Broadcast design student’s animation goes live on ‘Larry King’

Savannah College of Art and Design student Daryl Weaver created an animation for “Larry King Live” on CNN.

By: Emily Green

Published: Friday, September 14, 2007

Savannah College of Art and Design student Daryl Weaver’s animation transition design debuted Aug. 28 during “Larry King Live” on CNN. The debut marked a successful end to three months of hard work for Weaver, a graduate broadcast design and motion graphics student and a summer intern at Turner Broadcasting System Inc.’s CNN Design team in Atlanta.

Weaver’s internship with CNN Design originated with an e-mail from Lynn Barrett, SCAD-Atlanta director of career services, which prompted him to apply for the position. After his interview and presentation of his demo reel, he was in.

His first task was assisting a virtual studio shoot for the life-enrichment series “Project Life,” where he helped the staff with camera tracking and 3-D, point-cloud creation.

Weaver’s larger task, however, was helping the network make its transition into high-definition TV, which included attending daily meetings as well as preparing animation logs to demonstrate which graphics were HD-compatible.

“I worked very closely with art directors, 3-D artists, Flint compositors and my supervisor,” Weaver said. “I also learned … how a concept or idea develops into an on-air look and identity of a global network.”

Weaver credited SCAD’s emphasis on developing both technical and conceptual design skills, both of which he needed for the “Larry King Live” animation. He and SCAD professor William Chapman came up with the assignment, which challenged Weaver to interact with various other creative minds in a professional environment. He said, “Working with different directors and artists who all had different opinions, I really had to learn how to stick with my concept and visually create what I’m trying to communicate.”

“The timing could not have been better for Daryl to be with us,” said CNN Design senior compositor Rob Wright. “He was able to apply his design and technical skills gained from the staff and resources at SCAD for  ‘Larry King Live,’ one of CNN’s top-rated programs.”

“Lights, Camera, Action,” the final animation concept for King’s show, was similar to the show’s current stage-style transitions but used a different platform structure of a rotating truss system accompanying the “Larry King Live” logo. “The animation is intended to solidify the show’s identity and reestablish the viewer to the current show design,” explained Weaver. “While keeping consistent with the current Larry King design package, the animation components will be set in the current ‘world platform’ environment using dramatic lighting and texture treatments. Dynamic camera dolly movement will convey an energetic feel to guide the viewer to the next shot or segment of the show.”

“It was a great learning experience for him and fantastic opportunity for us to assist in his educational goals,” Wright said.


Green is a publications editor.