JANUARY 26, 2022
Emmy Award-winning director and motion designer John Likens is well known for his design and animation work for television and film. Over the years, he’s created credits for “Deadpool 2,” “The Night Of” on HBO, and “Godless” on Netflix, as well as holographic GUIs for “Iron Man 3,” “RoboCop,” and “Transformers: Age of Extinction”.
Currently Creative Director at Method Studios in New York, Likens recently designed and directed the main credits sequence for Season 2 of Apple TV+’s drama series “SEE.”
We spoke with Likens about this project, which he said was “probably the most challenging and complex project I’ve ever worked on in terms of execution.” But, using Cinema 4D, Houdini, Maya, Redshift and other tools, he pulled it off thanks to an exceptionally talented team of artists working together remotely.
How did you go from being a freelancer to being an employee of Method Studios?
Likens: When I moved to New York in 2010, I was lucky enough to be able to work in many of the city’s top design studios and VX boutiques. I had a blast meeting new people all the time, collaborating with different teams and observing different company/studio cultures.
Then, in 2014, I got to work for Method Studios as a freelance designer/animator. That’s when I met great designers Jon Noorlander and Shane Griffin. They really pushed me to grow as an artist and motivated me to learn the skills I needed to do the kind of work I really wanted.
A few months later, they hired me as their full-time art director, and within a few years, I worked my way up to creative director at Method Studios, and the rest is history.
The rest (in English) via the Maxon website here…
