Skycar Recent News

We teamed up with the Adobe Creative team to take a lighthearted look at how helpful AI can be for creative teams. Adobe Sensei helps with inane tasks, like cropping and tagging 1000’s of photos, giving creatives more time to be, you know, creative. Don’t miss the marketing one, too!

We had the privilege of making this sizzle reel about Adobe Substance for the opening keynote at Adobe MAX 2019.  See how Adobe Substance creates beautifully rendered 3D for games and movies!

In the sleepy neighborhood of Point Richmond, CA, dozens of tiny fairy houses emerge from tree trunks, flower boxes, and front yards. The artist behind these miniature homes makes them as surprise gifts for his neighbors. In turn, the art helps heal his depression and bring the community together.

Coming April 2020. Check out the trailer in the meantime!

We had a blast creating a sizzle reel for Clorox’s in-house creative studio, Electro, to show at the IHAF Awards. We went to their Oakland headquarters to film their creatives in action as they developed packaging, print ads, and digital campaigns for their 40-plus brands. The sizzle reflects both the wide variety of Clorox products and the joy and creativity of the people who work there. Plus, a bonus: we now have LOTS of recipes for cooking with Ranch dressing!

For Skycar’s 5th anniversary, our dear friend Emi Takahara brought in local artist Andy Vogt to create a piece of his signature artwork for our expanded space. Hand crafted from dozens of pieces of reclaimed wall lathe, it creates an unexpected 3D illusion. Wood is also supposed to be the 5th anniversary gift, representing strength and durability. Here’s to our first five years – and many more!

High resolution, multi-layered, effects-laden images were once only possible in Photoshop for the desktop. For the much anticipated PS for the iPad launch, Adobe asked us to shoot, build, and animate a complex image that appears to be in the typical Photoshop UI, but hey look at that – It’s on the iPad!

Skycar took to the wind-swept hills of Nicasio, California to showcase the After Effects feature Content Aware. With a gorgeous scenery backdrop and actors in full period costume, we developed a fresh take on Golden Age Hollywood film endings. In post-production, we used a before and after approach to show how Content Aware quickly removes imperfections. And, thanks to caffeine, we went from shoot to final delivery in just one week.

Skycar stopped time with the help of Medallia and Kaleidoscope Coffee, a local Point Richmond coffee shop. Our amazing talent performed the Mannequin Challenge admirably while our Steadicam weaved among them. The goal was to illustrate the countless signals gathered at any millisecond. We then rewound time to illustrate how the otherwise unfortunate scene would turn out differently with Medallia’s help. This film played as the opening keynote film for Experience ’19 and now serves as Medallia’s new anthem video.

Skycar partnered with Facebook to create a series about how Facebook Business helps its business customers get more views, clicks, and revenue. In seven short films, we illustrated and animated character-based case studies in Facebook’s signature style. These success stories playfully highlight how the platform has helped real businesses from every industry reach a larger and more targeted audience.

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View the Facebook SMB Series here

We Made It Simple to Be GDPR Compliant

Adobe asked us to take a tough concept – GDPR, a set of regulations that affect how online companies collect and share consumer data – and illustrate it in a video. We chose an animated approach that utilizes colorful symbols and iconography in a playful way, to help make an otherwise complex topic interesting, light, and approachable!

We were fairy-bombed! Late last week, in the dead of night the faeries of Washington Avenue erected their very own film company right outside of our door! Little Skycar is the newest addition to a very prominent community of fairy houses in Point Richmond. The founder of this small community, a local comic book artist has been working with us on a film about Little Point Richmond, which is coming soon. Now that the faeries have an HQ, production should speed up!

Our digital film ‘Document Journey’ got upgraded to a broadcast spot!

It’s airing on the Golf Channel and NBC during key tournament weekends; including the Pro-Am and Honda Classic. Go behind the scenes from the production last fall to see how we practically shot all of the colored sets with minor clean up in post!

Meet our team: Mike McAfee – Operations Coordinator

Mike serves as the chief snack procurer for the shop. He also performs equally critical duties, such as processing invoices and coordinating payroll. Outside the office, you will likely find him making art, concocting delicious homebrew recipes, or hanging out with his dog.

We built a 9-camera rig for a 3D photo booth at Adobe Design Summit 2018, and had a lot of fun doing it. Take a look at our behind-the-scenes video for a glimpse at the action.

Meet our team: James Curtis – Animator

James is a super talented keyframe slinger, drone designer and pilot. He refuses to reveal his secret source for Korean BBQ Kettle chips and seems to have never had a bad day – it’s the weirdest thing.