Signal Zero's "Defend Your Throne"

Playing mobile games in the bathroom at the office is probably not a good idea for a lot of reasons, including the chance of an exploding toilet due to resounding defeat at the hands of your opponent. Such is the scenario depicted in a new animated online spot by Calabash for Signal Zero, the San Francisco-based company focused on helping gamers make money playing games, and its new Tap Rival mobile gaming platform.

Stylistically, says Calabash Creative Director Wayne Brejcha, they went for a look that emphasized simple figures with cartoony shapes and bold outlines, which, given the fast-pace of the spot, helped give viewers an immediate sense of their personalities, while providing a visual platform for the super outrageous.

“Because there is just the one location, and the camera does not move much, we went with a series of quick cuts from one character to the other and the intensity increases building to the explosive ending,” Brejcha says. “For us the challenge involved capturing the character’s expressions in a strictly 2D world. We also focused a lot on the pacing so you get the reveal that these two women are not just next to each other but also in the bathroom. There was a lot of fine-tuning with nuances of eye squints and the speed of their thumbs tapping like crazy on their phones. For the explosion we had to get the color and texture just right, we were going for over-the-top but wanted to stay in a stylistic range.”