The U80-A is an 80% keyboard kit from Rama Works. Although it's their largest keyboard yet, it has no numpad, which clears up desk space and makes for better ergonomics. Just as Rama Works continues to engineer the most premium typing experiences, we wanted to give the U80-A a refined treatment to match.​​​​​​​

RAMA WORKS U80-A MILK, ENCLOSURE FASTENERS

This U80 trailer is my third collaboration with RW. As we continue to develop the brand from an animation standpoint, I wanted to take the best parts of the Koyu and M60 trailers and combine them. The direction was to create thoughtful environments that feel on brand and compliment each color finish the keyboard is offered in. Eddy Nieto kicked off the design of the environments, and came up with this excellent 'set' of modular parts. Much of the set is made to reference other RW products or branding.

RAMA WORKS U80-A, MUTE DAMPENER

The environments are both industrial, elemental, and modern. We have chosen to strip back all of the distractions to focus on the parts of U80 and the elements that it’s made from. 
I approach camera animation realistically; dollys, pans, tilts, zooms, etc. I want things to feel cinematic, so I avoid things like transitions and morphing. I feel like a well planned cut is much more artistic and harder to pull off.

RAMA WORKS U80-A MOON, INTERNAL WEIGHT INSTALLATION

It's important to me when working on these RW projects to keep the primary focus on the product, and service the enthusiast community that will be purchasing the keyboard. They want to know what it looks like from every angle, how it goes together, and the materials it's made from. They'll also be waiting for the product for around six months, so I want to give them something they can watch several times and be excited about in the meantime.​​​​​​​

RAMA WORKS U80-A MOON, RUBBER FEET INSTALLATION

I worked with Joe Philips and Jeremy Schemm from Another Country Detroit to continue building the sonic brand for Rama Works. This is the third track they've made for RW, and utilizes the custom library of samples we initially made for Koyu.
Almost all of the audio is crafted from sounds that are a true representation of Rama Works because we literally built the library by recording ourselves taking apart, building, and playing with an assortment of RW keyboards and accessories.

RAMA WORKS U80-A LAKE, GMK keycaps

In the past I've used camera projection to apply legends to geometry imported from a CAD based program, but since we're starting to do more complex animations, I asked Rick Lundskow to build me some proper geometry. This also allowed us to show off the bottom of the caps, which doesn't exist in the CAD models.

RAMA WORKS U80-A PORT, EXTERNAL WEIGHT INSTALLATION

Creative Director: Todd Hersey
Design, Animation: Eddy Nieto, Todd Hersey
CAD Translation: Todd Hersey, Rick Lundskow
Audio Post Production: Another Country Detroit
Composer: Joe Philips
Sound Design: Joe Philips, Jeremy Schemm
Mixing Engineer: Jeremy Schemm