Sam Stephens & COED bring a new mascot to life for Ethos + Ceiling Train

COED CD/director/designer Sam Stephens and his team were tasked with creating a brand new animated mascot to be featured in a 3-spot national campaign for Silicon Valley insurance newcomer, Ethos, and their agency, Ceiling Train.

Even in this age of AI instant gratification, it was critical that the team started with pencil on paper, building and refining the character over 2 weeks of daily creative meetings. AI-generated characters aren't eligible for copyright and the client wanted a mascot who could last for years. 

The result is Otis, a photorealistic 3D mascot tasked with giving dads a "gentle nudge" about getting life insurance.

Correctly building Otis's voice and mannerisms meant that Sam was involved in every step of the process from V/O casting + direction to directing the animation and overseeing the team of Maya animators, Houdini experts and Nuke compositors who helped bring him to life. 

‍ ‍ designing Otis

‍ ‍ Otis evolves