Pack Mentality

Animal recently had the pleasure of finishing one of the most… interesting spots we’ve done in a while. You may have already seen KSwiss’ vulgar, hilarious, left-field and undoubtedly original campaign featuring everybody’s favorite Kenny Powers. Warning: decidedly R-rated content.

Kenny Powers: MFCEO

Animal colored and finished the spots, including a Kenny Power’s robot fantasy:

Projection-mapped matte painting of a KSwiss Mount Rushmore:

And of course, your classic finishing shots like adding digital displaysand explosion debris.

The project was seamlessly bi-costal.  Our LA and Pittsburgh studios were even able to pass Flame and Scratch setups back and forth, essentially functioning as one studio.  Keep an eye out for the broadcast (read: PG-13) versions of the spots in the near future.

Project Credits:

Color/Assimilate Scratch Artists: Allan Stallard, Matt Lear

Smoke Artist: Allan Stallard

VFX Artist: Samm Hodges

CG Artist: Jim Kreitzburg

Flame Artists: Alex Frisch, Mike Ek

Matte Painting: Kris Boban

Executive Producer: Leslie Sorrento

Producer: Cindy Chapman

Check out Allan as he shares his Scratch expertise.

Check out this awesome shot breakdown from our Alligator Sky video. It’s a great example of how much we do goes unnoticed – it’s the “invisible” details that really sell the shot.

Oh, and the part of the street that gets added later – that’s not a random stock photo – it’s the street behind our office.  Nerdy, we know.

It’s here!

Take a look below, and stay tuned for some before and after shots… just in case all that post work goes unnoticed (:

For the last two months, the Animal team has been hammering away at one of our most ambitious music video projects ever: a retro-futuristic, Mad-Max-meets-A-Space-Odyssey journey into a positively post-apocalyptic future for Owl City.  Yeah.  Awesome.

Tomorrow, the video will be dominating Youtubes everywhere, but until then, check out a little sneak peak on our Facebook (like us while you’re there!).

Animal produced, directed, edited and vfx-ed the video in a continuation of our strong relationship with Owl City frontman Adam Young and his record label, Universal Republic.

Stay tuned for an in-depth making-of video (no, not the one on E!, this one’s going to be waaaaaaay cooler) in the near future.

We would use this opportunity to tell you to head over to Ore Ida’s Facebook page to grab some free sweet potato fries, but… they’re all gone.

100,000 bags were given away within mere hours after Ore Ida launched the Animal-produced web series.  The Blogosphere lit up before any initial ad campaign was even launched… an Easter egg on the Ore-Ida website was enough to send moms (and dads, and other people too, I suppose) everywhere into a sweet-potato frenzy.

The campaign was so successful that the web series is now a national TV ad campaign.  Felted versions of quirky little animated fries even made an appearance this week on The Ellen DeGeneres show.

We were delighted to direct, edit, animate and finish the spots for our good friends over at Smith Brothers.  And if you, like the rest of the country, can’t seem to get enough of these delicious little fries, head over here for coupons, prizes, and yes, maybe even a chance to win a free bag of your own.

is available on Vimeo.

E-online has a pretty good behind the scenes of our recent Owl City shoot posted.  A few words by Adam Young and rapper Shawn Chrystopher as well as Animals Danny Yourd and Steve Hoover.  Enjoy.