Anybody who’s ever worked in a client services industry knows this feeling: you're on task, doing what you’re supposed to do, confident in the creative work you’re creating, and then—BAM! An obstacle hits you smack in the face.

Everybody handles challenges in their own ways. Our way? Give it another thought. Ask yourself: Can I be flexible? Can I think about this project in a whole new way? Yallie says you can.

, designed and executed by Director of 3D Sehzat Oner (sheh-ZAHT OH-ner). Sehzat created a 3D model of the beloved Yallie mascot (brainchild of Creative Director Mike Foster) in Blender, then transported it into Houdini to magically transform into sand, collapse, and fly away using realistic physics models. Rendered with Karma. Score inspired by The Chordettes's “Mr. Sandman” and created by Sehzat on his vintage Jupiter 6.

Anybody who’s ever worked in a client services industry knows this feeling: you're on task, doing what you’re supposed to do, confident in the creative work you’re creating, and then—BAM! An obstacle hits you smack in the face.

Everybody handles challenges in their own ways. Our way? Give it another thought. Ask yourself: Can I be flexible? Can I think about this project in a whole new way? Yallie says you can.

How?

This is the first in a series of Lessons of Yallie, designed and executed by Director of 3D Sehzat Oner (sheh-ZAHT OH-ner). Sehzat created a 3D model of the beloved Yallie mascot (brainchild of Creative Director Mike Foster) in Blender, then transported it into Houdini to magically transform into sand, collapse, and fly away using realistic physics models. Rendered with Karma. Score inspired by The Chordettes's “Mr. Sandman” and created by Sehzat on his vintage Jupiter 6.

Getting stuck is the stuff dreams are made of.

Lessons of Yallie

Human red blood cells are about three ten-thousandths of an inch across (no big deal!), and they're coursing through our veins at a relatively speedy three miles per hour, crashing into each other like bike messengers delivering oxygen.

Thanks to modern technology, you can now float down a peaceful river of blood cells right here in your browser. It's like teeny tiny red river rafting, without the added risks of 

 being shrunk down to that size (stepped on by cats, eaten by an earwig, etc.)

Creative Technologist Christian Kastner built this demo using the ThreeJS libraries React Three Fiber and Drei. He took it one step further by using the Rapier physics engine and linear algebra to demonstrate the cells colliding, clotting, and jostling downstream, as well as letting you interact with them. Director of 3D Animation Sehzat Oner created the blood cell model in Blender.

Displacing the vessels with the users' mouse was a particularly difficult challenge. Your mouse moves an invisible object that blocks the cells' path. Both this object and the camera through which you view the experience, like Spiritualized, are floating 

 in space. How do you tell the object where to go, while getting it and the camera to look at each other? Easy:

: a particularly confusing mathematical way of computing transformations in 3-dimensions. After days of testing, we found an elegant solution in hiding another invisible object in the scene and using its built-in functionality to transform the relatively straightforward Euler rotations into quaternions. And voila, your mouse now has physics, and the experience an added dose of realism. It's not always easy being real, but it's the only way for us to be.

Human red blood cells are about three ten-thousandths of an inch across (no big deal!), and they're coursing through our veins at a relatively speedy three miles per hour, crashing into each other like bike messengers delivering oxygen.

Thanks to modern technology, you can now float down a peaceful river of blood cells right here in your browser. It's like teeny tiny red river rafting, without the added risks of actually being shrunk down to that size (stepped on by cats, eaten by an earwig, etc.)

How?

Creative Technologist Christian Kastner built this demo using the ThreeJS libraries React Three Fiber and Drei. He took it one step further by using the Rapier physics engine and linear algebra to demonstrate the cells colliding, clotting, and jostling downstream, as well as letting you interact with them. Director of 3D Animation Sehzat Oner created the blood cell model in Blender.

Displacing the vessels with the users' mouse was a particularly difficult challenge. Your mouse moves an invisible object that blocks the cells' path. Both this object and the camera through which you view the experience, like Spiritualized, are floating somewhere in space. How do you tell the object where to go, while getting it and the camera to look at each other? Easy:

That's right, it's quaternions: a particularly confusing mathematical way of computing transformations in 3-dimensions. After days of testing, we found an elegant solution in hiding another invisible object in the scene and using its built-in functionality to transform the relatively straightforward Euler rotations into quaternions. And voila, your mouse now has physics, and the experience an added dose of realism. It's not always easy being real, but it's the only way for us to be.

Shrink yourself down to a microscopic level and experience 

Blood Vessel Voyage

It's easy for creatives to feel resistance when AI comes up, but here at y'all, we're excited about all the new opportunities AI offers. So when this very website needed a hero image (or ten), we took Creative Director Mike Foster's beautiful illustrations of our mascot, Yallie, and ran them through a few cycles of the 

 AI tumble dryer to produce the fun goodness below.

First, you give it an image to start from:

Then, you give it a "prompt," which tells it how you'd like to transform the original image. 

We wanted to turn Yallie into a scientist in a lab performing an experiment, while keeping the style fun, flat, and modern. These images were all generated using this prompt: 

colourful flat scientist creature with googly eyes performing an experiment, 2d, playful, airbnb, gradient, aesthetic

Part of the fun is seeing what additional details the AI may add. For instance, we're not sure what's going on with the colorful dots and strange outlines that emerged from Yellow Yallie (but we're lovin' it):

Pink Yallie's peace sign becomes their... drunk buddy?

As silly as these are, we're excited about what they represent for the future of digital art, and the opportunities this truly new medium presents.

It's easy for creatives to feel resistance when AI comes up, but here at y'all, we're excited about all the new opportunities AI offers. So when this very website needed a hero image (or ten), we took Creative Director Mike Foster's beautiful illustrations of our mascot, Yallie, and ran them through a few cycles of the img2img AI tumble dryer to produce the fun goodness below.

How does this work? 

First, you give it an image to start from:

Then, you give it a "prompt," which tells it how you'd like to transform the original image. 

We wanted to turn Yallie into a scientist in a lab performing an experiment, while keeping the style fun, flat, and modern. These images were all generated using this prompt: colourful flat scientist creature with googly eyes performing an experiment, 2d, playful, airbnb, gradient, aesthetic

Part of the fun is seeing what additional details the AI may add. For instance, we're not sure what's going on with the colorful dots and strange outlines that emerged from Yellow Yallie (but we're lovin' it):

Pink Yallie's peace sign becomes their... drunk buddy?

As silly as these are, we're excited about what they represent for the future of digital art, and the opportunities this truly new medium presents.

AI Yallie

Look, y'all have been there. You're in your skyscraper working on your slide deck for the big oat milk pitch when—gasp!—suddenly, outside your window a giant blue biped with sympathetic eyes appears. They're traipsing through town. They're knocking over buildings. They're shouting their own name. 

Yallie's a larger-than-life figure around here, so what better way to celebrate them than by making a mini game where you can play dominoes with a cityscape? 

Creative Technologist Christian Kastner conceived of and built this demo using the React Three Fiber and Drei libraries for ThreeJS, with the Cannon physics engine. Director of 3D Animation Sehzat Oner sculpted and rigged the model in Blender. Eponymous roars brought to you by Director of Creative Technology Michael Fanuzzi.

Look, y'all have been there. You're in your skyscraper working on your slide deck for the big oat milk pitch when—gasp!—suddenly, outside your window a giant blue biped with sympathetic eyes appears. They're traipsing through town. They're knocking over buildings. They're shouting their own name. It must be that darn Yallie again!

Yallie's a larger-than-life figure around here, so what better way to celebrate them than by making a mini game where you can play dominoes with a cityscape? Use your arrow keys to explore.

How?

Creative Technologist Christian Kastner conceived of and built this demo using the React Three Fiber and Drei libraries for ThreeJS, with the Cannon physics engine. Director of 3D Animation Sehzat Oner sculpted and rigged the model in Blender. Eponymous roars brought to you by Director of Creative Technology Michael Fanuzzi.

A surprisingly satisfying interactive 3D game experience.

Yallzilla

We continue to be horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In our own small way, back in March of 2022, we wanted to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to help others do so as well. Around the same time, 

 was taking over our newsfeeds with colorful results posts, so why not try to harness a bit of that and turn the 🟨 and 🟩 into 🟨 and 🟦❔

 is much more important: to show your support for Ukraine. To try it out, first play today's 

. And while you're there, check out this list of 

 and take action today. ​💙🇺🇦💛​

We continue to be horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In our own small way, back in March of 2022, we wanted to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to help others do so as well. Around the same time, Wordle was taking over our newsfeeds with colorful results posts, so why not try to harness a bit of that and turn the 🟨 and 🟩 into 🟨 and 🟦❔

How?

For this one, the why is much more important: to show your support for Ukraine. To try it out, first play today's Wordle then paste your results into https://suppordle.com. And while you're there, check out this list of 30 Meaningful Ways You Can Help Ukraine and take action today. ​💙🇺🇦💛​

Welcome to the lab

Lessons of Yallie

Blood Vessel Voyage

AI Yallie

Yallzilla

Suppordle

Welcome to .css-3nsmuw{--tw-text-opacity:1;color:rgba(var(--brand-cyan), var(--tw-text-opacity));}the lab

Lessons of Yallie

Blood Vessel Voyage

AI Yallie

Yallzilla

Suppordle

Welcome to the lab