Jack Strand
motion work
the demo reel
2D & 3D work
News GFX & Personal Projects
Broadcast work that had to be right, and personal projects that had to exist
produced mainly using Photoshop, After Effects & Blender
The title sequence for the Leaders Debate on STV, as part of the election coverage for 2026, featuring 3D sequences extrapolated in blender from a single photograph of the venue and then combined with the rest of the sequence in After Effects. I started off with a concept involving racing ribbons and developed it from there, I wanted it to be punchy, yet slightly desaturated and make use of the party colours to pierce the scenes with vibrance. I also had a photograph of one of the lecterns that would be used and started modelling one in Blender from that, wondering if I might include it in someway, pretty quickly realising that I'd want to finish in the debating hall, with the lecterns arrange as indicated in the original test image. I think the piece accomplished what I'd set out to do, over the couple of days allocated, although I would've like to have developed the motion of the ribbons more, maybe introduce some weaving round objects and jostling for position.
A piece of a personal project, featuring the holy trinity of video arcade games, in something like their natural habitat (although not yet populated by the other cabinets). I am currently working through these in my spare time, when I'm not working on the Boat for the short film. I basically grew up in the arcade my parents owned, in a seaside town, on the east coast, so I know these old machines pretty well - having jerry-rigged a few of them to give free credits when bumped in the right spot. I thought that making a fly-through of a complete 1980s video arcade, complete with pool tables, neon lights and garish carpets would be a good exercise and gauge of where I am in my 3D journey.
Facial Recognition story for the 6 o'clock news. I was asked if I could replicate the look and feel associated with such tech. I'd seen a few movies, so I gave it a shot, and got fairly positive feedback on the result. Produced in After Effects using the built-in tracker with various lens effects and overlays.
Title card for a piece on 'The Rising Cost Of Pets'.
I put together the concept in Photoshop and executed in After Effects. I sometimes work out placements in photoshop for speed, and then bring it into After Effects as a composition to avoid wasting time trying wrangle everything in AE's interface.
One of the 'package graphics' for the 'Rising Costs Of Pets' story, on STV's current affairs programme, 'Scotland Tonight'. Again, look and feel was pretty much left to my own discretion. I decided to go with a sketched look, like an old school kinetic type piece, using dropped frames and scratchy textures to seal the deal. I think this paired well with the subject visually, and helped tell the story in an engaging manner.
A 'Sting' graphic for a series the social media team at STV were working on during the Oasis Reunion Tour last summer. Ran on TV, the website and social channels
elevator pitch - Motion designer by trade, maker by nature. I got the bug for graphics way back in the 90s — I've worked through print, broadcast, and now I'm pointed firmly at what comes nextNine years at STV have honed my production skills and ability to navigate complex pipelines under pressure. I'm equally comfortable leading a project solo or slotting into a busy teamCurrent focus: Blender, Rive, and Python —
building interactive work that does more than just play and stop
on the box - Alongside core tools like Photoshop, After Effects and Blender, I have professional experience with Cinema4D, Adobe Premiere, Illustrator & Audition, amongst others.
I’m currently expanding my toolkit with Rive, Figma and Unreal, exploring Affinity Designer,
experimenting with Python and keeping a close eye on emerging AI tools
off the box - Outside of work, I enjoy travelling and turning off the beaten track to quench my curiosity, finding new places to go for good food, and quality beer—along with the occasional game of backgammon, usually soundtracked by music and talking nonsense with friends
stills
short film
I'm currently engaged, in my free time, on a short film with a colleague, centred on a strange encounter with Scottish mythological creatures, while out on a spot of mining, up north, sometime during World War II. I'm providing the boat for this particular expedition, and have developed it from scratch in blender using virtually all original assets. As it was a fairly shoestring budget, and limited in it's technical ambition I devised a way for the mechanics of the characters pushing mines into the sea to be fairly straight forward with the help of a sliding gantry system. As it happens, they actually used something like this in real life, only much larger and more elaborate. I also added null controls and rotational constraints to some of the objects like the doors, for example, to make things easier on the animators when the time comes to integrate the boat into scene and bring it to life.
Get in touch if you think I could help you out
with a current or future project