Broadband GIFs
Some brand new GIF animations in support of Broadband Competition. Let's MacGyver this Broadband Bad Data Kills Competition
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Little Taco Truck: Layouts
The first page of Tanya Valentine's book, Little Taco Truck, features the line "In a busy corner of the big city, new buildings began to rise." Illustrated by Jorge Martin, the opening spread is a lovely wide shot that sets up the story and teases the main character as he rides to his favorite spot. For the animated book trailer, my goal is to keep the style as true to Martin's original artwork - and the best approach was to draft it directly from his original files! For this opening shot, I wanted a dynamic reveal that would synch story with music & pacing -…
Evolution of a Character
Data's Journey is one of the rare projects where I was the sole designer. After examining the scope of the job and the client's preferences, I put myself into position to explore and nail down the look of the characters and the world. This meant cycling through several design rounds, and working closely with Graffects chief Mike Andriola to find our look. Data's Journey (copyright 2018 Western Digital) For the first round I proposed a sort of cute take on TRON that I rendered with ToonBoom Harmony. It was a fun look (and actually included a rough animation test), but it was deemed a little…
30 Seconds, No Drawing
While my new TV Spot for Urban Legends features loads of photo & video production, there is animation on almost every frame. Nonetheless, the entire piece was produced without putting pencil to paper (or stylus to tablet). This is not a rant against drawing, I LOVE DRAWING - so much in fact that 30 years of furious sketching have left my fingers creaky and aching. I give jars to my wife to open. But I can still wield a mouse and my design chops are intact, so I decided to fly without a pen on this one and see what was possible with motion collage…
Bonus Features!
With the release of our latest music video, Blankets & Chairs, we've encountered a surge of curiosity about the making of the film, the hidden imagery, and the cast. It's an FX-heavy piece that merges video, still imagery and character animation into a surreal vision that compliments the pacing an humor of the song. Blankets & Chairs Music Video from Tony Grillo on Vimeo. Produced for the band Horse, it tells the story of a micro-man who falls for a rebellious android that turns out to be more woman than he expected. We wanted to present an evolving narrative, with a beginning, middle and end - not one…
Interview: Sunny Levine and Mike Burakoff
You might think "animated hip-hop comedy music videos for kids" isn’t a thing. It is. In the age of YouTube, anything you can think of is already a thing. But this week saw the premiere of the first video to mix slick animation, psychedelic imagery and an original cast of characters with thumping beats and funny lyrics, sharply tuned to adult sensibilities but made for kids. And now THAT is a thing. King Douglas, playing now on SpindoTV (a joint-venture between Spinmaster Toys and Mondo Media), tells the story of a charming but over-indulged boy whose birthday party spirals out of control when his father forgets how to say…
All Bears Need Love
I'm proud to announce that we've just released the Book Trailer for All Bears Need Love, a picture book by award-winning children's author Tanya Valentine. It's a 60-second animated short adapted from the book's art by Adam Taylor, and featuring music from talented singer-songwriter Wendy DuMond. All Bears Need Love is a heartwarming story of an orphaned Baby Brown Bear who arrives at City Zoo, alone and scared. When a Mama Polar Bear promises to be his mother, she faces protest and opposition from the other, unenlightened animals. But Baby Brown Bear learns family is family, no matter the differences. Tanya Valentine writes picture books for pre-K…
Newcomer to play Star Lord’s Dad
In an effort to increase local casting efforts for its 8-year slate of Atlanta-based production, Marvel Films has cast newcomer Tony Grillo as "The Purple Man" in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy sequel. In a surprising announcement this week, director James Gunn confirmed that the classic villain will in fact be revealed as Star Lord's long lost father. The sequel, tentatively titled Guardians 2: Rise of The Purple Man, reportedly opens with the wedding of Peter Quill (the identity of the bride remains a mystery). When Star Lord's evil deadbeat dad crashes the wedding with a warning to all mankind, it sets into motion the plot that sends the Guardians across the galaxy…
MightyPants 2015 Animation Reel
I figured it was time. Our last Studio Animation Reel is from 5 years ago, before we transmogrified into MightyPants. It does not include many of the great new projects we developed for our friends/clients. I wanted something that focused solely on our new work. But this is not it. I'm sorry... I had to bring back some of our greatest hits, because I couldn't help myself. We just had so much fun working on shows like The Mystery Mavs, Stainboy, and GeeGuides, I just had to invite them to the party. Nonetheless, newcomers like Goodwin vs Badwin, Kneebouncers, and the Mondo Pilots join the lineup, along with some of…
Creepy Casey comes to life
Creepy Casey, the creation of Kid-Lit Author Tanya Valentine, will finally have her say! Casey has long been the star of her eponymous book series, but until recently we could only read about her exploits in the Creepy Casey books penned by Valentine (who, by pure coincidence, has also served as a producer for MightyPants Media). For her animated debut, the earnest and upbeat Casey Crabtree appears alongside the author in a recent promo announcing Valentine's stage appearance with the Village Theatre improv company. Valentine will be appearing on Friday, August 8 as a guest speaker at the Atlanta-based theater, where her stories will become inspiration for…
Kneebouncers Hitz a chord
In anticipation of the upcoming Kneebouncers TV series, we'd like to take a moment to appreciate the contributions of composer Robert Hitz. Mr Hitz provides all of the songs for the series, some of which are scored to action with delightfully creative synchronization. His music has a joyous, haunting quality that adds a unique personality to the show... and he does it all analog, on a piano, using fingers (and, one would assume, thumbs). Anyone who creates music for video will appreciate the challenge of scoring live to video. In an industry that is almost entirely digital, it's refreshing to hear music produced this way... but what…
Kneebouncers takes off!
Preschool series Kneebouncers is coming to a TV near you! The series, based on the internet destination of the same name, will be airing August 11 on Baby First TV (available in most cable & satellite markets). Created by Punch Robinson and Kurt Dommermuth and developed & produced by MightyPants, Kneebouncers consists of 20 x 3 minute episodes that are broken into several "skits" each. Airing interstitially between morning and afternoon programming blocks, the zany educational segments feature cute, energetic characters in colorful settings. The Kneebouncers cast includes Freddie the photo-happy Bear, Foo-Foo the busy Bunny, Horatio the hungry Hippo, SlyCat the curious Kitty, Sammy the mischievous Monkey…
Tony gets shifty for HMA
MightyPants' resident ham Tony Grillo recently took a break from his producing duties to play the role of a stuffy anglo con-artist in a media ad for Atlanta's High Museum of Art. Produced by Atlanta's Mountain View Group, the ad features an upper-crust englishman showing off his cadre of classic cars... but he's not all he appears to be. Through the help of a perplexed security guard (played by the talented Marc Farley), we discover this is the new Dream Cars exhibit at the High Museum, and our british braggart is merely an oppor-tourist. While Tony spends a good deal of time in front of…
Weiner taps MightyPants for animated “Mad Men” reboot
It’s so damn hard keeping secrets as it is, but this one was downright painful! After almost a year of keeping my mouth zipped, I am finally at liberty to share some really great news: MightyPants is working with one of our icons – Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner – to develop a Mad Men Animated Series! I can’t share much info at this time, but I have been given the green light to post this excerpt from AMC’s official press release: ***** Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner announced plans today for an upcoming Mad Men Animated series, to be developed with Atlanta-based entertainment studio…
Kneebouncers learns to fly
Creative Edu-Gaming group Kneebouncers is taking its popular pre-school brand to TV, and they've asked MightyPants to help breathe a little extra life into their content. The series of 20 x 3-minute shorts premieres in April on BabyFirstTV, slotted between other short-format properties like VocabuLarry and Harry the Bunny. As a dad and long-time subscriber to Kneebouncers.com, it was a real treat to have this opportunity to work with creators Punch Robinson and Kurt Dommermuth. Punch & Kurt are two of the nicest guys I've had the pleasure to work with, and treat the property as if it were their own kid. As with any major growth spurt,…
MightyPants 2014 Commercial Reel
How often do you take the time to sit back and mack on a few commercials? MightyPants director Tony Grillo wants to share a few 30-second slices with you, baked right here in our kitchen. You'll notice a departure from our previous reels, as we delve into more live video & graphic content. We've been fortunate enough to work with some pretty great clients over the last couple of years, and they've been trusting enough to let us wear the chef's toque. Suffice to say nobody got burned, and we managed to feed a few million eyeballs in the process.
Frogs, Fish and Jellybeans
With all the crazy weather we've had, it's safe to call 2013 a pretty wet year. Adding to the moisture was a new Media Ad we helped produce for Crystal Springs and Lighthouse, featuring adorable spokes-kid Jake describing what he likes talking about while his imagination brings all of the elements to life. http://vimeo.com/81646508 The spot, titled "Great Body of Water", was another chance to mix live action with animation. Created with a modest budget, the simple-looking spot actually required some planning to properly execute. Mightypants oversaw Storyboarding, FX Supervision, Offline Edit and Animation. The talented little fellow playing Jake, while a pleasure to work with,…
did you ever have that dream…?
Am I the only one who has had this dream? Maybe you can't tell me what it means... but I know what you're having for lunch today.
VEVO MoonMan Revealed
Perhaps you've already seen our MoonMan Spot for music video giant VEVO. It's a quick little piece that draws upon a familiar icon to bridge Vevo's viewer base across all generations of music video fans. http://vimeo.com/54798583 Although the MooMan remains anonymous in our spot, the spot was originally boarded to include a reveal of his face. Early concept art shows him as a friendly fellow in his mid 30s - perhaps an elvis fan? Who knows. I had such a fun time developing this character, I thought I'd share him with you.
Room for Cream?
With all of the sick, subversive content we've produced over the years, we'll jump at the chance to redeem the studio and do a little good. This Fair Trade USA spot highlights the organization's homegrown, organic approach to supporting benevolent causes through shopping choices by drawing on a hand-made visual style and warm, folksy sound design. We created this swirling spec piece using a combination of photography, video, and hand-drawn elements manipulated in After Effects and voiced by the incomparable Ian Covell. http://vimeo.com/85389577 Fair Trade USA is known primarily for their work in the coffee industry, educating consumers and encouraging stores & shops to carry…