Experts | Cat | Drafty Windows
Scope of Work:
3 animated YouTube ads for Nu-View, a window and door installation company in Buffalo and Western New York.
Client: Nu-View | Window & Door
Industry: Construction/Building
Credits: Kathy Kasten, Creative Director
Jason Yates, Editor
Lori Schkufza, Animator
2025
project overview
A series of animated ads for a window and door installation company in Buffalo/Western New York.
When I was approached about this job, the first thing that jumped out at me was the humor. 6 ideas had been presented to the client by the creative director, and they were to choose 3 to work with. They were all really funny. You could tell that these ideas weren't strategized to death, and there was something extremely refreshing about that. They had a dry sort of wit to them, and so my immediate thought was that it reminded me of UPA and the kind of ads that would have been popular in the mid century. They're clever, but smart, winking at the audience, and overwhelmingly not taking themselves too seriously.
Storyboards for "Cat"
When I suggested to the CD that we take a UPA style approach, she was on board. We wanted that retro, modern art approach to style, but to still look current and not like we had rehashed something to look kitsch. They would be visually striking, and break the mold of more traditional advertising, especially for a business in the construction/building industry. The ideas were playful, so we went all in on being playful.
We had basic storyboards from the CD. The gags were simple, but effective, so it worked perfectly.
From there, I took one frame from each of the videos and designed style frames. (Experts had several style frames because the characters of the "experts" needed to get locked down early on.) Each video had its own distinct color scheme, but all of the videos used secondary colors drawn from the Nu-View logo. I wanted all of them to be their own unique flavor while living within the same universe.
Detail was used sparingly, but intentionally. For Cat I played up the absurdity of a homeowner changing their door to suit the whims of their cat. These are cat people who are all about their cat. See the photos of the cat, and the framed paw print, but no photos of the family.
Style Frame: CAT
Once we had client approval on the style frames, I moved right in to animation.
Because there was a fair amount of hand drawn, frame by frame animation in each video, I chose to work in Animate. Animate continues to be my favorite piece of software for animating by hand/without rigs. The animation itself was kept minimal: the cat scratching at the door, the homeowner opening the door for each "expert," the curtains blowing in the wind from the broken window.
final video: CAT
Cat
Style Frames: experts
final video: experts
Experts
Style Frames: drafty windows
final video: drafty windows
Drafty Windows