So as many of you know, in addition to being an editor and owner of Biscardi Creative Media, I'm also the animator for the Food Network's Good Eats. As such, most of our animations are based on food or food history. Now generally I rely on clip art / artwork books, websites like clipart.com and istockphoto.com along with my own photographs of headshots and hands to pull together the necessary elements for the script. But there are times when you just have to take matters into your own hands. Take our latest animation for example, it referenced a very specific cake, one I had never heard of before and of course I could find no royalty free images of this thing. All the cakes baked for the episode had been devoured already (of course nobody called me for a taste!) so I couldn't get a photo of one of those. So what do you do? You get the researcher to send the recipe, take some pans and flour and get baking! Well, ok, what I really did was ask my wife if she would take out some pans and flour and get baking because I was snowed under with deadlines. My wife is wonderful and agreed to make this sinfully delicious cake. After a night in the fridge, I was able to assist (and very ably mind you) with the frosting which was the sweetest, most delicious frosting I have ever tasted. Sugar, Heavy Cream and Vanilla. Wooooo, heaven! So for all of you considering a career in graphic design and / or animation, be sure to include some culinary classes as part of your training. You never know what skills you'll need to complete your projects!
Note the style and grace in how I apply the frosting. 4 years of college and 17 years of production experience paying off BIG TIME! 
The finished product ready for its close-up which you'll see in an upcoming Good Eats episode about Milk. |