Read Across America with Co-Founder Larry Vasquez

on Thursday, 19 March 2020.

In late February of this year, Lagoon Black Studios Co-Founder Larry Vasquez had the opportunity to speak at a local elementary school for Read Across America Day.
He read from Knolly Nibbles & discussed how we turned the book in to an animated storybook app; talked about our other projects and the process of animation & how we work with artist like Samantha Youssef and Cathleen Flynn to come up with specific choices that help drive the concept home. It's always a neat opportunity to speak about this amazing art form to the youth in our community.

Lagoon Black Studios interview with Rich Hurrey

on Monday, 10 June 2019.

Larry Vasquez, one of our co-founders, had the opportunity to speak with Rich Hurrey. Rich is a talented modeling artist and character TD who has spent 20 plus years in the industry working on some fantastic films. During those 20 years, 13 were spent at Pixar Animation Studio where he worked on numerous feature films such films as Wall-E, The Good Dinosaur, Presto, and The Incredibles 2. He has also produced two land mark training for Modo in his 'Rigging Master Course 1 & 2', with his third follow up soon to be released. Having worked at the highest level of feature film, it was a treat to speak with Rich about his philosophy as it pertains to the art of rigging, his up coming training, and his future en devours.

Happy New Year 2019

on Thursday, 03 January 2019.

We'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year! 2018 was a great year creating and we're looking towards a bright 2019! As always...PREPARE FOR ADVENTURE!

Mojave River Academy Bakersfield visit

on Wednesday, 19 December 2018.

Last month we had the opportunity to welcome the Mojave River Academy Bakersfield campus to come and visit our studio. Only a handful of the students were able to make the field trip, but it was a neat opportunity for two of our co-founders, Darrell and Larry Vasquez, to talk about the animation process and show them a sneak peak to what we've been up to. It's great to see young students interested in this industry.

Legacy Lions football sponsorship 2018

on Tuesday, 23 October 2018.

This year we sponsored one of our local CIFF high school tackle football teams, the Legacy Lions. It was an honor to support our local community and watching young men have an arena where they can practice and apply a strong work ethic.

1 year anniversary in building

on Friday, 06 October 2017.

This month marks our 1 year anniversary of being in our building. It's been a great place to bring clients, host events, and work day to day in this creative industry. We are very excited for the future of our company and team.

An Animation Studio in Bakersfield

on Wednesday, 26 July 2017.

When you think of an animation studios, Bakersfield, California isn't a place that first comes to mind. Here's a short video that discusses a little more about our studio and why we think Bakersfield is a great place to call home.

We'd like to give a special thanks to Wesley Riojas Media for the production of this video. Stellar team!

Lagoon Black Studios - Bland Solar testimonial

on Wednesday, 31 May 2017.

We've had the opportunity to work on a number of exciting & original commercials with the largest solar provider in the Central Valley of California, Bland Solar. The challenge for these commercials was to take a solid company and develop a strong and unique slogan, interesting characters, and fun situations to explain the mindset of potential and existing costumers in order to strengthen the overall company brand. We had Glenn Bland, the companies president and owner, take some time to discussing working with the team here at Lagoon Black Studios.

We'd like to give a special thanks to Wesley Riojas Media for the production of this video. Stellar team!

Bland Solar Spring 2017 Commercial

on Wednesday, 24 May 2017.

We had a lot of fun developing the story through animation for this one.

This is the third in a series of commercials we've done for the team at Bland Solar. In this commercial we really wanted to emphasize the benefits of Bland Solar's unique hassle-free showrooms in a fun and entertaining way.

Lagon Black crew on the Moneywise Guys Radio show

on Wednesday, 03 May 2017.

On February 1st our very own Darrell Vasquez, Co-Founder and Supervising Animator, and David Wells, Writer, had the opportunity to talk about the animation business with The Moneywise Guys Radio show. They covered a range of topics including: developing an animated children’s storybook app, Knolly Nibbles, building a local partnership with Bland Solar & Air, and the challenges/difficulties faced in starting an animation studio in Bakersfield, not in Los Angeles.  Please take a listen and share.

This was a great show about risk and failure and how to deal with them. Darrell & David come on around the 22 minute mark.

The Moneywise Guys radio show can be heard on NewsTalk 1180 & The New 96.1 K-E-R-N Weekdays Noon to 1 PM (PST) throughout California and streaming online at www.MoneywiseGuys.com

Bland Solar & Air - 2017 Theater Commercial

on Tuesday, 18 April 2017.

This is the second in a series of commercials we've done with the team at Bland Solar. This commercial was unique in that it was designed to play for movie goers while waiting for their movie to start. Bland Solar is distinct in having solar show rooms where potential clients can casually discuss their solar needs. Bland Solar ran this promotion for a theater in Fresno, CA where they have a show room right across the entrance.

The Lagoon Black ship

on Thursday, 16 February 2017.

We've been wanting to share this for quite some time, and since we recently rendered out some shots to furnish our new office, we figured now was a good time. We would like to give a special thanks to Tor Frick who we got to collaborate with on this project. We knew when we started our company, we wanted our logo to be as unique, creative, and fun as we are. After we came up with the initial design of the ship and modeled it in Modo, we worked with Tor on the final detail for the ship. Having been very familiar with his amazing work in the industrial / steam punk-ish genre, we knew he would be a fun guy to work with on this project.

The Lagoon Black ship

Bland Solar Winter Commercial

on Friday, 13 January 2017.

We are currently working on an exciting campaign with the largest Solar provider in the Central Valley of California, Bland Solar & Air.  Bland Solar & Air is pushing the way solar is being sold, by use of dedicated showrooms that allow buyers to be able to see the product they will buying without the hassle.  The challenge of this project was to take a solid company and develop a strong and unique slogan, interesting characters, and fun situations to explain the mindset of potential and existing costumers in order to strengthen the overall company brand.  We believe that this commercial accomplishes all of these points and hope consumers do too.  Also, we are developing marketing material and a new Theater commercial to expand the campaign in earl 2017.  Be on the lookout for this as well.

Special thanks to our voice actors Jason Monroe and Colter Alison, our concept artist Samantha Yousef, our modeler Juan Solis, our rigger Victor Vinyals, and our composer Cathleen.  Having a great team is the best way to end up with a great product!

To learn more about Bland Solar visit blandsolar.com or one of their showrooms.