Monday 23 Apr 2007
An out-of-the-blue email from Nicktoons to US studio Adolescent invited the team to create “the bad cousin of Nickelodeon”.
Question of the day!
Do you share your creations online?
% of Digital Arts readers agree with you
What do you create and how do you share it?
Follow the conversation at @TabletChat
Varies... from vector artwork to photo manips. I add them to my portfolio and/or my DA account & then provide links.RT @MrRyanDee
sometimes photography, it gets shared on the free stock photography sites, give back what you get, I use them so i put back.RT @edjonesy
I've just used iWork to share a presentation. I use MobileMe to share photos too.RT @markhattersley
Nicktoons, Nickelodeon’s cartoon network, is a haven of crazy, wacky entertainment that is tuned into to its teenage audience.
And, with a track record of genre-defining programming, it required an equally left-field approach to its programming idents.
Enter New York’s Adolescent – which has previously worked with the likes of MTV, VH1, Sony Pictures, and Puma – and its latest offering in channel branding.
We had a surprise email from Nicktoons to see if we were up for making some new spots for them – and how could we resist?” says Adolescent’s creative director Man-Wai Cheung.
“Nicktoons give us a loose brief that they needed a new family of spots to update the current spots that has been airing. It needed to be crazy, over the top, the bad cousin of Nickelodeon.
“Aimed at teenage boys, the spot needed to give the viewer’s eyes a serious workout and to communicate that it is time to have a good laugh. The challenge was to create something new that can live in the brand.”
To create the series of humorous “boy-oriented” spots, Adolescent rose to the challenge with the idea of a Nicktoons Arena where original characters find themselves in unique forms of battle.
Nicktoons had asked for over-the-top, adrenalin-driven, absurd scenarios and Adolescent gave them VS (as in “versus”) where unlikely characters face off in bizarre places for unknown reasons.
First in the ring: Canman (a can of spraypaint) versus Balloonimal (a giant balloon gazelle), fighting each other in an art gallery with fire, funny faces, and a few toon tricks.
The action is shiny and fresh while referencing classic Three-Stooges style conflict, such as plumes of steam puffing from Balloonimal’s ears.
In other battles, Cardboard Box (main image) faces down Stuffed Animal in a car junk yard to see who can eat more.
Finally, Spin-Psycho (a washing machine) challenges Squid-O-Watt (an electric jellyfish) in a gladiator coliseum full of loose wires and dystopian shadows – an association that gives the animated spot a sense of being both original and timeless.
“Nicktoons did have a style guide and some very cool stuff already,” says Cheung. “Even though it was a very open brief, it had be instantly recognizable as a Nicktoons spot.
“We came up with the VS concept thinking that the idea of different battles can express the channel’s action-driven, crazy attitude.
“We had quite a few brainstorming sessions about possible characters and what they can do. We also developed our own stories.
“We picked the best characters out of team’s ideas and scenarios, basically making lists, scribbles, sketches, and reworking them.”
Taking inspiration from “things around our home, studio, and our hood,” the team then illustrated each character using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, with the final spot composited in After Effects.
Elements were liberated from local streets, Google, and stock libraries, with some elements photographed then deconstructed and remixed in Illustrator and Photoshop.
While the spot looks 3D, the team stuck to a 2D plane throughout, according to Cheung. “There is no 3D involved in these spots. We shot the box with our still camera in stopmotion style – 3D was an option, but not needed due to the fast pacing of the edit. We just created the illusion of space in the design and animation style.”
Matthew Bath
Read our informed and inspiring features as soon as they're published -- click here follow @digital_arts on Twitter.
Submit to:
Question of the day!
Neil Bennett
Editor
Do you share your creations online?