Every so often I have the privilege of working with one of my favorite animation studios, Titmouse Inc.
My first assignment with them was a project that was already well underway before I was plugged in, having been referred to by my friend Sam Ancona.
My first assignment with them was a project that was already well underway before I was plugged in, having been referred to by my friend Sam Ancona.
‘Brawl Stars’ is a popular mobile game developed by Supercell. The game is a 3rd person multiplayer battle arena game, in the vein of 'Overwatch' or 'League of Legends'. Supercell had commissioned Titmouse to deliver an animated promotional short for its new gift shop mechanic.
Brawl Stars has a super appealing modern 3D visual art style. For this ad though, Titmouse opted for an old-school 2D aesthetic reminiscent of Looney Tunes or Hannah Barbara for what was effectively a gag-oriented short cartoon. Visual development had been established already. The straight lines and sharp corners seen in these designs stand out in contrast to the soft, plush-toy like aesthetic seen in the game.
The short features the entire Brawl Stars ensemble cast, re-designed in this classic cartoon style. It centers on Colt, "a charismatic, dashing, and naïve lawman", who is on the run from the other Brawl Stars through a carnival setting after antagonizing them with his mischief.
Working under creative director Freddy Christy, we tackled a few unfinished shots for the animatic, with me working as storyboard revisionist. Freddie gave solid direction, while also allowing me some flexibility to play with different iterations of gags in the boards, and even testing my character design chops while we were at it.
Working under creative director Freddy Christy, we tackled a few unfinished shots for the animatic, with me working as storyboard revisionist. Freddie gave solid direction, while also allowing me some flexibility to play with different iterations of gags in the boards, and even testing my character design chops while we were at it.
One thing we were curious about was formulating a gag that would get Colt into the Funhouse for the climax of the piece. Freddy articulated this paint gag, and let me take a stab at it for the animatic.
For this mirror gag, it occurred to Freddy that a rear view of Colt had been overlooked during the VisDev process. He asked me to see about filling in this small gap while trying different variations of this sequence.
The Spike character was lots of fun; cute but creepy. Note the comedic timing of his slow movements to contrast with the primal fear response that his smiling face elicits from Colt.
The paint gag went through some changes before it was locked for animation. Later, a separate animation of Spike would be composited in to this shot to trigger Colt's outburst at the end.
A looping fight-cloud animation; a staple of the old-school gag cartoon.
The end of the short reverts back to the modern, 3D art style seen in the actual game.
After the animatic was locked, I was brought on for clean up animation as well. For this project, that meant defining the line art as per the style guide, and implementing shadows. By the end of the project, I had contributed to nearly every shot.
