Matt Lepley
motion graphics + VFX artist
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Smackers Frozen Yogurt | :15 animated

Agency: Mabus Agency

Client: Eat With Us

Designers: Devon Hosford, Aaron Sather, Jordan West, Robbie Richardson

My responsibilities: principle animation

 

Concept and Storyboards

The idea, concept and style frames were mostly completed before the project was transitioned to me due to company re-organization. During the transition, I accommodated changes in the script by updating storyboards, creating new style frames, and collaborating with other designers. While I worked on motion tests, a couple other designers collaborated on the character designs.

Sketches to story boards to style frames

 

Shot 01 style frame by Devon Hosford

Style Frames

Motion designer Devon Hosford created the style frames before I started animating. At the time, the illustration and mixed media approach were daunting; I hadn’t worked on anything this complex before. But I willingly accepted the challenge.

 

Animation

I divided the animation process into different passes to make it more manageable and to provide feedback checkpoints along the way.

  • First pass: base color layers and sketch

  • Second pass: color fill

  • Third pass: streamer details

  • Fourth pass: splash details

  • Fifth pass: highlights & polish

Time lapse videos of the streamers and swirls. Drawn frame-by-frame in Photoshop using a Wacom CTE-450 tablet.

After the details were finished, I handed off the Photoshop files to Devon. She composited the frame-by-frame animation together with the toppings - a mix of photography and 3D models - using TrapCode Particular. I worked on the character animation in After Effects while she worked on the composite.

I was also in charge of sourcing VO and helping direct the artist to get exactly what we needed for the spot.

 

Learnings

This project was the biggest challenge I’d had to date at Mabus Agency. The high level of detail, beautiful illustration, and mixed media combination required a large amount of planning and execution, not to mention technical skill.

I improved my project planning, illustration, frame-by-frame animation, character animation, drawing and visualization skills.