One of the things about the current economy is that it teaches a boy to diversify. Thankfully, my willingness to try new things has helped me have a strong, cross disciplinary background. Just about any way a project might need a hand no matter the time or monetary constraints, I am a valuable asset. My freelance skill set is below in a gradient from traditional artistic experience right through film expertise. You can also click the Knights End logo at the top of the page to get my resume.

Video Game Artwork/Animation---I have over four years experience working with various video game development studios worldwide, so I know the process and possible pitfalls of your average game dev cycle. Pixel sprite art and background tile set creation is a speciality, as is outside the box thinking in order to conceptualize the most interesting and efficient animation possible. With our background in 3D, texture art is another item we have previous experience with The only thing we can't do is...well, nothing.

Character Design---Character drawings were the thing that got me interested in animation and film back in the day. A lot can be said about a person from a single shot of them and I love the challenge of rendering out a character outline into a jump off the page personality. My work for Garfield’s FunFest on the DS has some good examples, as does my Digital Art Gallery. For Garfield I had to create a set of villians that had never before existed

Concept Art---A major part of my work on videogames is taking the few ideas and desires of the publisher and fleshing out a world around it. I love to go over a scene again and again adding in little details to make the image a richer experience for the viewer. Again, Garfield or some of the backgrounds for Mystery PI or Amazing Adventures are good examples.

Storyboard/Story Artist---With more than a decade of experience in life drawing, cinematography and film production I am capable of creating storyboards for any medium. Film, Commercial, Industrial, realistic, cartoon, vector; whatever style you need I would be more than happy to create to help your client or investors be able to see the action before a single frame is shot. Not only are storyboards a great pitch tool, they save you money via planning and problem solving without wasting lots of man hours.

Digital Matte Painting---With a combination of over a decade experience working with Photoshop, Aftereffects and various 3d applications, I can create photorealistic environments and map them onto 3D plains to allow virtual camera pans/pushes and digitally expand your set! See examples in the upcoming films Dead Shall Rise, Black and White and Darkness and the Lord’s Prayer.

Digital Effects---As stated above, Aftereffects and I go way back. While I primarily use it as a compositing/animation tool I am also well versed in particle effects such as fire, blood splatter, gun shots, and rain.

Digital Video Editing---I have edited together literally thousands of commercials, several infomercials, a smattering of local television specials, three feature films and a handful of short films using primarily Final Cut Pro but with Avid and Premiere added for variety.

Cameraman--- I have shot still and motion cameras in formats from Standard, High Def, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, 8 mm, the full range of standard lenses and even dabbled with a RED. Check out video clips on my film page to see some of my camerawork. If you have a project being shot on 16 or 35mm I will give you a highly discounted rate because I would like to log more hours with those formats.

Production Assistant/Art Dept---Basically, I love to be a part of any production. As a PA I have worked with NBC, Universal, National Geographic, ABC and recently the feature film, Winter’s Bone featuring John Hawkes.

Writer---I spent years writing scripts for television and infomercial scripts, but my love is writing feature film scripts and short stories. One of these days I hope to be able to sit down and pen out the notepad of novel ideas I have sitting on my desk. Until that day I am available for any of your projects, whether as ghostwriter or script consultant.

Director---While I don’t find the need to lead, I do often find myself in that role. I have been a manager of a creative team of some form or another for the past 5 years. I have directed the films, Darkness and the Lords Prayer, Black and White, as well as the short film Rain in Hell. I have even taken two years of acting classes to better understand the acting process so that I might be a more effective communicator cast. If you find yourself in need of a team leader, I would be happy to help you out.

Copyright © 2002-2011 Darrell Claunch, Knights End Films. All Rights Reserved.