DAGNABIT! brings the National Black Arts Festival to life in ink and watercolor through the work of animator John Ryan. Atlanta advertising agency Fletcher Martin Ewing tapped Ryan to collaborate on the 2003 Festival spots with audiophiles Wayne Dykes and Danny Stern of AcousTech for music and sound design. The team, reunited nine years after producing the Festival's inaugural 1994 spot, "Animated World," strives to reproduce the initial spot's success. "Animated World" was a highly regarded piece of work that garnered numerous awards including an Addy, a Telly, and Animation Magazine's Anicomm award as one of the top spots of the year.

This year's spot, titled "Souls", features new techniques that meld rich watercolor backgrounds with layered paintings consisting of ink washes and stylized Conte crayon surface details. The spot flows from an artist at the canvas, to a soul singer belting out a round note, to a pair of dancers, and then to a tribal drummer, each captured in crystallized moments of artistic expression. All the animated elements were composed in Softimage TOONZ at DAGNABIT!, then handed to Crawford Post's Wil Madison for After Effects editing. AcousTech then added original music with just the right sound design touches to put the cap on a brilliant collaboration. Fletcher Martin Ewing creatives on this project were Pete Heid and Chris Smith, with Susan Stagg producing. The spots broke July 12th.