SATURDAYS
SERVICES: graphics package, VFX
CLIENT: Disney
PRODUCTION: Engine Room
DIRECTION: Katherine Weber
ANIMATION/VFX: Katherine Weber, Mark Brown, Leonardo Cardona, Evan West
It doesn't get more fun than a Disney Channel show about competitive roller skating -- unless that show also features a magical female roller crew, glow in the dark skeletons, and Da Brat. We had a blast designing electric, neon-soaked visuals for this imaginative series, which took a fresh look at a retro pastime and celebrated the power of girls.
STYLE FRAMES
To set the tone for the graphics package, we explored different options for our character ID tags, a recurrent type of graphic that introduced main character. Our creative directive was to pay homage to the classic 70s vibes associated with roller rinks without going fully retro. Borrowing from the show's logo and set designs, we leaned heavily on neon colors, while choosing fonts and treatments that were youthful but not childish to appeal to the show's preteen audience.
GRAPHICS + VISUAL EFFECTS
Saturdays featured a lot of incredible skate sequences, and we used our VFX magic to make them larger than life. Creating effects like these stars emanating from the wheels required our full bag of tricks, including camera tracking, rotoscoping and particle effects. Like the skaters, we aim to make it look easy!
Calendar sequences were used to transition through time, from the characters' regular, everyday lives to the excitement of Saturday nights at the roller rink. We developed several variations of a 3D calendar page turn template that could be used across multiple episodes.
The series called on us to create a variety of clever text animations, but none were more fun to work on than this rap battle featuring 90s hip-hop legend Da Brat. Bold, colorful text, hand drawn flourishes and plenty of movement helped us bring her words to life.
GRAPHICS MONTAGE