Dec 6, 2017

Aardman Nathan Love made 20 stylized CG Nick bumper

Aardman Animation's stop motion influence has rubbed off on Nathan Love, the boutique New York City cg studio that was acquired by Aardman a couple years back.

Aardman Nathan Love (ANL) delivered a fun, fast-packaged package of 20 stop-motion influenced holiday promos and bumpers for Nickelodeon. The computer-animated spots, which started airing last Friday, can all be seen below in a super-cut:

ANL founder Joe Burrascano directed the “Winter Refresh” campaign, which includes cg versions of popular Nick characters like Spongebob, Lincoln Loud, and Henry Danger, as well as a quartet of snowball characters created specifically for the ID campaign.

The stop-motion aesthetic used by ANL stemmed from Nick's creative brief, which asked for a style that recalled Rankin/Bass's holiday specials, like the stop motion Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the hand-drawn Frosty the Snowman. Nick's creative team referenced a variety of cg projects in their brief, said Jon O'Hara, ANL's executive producer, “including our own work, and that's what inspired us to build a world rooted in tactile materials, but with the freedom to create some wilder narratives.”

Stay tuned: Cartoon Brew has an upcoming piece that takes an in-depth look at another stop-motion influenced piece that ANL recently created for Sprite.

Creative Credits For Nickelodeon: SVP Art + Design: Michael Waldron SVP Creative Promotions: Tony Maxwell VP Animation + Motion Graphics: Kurt Hartman VP Creative Director: Erica Ottenberg Sr. Art Director: Giancarlo Barrera

For Aardman Nathan Love: Director: Joe Burrascano Art Director, Design & Storyboards: Tim Probert Additional Design: Joe Bluhm, Jesse Aclin, Cassey Kuo CG Supervisor, Character TD: Steve Mann CG Lead: Elizabeth Ku-Herrero Look Development & Lighting TD: Eric Cunha Character, Asset & Environment Artists: Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, Eric Cunha, Jin Fang Jiang, Pedro Conti, Paul Kim, Andy Tai Animation Lead: Tom Shek Animation: Doug Litos, Henning Koczy, Nicole Morciniec, Jordan Blit Additional Rigging: Brett Taggart Lighting: Christine Kim, Jin Fang Jiang, Luke Pikora Shading: Jin Fang Jiang, Christine Kim, Paul Kim, Andy Tai, Ylli Orana Compositing Lead: Eric Concepcion Compositor: Matt DeFranco Matte Painting: Christine Kim Editing: Yi Ju Tsai Original Music, Music Supervision and Sound Design: Explosion Robinson