Michael
Rader

Otho is my main channel, and it's been the place where I've let my curiosity lead. I've covered neighbor disputes, DIY builds, wildlife encounters, and everything in between ~ all filmed, edited, and animated by me, start to finish. The channel has grown to 400K subscribers and 382 million views entirely through organic short-form content, with no paid promotion.

I believe any good story with strong visuals can be told in under 60 seconds. Short-form isn't a limitation ~ it's a discipline. Knowing what to cut, what to keep, and exactly when to land the moment is what separates videos people finish from videos people scroll past.

I script every video, handle the camera work, do the edit in Premiere Pro, and build all the motion graphics in After Effects. What you see is what one person can do when they care enough to get it right.

Mike & Drea was the channel my wife and I started together ~ a family lifestyle and travel vlog that ran for 228 videos and grew to 16.7K subscribers. We covered road trips, international travel, family milestones, and life on our homestead, and I shot and edited every single episode myself.

The drone work is where I really pushed myself cinematically. Shooting in Hawaii ~ Kauai, Maui, Kona ~ I developed my aerial cinematography skills and brought everything together in Premiere Pro with motion titles I built in After Effects. The "Hawaii By Sky" playlist is the clearest showcase of that output.

This is the channel where I built my core production instincts: pacing a story across 8–15 minute vlogs, developing a consistent visual identity, holding audience retention, and learning what actually makes someone subscribe.

I've been doing production and editing work for First Baptist Church of Lavon, TX for several years ~ handling end-to-end video for events and services, all on my own.

Church production requires a different mindset than YouTube content. I'm coordinating multiple cameras across a live event, color grading for both projection and screen contexts, and delivering quickly after the fact. The Easter Weekend 2023 promo below is a good example ~ polished event promotion built to drive attendance.

I built all the motion graphics, title sequences, and animation in After Effects, then brought the multi-cam edit together and delivered in Premiere Pro.

Every piece of video work ~ from concept to final export ~ is handled by me. No outsourcing, no template packs.

The right tool matters ~ but knowing how to operate across a wide range of hardware is what keeps a production moving. I've shot on everything from cinema-grade cameras to a phone in my pocket, and I build the audio setup to match every environment.

Before I had a YouTube channel, I had Cinema 4D and After Effects open. Motion design ~ across both 2D and 3D ~ is where I first developed the visual instincts that now run through everything I produce. Every piece here was built entirely from scratch: 2D animation and compositing in After Effects, full 3D environments in Cinema 4D, and every sound was constructed to serve the visual.

3D motion design is uniquely demanding because it requires complete mastery of the physical properties of cinematography without the physical world to fall back on. Every shot requires deliberate decisions: focal length, simulated depth of field, aperture, shutter angle, and composition ~ all set manually, all intentional.

Both disciplines built a rigorous understanding of visual staging ~ the art of using light, depth, motion, and framing to direct where the viewer's eye goes and when. It's one of the 12 fundamental principles of animation, and it's the skill that separates content that holds attention from content that loses it.

More than anything, this work reflects a lifelong commitment to the craft of content creation. Long before any of this was a career, I was building scenes, designing motion, and making things move. Motion design is where that drive began ~ and it still shapes how I see every shot.