ideas in motion
Lava Studio blends DESIGN & PRODUCTION for brands and entertainment.

The Big Idea
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Description
How Do You Make a Good Idea Great?
Robert Kirkpatrick, Lava Studio
How do you take an idea from good to great? Don’t just think outside the box. Think about the box!
So, you have a good idea. It popped up in a flash of pure genius, but where do you go from here? A good idea isn’t worth a thing until you act on it, explore its full potential and grow it into something great. If you want to really express yourself, to inspire people, to promote a brand, if you want to make an impact or get more clicks or likes or dollars, you have to put in the work to make your idea as powerful as it can be.
That initial inspiration was just the start of your journey. As good as your idea is, it’s impossible to see what shape it will take as you move it down the road. So, how do you avoid getting stuck in the mud or lost in the woods before you reach the finish line? Start by writing your idea down or sketching it out. This gives you a clear starting point to build upon and a safe place to return to if you begin to lose focus. Just by jotting down your idea you will reveal new possibilities, but also new weaknesses and doubts that you’ll have to overcome. It takes a fearless spirit of exploration to achieve greatness.
As advertisers, marketers and entertainers, we’re in the idea business. The creative team at my company, Lava Studio, goes through a series of steps to explore the boundaries of a concept and find the sweet spot that resonates with an audience. We’ve created a video, The Big Idea, to share that process in a fun way, taking a simple square to represent the good idea, and looking at ways to make it great. Each step is a suggestion for looking at your idea differently and critically, and considering all the ways you can wrestle with it, make it better, and reach your target. We hope you’ll find some inspiration in The Big Idea, and that you’ll discover how far can you push your own good ideas to achieve the maximum impact.
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The Big Idea
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Lava Sports Reel
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Description
Lava loves sports! We always look for a fresh approach. Here’s a collection of our greatest hits for sports programs, networks, teams and venues.
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Lava Sports
Lava Studio has created several award-winning show packages for MLB Network, promos and upfronts for CBS Sports, and multiscreen experiences at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and MetLife Stadium. Lava has designed and produced team videos for The Miami Marlins, Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, and developed sports marketing for Geico, Home Depot, Verizon, Truist, Scana, Georgia Power, American Family Insurance, Draft Kings, and many others.
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MLB Central
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Description
Lava Studio and MLB Network have created a non-traditional on-air package for MLB Central that doesn’t use just one look, embracing instead a diverse mix of elements and styles that work great together to keep up the fun throughout the three-hour morning broadcast. Bumps and transitions were sourced out of the original collection of seven unique opens, and additional show elements were inspired by that variety as well. Lava’s design and animation team valued the chance to break some rules and explore an array of styles.
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Discovery #Mindblown
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Description
Lava’s Creatives worked closely with Discovery for the development of Discovery #Mindblown, a new STEM brand for kids. We participated in the evolution of #Mindblown leading up to its launch as a popular product brand with a unique interactive digital experience. Lava designed the #Mindblown video style, and wrote and produced the #Mindblown Blast series! David Woodward directed our young cast, and Lava’s Design and Animation Team created 25 unique and engaging episodes, exposing kids to fun facts about science, nature and tech.
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Discovery #Mindblown Reel
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Discovery #Mindblown - Time Travel
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Discovery #Mindblown - Planes
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Discovery #Mindblown - Climate
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Discovery #Mindblown - Eclipse

Inside The Lava Studio - Virtual Sets
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Description
Lava’s David Woodward shares a behind-the-scenes look at the production process of working with CGI virtual sets and LED screens.
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Museum of Pest Control
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Termite-nator 2

The Forever Purge - Main Titles
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Description
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The Forever Purge Main Titles
Lava Studio took an unexpected approach to the main titles for the fifth installment in the popular Purge film series. Lava’s design team created idyllic watercolors of Americana that are fractured to reveal the sinister underside, replete with Purge masks and imagery exposing violence, racial tension, anti-immigrant sentiment and societal decay.
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MLB Tonight Show Package 2020
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Description
MLB Network called on Lava Studio to follow up their Promax Gold-winning and Emmy-nominated MLB Tonight show package with a whole new look for the new season (and yet another Emmy nomination!). Lava’s concept was to use the iconic home plate shape as the visual motif for the broadcast package redesign. The home plate shape anchors everything from the show open to animated graphic elements and live set content, giving MLB Tonight a unique branded look that baseball fans love. Play Ball!
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MLB Tonight Package Elements
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The Most Hated Woman in America - Titles
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Description
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Outro Titles
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Just Beyond
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Description
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Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection - Safety Montage
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Description
Lava Studio handled all design, production and postproduction for Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s on board safety video. Our task was to communicate instructions clearly while maintaining the tasteful elegance of the brand.
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Ritz-Carlton Safety Video

Guy Harvey Heroes
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Description
Assignment: Conceptualize and produce a distinctive campaign to promote the Florida Lottery’s co-branded scratch-off game, supporting the marine life foundation of the conservationist and nautical artist Guy Harvey.
The Big Idea: Lava’s Director David Woodward brought in an ocean of inspiration by proposing a unique blend of original live action, stock footage, animation and vfx. Sea creatures swirl around the artist as he paints in an enchanted Caribbean studio.
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The Process: Lava built an artist’s space furnished with creative supplies and nautical artifacts. Due to limited time, we pre-plotted each shot with a stand-in prior to Guy’s arrival. Shots were designed with compositing and vfx in mind, to match preselected stock footage of marine life, which was later rotoscoped and integrated into the final scenes. Postproduction included compositing and animation, fluid simulations, particles, and 3D type integration.
Results: A simple concept cleanly executed with unexpected visual interest, and another successful partnership for the Florida Lottery, raising $4.6 million for education, supporting conservation, and supporting the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation’s community outreach programs.
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Description
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No Clock
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All-Stars
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Description
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Description
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Lava’s Margaritaville spot for the Florida Lottery makes use of most of the tools in Lava’s bag of tricks. We held castings in Miami and LA to find the right comic tone for the spot. We shot on two locations, an office interior and one of our beautiful South Florida beaches. Our Edit and Postproduction Team put it all together with a variety of VFX and CGI. Watch our behind-the-scenes video to see how we did it.
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Behind the Scenes
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Description
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MLB Network Showcase Graphics Package
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Description
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Behind The Scenes
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MLB Tonight 2018
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Description
Diehard fans can’t live without their nightly dose of live baseball on MLB Tonight. Lava’s unique design wraps the excitement in a network show package that is a radical departure from traditional sports graphics. We see the construction of an abstracted baseball, and inside it we see ballparks, highlights, and all the textures associated with our national pastime. Winner of Promax Global Gold, North American Gold, and two Silver awards for Art Direction and Design, and nominated for a Sports Emmy Award.
In addition to the open, Lava’s Design and Animation Team created over 40 additional unique graphic elements for the show, and each makes unexpected creative use of the textures and materials of the game.
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MLB Tonight Bumps
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MLB Tonight Behind the Scenes
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MLB Tonight Package Elements
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MLB Central
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Description
Lava took a fun and unconventional approach to graphic design and production for MLB Central, seen every morning on MLB Network.
We created a world in which everything is baseball, and each detail refers to the game. Every component of this epic broadcast package contains visual gags and wordplay that tie in with MLB culture and history.
The centerpiece of the MLB Central package is the show open, which takes place during rush hour in MLB City. Twenty-one All Star players commute to work, along with fans, mascots, vendors, and more. Lava’s production crew shot in four cities, and spent five months in animation and post to produce all the inventive and richly detailed components of this signature series for MLB Network. Watch the behind-the-scenes video to see how Director David Woodward works with celebrity athletes.
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Scene Breakdown
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Behind the Scenes
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Bumps
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Package Samples
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Style Frames
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Related Downloads
About
Innovation • Collaboration • Expertise
Lava is a creative studio, blending live production, animation and VFX with an emphasis on original design. We take projects from concept through completion for entertainment, networks and brands.
Services
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Motion Design
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VFX
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3D CGI Animation
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Compositing
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Main Titles
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Show Packages
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Concept & Copywriting
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Storyboards & Previz
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Character Animation
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Live Production
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Direction
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Experiential Video

Awards
Lava’s creative team has been called to the podium for excellence in Art Direction, Graphic Design, Animation, VFX, Interactive, Mixed Media, Digital Content, Typography and Cinematography. We always remember to thank our spouses and our amazing clients!
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24
Promax BDA
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2
Emmy
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8
Emmy
Nominations -
21
Addy
Awards
Leadership

Robert Kirkpatrick
Owner/Creative
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Robert founded Lava Studio in 1999 after years as a Creative Director in New York and Miami. He is a two-time Emmy winner and eight-time nominee for Graphic Design and Animation. Lava is Robert’s long-term passion project. He has assembled an All Star team of visual virtuosos with the perfect blend of enthusiasm and experience. Robert studied Film and Painting at New York’s Pratt Institute. He has visited 5 continents and 49 states, and lived in Chicago, LA, New York, and Lagos, Nigeria. He loves painting, movies, baseball, Indian food, and traveling with his family. His dream is to find more time to enjoy them all. Fun fact: Robert competed on Jeopardy against GOAT Ken Jennings (guess who won).

David Woodward
Director / Creative Director

Dana Bonomo
Exec Producer / Managing Director
New York
- Lava Studio NYC
Miami
- Lava Studio Miami