Cowabungalow

...and graphics tablets.

Lost in a whirlwind of life related occurrences, we have somehow had Cowabungalow in production (on and off - mostly off) for hundreds and hundreds of days. We have resumed production yet again with fresh 2013 eyes, and it is looking beautiful. It really is quite lovely. Traditionally, we kept things to a distinct pencilled style, scanning in doodles for a home grown look, but since Father Christmas bestowed a graphics tablet upon Kyle back in December, experimentation has been under way. I created a Photoshop brush to mimic my heavy old 5B pencil, and these two frames (above, and below) are the initial product. This digital shift should hopefully speed up production a bit with us no longer having to do things like sharpen pencils, switch the scanner on, scan things and so forth. Okay, it might save a few minutes, but that's cool, right?

Anyway, it's time to get back to work. Lots of animating to be getting on with, so goodbye for now. Keep an eye out for our new show that should be definitely be finished some time in the next decade!

Kiroco Jewellery

Chog Zoo Ventures Into Live Action

Kiroco jewellery entrusted Chog Zoo with the epic task of creating a video that could communicate the concept of their new product quickly and concisely. When, during early development, the idea of combining animation with live action was discussed, we stepped it up a gear and decided to deliver the whole package in-house; from concept and storyboards, all the way through to filming, post production, animation, effects, edit and many many cups of coffee. Look, there are more screenshots below for your immediate pleasure!

Along with the need to explain the function of the jewellery, the short film had to be accessible to a target market that essentially covers childhood to the elderly. An impossible task you might say. Wrong! Chog Zoo delivered a short film, using fancy DSLRs and directing real life flesh and blood actors (not the usual cartoon characters we’re typically used to) to show the journey of a message through jewellery.  We fluidly combined this live footage with an animated segment (aha!) and applied some swanky After Effects magic, creating particle effects and pixie dust to visually suggest the concept of a travelling message. Watch the video below to see what the hell we’re on about.