Quarterback Jalon Daniels is an exceptional athlete, and as a Kansas fan, I was honored to work on his brand. Awe-Full joined the team at Mammoth to crank out this high-energy promotional video quickly. I combined footage shot by Mammoth with stock imagery, photography, and custom motion graphics to build the visuals. For the audio landscape, we recorded Jalon's voice with the help of Primary Color Music and used music and sound design elements to give the picture life. Even with the limitations of time, budget, and rights to specific footage, we achieved a kick-ass piece of content worthy of presenting JD6 to the world.
Project Description
Project Description
Signal Theory trusted us to develop a unique style combining traditional 2D frame animation with a fully rendered 3D environment. The result produced the perfect vehicle for telling the AgriGold story. We created a 30, 15, and 6-second version.
Project Description
This project has many stories. First, this is an update to a previous animation we created in an extremely tight time window. We had to develop the story, look, animation, and audio in under two weeks. So we relished the opportunity to revisit and update an already successful project. Steven Johnson was our lead animator and visual storyteller. Thomas Giebler helped with visual dev and boards. Amy McVey crafted our script, and Evolution Audio pitched in on sound design.
Project Description
We partnered with Signal Theory to make a child’s drawings and imagination come to life for a series of animations for Lively cleaning products. We told the story of good bacteria - or probiotics - that help eliminate dirt, odors, and bad bacteria.
The Next Fun Thing - Branding
Project Description
The annual Upfront Summit hosts more than 1,000 top investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders for an invitation-only event in LA. And Awe-Full ensures everything they see looks spectacular. Our work on the 2020 show earned top honors at the local and regional advertising award shows.
Project Description
The 2018 edition of the Upfront Summit included two days’ worth of content, including speaker titles, performance backgrounds, and promotional materials. One of our highlights was the creative freedom to develop a show opener. The powerful, gritty piece set the tone for the rest of the content and the event.
Project Description
During the pandemic, our working conditions didn't change much. We are experts in remote work, and as designers and animators, we are accustomed to long hours alone. We decided to let companies know that if shooting video isn't an option, we'd be happy to tell your story with animation.
Project Description
Awe-Full was brought in to help VML market a new product created by their client, Gatorade, and their partnership with Spotify. The product is called Amplify, and it generates personalized playlists with songs from Spotify's library, based on your Spotify listening history, which are energetic enough to fuel a workout. The playlists take into consideration the danceability, acoustics, energy and loudness of a track.
With that level of science behind the product, VML wanted to bring a technology based feel across on top of the usual gritty sports branding associated with Gatorade. It started with some fantastic imagery captured by Austin Walsh Studio. Awe-Full was on set to provide VFX direction and discuss edit decisions. The post process always runs cleaner when editors and technicians can be on set during production.
From here Awe-Full worked with producers and creatives at VML to dial in the edit and motion graphics to deliver both a 30 and 15-second version of the video that would spur the Amplify marketing campaign.
Project Description
For a recent Common Good Conference Awe-Full created the graphic package for the live event. In addition, we built a promotion from the branded elements for the conference. With only still images to work with, we designed and animated an impactful and unique teaser video.
Project Description
Opera is one of the oldest and most artful forms of storytelling, so Awe-Full was grateful to get the opportunity to work with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Nuance collaborated with the opera to create all the promotional materials for the 2017-2018 season of performances. And when it came time to produce the television spots Awe-Full was brought into the mix.
The animation was inspired by some of the quirky cutout animation styles used in Monty Python movies, but we wanted it to have a subtlety and polish as well. Without the aid of a voiceover, the visuals had to tell the story. It was some of the most fun I have had animating in a long time.
We created two 15-second spots for each performance, and they ran back-to-back in a 30-second time slot. They were also used online and in social channels. The campaign stood out amongst other television spots and highlighted and modernized the opera for a new generation. And the spots were also rewarded at the recent AAF-KC AAA awards show. The campaign received a Judges Citation and Gold in Branded Content and Gold in the local TV campaign.
Project Description
What a whirlwind of a project. We tagged along with VMLY&R and Gatorade to broadcast eight high school basketball games of the nation’s top prospects. The games were live-streamed on Twitter. TV and YouTube personality Rachel Demita hosted the games, with help from former NBA players Nate Robinson and Baron Davis. We would roll into town, shoot an interview with players and coaches, and then edit the piece to air that same evening during the game’s halftime. Talk about pressure. We edited in broom closets, on the hoods of cars, whatever it took. The result was a badass sports marketing event.
Project Description
We love football. We love defense, especially sacks. And Big Macs are pretty solid too. This spot has all of these things and more. This promotion for McDonald's and Husker's Football tells a story of the pre-game pump-up and the excitement of the upcoming football season.
A total blast to edit, color correct, and animate. Working with great source from Austin Walsh Studio and sound design from 740 sound this piece was destined to be a hit.
Project Description
Awe-Full enjoy’s doing things that have never been done before. That’s the beauty of design, you can go crazy and try something new and nobody gets hurt. Unless you’re designing way-finding of some type, that could be dangerous.
So naturally we were happy to help Barkley break new ground with the world’s first Periscope auction. Awe-Full created the animation for the launch video and edited all the prize videos with footage shot by Austin Walsh Studio.
Project Description
We are constantly working with our clients to help them find ways to give back and be responsible businesses. With our new tagline for OceanX involving the human touch, we knew an intelligent idea could also be on brand. With the help of OceanX’s clients, we delivered welcome home hygiene kits to every resident at Linc Housing’s newest housing complex, HiFi Collective, in Los Angeles. We leveraged OceanX’s ability to launch a new line and package beauty products quickly. The result was a feel-good partnership that worked for everyone.
Project Description
There could not have been a more perfect project to help launch Awe-Full out of the gates. Hint called on us to develop the creative treatment for SKAR agency client, Nebraska Lottery. The treatment presented was ambitious for the timeline and budget, but we had a goal of cutting through all the holiday clutter to reach.
Winning the project was great, but it was straight to work. This was one of those jobs with very little margin for error. Luckily it was also one of those rare jobs in which things just clicked. Every project has bumps and this one was not immune, but things really fell into place. The agency and client were fantastic to work with, heck even the renders finished on schedule, that never happens.
The result was a piece of work that generated tons of client praise and pride among the artists involved in its creation. Projects like this are the reason we come to work every day and what we are talking about when we say stories designed to wow.
Project Description
The PUMA brand is all about joy. So, when the company turned to us to help launch the high-performance product line PUMA Cell, we knew we had to celebrate that core value. And who better to communicate that message than world-renowned sprinter Usain Bolt? Working closely with the performance marketing team at PUMA, we conceptualized and executed an edgy, upbeat spot that blends live action with motion graphics, telling the story of PUMA Cell and how it empowers customers to pursue a path of joy — no matter what they come up against. PUMA was so happy with the end result that this piece now lives in retail stores around the world.
Awe-Full 2016 3D Showreel
Snippets from some of our favorite 3D work from the last year. A couple of oldies but goodies thrown in as well. Music track is The Sideshow from the latest DJ Shadow album The Mountain Will Fall.
The work comes from three sources:
1. Work done while running Awe-Full
2. Work generated by the uber talented friend of Awe-Full Bret Walters
3. Pieces completed while working as the Creative Director for Hint
Thanks to all the artists and producers who helped these things come to life so we could slice them up into little chunks and remix them into the 2016 3D Showreel.
LinkedIn - Who's Viewed Your Profile
LinkedIn knew that its former Who's Viewed Your Profile video was a bit on the predictable side. So, when they added a couple new features to the tool, they turned to us for a creative update.
We proposed a complete departure — taking what was once a step-by-step instructional video and developing it into an engaging animated story. We shifted the focus of the video, using a character-driven narrative to highlight the unique value of the tool. Although it was a new style for the brand, it’s been racking up views and positive shares.
Missouri Lottery - Play It Forward
The Missouri Lottery has raised over 4 billion dollars for education in the state of Missouri since 1994. But no one knew about this good deed. So we partnered with Barkley to create a campaign that would raise awareness about the wide-reaching and positive effects of lotto revenue.
The collaboration culminated in a heart-warming story that celebrates the lottery’s impact on the lives of children across the state. Combining live-action footage with digital effects, the story feels true to life yet has an other-worldly quality at the same time.
The Blue Balls Blues
Hint partnered with a group of creatives to create two characters to carry an important message through animation, design and music. Rusty and Vern are a pair of balls on a mission. A mission to save mankind from big, bulging problems. Hailed as the rallying cry for any testicle that’s ever suffered from man’s eternal struggle to remember condoms, their debut single has critics buzzing, ladies applauding, and guys singing a different tune. This is no labor of love for ol’ Rusty and Vern. This, like so many blues greats before them, is the only way they could find release.
OceanX - Everyone Belongs
OceanX is an experienced team of business innovators, technologists, and marketers with decades of expertise in direct-to-consumer subscription and membership programs for physical goods. So basically, all those great membership box brands, well, OceanX is the backbone they are built on.
Awe-Full has been partnering with OceanX for over a year on all sorts of marketing materials to help this start-up quickly grow into a monster company. Featured here is a video introduction to the brand we produced to live on the front page of the OceanX website. Special thanks to LABL for additional creative direction and script writing. This video was also brought to life with the production assistance of Novella Films.
LinkedIn - Terms of Service
As confusion around content ownership continues to bubble up online and elsewhere, LinkedIn wanted to let people know where it stands on the issue. So, the company updated its Content Ownership terms to make sure its members are protected. They came to us to help communicate that message in a fun and lighthearted way.
Using the company’s core value of “members first” to frame the story, we crafted an engaging narrative that outlines the big-picture problem as well as LinkedIn’s solution. To create a warm and approachable feel, we chose a stop-motion style for the video. With Cinema 4D and V-Ray, we rendered realistic paper textures and built the animation at 12 frames per second.
All of it came together in a friendly video that highlights LinkedIn’s personality and emphasizes its commitment to members.
Runza - Breakfast
Runza, a regional fast-food sandwich chain, was looking to set itself apart from competitors. We partnered with Nebraska agency Swanson Russell to help make it happen.
In our research, we learned that Runza had bypassed industry trends to focus on making real homemade food, opting for quality over quantity. Clearly, this was our main message. To spread the word, we developed a storyline that wove together five spots and a handful of promotions, all featuring improv actor Tim Ryder from Chicago’s Second City comedy group. With scripts from Swanson Russell and a bit of improvisation, we created funny and charming responses to sample customer questions about such things as breakfast menus and late-night hours. Quirky hand-drawn illustrations and animations added depth to Ryder’s character by sharing his humorous thought process with viewers.
We handled all aspects of the project: production, directing, shooting, editing, color-correcting, animating and more. Whew, talk about being ready for a sandwich.
Central Bancompany - Road Trip
Central Bancompany, a regional bank with locations across the midwest, was launching a new product: the free Cardinals Checking account, which targets fans of the St Louis baseball team with its cobranded appearance and fun perks. Hoping to raise awareness of the new offering, they turned to us.
Collaborating with Salva O’Renick, an interactive agency in Kansas City, we developed a three-spot campaign that was versioned for six different banks within Central Bancompany’s network. With our help, the agency developed a tongue-in-cheek script and suggested we bring the Cardinals logo to life. Combining detailed illustration, traditional animation and 3D art, we transformed the red birds into talking, moving and thinking creatures — all within the confines of the original logo.
Missouri Lottery - Lucky 7's Playbook
Ranking as the best product launch in 25 years qualifies as a pretty good pay day, in our minds. For both our clients, our partners and for us.
That’s where we landed when we collaborated with Barkley to develop the new Missouri Lottery spot. Using the vivid gem-facet graphics that appear on the Lucky 7s Playbook as inspiration, Hint creatives conceptualized and produced a low-poly 3D look for the engaging commercial.
On the Border - Endless Enchiladas
On The Border wanted to position itself as more than just a restaurant; the company wanted to be seen as a great gathering place too. Partnering with Barkley, a KC-based advertising agency, we went beyond the initial request for a simple re-edit to develop a series of motion-graphic spots that celebrated the brand’s fun, social nature.
Working with On The Border’s existing food footage, we designed a series of modular animated commercials that could be easily adjusted to create new spots. By pairing multiple smaller-scale food shots with motion graphics, we increased flexibility and were able to show more eye-catching food combinations in each spot. And, really, who doesn’t want to see more tacos in their day?
Sprint - Machine to Machine
Working with Barkley, a KC-based ad agency, Sprint had created a strong brand essence video intended to tell the story of the brand to potential clients. But they wanted to take it a step further by refocusing the narrative to help them sell to the B2B market. On a super tight budget.
Barkley had already sketched out most of the idea, so we helped visualize how to bring it all to life for the right price. To keep costs down, we shot everything with one actor on a sound stage and used stock footage in inventive ways, containing it within blocks of data and energetic graphics. We managed casting and rehearsals for the shoot, locking down movements and timing beforehand to reduce hours. And we kept most of the work in house, from production to direction to post, which included 3D motion tracking, 3D animation and more.
At the end of the day, we delivered the polish of high-end consumer advertising on a small budget and an even smaller timeline. Mission accomplished.
AAF-KC Addy Awards 2013
After Hint was awarded Best Of Show at the 2012 Addy Awards, we were invited to create the show experience for 2013. Since Mr. Creativity had already been picked as the icon for the celebration, we brought him to life.
As Mr. Creativity lounged on stage, sporting a custom-made mask and 3D antlers that tracked real-time wireless movement, we broadcast his thoughts for all to see. Audiences got a glimpse into his abundant imagination with black-and-white graphic illustrations of bridge-crushing TVs, kissing couples and alien invasions.
Sweater Punch - T2 Studios 2011 Holiday
Instead of the latest electronic gizmo or booze, T2's gift to clients in 2011 was a donation to local charity Project Warmth. T2 built a site and donated 10 cents per punch to help keep the less fortunate warm. And what better way to stay warm than with a nice christmas sweater.
MARC - Air Quality
Mid America Regional Council is all about air. So they created Quinton, a cheerful little bird who carries their message of improving air quality far and wide. When it was time to expand his route beyond print marketing into digital and television, we stepped in.
After re-envisioning Quinton to be more animation friendly, we told a lighthearted story through his eyes. Combining vivid imagery with music and typography, we show people the small adjustments they can make (walking, busing, biking or carpooling) to have a positive impact on air quality. When Quinton sees actions that help protect the environment, he whistles in approval and flies away.
MARC was so pleased with viewer response to the video that they asked us to create an interactive children’s book. Now, Quinton is sure to spread his message nationwide.