Project:
Apple Arcade Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis
Animating the wacky and unforgettable characters so many of us grew up with was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were given the reins to develop a stylized look that felt true to the Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis game and go wild with the animation. Collaborating with the team at Apple Arcade, we captured some of our fondest Nick characters smashing serves and slicing shots all across Bikini Bottom.
This campaign spanned the whole of the social sphere, showcasing our newfound tennis pros in original films, splash art, and social gifs across an array of formats from the web to mobile and beyond. We set out to highlight our classic characters in a progressively intensifying edit, and just when you think our tennis match can’t handle any more EXTREME, Garfield cuts the tension like a hot fork through lasagna… well, you get the idea.
- Design and Animation: Scholar
- Creative Director: Macauley Johnson
- Art Director: Madison Ellis
- Managing Executive Producer: Kirsten Noll
- Head of Production: Nicole Smarsh
- CG Supervisor: Matt Berenty
- Senior Producer: Seth Gantman
- Production Coordinator: Bella Bergeron
- Designers: Jina Kwon, Danni Fisher-Shin, Susie Scheer, Hana Yean
- 2D Animators: Sam Bachman, Kenny Kerut, Matt Andrews, Dennie Bright, Jaewoo Park
- Model/Texture Artists: Alejandra Alvarez, Lucia Huang, Ariane Pelissoni
- Rigging: Nico Sanghrajka
- 3D Animators: Isidore Holder, Evan McGowan, Tyler Mele, Kelly Perez, Michael Relth, Sarah Wolfe
- 3D Generalists: Kevin Kolodinsky, Jacques Clement, Lucas Georgescu
- Lighter: Michael Lampe
- Dyanmics/FX: Tim Hayward
- Compositors: Phoebe Britton, Michael Loney
- Flame Artist: Ryan Kaplan
- Storyboards: Mark Yates
"We squashed and stretched the likes of CatDog, SpongeBob, and friends, pushing their rigs to the limit, infusing each frame with wacky and wild fun, fit for Saturday morning cartoons."
Process
"It was important to us to do justice to the stylized look and feel of the game, so we combined our design, Maya look development, and comp, to strike the perfect balance of texture and light that felt authentic to the Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis universe."
"It was an absolute joy to get behind the scenes with each character and explore how they’d uniquely take on the wildest match of tennis anyone could imagine, each scene bringing those iconic personalities to the forefront, taking Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis to the next level!"
