frank-ly speaking

If you know us, you're probably already acquainted with CVW's most popular employee, Frank. Here's a little bit from Jordan on how Frank was born.

Frank came into being from my desire to explore the world of character animation. After setting personal goals to learn the basics of modeling, rigging (the process of creating a skeleton for a character so it can move), and animating a character using 3-D software, I created a character that we pitched to a broadcast commercial client of ours. In the end, this character became more than a training and pitch project: Frank’s now our unofficial company mascot.

The project started off with a few reference images of Pillsbury Doughboy-type characters. After a few revisions, a cute, chubby, tie-and-glasses-wearing character named Frank was born. Modeling Frank was a struggle, but rigging was by far the most challenging part of the process, though I enjoyed the problem solving required to make it work. With Frank rigged and ready to animate, we brought him to life.

To date, Frank—and his female counterpart Francine—have taught kids about pharmaceutical trials, been featured in a green energy company’s employee handbook, and assisted CVW with various internal projects, including cameos in our demo reel. Frank and Francine's diverse set of skills have grown along with CVW’s, helping our clients and making us chuckle along the way.