Plainly Simple Studios

18/03/2025

Last January, we had the honor of working with Alsons Development and Investment Corporation on a video for their general assembly. Alsons Dev is a pioneering real estate developer in Davao City, Philippines, committed to building sustainable, community-centric developments. (Explore their projects here: https://alsonsdev.com/)

The video is about the purpose (why) and values (how) of Alsons Dev, but the goal isn't to explain it since the CEO already explained it well during his talk. Instead, the goal of the video is to make the ending of his talk more impactful.

So, we made the video more like the opening credits or end credits of a movie or TV series. The scenes in the video are more like the CEO's talk visualized. To people who don't know the context, they would see an entertaining video, but to those who have heard the explanation and were present during the event, they would find the video meaningful and inspiring.

02/01/2023

Hi! 👋 Happy new year to everyone! We don't really believe in new year's resolutions. But if you had to make one, we hope you'll prioritize your mental health. This is one of the things we take for granted, and prioritizing "You" is essential for your growth... as a human being... as a friend... as an animator, or as a creative.⁠
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We learned this breathing exercise from Headspace (note: this animation isn't sponsored or affiliated with Headspace. We have a team subscription on Headspace, and so far it's great). So whenever you're stressed, you can do this exercise.⁠
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Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds. Hold for 4 seconds, and then exhale through your mouth for 6 seconds.⁠
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That's 4-4-6⁠
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You can follow along with this animation. You don't even need to close your eyes.⁠
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This breathing exercise is good when you're stressed. It turns out that if we breathe slowly, it signals the brain that everything's alright.⁠
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Save this post and come back to it whenever you need it. 😊⁠
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Happy new year! I hope we'll all have an awesome 2023 👋⁠
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Character design: Megg Arbotante
Animation: Marvin Te

*animation was done purely in After Effects⁠
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28/07/2022

The new YouTube video is up! This is a bit long, about 50 minutes, but this video explains our frame by frame process from start to finish

Here's the link to the project files: https://www.patreon.com/posts/samurai-slash-69646357In this video, I'll walk you through my frame by frame animation pr...

14/07/2022

Hi! We have uploaded a new tutorial! https://youtu.be/vjw3TFhQ-aw

In this video, we'll discuss complex actions. "Complex action" isn't the official term that is used in the industry but just a term we came up with to explain the concept. So what we mean by complex actions are actions that are composed of two or more basic actions. Here, we'll break down two complex actions which are: 1. jump shot and 2. jumping spinning kick.

05/07/2022

Here's a snippet from our latest tutorial. Even simple actions such as standing up have an anticipation pose. ⁠⁠
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If you want to watch the tutorial, here's the link: https://youtu.be/8wg0yc7yz_c
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Thanks and keep learning! And if you took the time to read the captions then I just want to say have a nice day and take care! 👋

01/07/2022

New tutorial is up! In today's video we'll discuss the basics in animating a character: https://youtu.be/8wg0yc7yz_c

30/04/2022

In this animation breakdown, we have used blender for the 3d animations and after effects for the 2d animations. The character animation as well as the shadow and cast shadow are achieved using path animation and set mattes. The textures, in case you're wondering, are done in Photoshop and are imported into AE and set blending modes. We didn't include it because we tried to fit this into 1 minute 😄⁠

3d animation: Lenin Laviña
2d animation: Marvin Te

22/04/2022

Hi! It has been a while since we last posted anything. We’ve been busy with client work and the class101 course (which is finished, you can check out the link here: https://101.gg/marvinte). And now that we are finished with the client work, we can now post this. We got permission to post this but we had to remove the client logo, so the white part at the end was supposed to be the client logo.

Despite a tight timeframe, this was super fun to make. We combined blender, Ae, Ai and Photoshop to achieve this kind of look. And in the next few weeks, we’ll post breakdown videos from this project. Check out the behance project of this as well: https://www.behance.net/gallery/141988491/Imagine-If
In there we have posted preproduction materials like initial designs and sketch animations.

Creative direction: Marvin Te
Bg design: Marvin Te
Character design: Ann Megg Arbotante
3d animation: Lenin Laviña
2d animation: Marvin Te, Anna Ferrer, Tirso Tan Jr.
Illustrations: Ann Megg Arbotante, Anna Ferrer, Karen Fong, Drean Marie Louise Bacatan
Music: Tirso Tan Jr.

05/03/2022

Hi! We’re very hard at work in producing this class. We’ll be covering a lot! The class would launch on March 10. It’s currently on presale, so it’s at a discounted price until March 10.

Check out the link here: https://101.gg/MarvinTe_OnlineClass

We’ll be covering the basics, some industry insights, mid level techniques and more. Check out the link - https://101.gg/MarvinTe_OnlineClass to see the curriculum.

I’d say this could be the course I needed to take 10 years ago when I was starting out. Now, I’m teaching it to you. I hope to see you in class!