The story of today's Valentine’s Day Google Doodle

As a veteran character animator, I was beginning to doubt whether I'd ever again have the opportunity to create a short narrative piece -- then I got the call. When Google calls and says, "We'd like you to drop everything and make a short narrative piece that will be seen by hundreds of millions of people," you heed that call!

Since the dot com crash I, like many of my Flash animation contemporaries, have been content to reboot my career to a trade less concerned with storytelling and more concerned with making online game characters perform repeatable incremental actions. It's a fine living, but the urge to tell a story, even a simple one, is what drives most animators to continue to create. I have always been humbled by watching my fellow animators working insane hours on their own time to try and squeeze a few more "story beats" into the opening cutscenes of the game they're working on. I've done it myself many times. It's the creamy center of any game production job: designing/storyboarding/(and if you're lucky) animating the intro sequence: a mini-movie for all of 20 seconds. Unlike the dot com glory days when animators had full time work telling stories for well-paying online patrons, these days working to create short pieces comes at a steep price: you must fund your animation independently out of your own pocket. Then it's up to you to market, advertise, and, against-all-odds, try to squeeze some money out of the whole endeavor. It dissuades a lot of potential storytellers.

And yet hope springs eternal. My call came on a Tuesday.

After a whirlwind of pre-production calls, on-campus meetings, and massive file transfers, I found myself working on Google's first ever long-form animation: a Valentine's Day "Google Doodle!" I was working from the inspiring design paintings of Willie Real in the Doodle dept. Willie has recently returned to the Bay Area from Blue Sky Studios feature animation studios in New York. He has a great feel for story beats and honest emotion. Animation is generally timed to a soundtrack, and for this piece, what a track we had: the legendary Tony Bennett crooning his 1951 version of the Hank Williams nugget, "Cold, Cold Heart". (Luckily I am a huge fan of both Williams and Bennett, which is good because I had to listen to that track more times that I can count).

So after all of the late night work sessions and early morning conference calls, my Valentine is complete. I'll be taking my lovely wife out to dinner tonight to celebrate. But I can't help being surprised that in working on this project, I too was courted. It was a sweetheart of a deal: I got paid to tell a story to the world again.

See all Google Doodles here

• [RevelryByNight]

   Thanks for the marriage equality shout-out at the end there, Michael. And a lovely story all around.  I knew he’d figure out how to get her attention eventually!

• [David B]

  Um, this makes it seem like you, Mark, designed/animated the doodle.  You did not – you don’t credit the artist at all.  I assume this is an oversight?

  • [David B]

    Nevermind, I see you fixed it : )

• [leogali]

  skipping is out.

  fruit is in.

• [ridestowe]

  “It’s the creamy center of any game production job: designing/storyboarding/(and if you’re lucky) animating the intro sequence: a mini-movie for all of 20 seconds.”

  exactly why my dream job is to work at Blur Studio :) all they do is make super high quality, non-realtime game intros; projects that don’t last years either.

• [Nicholas Czuma]

  As an aspiring Flash animator who loved today’s Google doodle, thanks for providing some background.

• [SumAnon]

  So cute! I didn’t even notice the Google vid until I saw this post. Glad I did

• [That_Anonymous_Coward]

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTGUjRJiqik

  for those who like bigger versions to see.

• [9bytz]

  Well, seen better Doodle’s, like the last one for halloween..

• [lecti]

  Too cute.

• [Bronwen Barry]

  Yo Lippy!! Great work! Congrats!! Hope you and Suse have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!

• [William Adelman]

  Why are the jump-ropes red and blue and why does she abandon the blue one to join him and the red one?  Also, please discuss the history of color coding of politics.

  • [MetalPorkchop]

    At first I laughed at your comment and then it made me think of my English Lit Criticism classes.  We had to analyze every book and poem to death; I over analyzed everything for years after that.  It has finally worn off.

• [MetalPorkchop]

  He would’ve had me at the pie, especially if it was raspberry custard, though it has a top crust, so I’ll go with cherry, but real cherry pie, none of that gunk that comes out of a can.  I love this video.  If his hair was a bit darker, and hers a bit lighter, it would be me and my bf.  I was skipping yesterday (part of my work out and I like to skip) and he gave me a giant red heart shaped box of my fave chocos.

• [Ruth Elliott]

  This is so sweet! Each one of us has a language of love that we speak, and sometimes it’s hard to know the other person’s! I wrote a blog for Valentine’s day, too!
  http://www.edudesigns.org/blog/