From beginning to end, working on this project was the most fun I’ve had in awhile. In the initial stages, I was in charge with character design and development. The idea was to create a non-binary character that everyone could relate to, no matter their gender, and so Dakotah was born!

Early Dakotah explorations

Next was testing out some frames in After Effects to ensure the artwork would come through even with the limited color palette as well as the Oreo pointillism. The client was adamant that we only use a true midtone grey, along with black and white, so there was little room for tone variation.

We also played around with the idea of including sfx in the spot- to push the animation further into the manga/anime world.

After the spot was awarded, my main responsibility fell to background creation. The challenge with these backgrounds was that they needed to be simple, so as not to take away focus from the action, but also needed to silhouette the characters against same-tone backgrounds.

I also had fun creating frames that didn’t end up being included in the final spot.

Dakotah has such an expressive face, it was hard not to draw them in various poses and situations. I also really enjoyed the challenge of creating scenes with the crazy angles and perspectives that are often seen in anime.

By far, my favorite part of this project was getting to cel animate the milk table explosion.

And getting the chance to see it processed through CG and in the final spot.

And, of course, getting to see the installation advertisement at Venice Beach in California!