Bad Animals

Seattle has a modern history rich in technology and music. There is a creative, entrepreneurial spirit here that is unique to anywhere else I’ve visited or lived. Growing up in Los Angeles, it seemed like everyone had a movie script. Here in Seattle, everyone has a business plan.
What do you find in the intersection of entertainment and technology? Multi-​media. As a graphic designer, visual artist, and animator, it’s easy to forget the impact sound and audio can have on my work, as I am so involved in the visuals I create that I often don’t save creative energy for imagining what my visuals will sound like.
Enter Bad Animals. Their team of audio engineers are fantastically collaborative when it comes time to adding sound effects, voice over and musical scores to our work. It is absolutely amazing to watch – and listen – to our work come alive when sound and music is added. Seriously, «pretty good» animations become GREAT after Bad Animals are through.
They don’t just do Multi-​media/​Web projects, though. From what I understand, these folks are involved in Radio, Television and Film pieces as well.
However, our experience with them has been on three different Flash animated projects, and each one has been a breeze. Well, that is, our interaction with Bad Animals has. Even when parts of those projects seemed to be coming apart at the seams with unexpected last minute edits from clients, Bad Animals has flowed with our needs, doing creative scheduling to help fit us in to meet surprise deadlines, researching and suggesting voice talent that fits our visuals perfectly, and then scheduling recording sessions that combine as many audio tasks as possible to help us stay in budget. And honestly, the folks I talk to are ALWAYS super friendly.
Not to mention how creative they are with sound! After the first time we worked with them, we realized we could hand them our animation, give them a budget range, and let them be autonomously creative with sound effects! The detail and richness that they added to our animations with layered sounds, cuing off of subtleties in the visuals as well as the writing, have led to award winning animations, happy clients, and repeat business.
Yes, award winning. One of our collaborative works resulted with a Bronze Winner in the 2007 Telly awards for our visuals, and a similar ranking for Bad Animals (they may have actually received a Silver or Gold, I’m not sure) for sound. (You can view that animation, «Office Noir Episode 2,» here:
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When you’re working on a stressful, creative project, you want to partner with companies who help you be productive, relieve stress, and over-​deliver with over-​whelming quality. This is Bad Animals through and through.