Donut CGI

What better way to combine our strong background in food photography and our skills in CGI than to produce a Donut CGI video? For this CGI animation, we wanted the audience to be taken into an imaginary world we created entirely from Computer Generated Imagery, which gives a nod to classic children’s wonderlands like Candyland or Willy Wonka.

 

Our decision to focus on donuts we can owe in part to our sugar cravings, but it also was an environment in which we could play with inclusions and complementary foods, similar to how we capture food photography environments on set.

Under our director’s vision, our talented CGI team sketched a storyboard that went through multiple revisions. Once the storyboard was approved, the team worked on an animatic based on 2D drawings which you can see below.

The music was also very important for this project and we wanted something that expressed childlike wonder. The song we ultimately settled on was both catchy and fun for both kids and adults. We know we couldn’t stop humming it during the workday!

The next steps after the animatic involved 3D modeling, lighting, rigging and texturing. You can see some stills from the environment as it started to come together. These stills are from before final texture was added.

MODEL STILL – UNICORN

FINAL RENDERED STILL – UNICORN

MODEL STILL – GIRAFFES

FINAL RENDERED STILL – GIRAFFES

Check out the final rendered video below!

WARNING: May cause cravings!

 

 

How to Stand Up to a Bully: Natalia’s World

Our in-house animation team for our series Natalia’s World has been hard at work this month! From writing scripts, to creating storyboards, to recording voiceovers at our studio — we’ve put our heart and soul into making this fun and educational animated series for children.

Our cartoon series follows spunky 9-year-old Natalia, who navigates life, school, friends and family! She has the help of her magical moral compass to guide her through hard decisions, as she tries to do the right thing. Our series is based on our director and executive producer’s children, Natalia and Michael, in real life!

We had the most fun recording voiceovers in the studio! Natalia (9 yrs) and Michael (5 yrs) were true professionals, adding flare, personality and excitement to their delivery of lines! Not to mention, they’re adorable!

We released our most recent episode “How to Stand up to a Bully,” where Natalia must figure out how to deal with a bully at school. It was exciting seeing all of our revisions, edits, and animations come together for the final result.

A huge thank you to Ultimate Self Defense in South Boston, for participating in the video and encouraging morals of strength and courage amongst young people! We were excited to have the owner, Andrea ‘Sensei,’ record voiceover for the role of the Judo Instructor in this episode!

If you haven’t already, subscribe and tune in to our YouTube channel below! Find out which life lesson Natalia will navigate next!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvUxzM3JeY1wnONzGh1rmfQ