PUNY

Check out the Target.com homepage for some color by PUNY. They...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:18:16 -0600

Check out the Target.com homepage for some color by PUNY. They brought us in to do these streamers that transform the page, photos AND html text. Big thanks to Target for hiring local, our MPLS companies keep us here.

http://www.target.com

Animation Night February 2012. On the first Friday of each...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:08:00 -0600

Animation Night February 2012.

On the first Friday of each month PUNY animators stick around the studio and jam on an short cartoon. There is no plan, everyone designs a bit of and we mash it together at the end.

This animation was created under these rules:
- black background
- one color per frame
- color changes every frame (even on hold)
- only pencil tool 2 px
- no undo
- no onion skin
- finish @ midnight
- 24 fps, animate on ones
- start on black screen, end on black screen

Victor Courtright
Mike Owens
Jeremy Sengly
Yuichiro Tanabe

Woot!

Last Thursday Dave, Jeremy, Nick and myself went to a live...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:06:11 -0600

Last Thursday Dave, Jeremy, Nick and myself went to a live taping of the Conan O’Brien show. John Krasinski was a special guest who was there to promote Big Miracle, his newest film that PUNY did some animation for. Other guests included Jenny Slate, writer and voice talent of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and Evanescence who performed a couple of songs. It was the first time I had ever been part of a live studio audience and found the whole experience very interesting, educational, and amusing.

-Halley

James Moore allowed us to film his Improv Class for the Huge...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:22:42 -0600

James Moore allowed us to film his Improv Class for the Huge Puny Show.

SVG performance is pretty great, considering that animation...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0600

SVG performance is pretty great, considering that animation requires clunkily changing a string of text that declares path positions and attributes. I used a group of charged masses connected by springs to arrange a network of related New Jack Swing producers and acts. It’s kind of fun to change the physical particle attributes to find stable configurations. Try it out here!

-Joe

PUNY enjoying a front row view of Russell Brand’s butt...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:10:13 -0600

PUNY enjoying a front row view of Russell Brand’s butt cleavage at Comedy Bang Bang last night.

Photo courtesy of @steveagee

Bizarre Foods America premiered last night on the Travel...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:42:00 -0600

Bizarre Foods America premiered last night on the Travel Channel, and Andrew Zimmern kicked off the season with a visit to Minneapolis’s very own Haute Dish, for which we designed the identity and menus. Cool to see one of our favorite local restaurants and clients getting national attention!

–Dave

We collaborated with Katie Crown www.katiecrown.com, who we...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:09:57 -0600

We collaborated with Katie Crown www.katiecrown.com, who we love, on this short about fashion..just for fun.

Watch it in Full Screen Mode.

Enjoy!

Written & Performed by: Katie Crown
Designed by: Julia Vickerman
Director: Eyo Peters
Animators:
Eyo Peters
Luke Rogness
Nick Bachman
Tami Takezawa
Compositor: Christina Holt
Executive Producers:
Shad Petosky
Vincent Stall
Assistant Producer: Halley Georgeson

juliavickerman: Packing up my office. Reminiscing about our...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:08:19 -0600

juliavickerman:

Packing up my office. Reminiscing about our incredible guest animators this season. (Taken with instagram)

Announcing the first HUGE PUNY show! Our new live comedy show on...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:43:29 -0600

Announcing the first HUGE PUNY show! Our new live comedy show on the first Saturdays fo the month in Minneapolis. Hosted by comedian James Moore and PUNY’s Shad Petosky each month we’ll take on a theme related to the art, design, interactive, tv, whatever industry we’re in at the moment.

The first month is “Preschool Tv for Grown Ups.” It features industry Special Guests Will Shepard (writer/producer PBS Wordgirl, contributing writer to The Onion) and comedy actor Rich Kronfeld (Rich Kornfeld on “The Choo Choo Bob Show”)

Guest stand-up comics are Bill Young and Chris Knutson who promised some theme improv.

We also have the ridiculous preschool improv of 1,2, 3 Improv! and improv heroes and frequent PUNY collaborator Splendid Things.

Plus little cartoons and whatever we throw into the mix.

Details below. Please come and invite your friends: http://www.facebook.com/events/333539746677592/

We like comedy, we like podcasts, and we like good people. So...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:38:00 -0600

We like comedy, we like podcasts, and we like good people. So when our friend Dustin Martian offered to give us a tour of Earwolf Studios, we were more than stoked. Dustin is the audio engineer genius and producer behind all this funny stuff…and we love working with his carefully crafted sounds between our ears.

The recording studio is truly a historical landmark in the making. Blood, sweat and tears have been shed here, evidenced by the wood table covered by all our heros with sharpie and… human blood. And the highlight of our trip? An intense physical brawl between Jason Mantzoukas and Seth Morris… absolutely gut-wrenching.

If you’re not a fan already, be sure to check out Earwolf’s podcasts, including Howard Kremer ‘s Who Charted?, How Did This Get Made? with Paul Scheer, Scott Aukerman’s Comedy Bang Bang, and many others.

Thanks for the tour, Dustin!

– Dave

Design Director Dave Hagen started with PUNY today four years...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:13:51 -0600

Design Director Dave Hagen started with PUNY today four years ago when we were one and didn’t know what we were doing. He co-founded the LA office and is responsible for most of the good stuff. Happy punyversary Dave, everyone hearts you.

Follow Dave on Twitter @davehagen
Tumblr http://davehagen.tumblr.com/

Tami's Senior Film Progress

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:20:00 -0600

tamitakezawa:

For now, I’ll be posting bits and pieces from my senior thesis film that I’m working on this semester. Here’s an unused design.

Tami Takezawa did an internship with us last year and is back at MCAD working on her Senior Film. It’s fun to watch progress, it’ll be magical.

PUNY IS FIVE YEARS OLD! Zander and Kevin brought over a bunch...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:39:00 -0600

PUNY IS FIVE YEARS OLD!

Zander and Kevin brought over a bunch of old production art from the BTA space the other day and the original drawings of a PUNY “logo.” (we dont’ think we have or have ever had one.)

FIVE years.

Other numbers!: We’ve done SIXTY THREE episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba!, FIVE TV pilots, FIVE game show developments, optioned THREE other shows, worked on FOUR feature films (TWO will be released this year), THIRTY+ games, SIX mobile apps, THREE concert visuals, FOUR restaurant identities, and bits on HUNDREDS of websites and digital media, including an enterprise level metrics system. DOZENS of proposals and proof of concepts. Sent EIGHT HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR invoices. Gone through THREE THOUSAND checks. Opened ONE office in Hollywood, moved the Minneapolis office THREE times.

We opened with SEVEN people in 2007. In 2008 we grew to TWENTY TWO and have TWENTY today, our sweet spot. ONE global financial collapse. TWENTY gallery shows. FOUR baby showers. THREE weddings. SIX single employees became THREE sets of roommates. one divorce.

Thanks for following us!

Last week I made the move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:48:32 -0600

Last week I made the move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to work at the PUNY LA office. This is the first time I’ve lived outside of Minnesota, so I figured a train ride would be a nice epic way to see the distance and have plenty of time to draw.

The trip took a total of 72 hours cutting across the country to Portland and then down the coast to Los Angeles. Way more exhausting then I thought it would be, but the views and people made up for it. I met all kinds of amazing people: loggers, jewelry makers, former hobos, and a retired acting rep who described L.A people as, “Like the produce in Los Angeles, shiny and glossy on the outside, but completely devoid of taste.” Haters gonna hate.

-Jeremy

I directed my first video (comedy short for Pepsi) this week and...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:33:00 -0600

I directed my first video (comedy short for Pepsi) this week and had a freaky good time. While I’ve been around video production plenty on the executive producing, asset for interactive, or post production side…directing live action is incredibly outside of my comfort zone. I had it easy as Kristoffer Knutson put his old Fallon producer hat on which made for a well-oiled machine, and the cast and crew were all seasoned and really talented. It became clear that most of the time like I was doing the least amount of work on set. I started loving it though and got into a groove by day 2 where I started SEEING what was going on rather than just trying not to mess up. Warning, I’m probably going to try this again. - Shad

We had the pleasure of creating a new logo for the enormously...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:51:00 -0600

We had the pleasure of creating a new logo for the enormously talented photographer, Robyn Von Swank. She holds a place near and dear to the heart of PUNY, having photographed the likes of Ben Stiller, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, and “Weird Al” Yankovic, among countless other. She even found time in her busy schedule to photograph PUNY LA in May of last year. One of those dream clients for sure!

–Dave

juliavickerman: Did a drawing for a little boy named Mason who...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:06:13 -0600

juliavickerman:

Did a drawing for a little boy named Mason who visited our set this season via the Make A Wish foundation. He has a rare form of muscular dystrophy called X-linked Myotubular Myopathy and does not spend much time around other children. His parents say that he watches Yo Gabba Gabba multiple times every day and even uses certain songs from the show to communicate emotions. His father Scott asked for a Christmas gift for “the boy who has everything” :) So I hope he enjoys this. Having Mason and his parents on-set for a day was undoubtedly a way bigger gift for us than it was for them.

Our partners FRWD invited the gang for their holiday party in...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:48:16 -0600

Our partners FRWD invited the gang for their holiday party in our new space. Good food, drink, and a heartwarming tradition where everyone stands to give a toast through dinner. It was nice to see the PUNY and FRWD groups together socially. We finished off the night at Jetset for some dancing…but still have to determine…who has a better dance crew?

We continued our BTA tradition with our 5th Christmas Crawfish...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:06:11 -0600

We continued our BTA tradition with our 5th Christmas Crawfish Pot! Everyone goes to Shad’s house where his wife cooks up a Cajun pot of various crabs and craw-daddies, with corn, andouille sausage, and baby potatoes. Then we do our homemade-handmade secret Santa gift exchange before the real Super Santa - The Greatest of All Santa’s shows up with his garbage bag of gifts. Fun!

Happy Holidays!