The JibJab Blog

Stick Your Face In It!

  • An Awesome Addition and a Major Loss

    We wanted our offices to reflect the awesomeness that Star Wars: Starring You has brought to our site, so we bestowed a challenge upon one of our craftiest co-workers. Devin was asked to create a mega sized Millennium Falcon to hang in our tech suite, and boy did he step up to the plate. Click the image below for a really sweet Facebook album and video look at the Falcon’s construction.

    On a more somber note, Devin’s big Star Wars project was one of his last for us, as he is leaving JibJab after three amazing years to head to Chicago and live out his dream of becoming a teacher. We’ll miss you man.

    In his honor, we secretly put together this tribute video to the man, the myth, the legend. Watch it below and you’ll get a great sense of the scope of work Devin has accomplished with us, and how awkward we are about saying goodbye.

    May 7, 2010
  • CupCake De Mayo

    Yesterday we celebrated Cinco De Mayo as traditionally as one can, with tequila, cervezas and a giant cupcake pinata. Too bad our parking lot doesn’t have any trees.

    May 6, 2010
  • The Press is Strong With Us!

    A huge thanks to everyone who made yesterdays Star Wars launch an explosive success! We were completely overwhelmed with the amount of love we received, from some pretty well respected peeps.

    Click the images below to hear podcasts, see videos and read articles chronicling the most epic Starring You we’ve ever produced.

    Gregg and Evan sat down with Adam Carolla for a two part interview podcast. Available for clicking and listening above!

    We think our favorite quote from all this crazy coverage was from TechCrunch writer Michael Arrington who said “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. And I think I’m serious.”

    Further reading:

    And more, check out further press here!

    May 5, 2010
  • Star Wars Starring You!

    So we’re kind of super-insanely-excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with Lucasfilm to bring Star Wars – Starring You to the world, which boasts a Starring You recap of each of the original three Star Wars movies.

    Since we’ve been keeping this secret for, say, half a year, we’ve got a lot of fun factoids to reveal and stories to tell. But for now, do yourself a favor and put somebody you know into Star Wars.  (Go ahead, make yourself Han Solo, you deserve it).

    May 4, 2010
  • More Making of the Musical Kitchen!

    Creating upwards of 8 kitchen based puppets that could sing and speak in their own unique ways was a tough chore. Have you ever tried to attach eyes to a feather duster? Devin and Mike stepped up to the task to bring these creatures to life for our Mother’s Day short. Take a closer looksy at how we made each creation work!

    Bet you didn’t think the stove was so small, didja?

    The trashcan looked more funky and unique with teeth!

    We took care to edit out the sticks (and string!) which allowed these little felt mouths to move.

    April 30, 2010
  • The Making of a Musical Kitchen!

    We took our puppeteering aspirations to another level with “Musical Kitchen” our latest Mother’s Day extravaganza, creating a series of kitchen based creatures that could sing, dance and clean! But getting to that point took several incarnations of video.

    First up, Andy scratched out his concept with some free style beatboxing.

    From there we put it to a very basic animation with real music and Devin on vocals.

    Then it was time to bring in the pros. The singing and deliveries from our favorite voice actors make the short all the funnier!

    Corey plays the mother with hilarious results, and our puppets are put to action against a green screen!

    Now head over to our Mother’s Day selection and enjoy the final product!  You can schedule it to be sent to any mom of your choosing on Sunday May 9th.

    In the next blog, we’ll take a good look at all the puppets we created for the catchiest Mother’s Day based jam of the year.

    April 29, 2010
  • A Visit From Professor Jackdaws

    Professor Knestor Jackdaws (aka Voice of JibJab Jim Meskimen) stopped by our studio a few months ago for a tour and the video just went up.  YouTube favorite Nalts even did a write up on the video, which tours our facilities and interviews Evan.  Check out the tour below and the article through this link!

    April 26, 2010
  • The Kardashian Seal Of Approval

    We’ve got it.

    April 23, 2010
  • Earth Day Desktop

    Justin came up with an Earth Day image that’s so cool and detailed, we wanted to share it as a desktop background. Click the image for a high res version and make sure to make some free Earth Day cards by April 22nd!

    April 20, 2010
  • JibJab’s Horoscope!

    Renowned Astrology expert and horoscope writer Rick Levine took a stab at our company’s horoscope recently, and came up with some very accurate and interesting results! After giving him JibJab.com’s inception date, we let Rick do the rest and couldn’t help but share on the blog. He is known throughout the world as a master astrologer after all. Check out more about Rick at the one and only Tarot.com.

    Rick writes:

    “It’s very difficult to take an approximate time and develop an entire corporate theme around it. For a startup, the timing is often more closely associated with the charts of the founding principals.”

    “Nevertheless, JibJab is a Libra with communicator Mercury in Libra, too. JibJab is about relationships. But the Moon was in Cancer on October 1, 1999, suggesting that JibJab’s ability to create a nurturing environment is important to its survival. With Venus in showy Leo, the aesthetic presentation comes along with the package… and Venus forms a cooperative sextile with interactive Mercury, adding cleverness to the package. With assertive Mars in inspirational Sagittarius, it’s apparent that the high ideals become fuel for what may be seen as a great adventure. But the thing that stands out most to me is the unusual aspects created between the various planets. There are patterns created by unusual harmonies that divide the chart into divisions of five and seven. This makes for a very creative and unusual destiny. Of course, those who know JibJab from the outside might say this anyhow, without knowing anything about the astrology of the corporation, but it also indicates to me that there is more here than meets the eye. JibJab is riding its own winds of fate and there are weird twists that interact with its high level of creativity.”

    “Although we don’t have an exact time, the summer of 2003 through late spring of 2004 was strongly influenced by Saturn. This was likely a critical time for JibJab when decisions had to be made, probably under a great deal of pressure. August of 2007 was another Saturn period when financial stress may have created the need for an austerity program. Frustration increased through September 2009, but with a new wave of hope/idealism, too. But the pressures are not over. 2009-10 is a critical phase with the company undergoing metamorphosis this year. October 2010 will be the real test. I think that the decisions made in 2003-4 will come around then and that can be a make or break time for the company. Assuming all is held together, the reinventing of JibJab will continue through 2012, with the second half of 2012 and into early 2013 a time of unexpected and sudden changes. Flexibility will be the key to success, and by mid 2013, things will settle down.”

    ~Rick Levine

    April 19, 2010
  • Postable Process!

    Trish recently shared with us the process she goes through to make a postable. Check it out!

    Every postable starts with the background. It can be simple… though some of the artists here go all out.

    For Character Layout I use references to create the poses, and build little gray versions of each piece.

    I then start creating the actual people by laying real textures (arms, legs, clothing) over the gray versions of the pieces.

    Most of the textures are blocked in, so then you have to create a sense of space and “roundness” of the characters by adding shadows on them, and lighting the scene.

    This piece is a picnic scene for the Fourth of July, so I added some balloons and picnic food to enhance the “specific holiday feel”. Holidays with exact color schemes (The 4th, Christmas, Halloween) are certainly easier to create pieces for than occasions like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and holidays like that. Messaging is also added at this point, if there is any.

    We usually bust these out in 1-3 days each, depending on the complexity of the piece. There you go!

    April 15, 2010
  • The Team

    We took a new team photo (our first in over a year) with our JibJab shirts on, the most stylish accessory since the handlebar moustache.

    April 13, 2010
  • Using iPad in the Field

    Several of us rushed out to nab iPads last weekend and while we’ve mostly been reading eBooks and watching “Muppets in Space”, this historic photo below may capture JibJab’s first practical use of an iPad.

    Evan loaded his iPad with one of the many Mother’s Day videos we’re working on and we hopped outside to take well lit photos of our fellow JibJabbers. Their faces will be inserted into the footage later on, as we often do, so to maintain accurate angles we cross compared the footage playing on his iPad to ensure the photos we were taking would match. It was a cinch! Footage was easier to view than watching on an iPhone and no having to bring our laptops outside, hooray!

    April 9, 2010
  • Justin on Our New Postables

    Today we offer two new pieces of eCard art with a little insight from Justin, the artist who created them. Send the Cheer Up eCard here and the Good Luck eCard here!

    “After taking a careful look at our site me and Trish were alarmed at the lack of creepy clown content available to our users. So after some brainstorming we came up with this sad hobo clown postable that allowed me to bone up on my creepy velvet painting skills.”

    “This is a postable I recently pitched for our Good Luck category. I always found it kind of funny that a falling star was a sign of good luck, I mean, just look at this poor fellow! It doesn’t look like he’s having much luck today, does it?”

    April 7, 2010
  • Snake Lady!

    Last week we had Monica from the Venice Beach Freakshow in the studio for our artists to brush up on their life-drawing skills. The cool part? She brought her snake! This marks the first real live serpent that we’ve had within our walls. That we know of.

    April 6, 2010
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