After 18 months of production, director/CD Jake Wegesin, who launched animation studio Ambient Press in 2022, just completed 16+ minutes of snappy 3D content for New Roots Films’ feature documentary God Bless Bitcoin.

Jake Wegesin: “New Roots Films wanted to create animation to accompany interviews in their film about the growing influence of Bitcoin in our modern world. What started off as a single 60-second clip quickly grew into the largest scale project that our team has tackled so far.

“From the first animation, our team defined a style that was humorous, clear, and fun to watch. This helped to add wit and joy to a topic that was both serious and technical. It was a perfect opportunity to work with a client that allowed us creative freedom and trusted our input.
 

“It was a continuous balancing act between being literal enough to communicate the ideas clearly and abstract enough to keep the visuals novel and engaging.”

 
“After we received the script and a video clip of the interviewee, our job was to brainstorm how best to represent what was being said in a fun and engaging visual form. It was a continuous balancing act between being literal enough to communicate the ideas clearly and abstract enough to keep the visuals novel and engaging.

“During this process of brainstorming, we went through multiple rounds of revisions internally with the storyboards before cutting together an animatic. The next stage, as with all of our projects, was to design, model, texture, and light the key frames from each scene.

“With these key images set alongside the animatic, we had a clear view of what the pacing, content, and visual continuity of the final product would be. Once we had full approval, we moved on to animate, simulate, and composite each scene, methodically bringing each scene to life.”
 
 

 
Client: New Roots Films

Production: Ambient Press
CD: Jake Wegesin