Funny Garbage: 10 Years of Making the Web Worth Watching
Crank Yankers
Project Overview
Executive producers Daniel Kellison, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla approached Funny Garbage with the challenge of designing engaging, entertaining puppets as well as sets and signage that communicated the bawdy over-the-top urban flavor of the show. Puppets getting their crank on? “Yaaaayyyy!”
Using photo realistic “textures” intermixed with more traditionally drawn elements, Funny Garbage was able to craft a unique collage-like look for the animation design.
FG animated a weekly show open where some elements are changed for each show. A 3-D town, “Yankerville” was created in which the viewer flies through every week, revealing a new landmark such as “The Children’s Zoo” (in which kids are kept behind bars) or “Spoon-zilla” (a Crank Yankers puppet destroying the town). The opening culminates in an aerial view of the episode's first call featuring the house that is about to be pranked.
Occasionally, the calls alluded to special effects within the calls themselves. For example, a fire in the hearth or a blowtorch. Or something bigger like a character that dips into a painting and starts swimming around, interacting with the art. These effects were left up to us to animate and composite, creating challenges for our team about how to accomplish the writer's ideas.
- WHAT: Animation, Broadcast, Creative Direction, Video Production
- WHEN: June 2, 2002
