Skull & Cakebones
Designing a 30-second motion graphics spot for Central Texas plant-based bakery and market, Skull & Cakebones.
Design Lead | Illustration | 3D Modeling | Animation: Kat McRaven Davis
3D Modeling | Animation: Cesar Rodriguez
Music | VO | Animation: Emily Seabroke (aka Tashi Delay)
Research & Concept
Our crew of three designers was asked to create the 30-second ad from scratch, including everything from overall concept, script, VO, music, through execution of the final design. From the start we knew we wanted to highlight natural ingredients, showing fruits and vegetables, and emphasize the company’s focus on local products.
Skull & Cakebones branding by Zachary Horst and images of the Dripping Springs, Texas restaurant and market location. We drew inspiration from the tattoo flash-style illustrations and the murals on the side of the building.
We first needed to establish the story we were telling. The group sketched out ideas and jotted notes for our voiceover script. The first script was short, with a plan to put more emphasis on the food through visuals, but after putting together a rough animatic, the pace was too slow. The updated final script engages the viewer while providing more information about Skull & Cakebones products.
Rough Animatic
DESIGN
Beginning from the tattoo-style brand illustrations, we expanded our inspiration to arcades, roller rinks, and horror movies, and cartoons. This moodboard reflects additional inspiration sources: pop art, a bright but limited color palette, and simplified shapes with dark or edgy undertones.
Style Exploration for Illustration & Animation
As Design lead, I was responsible for ensuring a consistent, cohesive look, from colors and brand adherence to illustration styles and consistent motion. The fruits, vegetables, and skulls above are samples of my illustration tests to establish consistent style. To the right are samples of the animation tests I created to demonstrate different style options to the team. One of the greatest challenges in this project was seamlessly integrating 3D elements in the 2D style.
styleboards
Animatic Comparison
By this round, we could compare our rough animatic, VO, and music, with an updated VO recording and fully prepared styleboards, ready for animation.
Final Video
With style established, the team split foreground sections amongst ourselves to animate, with regular meetings to review updated renders and check for consistency. Each team member was primarily responsible for animating different sections of the final product; my animation work primarily focused around the mural, falling vegetable and pitcher sequence, and logo reveal. After rounds of joint feedback and edits, the final promotion for Skull & Cakebones came together as the culmination of a weeks-long joint effort.
