One of my long time employers, Pipsqueak Animation Studios, had announced a partnership with Sesame Workshop. They were accepting pitches for their Letter/Number of the Day segments on Sesame Street.
I jumped on the opportunity to pitch for the prestigious brand! Working closely with director Mike Blum, we went back and forth on scripts for a one minute animated short on ‘B for Build’. The challenge here was to whittle down my initial ideas to something that was simple enough for our intended preschool audience. It’s harder than you think!
So... yeah, I guess you could say I was a little too excited at first.
But hey, that's always a good attitude to have going into a fresh new creative project!
Our first move to simplify this big idea was to hone in on Beavers, and refine it further from there.
But hey, that's always a good attitude to have going into a fresh new creative project!
Our first move to simplify this big idea was to hone in on Beavers, and refine it further from there.
Under his direction, we built out a pitch deck which included a script and some concept art.
Initial concept art for the Beavers. I had drafted two stylistic options. Option 1, above, showcases a more hand drawn feel, using textured Photoshop brushes to suggest a children's crayon drawing. Option 2, below, is a design using clean, simple shapes made in Adobe Animate.
Sesame Workshop got back to us letting us know that they loved the idea and the design, but decided they would use it for The Number 7, instead of The Letter B.
This meant that our script got thrown out in favor of a new one, but we continued on the VisDev track that we had established. Ultimately we went for the more simple, graphic style seen in Option 2, based in part on my assurance to Mike that my familiarity with Adobe Animate would ensure a quick turn around.
There was concern over how 'animatable' the design could be given its simplicity.
I rigged up a rough turn around and a looping swim cycle to demonstrate how we could make it work.
I rigged up a rough turn around and a looping swim cycle to demonstrate how we could make it work.
Facial expressions to help us better understand how the design would play for the animation stage.
The background concept was meant to evoke carboard props seen in something like a grade school stage play.
The background concept was meant to evoke carboard props seen in something like a grade school stage play.
Mike called on his creative team for storyboards, backgrounds, additional character design, audio, and music before looping back around to me for animation.
Visual development for '7 Busy Beavers' included a comprehensive turnaround for the initial design, as well as iterations that would fill out the cast of characters. We decided to cut out number 2, but retained its color palette for number 3 to round out our cast of 7 beavers.
The school play aesthetic was abandoned in favor of more simplistic style that more closely matched the Beaver's design.
Mike’s story artist had constructed the animatic to synchronize tight with the audio, which was extremely helpful. It was a lot of fun injecting personality into these colorful little beavers!
You wouldn’t know it unless you opened the project yourself, but each of the 7 Busy Beavers have names!
Left to right: Brownie, Banana, Peach, Pinky, Lime, Blu, and Berry.
Left to right: Brownie, Banana, Peach, Pinky, Lime, Blu, and Berry.
If you want to see the finished short, and happen to have an HBO MAX subscription, then you're in luck!
Sesame Street, Season 52, Episode 18: Fort Rudy
Enjoy!
Sesame Street, Season 52, Episode 18: Fort Rudy
Enjoy!
