Southwest Florida College Website Officially Launches

Screenshot of www.swfc.edu

As the media strategist and part-time web-design and 3d animation instructor for Southwest Florida College, I was assigned to revamp their website, which meant redesigning it and completely overhauling it from the bottom up. Chip McElroy, the Graphic Design Program Manager at Southwest Florida College, produced the initial design. I then worked with Diana Rodrigues, the Marketing Director, to establish a new site layout, structure, function concepts, and a thorough content map.

This 6-week project was part of my other responsibilities in marketing at SWFC. I am also responsible of their broadcast media placement adn online marketing and SEO. My goal as media strategist is to develop and implement strategic plans that will help the organization grow efficiently while exceeding expectations.

Please visit www.swfc.edu to explore this mid-enterprise website and hopefully you will agree that this online experience projects a professional image of what Southwest Florida College is all about. It is important to compete in all spheres, virtual and real world, and the quality of our school, our students, our faculty and all the other people that make SWFC such a special place to work and learn warrants proper representation in the online community. A polished and professional website is critical for any organization to project the proper image while making that important first impression on potentially hundreds of thousands of people.

6 weeks and over 95 pages of HTML content, PHP scripts, Flash interactivity, and videos later, I managed to integrate the new look and design using the latest CSS techniques while supplying the back end with intuitive PHP scripting for better tracking capabilities for marketing purposes, customized content delivery based on visitor breadcrumbs and other behaviors, along with randomized, yet pertinent content to keep the pages relevant, but fresh.

On the front end, I incorporated the web videos which I have been producing for the school in modular Flash movies. The website has been tested on Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, and Safari with minimal compatibility issues.

Please email Aaron Belchamber if you need more information.

Bertie's Hancock Market: TV Commercial Production

VIDEOGRAPHER: Aaron Belchamber
EDITOR: Aaron Belchamber

This TV commercial was produced for Bertie's Hancock Market in November, 2008. We shot the family-owned store on location and enjoyed a fresh deli lunch. The shoot included dolly shots and stressed a "country theme", reinforcing Bertie's Hancock Market's image as the source for farm fresh, organic foods and distinguishing their brand from larger, corporate grocery chains.

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Graphic Design Program: Student Testimonial Video for SW FL College

This video was produced entirely on-site at SW Florida College for their marketing department. I modelled and animated the 3D animations with the projector light beams in 3Ds Max and it helps with the rhythm of the video while achieving the goals of informing viewers, hopefully some who are thinking about going to college and are looking for a school with a stong graphic design and computer animation program.

Here's what happens when you take two successful students and let them tell a story and share their experiences -- special thanks to Phil Rood and Angeli Chin-Franz for participating in the interviews.

After going over some concepts and ideas with Chip McElroy, the Graphic Design Program Manager, we concieved of a portfolio case that would open up to display the work. A great idea from Chip as we both were looking for a device to use in physical space that I could model in 3D to use as transitions and to keep the flow of the video moving. All cartoon clips in this video are actual animations that I put together with Phil Rood, who wrote and illustrated everything for a local TV show segment.

If you are in need of a video, website, 3D animation, cartoon mascot, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Italian Restaurant Gets On-Air Facelift

Pagelli's Ristorante was a restaurant commercial with a slightly higher budget, so we pulled out the camera crane and spent over 4 hours on location coordinating shots. The camera dolly and steady cam were also used, along with the actual singer of the Italian song, who is singing in the commercial -- which really sets the ambiance for this Italian restaurant in Naples, Florida.

The real difference to filming this commercial as opposed to other restaurant commercials was the willingness of the owner to invite a lot of people to eat free food if they agreed to participate and take direction -- this allows the film crew to set up more quality shots faster as opposed to the lower-budget method of showing up at a restaurant with no planning or preparation of on-air participants and hoping for the best.

Notice the last shot of the tower outside and the perfect timing of the camera craning up as a bird flies by. Sometimes, the lighting works perfectly, and this evening it all seemed to come together perfectly!

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Most Aired TV Commercials In Southwest Florida Get Rebranding

When you think of the most-aired TV commercials in a local market, you probably are thinking it's a car dealership or a hospital, but in Southwest Florida, the king of the airwaves has been the local NBC & ABC station's collaborative JobSpot franchise. An employment billboard for television, JobSpot has dominated the airwaves in the past decade, airing more frequently and more times than any other single TV commercial.

The old JobSpot logo

As big as the JobSpot franchise has become in the past 10 years, the local NBC/ABC affiliates needed to modernize its brand in a new marketing push while not completely abandoning its previous look. We decided to keep the colors and modernize the logo. The listings were displayed in a boxy marquis that looked really dated. By reviewing the way job listings needed to be displayed, the production department wanted a template built so they could easily enter new postings.

The new JobSpot Concept -- Incorporating 3D animation and spot light effects

Here is the new JobSpot solution. We came up with the concept of job listings displayed as file folders inside a cover folder with the JobSpot logo "seal" on the cover. Here is an abbreviated JobSpot segment with the accepted, final template that we designed, the only thing the TV station would later add is the voice over announcement of the job listings. By using spot lights in the scene at the beginning, the play on the word "spot" is emphasized without going over the top.

The clients were very pleased with the rebranding solution, that came in before the two-week deadline and within their budget restraints. One of the major benefits of this rebranding is incorporating new 3D animations. 3D animations stand out from all of the local TV commercials, giving these commercials more value and impact because they grab the audience's attention, breaking through the standard talking-head clutter of so many typical, low-budget, local TV commercials.

If you are in need of video production, 3D animations, websites, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Graphic Design Club Workshop - Basic Animation: How to Bring Cartoon Mascots to Life

This video was a demonstration of a Graphic Design Club Workshop I put on at SW FL College, showing students the basic building blocks of creating the source artwork of cartoon characters and how to bring them to life in an animation. Tipper the Turtle was drawn by Phil Rood, who I am working on a new website with. In 45 minutes, I took the source artwork and demonstrated the ease of animating characters, along with proper methods of setting the scenes up.

I used Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator in conjunction to create this scene. This quick and simple demonstration allowed the students to leave with the basic knowledge of how to make their static, 2 dimensional artwork into impactful, engaging, and memorable presentation pieces, increasing their artworks' advertising value. Hopefully, they will gain enough confidence from the workshop to design and produce more impactful advertising presentations for their future clients.

Tipper the Turtle and many other cartoon mascots, including people and animals are available for YOUR company or organization as spokespeople for your business to appear in TV commercials, print ads, signs, and on your vehicles! If you are in need of a video, website, 3D animation, cartoon mascot, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Non-Profit Fundraising Videos for Web & DVDs: Effective Ways to Raise Money

It doesn't have to be Christmas time to get in the spirit of giving and helping others and there are few causes closer to my heart than BarbarasFriends.org, an organization founded by Frank Haskell, in memory of his daughter, Barbara, who passed away from cancer. Please visit http://www.barbarasfriends.org/ and make a donation where 100% of proceeds goes directly to helping cancer patients and their families!

BarbarasFriends.org, the Children's Cancer Center, needed a video to help not only raise awareness, but raise much-needed funds. We had the opportunity to visit the treatment facilities in Lee Memorial Hospital of Southwest Florida and interviewed the main director and other support staff. A shorter version of this video was also produced and both videos are used in numerous fundraising events and presentations. This video was copied onto DVDs and is used in mailers throughout Southwest Florida, including specialized closing statements at the end by members of the Rotary Club for special distribution to Rotarians throughout the State of Florida.

The video is also on the Barbara'sFriends' website at www.barbarasfriends.org. As a member of the board, I want to thank all our sponsors, donors, and friends for the past 7 years of raising over $10 million for the cause!

A video can help raise awareness and money for your cause, paying for itself in a very short time. Perhaps your non-profit needs a boost? Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 to discuss ways to help get your non-profit new exposure.

If you are in need of a video, website, 3D animation, cartoon mascot, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Chiropractor Client: Infomercial, TV Commercial & Web Marketing Boosts Dr. Mel Youngs Business

Having done a lot of different production for her talented graphic designer, Alex Whitehair, it was only a matter of time before he referred Dr. Mel Youngs to us. An energetic, ambitious ball of enthusiasm, Dr. Mel Youngs gave us a call to discuss TV advertising and some other advertising ideas.

With her clearly stated goals of boosting business from within Cape Coral, I drew up a marketing plan that outlined a strategy of further penetrating the local Cape Coral market through a low-cost, yet persistent cable schedule on targeted programs and channels. Dr. Mel ran a series of TV commercials on 5 different channels that tilted towards more active, health conscious viewers, 70% female. By identifying her target market, we negotiated a schedule 6 weeks out and started production of the series of TV commercials and a 30 minute infomercial.

Incidentally, infomercials are technically called 2830, leaving 90 seconds on the outside to accomodate transitional advertising between programs. I provided Dr. Mel with minimal script-writing assistance, though I reviewed and made recommendations by providing her some insight and improvements such as clarifying the content to optimize its impact for laypeople and improving the flow of the different segments.

Once the scripts were approved, we scheduled the shoot at Random Art House's studio and set up a set, which we designed over email with Dave Thomas. When the set art was approved, we printed the boards and began setting the stage for the infomercial shoot, having opted for a dark backdrop, we knew we were going to have Dr. Mel dress in brighter clothes.

Before here arrival, we fed the teleprompter and set up the camera and lights. We placed the camera and teleprompter on a dolly track, to allow for us to move the camera slowly during shots to give the set depth, and the flow of Dr. Mel's delivery an engaging visual rhythym. You can see watch as the camera dollies side to side nd sometimes pushes in or out.

This series of successful TV ads and infomercials lead to another production job -- an MUA marketing DVD, which Dr. Mel has successfully sold nationwide. In addition to television advertising and strategic marketing consultations, I also setup and have helped Dr. Mel optimize her search engine campaigns. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an important part of any marketing campaign for any business with a web presence. Since Dr. Mel knew over 85% of her patients were Cape Coral residents, I looked at keywords and narrowed her geographic reach to only Cape Coral, to minimize waste.

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

3D Virtual Tours: Just because it's not built doesn't mean you can't sell it!

This 3D virtual tour was modelled from a couple CADD files and elevation drawings for a local homebuilder in Southwest Florida. This was what I consider a low-budget 3D tour, since the main objective by this client was to show a sales center that didn't exist yet, there are few realistic details added that I could have added, such as people walking by, cars in the driveway, a cityscape background, etc. That's the power of 3D modelling and animation -- just because it's not built, doesn't mean you can't sell it! 3D animations are impactful and memorable and also often eliminates the costs of conventional video production which involves a camera crew.

In this particular virtual tour, since the viewer is encouraged to focus on the houses, other ancillary details were econdary. By figuring out the client's goals of using a 3D animation, the total cost of this 3D virtual was kept low by prioritizing the client's needs

Pricing of 3D animations are based on the level of detail, modeling, and animation involved. A simple logo animation may only cost $750, this virtual tour was about $3,500. 30 second TV commercials with 3D characters that are animated may cost well over $10,000.

I can model and animate all kinds of 3D scenes, not just 3D animations for home builders, but anyone with an idea that's too expensive to physically build, we can work together to make it in 3D so people can visualize your idea! Need to show a new model of a home, vehicle, invention, or other useful item? I have the experience and knowledge to build your imagination in 3D. If you need some 3D animation or a virtual tour for your business, please give call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711.

Videos On Demand: Over 30 Web Videos for Big National Companies

Pulte Homes, Lennar, David Weekley, the Bonita Bay Group, and countless communities in Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.... What do all these companies have in common?!

I've shot, edited and delivered for web and TV broadcast countless VODs, better known as Videos On Demand for all of them. Please visit my special VOD website http://www.randomarthouse.com/vod/samples.php at to view samples of all kinds of different videos on demand for not only home builders and community developers, but medical offices, chiropractors, orthopedic surgeons, non-profits, hospitals, and police stations.

VODs not only inform, they may be used to pursuade and audience to take specific action, perhaps to join the force, or to donate a sum of money? How about to consider a gated community by hearing from happy home owners who live there now?! VODs do all this, and with the impact of hearing and seeing testimonials spoken by real people, these videos are highly effective when viewed.

My other area of expertise is the web and how to market businesses and leverage your website to achieve your marketing and sales goals. I usually can help devise a marketing strategy that will give you the most immediate effect and boost to your business, either through Google Adwords, and the other Search Engine campaings available throught SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or through a more direct broadcast and advertising means, such as eBlasts and freshing your marketing approach to your existing client lists and sales lead lists.

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Southwest Florida College: Full Management & Production of Social Networking & Viral Marketing Web Videos

If you spread the link, you spread the virus, and then you spread the message! Please visit www.youtube.com/swfloridacollege to view all the school videos I produced for Southwest Florida College's marketing department.

Visit Southwest Florida College's YouTube page, or visit the main school web pages to view all the videos I produced for Southwest Florida College. These student testimonials, event videos, employer testimonials, and program manager informational videos are all valuable marketing assets that help increase this college's presence on the web while informing viewers of all the great degree programs the school offers. These videos help build excitement and target those people who are seeking a college to attend but haven't decided where to go. The purpose of the videos are to increase recruitment through viral marketing and low-cost web delivery of videos that inform, educate, and entice.

The videos, available on the school website and on its social networking sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace, are designed to create viral referrals for easy file and link sharing while encouraging viewers to consider all the benefits of attending our college. As I work with the marketing department at Southwest Florida College, and am a proud instructor of web design and 3D animation courses, I am encouraged by all the positive reviews and compliments we have received since we started producing and posting these web videos.

"Do what you love to do and it will never feel like work," Dale Carnegie once said. That could very well refer to my situation at Southwest Florida College!

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Back Pain Institute, 30 Second TV Commercial, Infomercial & Website for Chiropractor

This is a series of TV commercials while at Random Art House. Not your standard chiropractor, the Back Pain Institute focuses on the VAX-D therapy. The public needs to be educated about this highly effective, HEALING process.

To achieve their marketing goals, we produced 6 TV commercials that consisted of patient testimonials combined with the launching of a new website and production of a new infomercial, we helped establish the Back Pain Institute of Southwest Florida in their local market compete, and they are now currently achieving new found success, growing their practice with new referals even in a down market where the county is experiencing 14% unemployment!

If you are a chiropractor, medical office, or a business that is looking to get serious about your advertising, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Car Spot: 3D Animation TV Commercial

3D Animation: Aaron Belchamber
Script & Editing: Aaron Belchamber

Once "Cars" came out, the local NBC-2 affiliate thought it'd be clever to launch a new ad campaign promoting their new "Car Spot" car dealership website with these catchy and original 3D animated commercials. All 3D animation was produced by Aaron Belchamber in 3D Studio Max. Thank you to Keith Norman for the original concept behind this successful and memorable ad campaign!

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Alias Creative Group: Marketing Website

This layout is a unique marketing website that doubles as a portfolio for Alias Creative Group, a local advertising agency in Southwest Florida. The center body opens with a randomized video of different 3D animations which are previewable below. Just visit it at http://www.acgteam.com/ and experience the subtle Flash animation balanced with a good share of clean, white space.

I modeled and animated this falling dice animation in Autodesk 3Ds Max. By
modeling a single dice, I then duplicated the dice object and applied a Reactor
simulation, which simulates reality by applying gravity to each object and
simulating collisions with other objects and the floor:

Check out the simulation of gravity and collisions when spherical objects
(oranges) fall to a flat floor compared to a square-shaped orange. Of course,
there's no such thing as square oranges, but the effect is memorable:

Bringing a flat logo to life by modeling it and animating it in 3D can give the client's advertising new life. The logo, or a character mascot, can then be part of the action in its television commercials or website animations, providing new ways to market its business memorably:

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Southwest Florida College: Graphic Design Program Website Case Study

Here's a website that I assisted the Program Manager, Chip McElroy, in the design and have been solely responsible for the production and maintenance of all of the Graphic Design Program content for Southwest Florida College's website. As the Web Design and 3D Animation instructor at Southwest Florida College since 2006, I have helped many students build a strong foundation of web design skills in Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator, and teaching them how to use each design tool to produce the best quality websites while expanding my own knowledge.

Now, here's some technical details of how this web page and the rest of the Graphic Design Program website was designed for easy updating and maintenance.

Each section of this website is modular, so they are easily updateable. The custom-made Flash components, such as the menu and rotating banner up top, along with the video announcement section were all created in Flash CS3 with a good amount of Actionscript interacting with a dynamic PHP script that allows for us to easily add new student samples to the website simply by uploading their samples to a reserved folder on the website and naming the file with the appropriate name, such as "digdesign7.jpg" and "animation4.jpg".


By clicking on the "Student Resources" link, I wrote the PHP scripts and back end form to help our Graphic Design instructors provide their students with a centralized, sortable list of helpful tutorials and resources for students to help learn about processes and watch videos to reinforce what they need to learn. By providing a web form which allows the students to sort by program, type of resource, or entering a keyword, this list is very helpful for students to access more of the resources to make finding the resources much more convenient than before.

This may be interesting for some web designers, the navigation bar up top with the built-in display marquis changes color based on the webpage you are on. To cut down on download time, I designed a single Flash file that not only changes colors, but also delivers different content in the marquis. Click on "Computer Animation" and a video is shown, go to "Blog" and a random display of content is delivered to the screen!

Every website poses its own challenges, but with proper planning, we can program the website to automate tasks and help everyone work more efficiently. A website doesn't just broadcast information, it is a valuable marketing tool that can collect information and intuitively provide different content based on user preferences.

I look forward to new web design challenges in the future, so give me a call!

Aaron Belchamber
(239) 344-6711

If you are in need of redesigning your website, or need a new online campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion. Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Visit Aaron Belchamber's YouTube Channel Today!

I always wanted to be above the fray and not "follow the pack." You start your own YouTube channel to put up your work, then you find you're posting pictures and your thoughts on Facebook. This is all fine for those who have the time, but what about the other unintended consequences? Like coming off looking like a self absorbed, narcissistic jerk?

Above: To avoid all appearances of being a narcissist, Aaron stars in a commercial above.

Well, when it comes to today's rules of marketing along with a tight economy, necessity doesn't have much need for vanity mirrors. So here I came, not exactly kicking and screaming, but not exactly skipping and humming either. You see, I don't have an issue helping others legitimately increase their web presence and expand their marketing efforts with effective social networking, it's a vital component in almost any of my clients' marketing strategies.

I enjoy getting paid by others to help promote them with videos, websites, and other creative marketing tactics, but when it comes to promoting myself, I'm kind of a recluse. In today's ever-smaller, ever-faster world, the real problem is, until these social networking sites start charging some kind of fee, using YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Jigsaw, and maintaining a blog could turn into a full time job.

These social networking sites also present such an advantage that cannot be ignored, either: a zero cost delivery of advertising messages and marketing information to a world market -- virtually unlimited potential. I just shudder at the next 22 year old who develops another simple idea into a multi-billion dollar website I only wish I had the foresight to have concieved. Before we all become beholden to the next "Twitter-Face-My-Linked-Jigsaw-Plaxo" innovation that's right around the corner, when will enough of these social networking sites finally be enough?! It can get a little overwhelming, especially when you're also trying to run a business and actually speak to real people once in a while!

As someone who gets marketing, the technology, and the strategies behind it, it's getting evident that we must adapt to these new technologies or be left behind by competitors who understand and WILL leverage these technologies most effectively.

I'm sure I'm not the only one involved in marketing that has asked this question, however: "Who has the time to produce, write, and post all that stuff?!" Knowing full well when you're busy, self promotion and marketing fall by the wayside, learning how to manage all your company's social networking sites can be a daunting task. Well, I am available to help your company gain new insight and leverage your existing sites and help you expand your marketing efforts creatively, intuitively, efficiently, and smartly. By helping you set up a system to produce, write, create, upload, manage, and maintain your multiple web pages, you are sending out ambassadors to a targeted audience who have actually sought you out.

What brought you to read this blog article? Think about that. Of all the BILLIONS of pages on the web, you're taking the time to read my words. That's power. Now that I have you on my blog, please let me know if you are in search of a well-rounded and experienced marketing professional, because I can help!

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online or traditional marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

Naples Ballet: TV Spot Production

Production of this HD TV commercial for Naples Ballet, March 2009. Shot on location at the Naples Academy of Ballet in Naples, Florida.
CONCEPT: Client & Aaron Belchamber
VIDEOGRAPHER: Aaron Belchamber
EDITING & ANIMATION: Aaron Belchamber

For marketing consultation, high-def video production, website design and development, please call Aaron at (239) 344-6711 or visit http://www.acgteam.com/ to learn more!

Glass Design: Website Project

I also wrote and produced a TV commercial for this client in April, 2008. From a simple concept and design, this client wanted to expand their galleries with categories that literally would display over 100 images in some of them.

The expanded galleries presented some unique programming challenges that were solved by manipulating the data in an external file that feeds the Flash website information about the images along with internally reprogramming the Actionscript inside the Flash file.

If you are in need of redesigning your website, or need a new online campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion. Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

ViVi Ristorante: 30 Second TV Commercial

Despite the low budget, the client, ViVi Ristorante, was very pleased with this Italian restaurant commercial. Visually, the camera gives each scene depth with smooth-rolling camera dolly shots, edited to a smooth rhthym. I also delivered a 15 second version of this commercial which airs in the Naples market, and Southwest Florida. Thank you to Waterman Broadcasting and Todd Schulz for referring us this production gig. Another benefit of shooting restaurant commercials? The food was great!

If you are in need of a video, website, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.

3Ds Max Hair and Fur Animation Demonstration for Southwest FL College Class

This 3D animation was modeled and animated in 10 minutes as a demonstration of Autodesk 3Ds Max's hair and fur modifier. The purpose was to show students in my 3Ds Max Modeling class how easy it is to make realistic hair effects on characters and other objects. Notice the way the hair dynamically reacts to motion, simulating real hair.

If you are in need of a video, website, 3D animation, cartoon mascot, or a new online marketing campaign, I have the experience to assist you from concept to completion! Please call Aaron Belchamber at (239) 344-6711 for a price estimate or if you need more information.