Santa Monica based King and Country creates a lush world, filled with fun details and a clever metaphor for their new internal project. “The Ride,” loosely follows the journey of an idea from it’s rough beginnings, through a perilous course, until it finally takes off into the world. Created over the summer, this was their first internal piece, and offers a glimpse into the studio’s range and ability.
I had an opportunity to catch up with Creative Director, Efrain Montañez and this is what he had to say :
“This is something we want to do more of. It took a lot of problem solving and a lot of internal resources. The key to keeping an internal project like this alive is to always have at least one person on the job, pushing it forward. Given the original scope of the job, we had to say goodbye to parts of the piece that we really liked, but in the end we finessed it into a cohesive concise short, with the original creative sprit intact.”
One thing I always enjoy is when a studio is open to sharing their creative process and showing their boards and pencil sketches. Be sure to head over to the site have a look.
“THE RIDE” CREDITS:
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Efrain Montañez
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jerry Torgerson
HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Andrew Neujahr
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Mariko Wilson
CONCEPT
Efrain Montañez
Andrew Neujahr
DESIGN
Efrain Montañez
STORYBOARD ARTIST
Eshom Nelms
ILLUSTRATORS/ CONCEPT ARTISTS
Wendy Park
Jay Kee
James Levy
2D/ 3D ANIMATORS
Aaron Knapp
Chris Kelley
Josh Childers
Greg Mitchell
3D TEXTURING
Efrain Montañez
Chris Kelley
Aaron Knapp
Greg Mitchell
3D MODELER
Alex Reyes
Greg Mitchell
INTERNS
Phillip Bichsel
Sander van Dijk
MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN
Hugh Barton, Sean Holt of Glue Audio