Techniques

Heather Kim: In terms of the different techniques we use at Troika, when we're doing various projects, we like to get together and kind of think about who would be best suited to work with that project and we like to make sure that that person uses the best of their abilities to accommodate. Dan Pappalardo: We pride ourselves in being a studio that solves each project with it from a unique point of view, creative point of view and really that's what marketing and branding is all about. It's creating a unique voice for our client. So it's really important for us to build a staff, to build a studio that has diverse talent skills, that have different techniques that -- skill sets and different techniques, different styles and that we can blend and merge these things together. We are not a shop that you see a trendy style being repeated over and over again. We really work hard to make sure that every project that goes out the door looks very different from a previous project. Heather Kim: When we are conceptualizing projects, Dan has a wall in his office and it's kind of this spew wall and it's like artist's- the wall is made and brought down several times a day, during the process of a pitch. And so artists come in with all their ideas and kind of their inspiration and all the kind of work and they stick it off on Dan's wall and then Dan comes in with his scissors and he cuts up all the frames. He has this kind of psychological thing going with his scissors, but he cuts out every frame that he likes and then he sticks it back up again and then he organizes it on his wall just the way that he sees it and it's nice and that process really helps everyone kind of contextualize everything and focus everyone and then he sends us all out again. And then it goes on and on and on until it's like brought down to the essence of what it needs to be and so it's not -- this process might not be something that's like -- but it is a process that we go through. It's the technique that we use at Troika and we use it every time, for every pitch process, and there is something about working outside of the box sometimes that really refreshes your mind. So we like to do that a lot. Dan Pappalardo: One of the things I love about broadcast design as a job is that you have to develop a whole wide set of skills and you learn how you need to be good at sound and understanding how music works, you need to understand editorial. You need to be a very great graphic designer, you need to know the fundamentals of typography and color and layout. You need to understand live action and what a director does and how a set runs and then you need to understand animation, from character movement, character animation to just how do you bring the essence of how something moves in the personality, you can bring through that, that really sort of comes from that character animation world and bring it into the graphic world. So how can you move a piece of type or a logo in a way that really expresses some idea. So the great thing about the industry we are working in is that you really are building this broad set of skills that really do tap into a lot of different techniques and it isn't that you are just going to become a guy who works in this one little aspect of the field, but it's really the best in our business really do have a command of many different techniques. Even if you are not an expert in that specific technique and you are going to do clay animation or you are going to shoot live action, you might want to bring in or work with someone, collaborate with someone who is an expert in that field and that's part of what a great designer does. They tap in to other people with these skills and bring some of that knowledge and that skill set to the table. You don't need to be an expert at all of that, but you do need to understand the language and you do need to be open minded to these different techniques and really to bring that -- don't just design towards what your skills are, but design towards what the possibility in the world is and be open minded and knowledgeable about these different techniques and bring them to the table. Heather Kim: Dan always says you need to wear many hats.