Bleacher Report '#sportsalphabet'

Bleacher Report

'#sportsalphabet'

We are animation die hards and we absolutely love sports. You mix the two together and something magical happens. Partnering with BarrettSF and utilizing Blackalicious’ newly recorded sports variation of their famous “Alphabet Aerobics,” we put our skills to the test. Assigning each letter a different style, and quickly transitioning from one vignette to another, the overall piece comes together to feel like a fun-filled dive into the depths of sports terminology.

“We’ve created a studio that is full of people who love to take on challenges and Bleacher Report handed us just that – and with a Blackalicious sound track!”

Character Exploration

We’re always teetering on the edge of excitable and completely insane. It was amazing to carry over our own personality into every character and creature we painstakingly created. From A to Z, we were able to pull out all of the stops by designing players, athletes, monsters and metaphors that fit the part they played in the overall piece. It is not often that you are able to design such a wide variety of characters, ranging from simple line drawing illustrations to CG rendered characters and a live action space man. Below are a few of the favorites, as well as a look into the processes that we explored for a few of the letters.

Blackalicious

If you aren’t familiar with “Alphabet Aerobics” by Blackalicious, well, you should be. Daniel Radcliffe sent the internet into a frenzy when he covered the song himself on the Tonight Show. For “#SportsAlphabet”, Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel are back at it, recording an all sports version, specifically calling out all of the sports under Bleacher Report’s umbrella. We’re huge fans, and always have been of the wordplay in their rhymes. To be able to evolve one of their most famous songs into an all-out animation and design frenzy is a dream come true. We definitely got weird with it. Taking every vignette to the limit and then some as we used the energy from them to make something truly collaborative.