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!

More Lego Scooby Doo stop motion shorts!!

 
More Lego Scooby Doo shorts have been released! These were a ton of fun to do.

Here are two more that I animated:




Click here for my previous Lego Scooby post!

Directed by Ethan Marak at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

Principal Financial: Logo Evolution


In February, I got a chance to serve as animation supervisor on this spot about the evolution of Principal Financial's logo. I'm fascinated by the idea of how graphic design can so powerfully shape identity and inform people instantaneously about what a company is and is striving to be.


Directed by: Sean Starkweather
Produced by: Arsenal Creative
Animation Supervisor/Animator: Pete Levin
Stop Motion Animator: Musa Brooker
Director of Photography: Andy Knapp
Gaffer: Christian Buchholz
Production Designer: Francesca Marciano
Lead Artist: Andrew Schreiber