Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Kelly Clarkson and acclaimed country singer-songwriter Brett Eldredge have released a new hand-drawn animated music video of their holiday duet, Under the Mistletoe.
The song and the short is directed by Jay Martin with animation by Ingenuity Studios, co-written by Clarkson and produced by collaborator Jesse Shatkin (Sia, Jennifer Lopez).
The song features the cartoon versions of the singers, along with Brett’s dog Edgar. It depicts a budding holiday romance with a melody sure to bring people together this holiday season. Since release, the track has generated over 22 million global streams and climbed into the Top 10 on both the Hot AC and Holiday radio charts.
“I love working with Ingenuity Studios because I know they’ll deliver what I need, and I know it’s going to be great. These kinds of projects have challenges and hurdles — yet the Ingenuity Studios team always perseveres. Dave Lebensfeld is super hands on, and his team takes his lead,” said Martin in a statement. “The animators had a lot of freedom, but not a lot of time for revisions. That actually made it fun because it had to happen so fast. Ingenuity’s animation supervisor, Vinod Krishnan, and his squad were so great. They nailed all the little beats.”
The video was created with hand-drawn 2D animation, and was supported by Unreal Engine and After Effects to achieve the right look and feel by adding glows, sparkles and an ethereal quality to scenes. Puppetry was used to show realistic human movement and perspectives, with hand-drawn details woven in to bring warmth and energy to the characters.
According to Clarkson, “I love writing new Christmas songs that have a classic, throwback vibe. Brett is such an amazing singer, and I was so impressed by his classic sound on his Christmas record, so it was a perfect match for picking a duet partner for Under The Mistletoe.”
This is the first fully 2D cel animated project for Ingenuity Studios.