Pixar Vet Andrew Gordon Discusses The Character Design Process For His New Series ‘Good Morning Kevin’ – Exclusive
Good Morning Kevin is a new animated musical series designed for distribution on all short and long-form social media platforms. What makes the show unique is that it is divided into more than 100 short episodes which can be watched on their own or viewed in order to tell a larger story.
The series was co-created by 20-year Pixar vet Andrew Gordon and The Other Songs record label founder Alastair Webber. During his time at Pixar, Gordon worked on films such as Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Wall-E, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille.
Animation for Good Morning Kevin is handled by Oscar-winning studio Passion Pictures, which co-produces alongside The Other Songs. Because of the record label’s involvement, music is at the heart of every Good Morning Kevin clip. With more than 100 shorts, the series features a ton of original music and songs from A-list recording artists, influencers, and producers. It can also act a unique kind of launchpad for new music that The Other Songs is looking to release.
Good Morning Kevin’s synopsis reads:
Good Morning Kevin takes audiences on an engaging and fun-loving journey through the cosmos as our hero character, Kevin, is sent into space by the nefarious CEO of Kadabra, Pete Plainer. His mission: to create viral content for the masses. But Kevin’s true passion lies in making music, setting the stage for a heart-warming and entertaining narrative.
@goodmorningkev Blast off. Bye bye Kevin. Off to create content for the masses. Pete Plainer – CEO of Kadabra #GoodMorningKevin #Launch #ViralBear #UnrealEngine #3DAnimation #WorldSpaceWeek #Astronomy ♬ original sound – Good Morning Kevin
Leading the series is Kevin himself, a friendly, music-loving bear in a spacesuit, although that wasn’t originally the case. We recently spoke with Gordon and Webber, who explained Kevin’s earliest iterations. According to Webber:
We initially began with a monkey as our starting point for this project, focusing on space exploration. Andrew and I collaborated on this venture, bringing in external experts to fine-tune our model and design. As we progressed, we reached a point where we realized that our approach wasn’t engaging enough.
After some monkeying around, the GMK crew decided a bear would be a better leading animal. The show’s creators gave us exclusive access to a series of character experimentations that show how Kevin evolved through the development process.
Animation for Good Morning Kevin was done in Unreal Engine, which Gordon says was a real treat for someone accustomed to the years-long production processes of traditional feature animation.
It was really exciting to work on a real-time character, where you could come in with an idea for a short and put it out tomorrow if you want. Also, using Unreal Engine lets us produce something of a quality unlike anything else currently on Tiktok.
According to Gordon, character design was the most time-consuming part of the production process. From September 2022 through January of this year, that was the main focus for the Good Morning Kevin crew.
After the characters were fully realized, the crew constructed the physical spaces in which the series takes place, building a virtual set. Gordon explained:
The character development in Unreal Engine was time-consuming, but once that foundation was in place, we could expedite the creation of sets. We
strategically designed our sets, considering the limited number of locations within the spaceship and its exterior, along with a few additional rooms. This approach resembled shooting a soap opera, where we reused the same sets to maintain continuity throughout the project.
With the sets constructed in UE and character designs finalized, production took off. Turning around a Good Morning Kevin video can be done in days. Over the coming months, the GMK crew will release more than 100 videos across its social media platforms.