“Fake Sick Day”
Nostalgia-themed IDs for Adult Swim’s Checkered Past
Adult Swim reached out and commissioned me for five 15-second animated IDs, all in the theme of 90’s nostalgia. I wanted to have an overarching theme that connected all five IDs, and the memories of staying home from school and watching TV, eating cereal, playing video games, and scrolling the internet all day stood out to me as very classic and relatable flashbacks to childhood.
The premise that I pitched to Adult Swim:
It’s the 90’s. You’re a little kid again. It’s Monday morning and your alarm just went off. You open your eyes and glance over at your TV. You feel a glimmer of hope and a rush of excitement thinking about all the fun things you could do today if you didn’t have to go to school. You don’t want to sit in a classroom! You just want to lay on the couch, watch cartoons, play video games, and eat your favorite snacks.
An idea pops into your head. Why not fake being sick? It’s the perfect excuse to have a lazy day. No one will know!
Just then your mom opens your door to wake you up. You quickly put on a fake frown, clutch your tummy in pain, and give her the old puppy dog eyes. Somehow, she buys it. You just scored yourself a sick day!
This series of 5 IDs will invoke nostalgic memories of all the fun things you’d do on a lazy “sick” day as a kid. Watching TV, playing video games, browsing the internet on an old Windows 95 computer, eating all the sugary snacks in the house. It’s a nostalgic theme that works together as a cohesive series, but each ID also tells part of the story on it’s own.
Note that as of now, only four of the five IDs have aired, so the above supercut and this page do not have the final animation yet.
Credits:
Created, Directed & Animated by Matt Siegel
Produced by Laura Scott (Adult Swim)
Models by Matt Siegel, Stuart Huettel, & The Happy Toolbox
Sound (First 3 IDs) Provided by Adult Swim
Sound & Music (4th ID) by Josh Kipersztok (aka Smigonaut)
All Other 3D / Animation / Design by Matt Siegel