What's the view from your desk today? For the last two-and-a-half years, motion designer Elliot Ruddy has been inspired by a revolving canvas of the world's most spectacular sites as he travels the globe while working on Tongal.
Elliot has been a prolific Tongal creator in recent years, working on animated content for clients including Jazwares, Chime, Kimberly-Clark, and Paramount via our platform. Most recently, he built an AR filter for 2K's blockbuster release Borderlands 4, allowing fans to post unique social content featuring the video game's Claptrap character.
Clockwise from top-left: Elliot at the Taj Mahal in India, Patagonia, Easter Island, and bunjee-jumping in New Zealand
"I'm on country 40 now," says Elliot, from his hotel room in Budapest, Hungary. "I've been to every continent except Antartica.
"Traveling is definitely inspiring creatively. I'm not the kind of person who works well if I'm always sitting in the same place. I find I can focus better in a new space.
"It has some unique challenges, but it's just a question of discipline — and that's not something I struggle with as I truly enjoy my work, and especially working with the Tongal team."
Elliot's AR filter for Borderlands 4
Elliot, 25, and his girlfriend set off on their adventure from Dublin, Ireland, two-and-a-half years ago — and he hasn't returned to his homeland since.
"We started in Thailand and just planned to spend five or six months traveling around Southeast Asia," he says.
"But we loved it, so ended up carrying on and going to Australia, then Japan, then India, then Europe, then South America. Then we went back to Australia and New Zealand, then the USA and South America, and now we're back in Europe.
"When I have a heavy work project, we'll settle somewhere for four to six weeks. Or if I'm in a period where I'm not taking on work, we might try a new city every three to four days."
Clockwise from top-left: Elliot at Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Machu Picchu in Peru, the Great Sphinx in Egypt, and Borneo
Elliot says he taught himself to be a motion designer on the "university of YouTube" before landing a job at Bold Studios in Dublin — where he started as a junior motion designer and left as a lead designer two years later.
His first project for Tongal was an animated recreation of a scene from Back to the Future for Universal Pictures to celebrate the iconic movie's 35th anniversary in 2020. Since then he has specialized in 2D and 3D CG content, creating dozens of animated assets for a series of top-tier brands and studios on our platform.
He has become an expert in creating AR filters for TikTok and Instagram, including this latest project for 2K, where he was one of more than 20 global creators that Tongal coordinated to produce authentic content in their own unique artistic styles to build hype for the Borderlands 4 video game on socials.
Elliott's first Tongal greenlight was this Back to the Future anniversary project
"The AR pieces are some of my favorite to make because they're interactive and you get to see how people engage with it," he says.
"With a video project, someone might like it or leave a comment. But with the AR content you can see people uploading videos using your filter so there is extra depth to it.
"It was a huge honor to be trusted with this Borderlands 4 project, and exciting to be part of a larger global campaign. I was definitely a gamer before I started traveling — but I haven't had much chance to play video games lately!"
Clockwise from top-left: Elliot in Sydney, hang-gliding in Brazil, at the salt flats in Bolivia, and diving in the Great Barrier Reef
Elliot credits Tongal's model of decentralized content creation — and our in-house team — with helping him to unlock his creativity and produce his best work.
"Every producer I have worked with at Tongal is fantastic," he says. "There's always a lot of great communication and trust — and as a creator I feel respected and understood.
"And it helps that I can work remotely from my laptop, so I can travel while doing work that I love."
Creators are working with the world's biggest brands on Tongal
