To have fun 420, Bebe Rexha and Snoop Canine ’s new single Satellite tv for pc received a Hanna-Barbera-inspired animated music video from Colombian studio Venturia Animation Studios.
The video, put collectively in only one month, was directed by studio founder Juan M. Urbina. It’s loaded with loads of throwbacks to Sixties-Seventies Hanna-Barbera cartoons, a little bit of Star Trek, and a load of 420-themed imagery.
We caught up with Urbina to debate the video’s visible influences, his tackle Hanna-Barbera, and the tight timeline he and his group had been engaged on. He additionally shared a ton of BTS paintings and tips that the studio’s artists adopted whereas placing the video collectively.
How concerned had been the musicians/administration in finalizing the character designs? Was there a back-and-forth on these designs?
This challenge was really a dream for us to work on, not simply because it was the proper alternative to discover a unique throwback animation fashion, (we had accomplished a Rubber Hose quick up to now and a Chuck Jones-inspired Christmas music video) however as a result of the consumer (Warner Information) fully trusted our imaginative and prescient for the clip, and we by no means received pushback concerning how Bebe Rexha or Snoop Dogg ought to or shouldn’t look. Our character design group nailed them proper from the beginning. In that key visible you see, which later became the bottom for the precise single’s cowl artwork as nicely, the challenge received greenlit immediately. So, after the important thing visible was accepted we went proper into manufacturing. It was a really tight turnaround too. A really heroic deed on our group’s finish. So Venturia.
Have been you employed as a result of they had been in search of this explicit aesthetic, or did you pitch the aesthetic to get the job?
We have now accomplished many initiatives with them up to now, involving many various animation kinds. So, they belief us. And I notice our studio has gained this status of executing classic animation kinds in a extremely correct – I ought to say ultra-nerdy – means. As a result of Bebe’s new album has this 1970’s impressed aesthetic, we instantly went to the kings of that period in animation for inspiration: Hanna-Barbera, so it was virtually not possible to keep away from going a bit The Jetsons / Josie and the Pussycats with it.
Apart from Hanna-Barbera, which you’ve talked about, what different sources impressed the look?
There’s affect from a whole lot of previous shorts from Warner, clearly, just like the Marvin The Martian shorts and Duck Dodgers within the 24½th Century – the 1953 quick not the 2003 present. However from an artwork path and manufacturing design standpoint, we additionally checked out a whole lot of live-action issues, which is an efficient method to keep away from merely ripping off or doing a straight parody of different animation. And the unique Star Trek was an enormous inspiration for some particulars within the outfits, how the ships join to one another, and naturally… the teleporting impact.
What do you assume is the head of Hanna-Barbera’s design and what parts did you might want to get proper to nail this look?
Properly, like every studio, I personally assume that they had their ups and downs, their hits and misses. One might virtually try summing up the historical past of Hanna-Barbera by saying they undoubtedly dominated the Sixties and Seventies with hits like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo, after which within the Eighties it went downhill for them – excluding their solely hit The Smurfs, after which they got here again laborious within the Nineties renaissance with them turning into Cartoon Community.
I’ve at all times been a sucker for all issues H-B and I actually like to attract in a graphic, straight line vs. curve line, means, a mode made well-known by the good Ed Benedict in fact, so I at all times attempt to affect the crew in making these decisions after they design not simply the characters but in addition the layouts. I feel the important thing to essentially nailing the look was to unlearn, to neglect what you understand from extra trendy, or ought to I say up to date approaches. Since we all know a lot these days, the 2nd animation craft is so refined, thanks partially to phenomena just like the Disney Renaissance, as an illustration, they introduced again a whole lot of these “how characters ought to look – how characters ought to transfer” guidelines. And these guys again within the Sixties weren’t making an attempt to compete with Walt Disney Characteristic high quality animation, they had been making an attempt to make ends meet and ship weekly episodes for television. An instance of all this can be a dialogue I had with Paul, our lead character designer, through which he mentioned: “Why don’t we give Bebe white in her eyes? She is going to look extra ‘interesting.’” And he was proper. However since this video was an homage to that period, I advised him, “Not for this challenge.” Typically, they used pupils solely to save lots of time in Ink & Paint. And we did save time, too.
And let´s bear in mind these old-timers didn’t have the wonderful instruments we’ve now, Ink & Paint was so laborious, and we will try this with a click on now, additionally the montages on celluloid, that’s really easy to do for us now in software program like After Results. So, a whole lot of these “errors” you see in our animation we tried to place deliberately, on this case, the “off-model” on a personality just isn’t a sin it’s a advantage.
How lengthy was manufacturing, and what instruments did you employ to place the video collectively?
This had a really tight schedule. A month actually, from the second we first heard of the challenge. We used all issues from pen and paper sketches for the idea drawings and the animatic to Adobe Photoshop for the backgrounds, Toon Increase Concord for the animation, and Adobe After Results for compositing.
Snoop Dogg
Bebe Rexha
Crew
