Cartoon Network sent scripts and let Animal Logic create the storyboards, which gave the vfx house a lot of freedom to add their own creative ideas. Above are the In the Bag (left) and Laundry Day interstitials.

A Creative Collaboration
Animal Logic showed its work to Cartoon Network execs at every phase of the project, from storyboards and animatics to pencil tests and final composites. “They were very open to hearing additional ideas and gags to add to their scripts,” comments Freckelton. He points out that since the work on the interstitials followed the collaboration between the two companies on the reface in 2004, the client and Animal logic had already established a level of trust. “There’s always a certain amount of back and forth when locking down the subtleties of story and gags through the animation and lensing, but the process with each script was relatively smooth,” Freckelton says.

The scripts determined which specific Cartoon Network characters each interstitial would feature. Backgrounds incorporated some additional characters, selected from those used previously in the reface process. “One of the scripts had a wide shot where pretty much every character in the Cartoon Network universe was gathered in a car park, hiding from poor Jimmy [from Ed, Edd and Eddy],” Freckelton says. “With this scene we used as many characters as we could.”

The Powerpuff Girls appear in Future Car, a montage of Animal Logic’s rebranding work for Cartoon Network. The vfx house was awarded the Gold World Medal at the New York Festivals for Future Car, which was also screened in Regal Cinemas across the U.S. to promote the relaunch.

Valent stresses that, as is true on any job, the planning and pre-production processes were critical to the success of the interstitials. “Our biggest concern from the start was blending 2D characters with 3D environments, so we spent a lot of time in the beginning planning out our pipeline, and creating test composites,” Valent explains. “Pre-production is such an important stage, and I really believe that an extra week of planning can save you two weeks of fumbling later.”

Animal Logic is currently in production on five additional interstitials to take the network into 2006, each available to Cartoon Network worldwide, according to Pola Changnon, vp of On-Air Production for Cartoon Network. Meanwhile, Animal Logic won a Gold World medal in the art direction: promotion spot category at the New York Festivals Awards this year for its work on Future Car, a Cartoon Network promo that ran in U.S. theaters to publicize the relaunch in 2004 and enable moviegoers to preview the channel’s new look.

“This has been an amazing project to work on for all of us at Animal Logic,” concludes Valent, “with unprecedented creative freedom from the client, great scripts and characters to work with, and a passionate crew.”

Karen Raugust is a Minneapolis-based freelance business writer specializing in animation, publishing, licensing and art. She is the author of The Licensing Business Handbook (EPM Communications).