The team at MasterClass reached out to me for title designs on their upcoming class taught by Carlos Santana. I was given full creative freedom to interpret the wise words of Santana and formulate them into a visual treatment. The final titles built upon Santana’s Spanish rococo aesthetic and follows his guitar strings as they blossom into a forest of abstract flourishes around the main title. Several guitars from the local San Francisco shops were photographed and used as the background textures for Santana’s subchapter designs. It was an honor to work with the MasterClass team and to learn from the ever-inspiring Carlos Santana.
 

In addition to creating a main title animation, I was also tasked with creating dozens of chapter and subchapter titles. The main guitar was used for chapter backgrounds, highlighting different angles of the model. The subchapters used a variety of backgrounds built from guitar textures that I photographed.

The initial style treatments focused on what Carlos sees when he plays guitar. As he enters a spiritual state, I felt that he would see entire worlds within the surface of his guitar. The paint finishes of his guitars often resemble landscapes like sand dunes or flowing mountain ranges. I used the several guitar texture photos as displacement maps in world machine, which created interesting landscape structures for the camera to explore.

In order to develop my style frames, I went around the San Francisco area and photographed several guitars at music shops. I want to thank all the shop owners that put up with me and my photography action — Haight Ashbury Music Center, Pandhandle Guitars & Real Guitars. I promise that I’ll come back and buy something next time <3

Client: MasterClass
Creative Director: Lauren Fundora
Design & Animation: Peter Clark
Post Supervisor: Alicia Mooty
Post Coordinators: Erin McGovern & Carolyn Mazanec
Creative Producers: Gabe Jewell & Laura Davis
Music: Carlos Santana