7aX Jingle

Been doing a lot of practice with coding expressions on good ol’ After Effects. We originally made this strange abstract series of glyphs to brush up our graffiti inspired lettering to brush up on Illustrator.

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Relatively straight forward to put together. That color palette tho…yeeyuh!

Here’s the final animated piece, we even added a little jingle you can listen to in full below!

I always get giddy when I can make music for my visuals, especially when I can stack different synths together for additional atmosphere in the soundscape.

A gander at the original sketch. Lots of additional shapes and 3Dz. Penciling sharp keeps it fun and satisfying.

For those of you curious about how the “floaty” feel of the animation was built, here’s a peek at the exact After Effects expressions I used for each motion parameter scale, position, and rotation. You can open each section below to see the code that controls the bounce, ease, and drift in the design.

📈 Scale — Overshoot then settle

Paste on: Scale • Requires: 2 keyframes (0% → 100%)

// 120% overshoot, damped back to 100%
amp=0.20; freq=3; decay=4;
if (numKeys>1){
  t=time-key(2).time;
  if (t>0){
    delta=valueAtTime(key(2).time)-valueAtTime(key(1).time);
    value + delta*(amp*Math.sin(2*Math.PI*freq*t)/Math.exp(decay*t));
  } else value;
}else value;

🎯 Position — Rise & bounce into place

Paste on: Position • Requires: 2 keyframes (off-screen → final)

// Soft bounce settle
n=3; amp=.05; freq=4; decay=4;
t=time-key(2).time;
t>0
  ? value+(valueAtTime(key(2).time)-valueAtTime(key(1).time))
      *amp*Math.sin(freq*t*2*Math.PI)/Math.exp(decay*t)
  : value;

🌀 Rotation — 3 eased spins during scale-up

Paste on: Rotation (or Z Rotation) • Driven by: Scale keyframe window

// 3 smooth rotations while scaling up
s=transform.scale;
if (s.numKeys>=2){
  k1=s.key(1).time; k2=s.key(2).time;
  revs=3; start=valueAtTime(k1); end=start+revs*360;
  timek2 ? end : easeInOut(time,k1,k2,start,end);
}else value;

🌀 Rotation — Floaty loop after scale finishes

Paste on: Rotation (or Z Rotation) • Trigger: after last Scale key

// Gentle float after scaling completes
s=transform.scale;
if (s.numKeys>=2){
  end=s.key(s.numKeys).time; base=valueAtTime(end);
  if (time

La Cegua

I recently played Hades 2, and forgot how good the art direction of Jen Zee was, and how better it’s gotten in the latest game. So in the tradition of folklore and myth, I went ahead and did an illustration for one of my favorite Central American folklore creatures LA CEGUA.

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Illustration of La Cegua, a horse-faced spirit with long dark hair and wedding armor, raising a clawed hand under a glowing yellow moon.

Here’s a good ol’ timelapse for ya’ll who wanna see the whole process.

“La Cegua — also known as La Siguanaba or Sihuehuet — is a shapeshifting spirit from Central American folklore, said to appear as a beautiful woman with long hair who lures men at night. When they approach, she reveals a horse’s skull or rotting face, driving them mad. In Nicaragua, she’s told to have made a pact with the devil after being betrayed, cursed to roam rural roads punishing unfaithful men. Legends vary — some describe her as a seductive phantom, others as a mocking old crone — but all warn that lust and deceit come at a terrifying cost.” Read more on Wikipedia.

Here’s the original sketch. Hope you all enjoyed this piece of Latin American folklore. Check out my graphic novel WALO if you want to read more Central American history!