My name is Raffaele, I'm a 37 years old CG art addicted, who is trying to turn his pure passion into a living and a job, by means of a lifelong learning, exploration and, last but not least, failures.

As I've tested on myself, I know how steep and long is the learning curve with stuff like animation, keyframes, graph editor, expressions and a myriad of other things that is just too much to grasp at the beginning. And if you are devoted to 3D just like me, here is where it gets hugely complicated!

Well it's not so easy, but I believe that determination and perseverance can get you where you really want.!

That's my experience, my path. And that is why I decided, somewhere along the line, to share contents and tutorials about motion graphics.

My biggest hope is that I can help you to take a little step further into your self taught, even just by motivating to learn and joining forces with like-minded people!
I know it's hard, but I believe that it's just a matter of constant practice, learning, fail and try again.

My Story

My love for art started back when I was younger, keeping on drawing some kind of comics, horror book covers and inventing illustrated stories about dinosaurs, my timeless passion!

I was introduced to computer graphics relatively late. My first pc in 1999 — a super heavy plastic box with as many as 64 MB of storage capacity — was used only for gaming and class projects. Since computer graphic was to me a dark matter, I carried on unleashing my creativity on some sloppy papers.

It was when I was 19, as soon as I began my major in engineering, that I had my first approach to graphic design...well, in a pretty unusual way, I know :) Being involved in some projects of architectural design, I discovered my true vocation.

A few years later I would have found myself watching a tutorial by Andrew Kramer on Video Copilot. If I remember, it was about how to create a glass orb in After Effects, with a sort of galaxy made of nebulas and star clusters inside it.
I was literally struck and fascinated.

Maybe that marked the start of something greater than just an impression.

A simple fact that no matter who you are or what is your life path, you can switch your way over.
I'm not telling it will be an easy go, but...hey, there is no shortcut to success. What's the upside? You don't need to be super talented, you can slowly build your skills to achieve your goal.

Anyway, my journey to motion design was not so predictable.

Intimidated by the complex interface of After Effects and overwhelmed by academic stuff, I decided to give up.

In 2008, a project of mine let me deepen my interest for 3d. Since my first architectural render was so crappy, I thought it high time to perfect my skills. But, confused by the vast number of softwares and render engines, I've been trying some of them without significant results.

I had no time and, most of all, I had no focus.

I remember one day, I was flipping through a manual of 3ds Max I bought a while back, when I stumbled across an article dealing with renders post-production in Adobe Photoshop.

Again, it sounds weird, but my route took another turn!

Starting to get intrigued by the topic, I discovered a bunch of tutorials and, in a matter of months, I was able to manage Photoshop, using it especially for color corrections and photomanipulations.
Not content enough by the sleepless nights spent to learn Photoshop, I decided to produce my own tutorials to share my knowledge and help people with new tricks.

On 16 November 2010, my dear blog Crazy for Photoshop was born. Finally I had succeeded in achieving one goal.

Since then, in a way not yet clear to me, I began to enjoy 3D again. CG world had opened my mind to new expectations and, surprisingly, I started to dive into a ton of tutorials, online courses, forums and inspiring articles.

Here some of my reference websites/magazines which continue to be a constant source of learning and inspiration.

I had reached a pretty good level with 3D modeling. I was feeling even more well-trained in images compositing and creation of 2D elements. But I hadn't forgotten the magic of After Effects!

And here the best part: Motion Graphics.

Why to limit myself to some boring still pictures when I could have been animating them?
That was a crucial question. The rest is history.

Sliding Fox, the Blog for Motion Designers/Animators

Sliding Fox has been rekindled from the ashes of my old blog, completely renewed in graphics, contents and name, of course. Since I discovered motion graphic, my interests naturally evolved.

Sliding Fox was born because I like moving stuff, smoothly.

I like playing with shapes, bringing them to life. Creating a visual narration with everything, it's a jumping ball or a fire-breathing dragon.

My big goal is to inspire artists, animators and motion designers with contents and tutorials accessible to everyone, at any level of experience. I'd like to build around it a community of like-minded creatives as me, sharing things online.

So...hugely positive feedbacks from you, folks, motivated me to develop my own skills further and get better!

Thanks for reading this, I appreciate your attention so much.
Hearty cheers!

Raffaele Renzulli