Where ice meets puck and animator meets work station
There’s something undeniably awesome about hockey. The chill of the rink, the resounding SMACK of stick against puck, the breakneck back and forth speed of it all; it’s truly a spectacle to behold. So, when our friends at FOX Sports tasked us with producing a semi-animated series featuring former Tampa Bay Lightning star left winger, Dave Andreychuk, we were stoked from the start!
For this first installment in the series, we explored Dave’s worst injury from his playing days. Obviously sports injuries can be unsettling at best and gruesome at worst. Luckily we had the benefit of using a lighthearted animation style on our side, a nice touch that made Dave’s puck to the face a little less brutal.
What made this project so thrilling was the absolute trust that the FOX Sports team had in us. Besides the interview set ups, we controlled everything else about the spot. Our talent Animator/Director, Seth Johnson, made all the custom art from scratch, a feat in and of itself. From there, David Hixon rigged all the figures for some custom character animation. After that, David and Trey worked in tandem to animate everything. Along the way, they even used some fun physics simulations (notice how those teeth fly into the next screen?) and VHS filters along the way. It took a little extra elbow grease, but we couldn’t have been more happy with the results!
So strap on your bucket, grab your stick, and step onto the ice for this absolute gongshow of a video!
Client: FOX Sports | Profile: Branded Content