Created for the Australian TV show, Hamish & Andy. After visiting an LA film studio who specialize in producing low-budget versions of hit movies, Hamish & Andy were inspired to create their own “Mockbuster”. In a mash-up of James Cameron’s Avatar and the arcade game console Atari. RK Productions commissioned Houses to bring Hamish’s vision to life. This was so much fun to work on, thanks to Hamish’s hilarious creative brief.

Hamish’s brief:
Avatari: A professional looking movie title card, followed by a simple 8 bit graphics (Atari-like) one shot animation that runs for approximately 15 seconds.

We see a topless man (so we can see his peach skin, but wearing pants) standing on a plain flat landscape, with normal blue sky. Almost Mario Brothers world, but even shitter. He is not big on screen, perhaps only about 1/6 of screen height. He then walks to the right into a cupboard. Some shit magic happens through the technique of a quick flash of colours, he emerges 150% taller and is now blue skinned. He walks a few steps, and a female blue counterpart enters from the right and faces him. She says (we can use speech bubbles here) “You should not be here”. He says “I love you”. She says “I love you too”. Another human then enters, our hero shoots him, human dies, they both cheer (very simply and quickly).

“The End” flashes up in the middle of the screen, over the triumphant couple.

Nailed it. Great job, Hamish.

CREDITS

Character Design, Animation & VFX: John Earle
Brief/Concept: Hamish Blake
Executive Producer: Sophia Mogford
Sound Design: RK Productions

Watch the full Hamish & Andy show segment on YouTube. Skip to 2:18 for the Avatari setup. Or watch the whole thing… these guys are pretty funny.

Once again, our friends at WEtv brought us on to assist on a show package. This time for the new show, Fix My Family. In the series, troubled families are aided by a professional councilor  to help get their live back on track. The concept for this show open came from the idea that the issues the family deals with is like being under water. With the aid of the councilor, the families are challenged to make the changes to get above the flood. We created a series of vignettes depicting typical household venues flooded with water. As the water recedes, the true issues are revealed.

Each setup was based on stock photography but created in 3D using a photogrammetry technique. From there we developed hyperreal water simulations to flood the environment. The final product are these wonderfully detailed environments. Multiple versions were created for each setup so that the appropriate keywords for each family could be used. These were originally intended to be individual vignettes, interspersed between show footage, but we wanted to present them sequentially for you.

Credits

Design, Animation & Composite: John Earle
Fluid TD: Oyekunle Jegede

Created for Howcast’s web series on working mothers. The Chief Household Officer is a woman who isn’t just a mother of her children, or a dedicated wife, or a business savvy breadwinner… but all of these and more. She is someone who can seamlessly go from the boardroom to children’s playroom. She takes the tools she uses in her professional life and applies them to her personal life in way that only a modern woman can. To illustrate this, we depicted an encapsulated day of her life for the show open.

We created the entire show package as well.
To view full episodes go to their YouTube channel.

Credits

Direction, Design & Animation: John Earle
Music: Explosion Robinson