Friday, October 5, 2018

Hollywood Reporter obituary for Will Vinton

I wore out my VHS copy of Claymation Christmas Special and went as The Noid for Halloween one year, finding inspiration from Will Vinton’s creations from an early age.

It was my honor to be able to write his obituary for the Hollywood Reporter.



Thanks to Michael Barnes for the opportunity and guidance in writing this and to Webster Colcord for a wonderful phone chat about what it was like to know and work with Will Vinton.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

ExxonMobil Biofuel Campaign through The New York Times

Back in the summer of 2017, I was awarded the opportunity to be on the roster of animation filmmakers who would bid on projects through the branded content creation arm of the New York Times, T Brand Studio.

This is my first collaboration with them and we dove right in!

In promoting ExxonMobil's biofuel initiative, I wanted to create something forward-looking, futuristic, clean, and elegant. I decided to work using some processes I'd only touched upon in the past: 3D printing objects and laser-cut acrylics.


Stylistically, this is pretty different from anything I've directed before and I'm really excited about how everyone's hard work came together.





Production Credits:
Director/Producer........................Pete Levin
Writer........................Steve Murphy
Editor........................Nathaniel Miller

Director of Photography........................Matt Hazelrig
Lighting Technician........................Scott Beardslee
Animator........................Kent Burton
Animator........................Melissa Shepherd
Animator........................Savannah Steiner
Storyboards........................Greg Sesma

Art Director........................Emily Franz
Production Designer........................Jeffrey Bounthavong
3D Design........................Astral Design Studio
3D Printing/Cast & Mold........................SNL Creative
Laser Cutting........................Phantom Forms
Fabricator/Painter........................Marc de Leon
Fabricator/Painter........................Hannah Field
Fabricator/Painter........................Meirav Haber
Fabricator/Painter........................Stephanie James
Fabricator/Painter........................Felicia Rein
Specialty Prop Fabrication........................Machine Histories
Production Assistant........................Daniel Olivas
Production Assistant........................Jay Shipman

Narrator........................Arwen Fonzen
Composer/Sound Designer........................Ben Wise
Sound Recording........................Rocky Mountain Recorders
Lead VFX Artist........................Brian Kokoszka
VFX Artist........................John Ikuma
VFX Artist........................Mario Kim
VFX Artist........................Justin Sarcena
VFX Artist........................Joe Statom
Color Timing........................Technicolor

Behind the Scenes Documentarian........................Jenn Harrington

A HUGE thanks to 
Adam Loeb, Deanna Urciuoli, Abby Wood, Adam Aston, and the team at T Brand Studio
Carrie Rossman, Jenny Sundel, and the team at UM

Shot at Digital Twigs Studio in Los Angeles, CA.








Tuesday, May 23, 2017

New Partnership with T Brand Studio


Two years ago, T Brand Studio, the "brand marketing unit of The New York Times," sought out five exciting live action filmmakers to be part of the creative force for their content and advertising.

This year, they began the search for the five corresponding animation filmmakers...

I'm thrilled to announce that I was picked to be one of those five animators/animation teams that will collaborate collaborate with T Brand! I'm humbled by being in the company of these other four choices and I can't wait to see what opportunities may present themselves through this new partnership!


May 28: Hard copy of the paper is out on newsstands!!

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Scooby Snacks!


Directing & Producing partners Leah McKissock & Adam Blake Carver make up La Di Da Films and have recently created a great niche for themselves with stop motion food animation! Here are four Scooby-Doo spots that I helped them with. Now I'm getting hungry for some mummy dogs...





Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Greatest Party Story Ever: Amanda Cerny's "Hot Pursuit"

Tomorrow night at 11pm on MTV: Greatest Party Story Ever!

My greatest party story! Watch it on @MTV DEC 1st 😈😂

A video posted by Amanda Cerny (@amandacerny) on





Directed, Produced, and Animated by Musa Brooker & Pete Levin
Starring Amanda Cerny
Director of Photography: Eric Adkins
Production Designer: Julianna Parr
Production Assistant: Andrew Oropeza
Costumes: Simone Williams
Storyboards: Greg Sesma
Puppet Fabricator & Rigger: Greg Sesma
Additional Fabrication: Musa Brooker & Pete Levin
VFX: Caress Reeves

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Manny Machado's Birthday Garden Gnome Jamboree! (Bobbleheads invited, too.)

The Baltimore Orioles. Stop motion animation. Two of my favorite things in the world.

My yearly animation for the Orioles remains at the top of the list of am-I-really-working-or-is-this-all-a-crazy-dream jobs. But somehow it was about to get much better.

After seeing a creative Dodgers promotional video for Adrian Gonzalez Bobblehead Night (more VFX than stop motion) and an excellent Twins promotional video for Josh Willingham Bobblehead Night (no stop motion at all), I figured that I could make something for the Orioles in the same vein. I mentioned this to the folks at Orioles Productions and they were immediately enthusiastic.

It just so happened that there was going to be a Manny Machado Garden Gnome Night three days after Manny's 24th birthday and the O's wanted a video to celebrate both.

John Sumner (my perennial partner in crime on these spots) and I started brainstorming. John drew up some simple boards and I submitted them. The scoreboard team said the designs look great... but where was the script? Script? Yes, I'd be writing a script where several current players on the Orioles would voice their animated bobblehead likenesses! If there was a way to top the thrill of the yearly scoreboard animations, this was it!

Here it is:


Full Credits
Director/Animator/DP: Pete Levin
Art Director/Fabricator/Storyboards: John Sumner
Specialty Mouth Fabricator: Greg Sesma

Chris Davis as Action Figure Chris Davis
Adam Jones as Bobblehead Adam Jones
Manny Machado as Garden Gnome Manny Machado
Buck Showalter as Garden Gnome Buck Showalter
Matt Wieters as Bobblehead Matt Wieters

Storyboard by John Sumner.
Can you spot Wild Bill Hagy's hat?
Detail on a party game.
Selfie with bobbleheads.

The Baltimore Sun, WMAR Channel 2, and WJZ Channel 13 and The Score did some coverage of the video!

WMAR buries the lede that Machado is now apparently a pitcher.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Charbroil Grill social media spots

In March, I was hired to direct three stop motion spots to be produced by McBeard for Charbroil Grills. From stylized 2.5D downshooter animation to 1:1 scale animation, we truly found out how versatile the shooting space at Platypus Pictureworks could be!

These spots were really enjoyable to make! (Though animating that realistic steak did actually get me pretty hungry.)

Director/Producer: Pete Levin
Creative Account Manager at McBeard: Kathleen Curran
Animation Team Manager at McBeard: Vick Trochez
Producer: Musa Brooker
Director of Photography: Eric Adkins
Lighting Technician: Ian Raymond
Production Designer: Kyle Arneson
Fabricator: Emily Franz
Puppet Fabricator: Tennessee Reid Norton
Animator: Hilary Lile
Animator: Misha Klein
Animator: Pete Levin
Senior Editor & Motion Graphics at McBeard: Matt Wells

Here are the first two spots:
A video posted by Char-Broil (@charbroilgrills) on


A video posted by Char-Broil (@charbroilgrills) on


UPDATE - Here's the third!