Trampoline in a Ditch
Comedian Kyle Kinane approached Meister with a bold vision for promoting his new album, Trampoline in a Ditch: a teaser in the style of “MTV Liquid Television” that brings each track to life with unique visuals and humor.
To match his high energy, we created a hybrid animation piece that merged 2D + 3D—complete with laugh track and high-fidelity visual effects—achieving a real yet absurd tone reminiscent of Adult Swim.
A creative match made in heaven: Kyle Kinane+Meister
From concept to comedy
Part of the fun of this assignment was how to create a storyboard and style that matches Kinane’s absurdist perspective. We’d smash up mundane backgrounds with wild character models. Cartoonish movements in realistic scenarios. Anything we could do to make Kinane’s surreal and hilarious voice visualized.
Moodboards galore
The Meister team went wild—we explored a ton of different styles, as well as modes of execution: from 2D, to 3D, cel animations or Unreal, anything we could do to find that just right look to make the jokes land harder.
A new look for each joke
We didn’t just stop at one style. We ran loose for this entire album—each joke, each part of the set had it’s own unique look, memorable characters, and thoroughly designed environments.
A 2D Look, rendered with 3D
We used 3D rigs to essentially model out each character, even if they had a 2D look. This allowed us to manipulate each character and dial in the smallest detail for a slapstick feel. Eat your heart out, Chuck Jones.
Color script for second video
Animating a joke is a funny thing. You need to have the same basic principles: the setup, the punchline. But in animating it, you suddenly need to find a way to bring every element together quickly, without giving away the ending.
We built color stories that tonally cohered together from the start to finish of the joke, building in depth and intensity over time, right up until the punchline.
Running wild across Every dimension
Early on, our experiments led us to realize that 2D or 3D alone wouldn’t be right for this project. What worked was creating a style that moved seamlessly back and forth between the two—allowing for a blend of mundane settings and objects, set against bombastic cartoon energy in order to create a new reality that is the world of Kyle Kinane.