This week was a mad dash to finish up a commercial for a client. It was a challenging project- all After Effects, and the only content they had was a product photo. I wrote the spot, did the storyboards, hired and recorded the voiceover artist, recorded the soundtrack, mixed, turned that product shot into part of a convincing 3D environment, and did a ton of multiplane compositing in the new After Effects CS3. And I did it all in glorious 720P High Def. Did I mention that I only got my copy of After Effects on Monday? I love CS3.

Turned out that my little laptop wasn’t up to the task of all this work, so on July 4th I went to the Apple Store and brought home a new Mac Pro and 30 inch display. I call him “Indy”. For a few reasons, natch. More about Indy later, but that machine screams! There’s no way I could have finished the spot in time without him.

I ftp’d HD and SD versions of the spot on Friday at 4pm. By 4:30 PM the client had already screened it in their high def conference room for the company president and head of marketing. I love the immediacy of the Internet.

By 4:45 they’d already given me notes on changes. Oh yeah, and hired me to do several more commercials for them. They loved it! What a great time. And don’t worry- I did get to watch fireworks on the night of the 4th from my roof with the woman I love. Best 4th of July, ever.