You never know when you just might win the lotto—just as the numbered balls that are drawn never know when they’ll be picked to be a part of the winning lineup. That’s the situation depicted in this CG animation spot titled "Lottoland," which anthropomorphizes lotto balls—arms and legs sticking out of their yellow round bodies—and presents them in their own parallel world. The characters are seen in six simple, fun vignettes.
A lotto ball man is taking a ride on his horse-like pet when suddenly he’s sucked into the heavens, the cap he was wearing left behind. Next, we see two teen characters who are wannabe rock ‘n’ roll band members. They’re in their garage playing their instruments, when the bass guitar player’s number is up, literally, and he’s abruptly pulled away from his rehearsal session.
We then find ourselves on a golf course, where a player is motioning for his caddy to hand him a club. But the caddy is the next "victim," and he soars into the stratosphere before he gets a chance to do his job. After that, we see a pair of lotto ball characters skiing on the snowy slopes; one of them hits a jump and only the skis return into view. He too is headed for a higher plane.
Next up is a romantic couple that has just come out of a tunnel of love-type amusement park ride. Just when they are about to smooch, the guy is drawn away. And finally, we’re on the soccer field where the goalie is poised to block a shot—when he’s unexpectedly pulled from the game.
The lotto balls were pulled out of their daily lives because they were lucky enough to be chosen as the six winning numbers in the Colorado Lottery. At the end of the spot, we see the six smiling balls lined up neatly in a row, representing a major jackpot payoff.
New York-based collective Psyop produced "Lottoland," collaborating with designer Justin Fines. The Psyop contingent included director Todd Mueller; technical director Marko Vukovic; artist Pakorn Bupphavessa (who did additional rendering and compositing); technical director/R&D shading artist Todd Akita; animation artisans Josh Cordes, Kevin Estey and Gerald Ding; modeling artists Tom Cushwa and Chris Bach; executive producer Justin Booth-Clibborn; and producer Danny Rosenbloom.
Mueller said of the project, "It was really exciting to not only design the look and feel of a whole world and the characters within it, but also to use our skills to tell several stories in thirty seconds, [when] we are usually only working with one story or just defining a visual style."
Karsh & Hagan, Denver, was the agency on this spot, and the creative team was comprised of creative director Don Poole, art director Troy Farrow, copywriter Kathryn Russell, head of production Susanne Soderberg and producer Heather Pollock.
Music composer/sound designer was Chuck Lovejoy of Sacred Noise, New York. Also for Sacred Noise, Michael Montes served as creative director, Jeff Rosner as executive producer and Jason Menkes as producer. Audio mixer was freelancer Kevin Halpin, who worked through Sacred Noise.
