Character Designs: Rita's Ice!

It’s that time of year again... Time to be cool and eat some Rita’s!

We were recently asked to help with the visual development of a group of quirky characters for a new Rita’s Ice commercial. The live-action TV spot, conceived and created by EFK Group, aired nationally to promote Rita’s season opening and FREE Italian Ice giveaway. =P

2A! designed the above characters, which were used as a guide to create the actual costumes the actors wear in the ad!

Watch the ad below:




Copyright © Two Animators! LLP

Clothing Designs: Geisha Biggetts

Chickity check-it! Today I present some costume designs we created for Smallie Bigg’s lovely ladies, the Biggetts.

These sassy gals from The Smallie Biggs Show -- which 2A! worked on a few years back -- were Smallie’s right hand girls, always there to help him dish the latest entertainment gossip. One particular episode called for the girls to be dressed like Geisha, so of course, I was asked to do the honors. I dressed them both like Maiko, which are the youngest and most ornate of the Geisha. I must say, they look pretty hip in those colorful kimono. Biggity Bam!

Copyright © Sprint

Character Design: Auxilium Bad Guy #2

In the last of the three Auxilium spots that 2A created, the client wanted to go with a surfing theme, and wanted a second villain. I was excited to hear this, as it meant I could take this fun style and create a new nasty bad guy for it. Can't you just see me snickering as I twist my evil mustache?



Since both the original villain and the Auxilium hero were starring in this spot as well, I wanted to use a different body type for the new baddie. I went with a very round and robust form, with a bushy mustache and an awkward wisp of hair that looks suspiciously like a toupee. Add a gaudy striped swimsuit and voila! A new villain is ready to thwart a do-gooder.

I was really pleased with how this fellow turned out, as I feel he has that classic "old-timey" feel to him. Thankfully he looks way more dangerous than he really is, and his surfing leaves a lot to be desired!

Copyright © Auxilium

Fun Art Fridays: Rococo Style

Here's another fun exercised I did for the Design-A-Character group over on Deviant Art. The idea of this challenge was to design a character based off of a specific theme – in this case the Rococo era style of clothing. So with that, I tried my hand at a few different characters.

The first image here is my personal favorite… and actually the last one I drew. It pokes fun at the difficulty ladies had getting into those crazy outfits. Sheesh… and I thought wearing a suit and tie made me uncomfortable. ;)



Next up are two different gentlemen. I was pretty happy with the first dude, but after talking to Sarah -- who’s totally into costume design -- she suggested I turn up the “bling” on the outfits. So I did some more research and got inspired to draw the second guy… and then of course the girls.




Anyway, hope you like them. Until next time… Keep drawing!

Copyright © Joe Costantini

Character Designs: Auxilium Baseball Crowd

Last week we took at look at the two main characters from the Auxilium animated spots that 2A! worked on. This week we’ll take a look at some of the original characters we created for those spots.

The second animation needed a crowd to cheer the winning baseball team on, and we were excited to design them. Overall, the look of the characters is based on those fun UPA cartoons from the 1950's, so we did lots of research to make sure we captured that fun retro feel. The finals came out great I think! They feel fresh, yet classic and familiar. Get ready to “root, root, root!” for the Auxilium team!




Copyright © Auxilium