GRAMMY-winning superstar Kelly Clarkson and acclaimed country singer-songwriter Brett Eldredge have brought their holiday duet “Under The Mistletoe” to life with a festive hand-drawn animated music video directed by Jay Martin with animation by Ingenuity Studios – available now via Atlantic Records.
The future Christmas classic, co-written by Clarkson and produced by longtime collaborator Jesse Shatkin (Sia, Jennifer Lopez), depicts a budding holiday romance with a throwback melody sure to bring people together this holiday season. Since release, the track has generated over 22 million global streams and climbed into the Top 10 on both the Hot AC and Holiday radio charts.
The Ingenuity Studios team and the video's director, Jay Martin, are especially proud of their work on this hand-drawn animated video that is chock full of amusing and endearing holiday cheer. The personality-filled video was created with hand-drawn 2D animation, and was supported by Unreal Engine (for the foundation of the house) and After Effects to achieve just the right look and feel by adding glows, sparkles and an ethereal quality to scenes.
Puppetry was used to show realistic human movement and perspectives, with hand-drawn details woven in to bring warmth and energy to the characters.
With a runtime of 4:14, the project took six weeks from inception to delivery, leaving no room for error for the seven animators assigned to the project.
This is the first fully 2D cel animated project for Ingenuity Studios.