Getting to make work for MTV is being part of something amazing. A legacy that covers the birth of the music video, the mainstreaming of adult animation, and the rise of Limp Bizkit as the new century began. We all say that no one could have predicted all the wars and pandemics and financial crises, but that's entirely untrue. All you had to do was watch Total Request Live.
ASIA SPOTLIGHT
Something diapered this way comes.
In honor of the 40-year anniversary of MTV, we remixed the Asia Spotlight intro with something else that blew-up in 1981: arcade games. We were not the first people to propose using early arcade aesthetics, but we were definitely the first people to do so with badut mampang.
A look at the creative process for this bumper can be seen below.
Asia Spotlight on Social Media
When you've got an aesthetic that is clearly working, you can't help but adapt it for easy use on social media. So that's what we did.
MTV HITS
SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS
An homage to both the 1980s kitsch-cute education shows that came out of the same era as MTV — as well as a nod to MTV’s glorious Wonder Showzen — this concept involves a group of seditiously cute characters spelling out the words MTV HITS on screen, resolving with an off-screen ‘class’ clapping politely at the end of the scene — at which point the set explodes.
A brief but lovely look at some of the animatics and concept art that led to the final piece.
K-WAVE
CATCH THE WAVE
A play off the name of the infamous South Korean musical monolith 인기가요 (Inkigayo), which broadly means ‘popular music’. Using the concept of ‘ink’, we weave together waves of pastel and neon ink on the screen, each wave washing over and sticking to the translucent letters of the ‘K-WAVE’ title until eventually all of the ink bleeds off the frame. All that is left is the brilliantly painted K-WAVE title.
Our journey to 3D Octopus glory was a long and twisted one, which you can witness in the concept art and process shots below.
MUSIKA
It's got what plants crave.
Another nod to the 1990s roots of MTV, but this time focused on the rise of MTV Asia across Indonesia and Malaysia. Set to a dangdut beat, a young man experiences Musika Soda for the first time.
Musika used elements of traditional 2D animation, photography, collage, and 3D models to achieve the final look. You can get an idea of the process that led to the final video below.
CHART ATTACK
In space, nobody can hear you weep quietly while listening to Billie Eilish.
A Jenga Odyssey! A Jenga tower floats in space. No one will lose because, science. It drifts out of frame, slowly. Into frames comes a gloved hand holding a Jenga piece, with CHART ATTACK written on it. An homage to the classic MTV Moon Man, now with galactic cat cruisers.
Sometimes a concept comes together extremely naturally. This was one of those times.
If it didn't change every day, it wouldn't be much of a chart attack, would it?
More like a chart garden , or chart monolith. Anyway, here's the social templates we made to ensure that the constant movement of pop sensations could be adjusted day-by-day.