures were made from relatively simple shapes stuck together in various ways. Once those were done, I produced the music, then started animating little water bugs.  I was making this up as I went and somewhere in the middle I started playing with different frame rates on different layers. There are a lot of layers in the video so here and there things look a bit odd.  That’s par for the course though.  I make a lot of unusual things.

Some animated geometrics.

With a fairly laid back soundtrack, minimalist text against complex evolving backgrounds are used in what I hope is a creatively inspirational little promo.

To create this video, I got some mapping data of a certain Bay Area and created a few 2.5D vehicles.  The vehicles were created by using flat shape layers representing cross sections of the vehicle which were then offset in 3D with the camera.  As the camera pans across the map, the vehicles are animated along with additional elements.  Vehicle sound effects were synthesized in Reaktor and further manipulated in Audition.   Everything got it’s own little pastel neon treatment because that’s what I went with.  The same 2.5D technique was used to create the ‘bumbleDrone’ video further up the page.

This is related to ‘amendmentIV' and ‘bumbleDrone’ I was going for a sort of high-tech sinister feel. This was made years ago though, so I’m sure the overall themes are no longer relevant given the advancements in AI as well as this whole skunkworks quantum computing business...  You see, back then, a thousand years ago in the olden times of the 1450’s, we had algorithms but agencies still required a considerable mob of biological equity, boots on grounds, asses in seats, and such. The outdated concepts of data collection and digital privacy from yester-year are vestigial, they only get in the way now.  Now, it’s different.

These videos were made by animating layered Illustrator assets.  Several pieces or sub-animations were created then manipulated in 3D space, many cameras were created and put on various paths across the clips to create newer, better clips.  Those newer and better clips were then offset in Z to create multi-layered sequences used to edit this whole thing together.  I’m pretty sure the sound effects were put together in Audition, These little blips and beeps were added inside of nested clips so that when they are played back inside of the main composition, everything remains synced, even if you move things around on the timeline.

An unfinished reel of older clips, now mostly lost.  This one has no sound. Still might be worth checking out.

Another mograph demo reel.

Another video related to the metaDataXX videos.  This short sequence was looped against a very synthetic version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s 'Flight of the Bumblebee’.  Yeah, dubstep was a thing.  Produced using the 2.5D Techniques mentioned in the other videos descriptions.

A few geometric and mechanical elements along with a bunch of organic chaos, set to a quirky little bit of weirdo music.

AcidPro was a little used piece of audio composition software.  At the time, roughly the late 1700’s, it boasted a feature set that made it both powerful and unique but it never really caught on.  I used to love working in AcidPro.  There’s something appealing about chopping cutting and rearranging audio and MIDI clips.  I came across the installation disc one day and decided to install it to re-live a few older, simpler times.  I put an odd piece of music together and captured screen video of the project for posterity.  I no longer use AcidPro.  There are much newer and far better apps now. I’ve gone through a few, from fruity loops to Reason & Record before finally settling on Maschine Studio which is, in my opinion, the only thing you really need if you are setting up a DAW.

A while ago, I knew an old antiques dealer that traded in oddities.  He was showing me some turntable footage that he, in turn, had gotten from another oddities trader.  Apparently, he was on the hunt for this object, about which he had heard many unusual stories.  I had him send me a copy of the footage along with some notes that he had about the object and I made this for him.  It’s very basic, but he really liked it.  He used to show it to people on his iPad at swap meets and flea markets.  He was just obsessed with finding that thing.  I have no idea if he ever did.

Some rockets or fireworks or something over some neighborhood.  This is a somewhat sloppy tracking job but it works well enough, I think.  Often, since I’m only creating these videos for myself, I will accept certain margins of error in favor of speed over a more precise but much more time consuming process.  Sometimes shortcuts are fine.  As with any repeated process, over time the quick dirty way can sometimes become a quick and relatively effective one.

Does what it says on the tin.

I think this was an initial draft of a support file for a Power Point presentation, maybe?  Honestly, I don’t even remember doing this.  It appears to be a generic sample of greeked text scrolling against an animated background along with a bunch of rotating question marks.  I'm not even sure why this is being included, it's not really a great sample, but I guess the idea here is that if you wanted a bunch of rotating question marks against an animated background with some scrolling text then I can probably do that for you.

just a quick loop from an old MKUltra 'new-hire' training training video video..

Some daytime footage taken up through some trees was keyed, and used to create a heavily effected and ramped video.  I’m not really sure what I’d call this music in terms of style.  I usually don’t think about that sort of thing but then when someone asks for a description, I’m never able to accurately articulate anything.  I honestly wouldn’t know how to classify it so I usually just tell people to give it a listen.  Either you’ll like it, or not.  Either way, that’s cool.

Here’s a remix of the audio used in ‘lazyTimeGeomancy’.  This was done by hand in Audition.  Manually cutting, pasting and editing 16th notes, mostly, but in a few spots I dropped down to 32nd triplets.  Again, this was a completely manual remix produced entirely from within Audition.  The simplified character is made from simple shape layers nested in animated looping clips.

These are ‘may seem sort of like, but are actually entirely different in a very legally defensible way’-style characters.  I know that the colors chosen might, to some, seem to give a very vague impression that these fictional characters might share similarities, themes, or maybe even imaginary technology with other alleged depictions of other fictional characters but I can assure you that these are definitely not those, or any other, trademarked characters.

Another quick video made from layered Illustrator assets.

What you’re seeing is a few tiny, simple, animated wiggly bits that are combined into larger and larger things that ultimately resemble stylized underwater plants.  I cannot remember when I composed this piano piece but I think it works well with this video.  Thanks to some glitchy little filters, I didn’t need to manually create all of the video anomalies.

This is a project that I should probably re-visit.  Originally, I had come across some stock footage of bullets falling in slow motion.  I decided to grab a few dates marking the passage of gun laws in the United States.  I then made a short piece of music using various bang bang sound effects and decided to speed ramp the footage to align with the audio coinciding with a brief on-screen date and summary of each law.  Several people have given me critical feedback along the lines of ‘It goes too fast', 'I can barely read it’, or 'I can’t keep up with it’.  That was very much by conscious artistic design.  The list of laws covered in this video is hardly comprehensive and I only edited up to part of the way through 2017.  The reason why it stopped there is because that’s where the music ends.  I know, maybe I should try to make it a little longer?  Maybe, but honestly, If I made this video to include all major gun laws passed and left enough time for everyone to read it all, the video would be an hour long, minimum, depending on the length of the summaries.  I just have to remember that every week tat I don’t re-make this video, the video gets longer.  Are you a funded documentarian working on similar projects? Spreading some of that cashola would be an effective motivator, I’ll tell ya!

Some sound effects and videos representing an attempt at communication.  Maybe between the aylmaos and our entirely competent representation.  Along the way, the ‘math’ side makes a few mistakes and corrections while the right side uses a different method of attempted comms.

This started as another study in stretching audio assets.  Much like the ‘creekyDoor’ video, I recorded some birds chirping around, then digitally stretched it out in Native Instruments Form.  The video contains no voice-over and is meant to just be listened to.  If you’re not interested in the intermediate sound stretching you can jump ahead a bit, or just watch the ‘Short’ version which focuses only on a little piece of music made from the birdsong.  Once the sound gets pulled out to 1 or 2 percent of it’s orginal length, things get really interesting.  Played back at 1/50 to 1/100 speed, the birdsong becomes something a bit more haunting.  Part of the way through listening to the results, I decided to create a piece of music using these new sounds.  I pulled the audio apart in Audition and chopped a few samples out before sequencing them in Maschine along with a drum kit.  After I made the music, I created what ended up as a slightly unnerving animation of spooky little birds.

This is only the bird-song sequence from the 'shakuhachiBirds' video.  The rest of the audio manipulation process is not shown in this ‘Short' version.

It’s best if you know what you’re going into with this one.  Think of it as a template, a basic proof of concept, for support assets to help theme a short (think adult swim / 15 min format).  The beginning starts with some intro music and a place for a show title, then there are three empty scenes, each with styled transitions and background music at a very low volume.  These scenes would be filled with character animation and dialogue.  After the three main scenes there’s a credit / ending sequence.  Again, really just proof of concept stuff - imagine your content in those scenes. Now imagine sending me an email to talk about realizing your project.

Along the way, I occasionally develop a few quick ways to create what might be otherwise very time consuming assets.  I wasn’t really sure what to call any of the ‘magic language’ sigil type things that you might see used in VFX sequences, so I started calling them snoodles.  Appearances can be somewhat deceiving.  These look like very complicated line art, but they are in fact much easier and faster to create than you might think.  The snoodles are created in Illustrator and every little symbol is put on it’s very own layer.  These layers were individually animated in a container clip which was then tracked onto 2D video.  Also, I believe this same desk footage was used to create the ‘deskHole’ video.

It’s very processed video which ended up resembling a long exposure time lapse. Are you in a band? Need help with anything?

More odd footage from out in the rock gardens, speed ramped and effected.

This is an old text presentation sample.  It includes an overview of the tools used and other video features.  There are a few details that I like, the little green highlight that traces around the edges of the flat layers in 3D space worked well.

The same desk footage that was used to create the ‘floraMicrocosm’ video was repurposed to create this.  It looks like a thaumaturgic dimensional splicer.  That’s what I think it is.  Granted, I haven't actually seen one of these things in years, but if you happen across one they are very useful items.

Multiple clips of splashing water had their time messed with to create this animated background. Something like this might be perfect for that water related presentation that you’re putting together.

Do you remember that story about that old antique dealer and the ‘oswegoArtifact’?  Here’s another piece of oddity flavored turntable footage that I got from the same person.  I cut a loop from the video, speed ramped it and added a few additional elements in pseudo-3D.   I liked the way the bounce effect worked on the temporal keyframes.  Pretty neat, huh?

A fake video of a fake subway working it’s way past a fake train station, while fake smoke drifts out of a, you guessed it, fake smokestack back there in fake city.  The music is an EDM-influenced glitchy orchestral composition, mixed in a more modern style, with a few trap style hats thrown in to feed your triplet need.

This is a conceptual presentation that was meant to be content neutral.

Vexmann Industries is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely fictitious entity.  If they needed a logo sting, this is what I would have given them.  I’m not entirely certain what they do but the name sounds a bit sinister.  This is a pretty old piece but it turned out well.

First, the music was created.  This little buzzy tune ended up being one of my favorites.  I don’t know exactly what it is about it but I dig it.  Once the music was done, I set out to automate as much as possible, much like the ‘dogBarkInThePark’ video.  The drum animations are expression based, triggered by peaks in each instruments waveform, the little splash graphics that appear on the snare were randomized so they create a different pattern with each hit.  The same is true for the bass, as the music plays, you may notice that a sort of randomized kaleidoscopic effect is created on the body of the bass drum with each thump.