October 9, 2023 • 19 mins
Ever wondered how creatives face off with Impostor Syndrome while while facing the blank page?
Get ready for a deep dive into the artistic efforts of Samantha Mireles, one of Spillt's phenomenal art directors, as she takes us through her incredible journey of creating an open-ended project for Adult Swim.
Hear how Samantha, armed with her love for Disney and a knack for baking, conceived and developed Suck it Smash. Drawing her inspiration from diverse sources like Nintendo's Kirby and the game Bouncy Smash from IV Studios, she crafted a story that's both hilarious and gross.
Joining forces with Taylor Cox, they created a unique visual style that seamlessly blended 2D and 3D elements. As we talk with Samantha she reveals how finding the right collaborator can skyrocket your career to amazing heights.
PRO TIP: take a look at the actual working boards Samantha assembled using Milanote.
Sit back and listen to this deep dive that is brimming with ideas on creativity, collaboration, and some unique behind-the-scenes insights into what it's like working from an open brief for a major network.
Join the creative conversation on all things animation and motion design:
- Send us a message and be a part of the show
- Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
- Email us at play@spillt.com
Check out our studio website for Spillt's latest and greatest work!
Until the next time, SEIZE THE PLAY!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Samantha Mireles (00:03):
Um, yeah, I definitely, you know.
I guess I could say like I havebeen posturing syndrome, right,
and so it's like I do getscared sometimes with concepts
like that.
But I think the nice thingabout this project is that you
know there was communicationfrom the start.
Ryan Summers (00:17):
The voice you just heard is that of Samantha
Mireles, one of Spillt's awesomeart directors.
Now, who's Samantha?
Besides being an awesomeanimator, designer and art
director, she also happens to bethe in-house expert on anything
that has to do with Disney.
That's right, I thought I kneweverything about the Disney
parks, but when Samantha startstalking, she puts me to shame.
(00:37):
She also happens to be anamazing baker as well.
We're hearing from Samanthatoday because I want to talk to
her all about the process thatshe went through for Suck it
Smash, a really awesome projectthat she developed all on her
own from scratch for our friendsover at Adult Swim.
Now how often have you ever hada client call you and say hey,
got some time, want to makesomething for us?
(00:59):
Just do whatever you want.
Now I know what that soundslike.
It sounds like a dream job, butit also can sometimes turn into
a nightmare because that blankpage.
It could be pretty frightening.
Let's check in with Samanthaand find out how she got over
her fears.
Samantha Mireles (01:22):
Yeah.
So I'm right there with you.
They definitely like they'resuch a fun client to work with.
They don't give you constraints, like their pitches are just
open-ended.
For me, I was really excited.
I've been fortunate enough towork with Adult Swim in the past
and they've always been justone of my favorite clients
because they just really trustthe artist, their process and
(01:43):
they just let you run with it.
It's just so much fun because,like you said, it is scary to
have such an open-ended pitch,but it's also fun because you
get to challenge yourself andjust have fun and just go with
it and see what comes out at theend.
Ryan Summers (01:58):
That's what was so exciting about this one,
because the show was originallyattached to an Adult Swim show,
to the Eric Andre show, and iteventually morphed and changed
into something else.
Everybody on our team was givenan opportunity to pitch, so it
was really cool to see, with acompletely open platform for
coming up with ideas, whereeverybody went.
Can you tell us a little bitabout what your specific idea
(02:20):
was and what were you thinkingof?
What were your influences?
What led you to the place thatyou ended up landing in?
Samantha Mireles (02:27):
Yes, like you said, this was tied to Eric
Andre and so I had never heardof him.
I knew of him but I neverwatched his skits, and so I
started watching a couple ofstuff on YouTube and I was like,
oh man, this guy really likesto involve food.
I was like, okay, I want toplay with food.
One of the biggest inspirationfor this was Kirby.
Like Nintendo's Kirby and I havethis image or this gif of him
(02:51):
that I use all the time, wherehe's sitting on a dining table
and just inhaling an insaneamount of food all at once, and
I thought that was really funnyand I thought I could tie that
in with how Eric Andre playswith food.
I kind of just started thereand I knew that I wanted this
spot to be fun and cute and thischaracter to be malicious and
(03:13):
create chaos in a city, whichwas awesome to be able to just
like.
It was so open-ended and thatcharacter had nothing to do with
Eric Andre, but it was stilljust like a fun concept to go
with.
And then like, just like Kirbybeing such a big inspiration,
like I knew, I wanted to be likea side-scrolling, you know
left-to-right type game, and oneof the first things that popped
(03:36):
to mind was Ivy's Studio BouncySmash.
Ryan Summers (03:41):
Now I have to cut in here and tell you if you've
never been IV Studio's website,you really should go take a look
, because they're a hugeinspiration for us, not only
because they make great motiondesign for clients like CBS,
Reddit and Bad Robot, but theyspend a lot of time making their
own stuff as well.
Bouncy Smash that's an iOS gamethat we've been addicted to for
years, but they didn't stopjust there.
(04:01):
They also make crazy thingslike deck-building, board games
like Moon Rakers, and animatedshorts and graphic novels for
their own IP.
You really have to go and checkout the page that they have on
their site for something calledthe Carrier.
It's essentially a pitch fortheir own TV show.
You find them a hugeinspiration for our own work,
because they're really leadingthe way for people who want to
(04:24):
make their own work as much asthey want to make work for other
clients.
You should check them out.
Samantha Mireles (04:34):
And I just watched their trailer a ton of
times and I just thought it wasso fun and dynamic and that's
just how I wanted my spot tofeel.
I think we achieved that.
I think it turned out to be areally fun spot.
Ryan Summers (04:48):
Yeah, you guys nailed it.
It's so funny because the wholeteam presented ideas and they
were all over the map.
If you've watched Eric Andre,there's a lot of points of entry
trying to figure out what canyou do to capture.
Capture him without actuallyshowing him.
That was the one note I thinkwe did get from the client
initially.
It's like please, please, makeanything, just don't show him,
because it would be a lot easierto just get it through.
So you have that.
(05:08):
That kind of was a weirdadditional wrinkle, but it's
funny because your idea and myidea were the ones that went
through and they both were builtaround kind of being gross,
being ridiculous, and food,which we didn't talk about it at
that time, but it ended upbeing the same.
So so that's kind of whathappened.
We pitched all these differentideas.
Everybody had different ways ofpitching.
Some people had storyboards,some people had reference, some
(05:29):
people wrote scripts, but at theend of the day, it was Samantha
and I that both were kind oftasked with cool it's pitched.
Now can you show us what it'sgoing to actually be?
For me, it was really excitingwhile I was developing mine.
Your process was so fast.
I was shocked to see like howfast you were coming with ideas
and you're kind of whittlingdown the references and that
kind of research you done.
But how did you approach itOnce it was told to you like
(05:51):
cool, you won, now you got to gomake it.
How did you kind of flesh thewhole idea out?
Samantha Mireles (05:56):
Yeah, so I had a ton of fun with this.
Like I went straight to likewhat does this character look
like?
Because I knew that I wanted thespot to revolve around a
character, and so for me it waslike you know, like I mentioned
earlier, I wanted him to be cute, I wanted it to be playful and
squishy and like malicious, andso I started like kind of just
creating what that form lookedlike.
And I think at the beginning Ikind of started like over
(06:18):
complicating him by like addingarms and legs, and so I really
simplified him and he ended upbeing this like little gum drop
guy that would be just like slidand elongated and jumped.
And so once I got like a fewjust like sketches of what I
wanted him to look like, I threwthat into like cinema and I
started playing with liketextures, because I knew I
wanted him to be, you know,glittery and transparent.
(06:41):
And so I thought it was a lotof fun to just kind of, like you
know, bring this character tolife before I started like
storyboarding anything.
And so once I got the characterkind of like you know, nailed
down, I jumped into Milanote,which Milanote is always so much
fun just because you get to seeyour whole space like your
creative space and you know it'svery interactive.
(07:02):
But from there like I thinkthat's where I had the most fun
was just doing like writtendescriptions of like a shot list
.
Ryan Summers (07:10):
Now, we've never had a sponsor before here, but
if we did, we probably all wantit to be Milanote, because it's
completely changed the game forus at the studio, for how we all
collaborate together in areally visual way.
It's really different thananything else we've ever used,
and we use it for almosteverything, whether it's
capturing notes for a meeting,putting reference together for
(07:32):
decks or even doing somethinglike figuring out a game plan
for a podcast.
Milanote is something that Ican't suggest more highly as a
way to get everything in yourhead down on a page in a way
that everyone can comment andsee and share and be inspired by
the entire team all at the sametime.
We used it like crazy on thisAdult Swim project, so much so
(07:53):
that if you go to the show notes, we're even sharing a link to
all the boards that we built forthis project.
Go and take a look.
Samantha Mireles (08:04):
I don't know if you remember, but like my
whole Milanote, the way Ipopulated it, instead of going
straight into like storyboardsor illustrations, I just threw
in a bunch of gifts for likejust to showcase that energy
that I wanted.
And I had a lot of energy and Ihad a lot of fun with that and
so, like, if you were to open myMilanote you'd see a ton of
like Dragon Ball Z, Super Saiyan, like you know, big old moments
(08:28):
, and I thought that really likehelped sell the idea for it,
for myself at least.
And then once I got that done,just like a visual
representation of what I wantedto look like, and I started
storyboarding and I actually satwith my boyfriend, Cody and him
and I kind of just like youknow what are some fun key
moments that we could do.
And for those of you that don'tknow, like, we originally had
our character Chase poop, andthat was a little too much for
(08:51):
adults ones, so they swapped itout for a couple.
Ryan Summers (08:54):
That was the funniest thing, that of all the
lines that we couldn't cross,which this one and mine both
have a lot of like pushinglimits, of things Weird and
gross and strange and has likethat kind of like a red and
stimpy level of like fun.
The chasing of poop emoji wasjust too much Like adult swim
was like even that that's theline, that adult swim kind of
(09:15):
like we can't have a kid watchthis and think twice about it.
It was funny that that's whatbroke it.
Samantha Mireles (09:19):
Yeah.
So then, like you know, once Istarted doing the storyboards, I
threw them into an animatic andyou know, the spot was 15
seconds and so when I originallystarted designing out
everything, I thought I hadenough.
But when I put in the 15seconds, I'm like okay, this is
really slow.
And then, yeah, I jam packed it, like I doubled up on frames
and I was like this is feelinggood.
(09:40):
And then, once it came down tolike production and Taylor Cox,
you know he came in to animate,we realized that, like whoa, we
had too much.
Ryan Summers (09:47):
Yeah, I love seeing that because I felt like
I had I had the opposite problem.
I felt like I was like packingit too full, too full, too full,
and then I had to cut it backdown to 15.
And then eventually we wereable to be like, oh, we can make
a 30.
Oh, cool.
But it's interesting wheneveryou approach these like,
especially when things aren'tscript driven, when it's just
like oh, I have these ideas andI have visuals and what could I
do?
Like that transition from, like, the written ideas to the
(10:10):
drawings and then the drawingstimed out, and then the timed
out drawings to animation.
It's amazing how much it's likeyou almost remake your whole
piece three or four times, evenin a 15 second piece, how it
kind of changes.
You know, along the way, wasthere ever a moment where you
considered doing the characterin 2D?
Because I know you had donesome drawings and some sketches
and there were some referencesthere.
But what pushed you towardsgoing towards like the 3D?
(10:33):
Simba 40 wrote.
Samantha Mireles (10:33):
That's actually a really good question.
I think I just wanted him tofeel, you know, like three
dimensional and like I had in myhead like the glittery look,
and I just didn't think of it asa 2D.
The 2D aspect for me was thebackground and his facial
expression, but the 3D, I think,because originally, when this
was I guess not that I knewthose or I thought it was going
(10:55):
to be a 30 second, but I hadthese crazy moments where, like
his head was smashing and likethat, I always just pictured 3D.
So, yeah, my head, just like Iam definitely a 2D animator.
I think it was just one ofthose.
You know, this was an openproject and I was just kind of
experimenting, so I just wantedto do something in 3D over the
2D.
But it was nice because I wasable to bring the 2D back in
(11:17):
with the, you know, the face andbackgrounds.
Ryan Summers (11:20):
Was there any trepidation or fear, knowing
that you would be directing aproject that would require you
know tool sets or skills, or youknow things that you didn't
personally do yourself?
Samantha Mireles (11:32):
Yeah, definitely, you know, I always,
I guess I could say like I havebeen postured syndrome, right,
and so it's like I do get scaredsometimes with like concepts
like that.
But I think the nice thingabout this project is that, you
know, there was communicationfrom the start that we were
basically able to just pitch anyidea without feeling any
constraints or like workingaround things that we're not
(11:55):
familiar with or lack ofexperience in, and so from the
start, like I just knew, youknow, I wasn't going to shy away
from the 3D, and actuallyworked out really nice, because
Taylor Cox, like he, did all theanimation and then I was able
to then open it up and kind ofjust like tweak things here and
there Because, like you said, Idon't see myself as a 3D artist,
(12:16):
but I can definitely work in it.
Like you know, I built out thischaracter and like I can
texture, I'm just I'm just slowat it, right, and so it's like I
just need more experience.
Ryan Summers (12:26):
But I think we had a really great conversation
about the idea that because youknow the fundamentals and you
understand storytelling and youhave an idea in your head full
of you know, references andthings that you love, you are
the perfect person to directthis.
And I think that's somethingthat a lot of people struggle
with what that actually means.
And I think we even had aconversation at one point where
you're like I think we're goingto have to get somebody else to
direct this because I'm notgoing to be the one who can
(12:48):
animate the character or rig itor do all those different things
.
And I thought it was a greatmoment where we're like no,
that's exactly why I wanted youdirecting it, because being able
to have that step where youtake two steps above and look
down over an entire thing andcan distribute the assignment or
understand how to collaboratewith someone and, like you said,
like Taylor was the perfectperson.
I thought that he was theperfect person to bring in
(13:08):
because of his skill set, butalso his affinity for the same
things you love.
We'll talk to him a little bitlater, but he loves Kirby, he
loves video games, he loves sidescrollers, he loves that
aesthetic of that kind of liketake a 2D design and stick a
bicycle pump to it and inflateit where it feels like.
It's like this beautifullydesigned, inflated 3D thing.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat that was like, because I
(13:31):
know there was that trepidation,a little bit of fear.
But talk a little bit moreabout what was it like working
with Taylor as a specific artist, and did you feel intimidated
or more comfortable aftertalking to him?
I think we even talked for thatfirst kind of like interview
session.
Like Taylor, you're the rightperson.
How did you feel after thatfirst hour of just like hey, is
(13:51):
this the right job?
Do you want to jam on this withme?
Samantha Mireles (13:54):
Yeah, no, when we first met him, I know, when
he sent his portfolio, I wentthrough it and it was the I
don't know what year it was, butthe dash bash Spot that he
worked on and I'm like this isit?
Like?
This is exactly what I envision.
It's that like 2d and 3dmixture and you know I watched
his reel a few times and justlike his opener with like the
(14:15):
the race car just going through,I thought that was, you know,
exactly what this project neededand I think him and I worked
like really well together.
He's a very you know, we likehad a really good communication
amongst ourselves and he's verycollaborative and we just had a
bunch of like dns coming backand forth, like how are we gonna
do the backgrounds and how arewe gonna like incorporate things
(14:36):
, and I think, overall, like hehe was, he adapted very quickly
and was just great about youknow, dealing with like my
internal notes and the client'sinternal notes or an internal
notes, but their notes and justlike came up with solutions and
Just seem like I just kind ofhanded him off just this.
Really, I don't say terrible,but just like not a great Model
(15:01):
to work off of and just to seethe way he like stretched and
elongated it and it's like Ilearned a lot, just like opening
up his scenes and seeing how heworks.
So I think, you know, it's justlike a really good Partnership
to have and just like I learneda lot from him and I hope that
you know same for him.
Um, but yeah, I definitely lookforward to working with him,
you know, in the future.
Ryan Summers (15:21):
I think I think it's great advice for people
listening, because it is kind ofthe ethos of what I feel like
makes spilt so special Is thatthat you can get better by doing
projects on your own, but youcan really move up the next
level only by being on adeadline with other
collaborators and it the speedthat you can go like I always
think about how Taylor loveslike Mario cartony, I think,
(15:42):
even in his demo reel you'retalking about has that shot
where it kind of goes over those, those triangle speed boosts.
I always think of those momentswhen you collaborate with people
that just like connect, thatyou can do a speed boost like
that in your career and yourskill sets, in your confidence,
by just working with someoneelse.
That's the right person and itI feel like so many times that's
the opposite of what a lot ofpeople in the industry think is
the right path.
They have to learn it all, theyhave to do it all.
(16:03):
Their demo Ro can only be fullof stuff that only they've done.
But I really want to encouragepeople that it is the opposite
right like it.
Like I think we got a greatpiece that if you look back at
your initial sketches, right,your initial just black and
white sketches and then you seethe final piece.
That spirit of the initial ideais there, but it's just been
plus pushed and polished fromwhere it kind of launched.
Samantha Mireles (16:22):
Yes, how do you?
Ryan Summers (16:22):
how do you feel about the end product, how do
you feel about the final like?
When you look at that, when youlook at where you started,
miranda, are there any surprisesor is anything we're like, oh
man, if we could only have hadAnother week, because you guys,
you guys knocked this thing outsuper fast.
On our side, we were like Ihave no idea how Taylor and
Samantha are doing this rightnow.
Samantha Mireles (16:37):
Yeah, no, for me, I think, for you know, 15
seconds.
It turned out to be like areally fun spot and pretty spot
on from what I had envisioned.
Like I think that we didn't,you know, get away from the
first animatic too much.
I do think like if it had beenthe 30 seconds, we could have
added a bit more of those likedynamic scenes that I had talked
about earlier, about like thehead smashing and like him
(17:00):
growing Cause, like I think oneof my big pitches was like yeah,
I picture him like those usedcar flailing man, like sales
tactics that they use, and so Ithink that's the only thing that
was, I don't want to saymissing, but we just didn't have
the time, like within the 15seconds.
But overall, like the look, theanimation, the style, it's all
(17:21):
pretty spot on and I was superhappy with it.
Ryan Summers (17:25):
Well, there you go .
That's the inside look and howyou take the blank page and turn
into something as fun assomething called suck it smash.
That's actually the title thatwe ended up coming up for this
crazy piece, and I think itreally hints at the fun that's
to be had and getting the workdone.
All too often we look at theblank page and we stare at it
and we wonder how are we goingto get through the day, how are
(17:46):
we going to get to the finishline, and I think Samantha's
given you some of those cluesjust from listening to our
process here.
One I think this is somethingwe're going to talk about a lot
more often here is that impostersyndrome isn't really something
to be defeated.
It's more like something thatyou can actually become a lot
more friendly with and speakingof friends, the other thing I
think we really learned fromthis process that's built was
(18:08):
that it's so important to findcollaborators that speak the
same language as you andunderstand where you're trying
to go.
Something that we see all toooften are artists just being
brought on jobs, almost liketheir numbers on an assembly
line.
But if this job if suck itsmash taught us anything, was
that sometimes finding the funin getting the job done is more
(18:29):
about treating people likepeople and making sure that
there's a connection there, andI think it really showed in a
job like suck it smash.
You can see the fun pouring outof every direction.
And when you hear Samantha talksomeone who was probably a
little bit nervous, if notscared having that right person
who she knew spoke the samelanguage and had the same
interest and even when theyweren't working we're thinking
(18:52):
about the same kinds of thingsthat Samantha was thinking about
.
It made all the difference onthe project and for the client,
and hopefully that's what thispodcast is doing for you too.
If you want to find the fun ingetting work done, I really hope
that you continue along thisjourney with us and be part of
the creative conversation forall things animation and motion
design.
Until the next time, go outthere and seize the play.
(19:15):
Seize the play is a spiltstudio podcast.
If you have an idea of someoneyou'd like us to talk to or a
topic you'd like to hear moreabout, drop us a line at play at
spiltcom.
That's S-P-I-L-L-T dot com, andif you like what you hear,
subscribe.
Samantha Mireles (19:40):
Music play.
Um, yeah, I definitely, you know.
I guess I could say like I havebeen posturing syndrome, right,
and so it's like I do getscared sometimes with concepts
like that.
But I think the nice thingabout this project is that you
know there was communicationfrom the start.
Ryan Summers (00:17):
The voice you just heard is that of Samantha
Mireles, one of Spillt's awesomeart directors.
Now, who's Samantha?
Besides being an awesomeanimator, designer and art
director, she also happens to bethe in-house expert on anything
that has to do with Disney.
That's right, I thought I kneweverything about the Disney
parks, but when Samantha startstalking, she puts me to shame.
(00:37):
She also happens to be anamazing baker as well.
We're hearing from Samanthatoday because I want to talk to
her all about the process thatshe went through for Suck it
Smash, a really awesome projectthat she developed all on her
own from scratch for our friendsover at Adult Swim.
Now how often have you ever hada client call you and say hey,
got some time, want to makesomething for us?
(00:59):
Just do whatever you want.
Now I know what that soundslike.
It sounds like a dream job, butit also can sometimes turn into
a nightmare because that blankpage.
It could be pretty frightening.
Let's check in with Samanthaand find out how she got over
her fears.
Samantha Mireles (01:22):
Yeah.
So I'm right there with you.
They definitely like they'resuch a fun client to work with.
They don't give you constraints, like their pitches are just
open-ended.
For me, I was really excited.
I've been fortunate enough towork with Adult Swim in the past
and they've always been justone of my favorite clients
because they just really trustthe artist, their process and
(01:43):
they just let you run with it.
It's just so much fun because,like you said, it is scary to
have such an open-ended pitch,but it's also fun because you
get to challenge yourself andjust have fun and just go with
it and see what comes out at theend.
Ryan Summers (01:58):
That's what was so exciting about this one,
because the show was originallyattached to an Adult Swim show,
to the Eric Andre show, and iteventually morphed and changed
into something else.
Everybody on our team was givenan opportunity to pitch, so it
was really cool to see, with acompletely open platform for
coming up with ideas, whereeverybody went.
Can you tell us a little bitabout what your specific idea
(02:20):
was and what were you thinkingof?
What were your influences?
What led you to the place thatyou ended up landing in?
Samantha Mireles (02:27):
Yes, like you said, this was tied to Eric
Andre and so I had never heardof him.
I knew of him but I neverwatched his skits, and so I
started watching a couple ofstuff on YouTube and I was like,
oh man, this guy really likesto involve food.
I was like, okay, I want toplay with food.
One of the biggest inspirationfor this was Kirby.
Like Nintendo's Kirby and I havethis image or this gif of him
(02:51):
that I use all the time, wherehe's sitting on a dining table
and just inhaling an insaneamount of food all at once, and
I thought that was really funnyand I thought I could tie that
in with how Eric Andre playswith food.
I kind of just started thereand I knew that I wanted this
spot to be fun and cute and thischaracter to be malicious and
(03:13):
create chaos in a city, whichwas awesome to be able to just
like.
It was so open-ended and thatcharacter had nothing to do with
Eric Andre, but it was stilljust like a fun concept to go
with.
And then like, just like Kirbybeing such a big inspiration,
like I knew, I wanted to be likea side-scrolling, you know
left-to-right type game, and oneof the first things that popped
(03:36):
to mind was Ivy's Studio BouncySmash.
Ryan Summers (03:41):
Now I have to cut in here and tell you if you've
never been IV Studio's website,you really should go take a look
, because they're a hugeinspiration for us, not only
because they make great motiondesign for clients like CBS,
Reddit and Bad Robot, but theyspend a lot of time making their
own stuff as well.
Bouncy Smash that's an iOS gamethat we've been addicted to for
years, but they didn't stopjust there.
(04:01):
They also make crazy thingslike deck-building, board games
like Moon Rakers, and animatedshorts and graphic novels for
their own IP.
You really have to go and checkout the page that they have on
their site for something calledthe Carrier.
It's essentially a pitch fortheir own TV show.
You find them a hugeinspiration for our own work,
because they're really leadingthe way for people who want to
(04:24):
make their own work as much asthey want to make work for other
clients.
You should check them out.
Samantha Mireles (04:34):
And I just watched their trailer a ton of
times and I just thought it wasso fun and dynamic and that's
just how I wanted my spot tofeel.
I think we achieved that.
I think it turned out to be areally fun spot.
Ryan Summers (04:48):
Yeah, you guys nailed it.
It's so funny because the wholeteam presented ideas and they
were all over the map.
If you've watched Eric Andre,there's a lot of points of entry
trying to figure out what canyou do to capture.
Capture him without actuallyshowing him.
That was the one note I thinkwe did get from the client
initially.
It's like please, please, makeanything, just don't show him,
because it would be a lot easierto just get it through.
So you have that.
(05:08):
That kind of was a weirdadditional wrinkle, but it's
funny because your idea and myidea were the ones that went
through and they both were builtaround kind of being gross,
being ridiculous, and food,which we didn't talk about it at
that time, but it ended upbeing the same.
So so that's kind of whathappened.
We pitched all these differentideas.
Everybody had different ways ofpitching.
Some people had storyboards,some people had reference, some
(05:29):
people wrote scripts, but at theend of the day, it was Samantha
and I that both were kind oftasked with cool it's pitched.
Now can you show us what it'sgoing to actually be?
For me, it was really excitingwhile I was developing mine.
Your process was so fast.
I was shocked to see like howfast you were coming with ideas
and you're kind of whittlingdown the references and that
kind of research you done.
But how did you approach itOnce it was told to you like
(05:51):
cool, you won, now you got to gomake it.
How did you kind of flesh thewhole idea out?
Samantha Mireles (05:56):
Yeah, so I had a ton of fun with this.
Like I went straight to likewhat does this character look
like?
Because I knew that I wanted thespot to revolve around a
character, and so for me it waslike you know, like I mentioned
earlier, I wanted him to be cute, I wanted it to be playful and
squishy and like malicious, andso I started like kind of just
creating what that form lookedlike.
And I think at the beginning Ikind of started like over
(06:18):
complicating him by like addingarms and legs, and so I really
simplified him and he ended upbeing this like little gum drop
guy that would be just like slidand elongated and jumped.
And so once I got like a fewjust like sketches of what I
wanted him to look like, I threwthat into like cinema and I
started playing with liketextures, because I knew I
wanted him to be, you know,glittery and transparent.
(06:41):
And so I thought it was a lotof fun to just kind of, like you
know, bring this character tolife before I started like
storyboarding anything.
And so once I got the characterkind of like you know, nailed
down, I jumped into Milanote,which Milanote is always so much
fun just because you get to seeyour whole space like your
creative space and you know it'svery interactive.
(07:02):
But from there like I thinkthat's where I had the most fun
was just doing like writtendescriptions of like a shot list
.
Ryan Summers (07:10):
Now, we've never had a sponsor before here, but
if we did, we probably all wantit to be Milanote, because it's
completely changed the game forus at the studio, for how we all
collaborate together in areally visual way.
It's really different thananything else we've ever used,
and we use it for almosteverything, whether it's
capturing notes for a meeting,putting reference together for
(07:32):
decks or even doing somethinglike figuring out a game plan
for a podcast.
Milanote is something that Ican't suggest more highly as a
way to get everything in yourhead down on a page in a way
that everyone can comment andsee and share and be inspired by
the entire team all at the sametime.
We used it like crazy on thisAdult Swim project, so much so
(07:53):
that if you go to the show notes, we're even sharing a link to
all the boards that we built forthis project.
Go and take a look.
Samantha Mireles (08:04):
I don't know if you remember, but like my
whole Milanote, the way Ipopulated it, instead of going
straight into like storyboardsor illustrations, I just threw
in a bunch of gifts for likejust to showcase that energy
that I wanted.
And I had a lot of energy and Ihad a lot of fun with that and
so, like, if you were to open myMilanote you'd see a ton of
like Dragon Ball Z, Super Saiyan, like you know, big old moments
(08:28):
, and I thought that really likehelped sell the idea for it,
for myself at least.
And then once I got that done,just like a visual
representation of what I wantedto look like, and I started
storyboarding and I actually satwith my boyfriend, Cody and him
and I kind of just like youknow what are some fun key
moments that we could do.
And for those of you that don'tknow, like, we originally had
our character Chase poop, andthat was a little too much for
(08:51):
adults ones, so they swapped itout for a couple.
Ryan Summers (08:54):
That was the funniest thing, that of all the
lines that we couldn't cross,which this one and mine both
have a lot of like pushinglimits, of things Weird and
gross and strange and has likethat kind of like a red and
stimpy level of like fun.
The chasing of poop emoji wasjust too much Like adult swim
was like even that that's theline, that adult swim kind of
(09:15):
like we can't have a kid watchthis and think twice about it.
It was funny that that's whatbroke it.
Samantha Mireles (09:19):
Yeah.
So then, like you know, once Istarted doing the storyboards, I
threw them into an animatic andyou know, the spot was 15
seconds and so when I originallystarted designing out
everything, I thought I hadenough.
But when I put in the 15seconds, I'm like okay, this is
really slow.
And then, yeah, I jam packed it, like I doubled up on frames
and I was like this is feelinggood.
(09:40):
And then, once it came down tolike production and Taylor Cox,
you know he came in to animate,we realized that, like whoa, we
had too much.
Ryan Summers (09:47):
Yeah, I love seeing that because I felt like
I had I had the opposite problem.
I felt like I was like packingit too full, too full, too full,
and then I had to cut it backdown to 15.
And then eventually we wereable to be like, oh, we can make
a 30.
Oh, cool.
But it's interesting wheneveryou approach these like,
especially when things aren'tscript driven, when it's just
like oh, I have these ideas andI have visuals and what could I
do?
Like that transition from, like, the written ideas to the
(10:10):
drawings and then the drawingstimed out, and then the timed
out drawings to animation.
It's amazing how much it's likeyou almost remake your whole
piece three or four times, evenin a 15 second piece, how it
kind of changes.
You know, along the way, wasthere ever a moment where you
considered doing the characterin 2D?
Because I know you had donesome drawings and some sketches
and there were some referencesthere.
But what pushed you towardsgoing towards like the 3D?
(10:33):
Simba 40 wrote.
Samantha Mireles (10:33):
That's actually a really good question.
I think I just wanted him tofeel, you know, like three
dimensional and like I had in myhead like the glittery look,
and I just didn't think of it asa 2D.
The 2D aspect for me was thebackground and his facial
expression, but the 3D, I think,because originally, when this
was I guess not that I knewthose or I thought it was going
(10:55):
to be a 30 second, but I hadthese crazy moments where, like
his head was smashing and likethat, I always just pictured 3D.
So, yeah, my head, just like Iam definitely a 2D animator.
I think it was just one ofthose.
You know, this was an openproject and I was just kind of
experimenting, so I just wantedto do something in 3D over the
2D.
But it was nice because I wasable to bring the 2D back in
(11:17):
with the, you know, the face andbackgrounds.
Ryan Summers (11:20):
Was there any trepidation or fear, knowing
that you would be directing aproject that would require you
know tool sets or skills, or youknow things that you didn't
personally do yourself?
Samantha Mireles (11:32):
Yeah, definitely, you know, I always,
I guess I could say like I havebeen postured syndrome, right,
and so it's like I do get scaredsometimes with like concepts
like that.
But I think the nice thingabout this project is that, you
know, there was communicationfrom the start that we were
basically able to just pitch anyidea without feeling any
constraints or like workingaround things that we're not
(11:55):
familiar with or lack ofexperience in, and so from the
start, like I just knew, youknow, I wasn't going to shy away
from the 3D, and actuallyworked out really nice, because
Taylor Cox, like he, did all theanimation and then I was able
to then open it up and kind ofjust like tweak things here and
there Because, like you said, Idon't see myself as a 3D artist,
(12:16):
but I can definitely work in it.
Like you know, I built out thischaracter and like I can
texture, I'm just I'm just slowat it, right, and so it's like I
just need more experience.
Ryan Summers (12:26):
But I think we had a really great conversation
about the idea that because youknow the fundamentals and you
understand storytelling and youhave an idea in your head full
of you know, references andthings that you love, you are
the perfect person to directthis.
And I think that's somethingthat a lot of people struggle
with what that actually means.
And I think we even had aconversation at one point where
you're like I think we're goingto have to get somebody else to
direct this because I'm notgoing to be the one who can
(12:48):
animate the character or rig itor do all those different things
.
And I thought it was a greatmoment where we're like no,
that's exactly why I wanted youdirecting it, because being able
to have that step where youtake two steps above and look
down over an entire thing andcan distribute the assignment or
understand how to collaboratewith someone and, like you said,
like Taylor was the perfectperson.
I thought that he was theperfect person to bring in
(13:08):
because of his skill set, butalso his affinity for the same
things you love.
We'll talk to him a little bitlater, but he loves Kirby, he
loves video games, he loves sidescrollers, he loves that
aesthetic of that kind of liketake a 2D design and stick a
bicycle pump to it and inflateit where it feels like.
It's like this beautifullydesigned, inflated 3D thing.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat that was like, because I
(13:31):
know there was that trepidation,a little bit of fear.
But talk a little bit moreabout what was it like working
with Taylor as a specific artist, and did you feel intimidated
or more comfortable aftertalking to him?
I think we even talked for thatfirst kind of like interview
session.
Like Taylor, you're the rightperson.
How did you feel after thatfirst hour of just like hey, is
(13:51):
this the right job?
Do you want to jam on this withme?
Samantha Mireles (13:54):
Yeah, no, when we first met him, I know, when
he sent his portfolio, I wentthrough it and it was the I
don't know what year it was, butthe dash bash Spot that he
worked on and I'm like this isit?
Like?
This is exactly what I envision.
It's that like 2d and 3dmixture and you know I watched
his reel a few times and justlike his opener with like the
(14:15):
the race car just going through,I thought that was, you know,
exactly what this project neededand I think him and I worked
like really well together.
He's a very you know, we likehad a really good communication
amongst ourselves and he's verycollaborative and we just had a
bunch of like dns coming backand forth, like how are we gonna
do the backgrounds and how arewe gonna like incorporate things
(14:36):
, and I think, overall, like hehe was, he adapted very quickly
and was just great about youknow, dealing with like my
internal notes and the client'sinternal notes or an internal
notes, but their notes and justlike came up with solutions and
Just seem like I just kind ofhanded him off just this.
Really, I don't say terrible,but just like not a great Model
(15:01):
to work off of and just to seethe way he like stretched and
elongated it and it's like Ilearned a lot, just like opening
up his scenes and seeing how heworks.
So I think, you know, it's justlike a really good Partnership
to have and just like I learneda lot from him and I hope that
you know same for him.
Um, but yeah, I definitely lookforward to working with him,
you know, in the future.
Ryan Summers (15:21):
I think I think it's great advice for people
listening, because it is kind ofthe ethos of what I feel like
makes spilt so special Is thatthat you can get better by doing
projects on your own, but youcan really move up the next
level only by being on adeadline with other
collaborators and it the speedthat you can go like I always
think about how Taylor loveslike Mario cartony, I think,
(15:42):
even in his demo reel you'retalking about has that shot
where it kind of goes over those, those triangle speed boosts.
I always think of those momentswhen you collaborate with people
that just like connect, thatyou can do a speed boost like
that in your career and yourskill sets, in your confidence,
by just working with someoneelse.
That's the right person and itI feel like so many times that's
the opposite of what a lot ofpeople in the industry think is
the right path.
They have to learn it all, theyhave to do it all.
(16:03):
Their demo Ro can only be fullof stuff that only they've done.
But I really want to encouragepeople that it is the opposite
right like it.
Like I think we got a greatpiece that if you look back at
your initial sketches, right,your initial just black and
white sketches and then you seethe final piece.
That spirit of the initial ideais there, but it's just been
plus pushed and polished fromwhere it kind of launched.
Samantha Mireles (16:22):
Yes, how do you?
Ryan Summers (16:22):
how do you feel about the end product, how do
you feel about the final like?
When you look at that, when youlook at where you started,
miranda, are there any surprisesor is anything we're like, oh
man, if we could only have hadAnother week, because you guys,
you guys knocked this thing outsuper fast.
On our side, we were like Ihave no idea how Taylor and
Samantha are doing this rightnow.
Samantha Mireles (16:37):
Yeah, no, for me, I think, for you know, 15
seconds.
It turned out to be like areally fun spot and pretty spot
on from what I had envisioned.
Like I think that we didn't,you know, get away from the
first animatic too much.
I do think like if it had beenthe 30 seconds, we could have
added a bit more of those likedynamic scenes that I had talked
about earlier, about like thehead smashing and like him
(17:00):
growing Cause, like I think oneof my big pitches was like yeah,
I picture him like those usedcar flailing man, like sales
tactics that they use, and so Ithink that's the only thing that
was, I don't want to saymissing, but we just didn't have
the time, like within the 15seconds.
But overall, like the look, theanimation, the style, it's all
(17:21):
pretty spot on and I was superhappy with it.
Ryan Summers (17:25):
Well, there you go .
That's the inside look and howyou take the blank page and turn
into something as fun assomething called suck it smash.
That's actually the title thatwe ended up coming up for this
crazy piece, and I think itreally hints at the fun that's
to be had and getting the workdone.
All too often we look at theblank page and we stare at it
and we wonder how are we goingto get through the day, how are
(17:46):
we going to get to the finishline, and I think Samantha's
given you some of those cluesjust from listening to our
process here.
One I think this is somethingwe're going to talk about a lot
more often here is that impostersyndrome isn't really something
to be defeated.
It's more like something thatyou can actually become a lot
more friendly with and speakingof friends, the other thing I
think we really learned fromthis process that's built was
(18:08):
that it's so important to findcollaborators that speak the
same language as you andunderstand where you're trying
to go.
Something that we see all toooften are artists just being
brought on jobs, almost liketheir numbers on an assembly
line.
But if this job if suck itsmash taught us anything, was
that sometimes finding the funin getting the job done is more
(18:29):
about treating people likepeople and making sure that
there's a connection there, andI think it really showed in a
job like suck it smash.
You can see the fun pouring outof every direction.
And when you hear Samantha talksomeone who was probably a
little bit nervous, if notscared having that right person
who she knew spoke the samelanguage and had the same
interest and even when theyweren't working we're thinking
(18:52):
about the same kinds of thingsthat Samantha was thinking about
.
It made all the difference onthe project and for the client,
and hopefully that's what thispodcast is doing for you too.
If you want to find the fun ingetting work done, I really hope
that you continue along thisjourney with us and be part of
the creative conversation forall things animation and motion
design.
Until the next time, go outthere and seize the play.
(19:15):
Seize the play is a spiltstudio podcast.
If you have an idea of someoneyou'd like us to talk to or a
topic you'd like to hear moreabout, drop us a line at play at
spiltcom.
That's S-P-I-L-L-T dot com, andif you like what you hear,
subscribe.
Samantha Mireles (19:40):
Music play.
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