DIRECTOR / MODELLER / ANIMATOR / COMPOSITOR

I was brought on to revise and execute a one page treatment for an intro title sequence for a pilot episode of a TV show commissioned by a cable network. The show is a two-woman sketch comedy show that has a crafty DIY aesthetic with a slant that both embraces and gently satirizes contemporary feminism in an era of superficial Instagram-y self-promotion. My only directive was that it should be animated and hit the main beats of the treatment. 

Since the comedy duo are Brooklyn-based, I set about modelling a 3D set of a Brooklyn street based loosely on the aesthetic of streets near me. Since I didn't yet know the blocking I wanted, I built it out pretty robustly so I had options for movement and framing. Below is a flyover of the set with an early iteration of the character art.

In order to maintain a DIY aesthetic, I wanted a paper-craft look for the characters, opting for the juxtaposition of flat, paper characters in a 3D environment. For the character illustrations, we were able to get the talented Amy Bao (who is the talent behind the popular Trumpy Cat series on Instagram). To further ensure a sense of the handmade look, we manually printed out the characters from different angles as paper dolls and Joe Baughman animated most of the character movements physically in stop motion which I later composited into the set.

The linked video is the entirety of the project that I developed before handing it off to the network to add in a theme song and sound effects.