I’ve been getting emails all month from knitters who think they’ve spotted knitted gnomes, snowmen, and other Mochimochi Land creatures on TV. If you’ve been watching Nickelodeon, you’re eyes are not deceiving you! Last month I had the opportunity to work with Nick on a series of animated holiday IDs featuring a variety of wintry mochis making mischief in the snow. If you tune in right now, you’ll probably see them airing between commercials!
I’m excited to share the full animations here.
Like with the other stop-motion videos and GIFs that I’ve made, the animations were created by moving the creatures a fraction of an inch and taking a photograph, and repeating that again and again until we had a series of hundreds of photos that could be put together to make one action happen. Then repeat. And repeat. Making a 10-second animation could take up to four hours, and that’s pretty good time for stop-motion!
I worked together with the Nick promotions team to concept and animate the first six IDs, with all the post-production work, including the sound and the flat animations, handled by Nick. The last four animations starring mochi-fied Nick characters were done by the Nick team themselves using materials I had made.
It was an incredible experience to get to work on these ambitiously-conceived animations with such a talented and enthusiastic team. I had a blast with this project, and I learned so much! The project has made me more excited about all the possibilities for mochis in motion.
Big thank-yous go to Matthew Duntemann at Nick and to my agent Koko for making this happen!
High Five, Anna! That is so cool! I’ll have to keep my eye out for them when my kids are watching tv. :)
I am so glad to hear the Nick animations were actually done by you, or at least done with your blessing! Your characters look awesome, and I’ll bet this will be great publicity for you and your designs. Way to go!
Hilarious!! They are SO precious!! Please put them on Facebook so I can share them!!
This is soooooo amazing!
So amazing! They are adorable and funny and perfect! I’m so happy you got this opportunity and could share your creations!
Anna! So awesome! I had heard from someone working at Nick that you and your work were around. Congrats!
They are adorable and make watching Spongebob even more fun!
Aww! Congrats! Those are the cutest animations I’ve ever seen! I loved the Spongebob one! :)
Those were AWESOME, congrats!! Thank you for posting them here since I don’t get Nickelodeon and can’t check them out. So cute Anna! Great job as usual! :)
Please please make kits for the TMNT! My son would LOVE those!
I knew it! My girls have been requesting that I make some of them!! They are particularly fond of the squirrel :)
Congrats Anna!!!! These are so cute! I’m going to have to figure out how to make a set of TMNT for my boyfriend now – and little squirrels for me!
Those are awesome!
Congratulations! Those are absolutely charming! Thanks for sharing. :D
Congrats! So awsome! I was watching Nick with my kiddos and when I saw these animations I knew this was you!
Fantastic! They’re awesome.
That’s awesome and adorable! Congrats on getting that opportunity.
Love these, strong work!
Incredible! These make me want to watch Nickelodeon. Brilliantly done.
I was watching TV with my children and saw the animation! I knew right away it was your work.
Congratulations!
You absolutely rock!! My grandson and I saw them multiple times and I yelled, “I made that one!” . He’s five. He thinks I meant it literally. Good for you!!
You never cease to delight and inspire : )
Absolutely wonderful! Congratulations. Its great to see your work out in the big wide world!
I saw them! I saw them! Congratulations!! Your work is unmistakeable and I love it!!
How adorable! Love them! Will the Spongebob and Patrick patterns be available to purchase?
I knew it. When I saw the commercial I knew it was your work. We loved it. I would love to knit Spongebob and Patrick too.
This was completely awesome. My husband really wants a teenage mutant ninja mochi.
I was watching Nick with my nephew a few days before Christmas and saw those. I yelped “OMG, Mochimochi!” and ended up promising to knit the kids some teeny-tiny toys. :-)
Seriously, that was super cool. Congratulations!
I have been googling like crazy to find out if that was you. Love them, particularly loving and wishing for a pattern to the fairy odd parents we saw, great job. You rock……
It’s my dream come true! I’ve been wanting you to do this since I first saw your book . . . next up, full length movie!