Case Studies City of Palmdale
Recycling Heroes
This award winning cartoon style animated public information video was created for the City of Palmdale. It utilizes a fun storyline about a group of off-road racing kids competing to see who can win the most trophies. The goal of the video is to emphasize the importance of caring for the environment using the example of recycling used motor oil, thereby becoming the ultimate winner of all time.
When working with the City of Palmdale, we were dealing with someone who had a clear idea of what they wanted from the very start, and just needed an artistic touch to bring the vision to life. There are a few reasons I think this project turned out well:
As artists it can be really great to have the freedom to express ourselves how we see fit, but sometimes working with strong direction yields great results too. That doesn’t mean we didn’t bring our own creative advice to the table, though. Collaboration is still key, with some of our script writer’s suggestions bring the concept into a perspective that more directly spoke to the audience.The animations we produce often have some heavy lifting to do, in making the audience understand a concept that can sometimes be unintuitive. In this case the City took a larger issue they were dealing with (environmental concerns) and smartly boiled it down to something simple their audience could easily act upon, recycling used motor oil.
The best stories are always stories of human nature. Here, rather than just explaining a step-by-step process of how to recycle used motor oil and filters, the video shows how three kids who like to show off and lead adrenaline-fueled lives realize how easy it is to stop a major pollution issue in a way that doesn’t feel patronizing.
Finally, the people planning this video from the City of Palmdale weren’t afraid to stand out, instead embraced it! One mistake that’s easy to make is to play it too safe with the look and feel of a video like this. Palmdale let us know early on that they were interested in utilizing some dramatic video game and anime inspired elements that capitalize on their generally younger demographic while giving the video an enduring, stand-out style.
Since there was such a clear vision up front, the final product remained pretty close to the initial version we put together.
