Today we are releasing one of our in-house Flash production tools called Keyframe Caddy. Our animators use this tool to assist in doing some of the more menial animation tasks like lip-syncing. We did a little demonstration video as well as made the tool free for download from our website. Click here for more information.
We’ve all been working hard here at the studio, so we thought it best to get outside and get some fresh air. What better to do in New England in the Fall, but pick apples! We took a drive to Honey Pot Hill Orchards and snagged some awesome looking (and tasting) Macs, Cortlands, and Empires. Check out the pics!
Over the last few months, we have been working with PBS Kids and Boston-based App development house, DINO, to produce the Lunch Lab’s first iPhone game. We’re proud to announce that the game has been submitted to Apple for approval. It’s been an amazing process to translate the Corporal Cup Food Camp segments to a touch-based “cooking” game experience. We’re hoping the approval goes smoothly, so you can enjoy the game when it hits the shelves – it’s been a blast to play test. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek of the game:
Scott Kirsner swung by the CloudKid HQ in late-August, and we talked to him about what we’re working on and how, as a startup, we fit into the Boston media landscape (and beyond). The content of our conversation is featured in Scott’s latest article on the front page of the Business section of the this week’s Sunday Globe. CloudKid was mentioned along with the small crop of animation studios in and around Watertown.
CloudKid LLC is one of the newest companies on the scene, formed in May 2009 by Dave Schlafman, formerly an artist at Soup2Nuts. The fledgling studio won a $400,000 PBS grant to develop a site called Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, which presents videos, games, and easy recipes, all intended to improve kids’ eating habits. The site went up last November, and earned an Emmy nomination not long after. (The firm didn’t win, but was nominated for the “new approaches in children’s media’’ category of the daytime Emmys.)
Read the whole article here.
Last spring while visiting LA for a round of pitch meetings, Matt Moore and I bought the ultimate printer that produced some of the nicest presentation prints we’d ever seen. Upon returning back east, we appropriately named the printer The MVP. Based on that idea, we decided it would be a great weekly tradition to present a CloudKid MVP award to the person, place, or object that defies expectations.
We are proud to announce that the first recipient of the coveted CloudKid MVP Award is our new studio space! This isn’t a diss to any of our fellow CloudKids – everyone was in agreement and couldn’t be happier with our new HQ.
Please note: CloudKid is not in cahoots with Burger King or its King.
For the last year, CloudKid has called Watertown, MA it’s home. We rented offices on top of a small law firm, and for a young startup, the space was adequate for our needs as we produced season 1 of Fizzy’s Lunch Lab. We decided that it was time to upgrade our studio and make the move to a more “creative” space. The CloudKid HQ now resides in Boston, MA, a stone’s throw from PBS content juggernaut, WGBH.
Over the weekend, CloudKid made the big move, unpacked, and started to settle in. After two back-to-back 12 hour days, things are starting to take shape. Below are some photos from Saturday’s marathon day. Friend and Boston-based artist, Fish McGill, lent his artistic skills and painted two awesome murals. Check them out. More photos to follow.
In the last month, we’d been spending our free-time to create a game for Roach & Termite called “Sewer Escape”. In this game, Roach and Termite are being chased by sewer water and they must collect candy, swat robot bugs all while running on a can of beans. Thanks to all the people who helped us out on this one. To play the game, go here: roachandtermite.com.
To see more development artwork for this game, visit the Roach & Termite work section of our site.
We have recently added a jobs section to our website. There are several open positions to primarily help augment some of the work on Fizzy’s Lunch Lab as well as other projects. In addition to our website, we have posted listings on sites like Craigslist and received a number of responses. After having reviewed well over four hundred applications, we would like to identify some tips if you’re choosing to apply to us.
1. Online portfolios only
We only consider online portfolios and we do not review PDFs or media files sent to us. This isn’t a slight to the PDF format or an arbitrary decision. If we like your work, we want to be able to easily send it around the office without having to deal with an unwieldy PDF. If you don’t have a website, sign up for an account with free portfolio site like Carbonmade or Coroflot. Also acceptable: we have people who’ve even sent us Blogger, DeviantArt and YouTube pages.
2. Homemade portfolio sites
If you want to make a homemade website, that’s awesome. Just PLEASE don’t make it suck. Common annoyances are not limited to: long load times, unnecessary use of Flash, splash page intros, confusing or cryptic navigation, broken links, poor image quality, or “under construction” signs. The work should speak for itself, so unless you’re an amazing Flash web developer, please just show us the work.
3. Design red flags
We are a company that develops visual products and we expect all of our hires to have an eye for tackiness, even if you aren’t applying to be a designer. There are a handful of design red flags that will get your website dismissed without exception. These include the following: using Comic Sans (this type face is not “cutesy”, “kid-friendly”, it’s bad), gaudy gradients, extremely saturated colors, awful and cheesy background music.
4. Cover letters and Resumes optional
If you’re emailing us, your portfolio link should be the very first thing we see. We only will read a cover letter or resume if your work is solid and fits what we’re doing. If you choose to include a cover letter (which is optional), keep it a brief paragraph. Please don’t attached a resume document to your email, make that information available on your website or create a LinkedIn account. Ultimately, if you’re work is any good, we won’t care what college you graduated from.
5. Read the job description
Don’t submit to us if you don’t fit the requirements of the job description. For instance, we don’t want to see 3D portfolios for a Flash animator position. Seriously, stop sending us your 3D work.
For the last month, we’ve been ramping up for Season 2 of Fizzy’s Lunch Lab. We’ve been face down in schedules, budgets, curriculum, and the fun part – preproduction. The second season is going to feature six new months of content and we’re really excited about the topics: Calories, Food Choices, Calcium, Sodium, Home Gardening, and Fiber. We’re going to sprinkle in the best of Season One, so we’re continuing to feature new content every week. In addition to the animated shorts, and recipes, we’re aiming to produce an additional 5 or 6 interactive games, that will definitely breathe some new life into the site. We’ve finished the outlines, script first drafts, and now we’re moving onto initial character design. Here’s a sneak peek of the “Sodium” webisode outline and the initial “Bob Lazy” character sketches:
Webisode Outline – Sodium
It’s a normal day in the Lunch Lab when the doors swing open to reveal a quick-talking salesman riding a mobile recliner chair, wearing a cowboy hat, and speaking with a thick Texan drawl. He introduces himself as Bob Lazy and promises the opportunity of a lifetime for “Good Ol’ Professor Fizzy”. Lights pop out of his recliner and Bob Lazy gives a laser-light presentation of Lazy Bob’s Frozen Foods – anytime, anywhere meals for people without time to cook. Bob Lazy claims his products are made with real veggies, but when Fizzy takes a closer look, he discovers that the meals are filled with preservatives and processed ingredients; the sodium content is off the charts. Fizzy gives Bob Lazy the low-down on Sodium and why it’s better to cook with real ingredients. Bob Lazy is convinced and asks if Fizzy has ever thought about selling Lunch Lab dishes to the mass market – Bob’s now looking for a new gig.
This week, The Swampscott Reporter featured CloudKid founder, Dave Schlafman, and chronicled his path from a Mario-loving chubby kid all the way to Fizzy’s Lunch Lab.
Professor Fizzy and his crew fight the evil Fast Food Freddie, who’s always trying to get kids to try his latest, disgusting food products and inventions, such as a contraption to hypnotize kids into eating “double-fried” potato chips.
Fast Food Freddie is one of many characters that Dave Schlafman, a native of Swampscott, co-created for a season of PBS webisodes on LunchLab.com. And with Fizzy’s help, kids can combat Fast Food Freddie. This is where the interactive part begins. With each webisode, a new, healthy recipe is explained, one that can be printed for parents to make, and with the idea of combating childhood obesity.
Schlafman’s road in following his passion began in Swampscott, at Stanley School.
“I just always loved drawing,” he says.
Doodling characters was merely a hobby, however, and up until Schlafman completed his first year at UMass, he hadn’t even thought about a career in art.
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