Wild Lights
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Wild Lights 〰️
If these animals could talk.
The story of a warm weather animal who learns the magic of winter, and the story of the sweetest, best project I’ve ever worked on.
The Zoo let us know they preferred photographs of real animals, rather than stylized illustrations. Less than a year later, we were making a 3D-animated holiday story featuring an existential-crisis-having flamingo with felt feathers, crossed eyes and long eyelashes. Just goes to show you never really know ‘til you try (to make a Rankin/Bass Christmas special for the Saint Louis Zoo)!
It was summer in St. Louis. The air was moist. Caroline was wearing what I assume was a racer-back tank top and short-eralls. But she had Christmas on the brain. She excitedly rolled over to my desk and announced she had an idea for the Zoo’s Wild Lights commercial. It had come to her in the shower. She sent me a paragraph she’d written and watched me read it. My face probably did not react, but my heart did.
I immediately said, “Yes!” not knowing how realistic it was or even if we were seriously coming up with the concept like, now? Right now? We’re doing this now? Oh, we’re presenting it? This week!?
Turns out we were seriously coming up with it RIGHT THEN and it DID happen. But before it happened-happened, a bunch of other stuff happened.
Fake merch ideas we presented as we told the story of what the commercial could be. Vintage! Quirky! Collectible!
The Wild Lights concept isn’t exactly what we first presented. On the other hand it’s actually EXACTLY what we said it would be. Let me explain:
The story we pitched starred a Toucan named Toby who encountered a snowflake landing on his beak. He crossed his eyes, shook it off, then received a special message from his Polar bear friend via a letter delivered by the Saint Louis Zoo’s train. The Polar bear taught the skeptical Toucan not to be scared of winter. In fact, as the bear’s letter stated, “Winter is WONDERful.” which was displayed right after the Zoo holiday lights switched on, reflecting in Toby’s toucan eyes.
Instagram stickers we created for the Wild Lights campaign.Key words: stlzoo wild lights
30-second radio script I wrote to relate to our previous Zoo perspectives campaign, but still feel specific to the Wild Lights event.
As fate would have it, the Saint Louis Zoo currently didn’t have a toucan. So the toucan became a flamingo.
And the train is finicky in the winter. So we had to remove it.
And the letter, well instead of delivery by train, the letter could be mailed via a strange Zoo postal service where there are Flamingo mailboxes and Polar bear mailboxes (an actual idea I presented to the Zoo that almost happened). But in the end, the letter went away, too.
There were other animal friends in the original story too. Some of them stayed, some of them left. The polar bear moved to supporting actor.
As it turns out, we concluded, this story is about feelings. It always was. It’s about this toucan-turned-flamingo’s feelings when he goes from skeptic to a melted-heart full-on ChristmasLightophile. It’s all about Fletcher’s (that’s the flamingo’s name) change of heart. And in a video that doesn’t rely on VO, it’s all in the eyes. Bored, crossed, then full of wonder.
Examples of the spectacular 3D work done on animals, objects and scenes for the Wild Lights video.
Now that we had the story settled, it was time to make it come to life. We started with old-fashioned sketches. With pencils, even! Passing sketches and color palettes and notes to the 3D team, we started to sculpt our animal stars and their little Zoo-esque world.
I sketched the animals with a balance of species-specific features mixed with cuteness. The characters then came to life with felt textures, rigging, lighting, and camera set-ups in Blender that gave everything that perfect miniature look. With just enough architectural and signage references to the real Zoo to give it an unmistakable setting, we blended fantasy with reality, and gave the Zoo something completely ownable. The 4:3 aspect ratio and delightfully DIY sound effects helped drive home the vintage feel. The end product is genre-specific without being a copy. It’s a callback without being a parody. It’s quirky and nostalgic without being ironic and cold. It’s basically the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been part of. And that music by Marmoset makes me tear up every time.
Presenting, the WONDERful Wild Lights commercial:
The 30-second commercial was created and animated from start to finish by a small team (and no AI!)
Not to get too dramatic, but this project went about as perfectly as it could have, and every person who touched it deserves 500 million dollars and a lifetime of free entry into all Zoos everywhere. That’s just my opinion.
A behind-the-scenes reel I created to show the design process from sketches to 3D creation.
Left: A plushie of Fletcher I had made for my personal Fletcher collection.
Right: A tiny tv that plays this video only, also for my personal Fletcher collection.
A 3D-printed Fletcher ornament!
Instagram filter we created for the Wild Lights campaign!
Yes.
March at the gift shop!
Fletcher forever.
Credits
Client
Saint Louis Zoo
Agency
Paradowski Creative
Creative Lead
Terri Mitchell
Narrative Lead
Caroline May
SFX/Music
Matt Underwood
Marmoset
Motion Graphics
Natalia Shearer
Design Support
Loren Zaitz
Haley Hoffman
Associate Creative Director
Amanda Burch
AR Filter Dev
Irina Fawcett
3D Art/Animation
Noah Ilbery
Ayushman Johri