Vee Pee Cartoons, the broadcast design and animation division of Virtual Persuasion, recently completed production on MAD CAPS, a series of 60-second educational interstitials for Nick Jr. The spots will be featured as part of Nick Jrs. fall 2003 line-up and introduce the 3D animated characters Rip, Rap and Rippity Doo. The lively animated shorts employ a hip-hop attitude to teach pre-school kids about colors, shapes and sounds. The interstitials feature the voices of Eastern Conference Records rap artists Mr. E-On, Tame One and The Dutchess performing to hip-hop rhymes written by Nick producers Greg Alkalay and Lisa Versaci along with writer Samantha Berger.
The characters were based on designs by Nickelodeons Manny Galan. "Originally Mannys designs called for 2D characters," according to Vee Pees director of animation, John Siciliano. "But once we did a test of them in 3D, everybody preferred them in that format. We modeled all the characters with Newteks LightWave 7.5. Then we combined the character animation with 2D graphic elements and text in Adobe After Effects to create some really eye-catching spots. The hip hop music and the animation really move together nicely." Vee Pee is located in Fairfield, Connecticut. For information call (203) 332-0184 or check out www.veepee.biz.
