Nick Hopkins, CD at Chicago animation studio Run, Kick, Shout: “The goal with this campaign was a simple one: let people know just how widely accepted PayPal is.

“Calabash kicked off the project by focusing on the initial design and character animation. RKS then tagged in and took over by animating the environments, crowds, and effects. The completed animation was carried through to its final lighting and rendering stages by RKS.

“The animation took part in two phases. Calabash provided all the hero character animation which we incorporated into our scene files.

“Next, we set up cameras and blocked out the rough layout and timing with simple geometry. Some spots featured thousands of characters, so we took the approach of populating our scenes using one character to get approval on all of the motion before adding in all the variation.

“Our main goal was to make each spot feel unique yet live in the same world. We decided on a minimal look that would feel illustrative, vibrant and isometric, yet retain a real-world sense of lighting.

“Not only do we dig this look, but it generally keeps the render times manageable and allows us to deliver quicker revisions when receiving client feedback.”

Client: PayPal

Agency: Walrus

Design/character animation: Calabash Animation
Animation/lighting/rendering: Run, Kick, Shout
Director: Wayne Brejcha
Creative Directors: Erik Jensen, Nick Hopkins
Executive Producer: Sean Henry
Production Manager: Diane Grider
Lead Animator: Jeff Mika
Animation: Nick Hopkins, Erik Jensen, Brody Davis, John Filipkowski
Character Animation: Jeff Mika, Jimmy Wasion, Nick Oropeza, Levi Ames, Sydney Leining, Nathan Tungseth, Kristen Rhee, Corey Stisser, David Brancato
Lighting/rendering: Nick Hopkins, Erik Jensen