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
