I want to tell you a story. A story of song and dance, of teamwork and tenacity, of Santa Claus and Christmas.
However, this story doesn't start where you might expect.
No, our story starts in maybe the least expected of places—the offices of a mega-corporation.
A mega-corporation called Amazon that wanted to bring a little more Christmas cheer
to the homes that hold its products dear.
Our story begins... where most stories begin—on a conference call.
After a series of inevitable awkward interruptions that mark any successful group call,
the folks at Amazon had passed us the ball."We want to make videos that let families call Santa.
"An unexpected path now in view, we came up with ideas and a proposal in order to share a few.
Soon the news came, "We love it! It's perfect! Now let's change it all!
"Back and forth we would go—two teams become one—snipping and stitching, pounding and prodding, mixing and mashing,
until 'Call Santa' was born.
And before we knew it, they said "Let's do it,"
and we were off to the races—no time to be lost,
Christmas was just up ahead.
We made our lists, and checked them twice, then set our elves loose to bring joy and cheer to an Amazon Alexa device.
Before we knew it, our task was complete.
We'd met all our goals and accomplished the feat.
The End
(not the actual end, there's more below)
We're incredibly proud of the 'Call Santa' project,
but not because it looks amazing.
We're proud of it because it showcases what's possible when a business and an animation studio work together without ego or gamesmanship,
but with a pure desire to make something special.
Every time we watch a child—whether our own or otherwise—end their call with Santa and have a smile beaming across their face,
we're reminded of the power animation can have
when it's created with open-minded and adventurous partners.
And that's something to be proud of.
The first step after the proposal we received approval on the was writing and revising the scripts for each video.
Our team writes the scripts for most of the projects we take on.
Character Design we had already decided on our cast of characters,
so while revising the scripts we started doing character art development.
After the scripts were locked—meaning they can't change in any way that would affect the animation—we sketched storyboards and add very light animation and sound to set the pace and direction of the videos
We used a combination of 3D characters and scenes and 2D background and faces to create a look that was unique and easy to manage.Bewaresome progressional reels to enjoy the journey from start to finish!
Executive Producer: Samuel Cowden
Executive Creative Director: Zac Dixon
Creative Director: Nayt Cochran
Producer: Rebekah Hamilton
Tech Director: Max Anderson
Concept/Design: Michael Cribbs, Nayt Cochran
3D Artists: Martin Guldbaek, Stephen Van Wyk, Max Anderson
Rigger: Chris Nelder
3D Animators: Joey Judkins, Victor Perez, Fraser Littlejohn
2D Animators: Nayt Cochran, Lennon Valinhas
Compositing/FX: Zac Dixon
Music: Cody Fry
Sound Design: Cody Fry
VO Talent: Brian McCartney, Piper Jones,
Nayt Cochran, Rainey Hoffman
