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Colorado Lottery presents an animated story of pre-win butterflies in its new commercial ‘One Step Closer’. Long-standing agency of record Cactus provided the creative, bringing on board production company Aggressive and independent studio Niceshit (part of the Aggressive collective) for directing and animating.

The spot takes viewers on the journey of emotions from surprise to excitement felt by a character who stumbles upon a Colorado Lottery Dream Machine. As he strides towards it, his clothing and soundtrack transform with the spirit of summer, flowers fluttering down to pattern his shirt to a funk bassline.

The stripped back scenario allows the only two visual elements – character and machine – to shine, while also posing the challenge of how to tell an engaging, eye-catching story with so little populating the screen. Life is poured into it via a vibrant colourway inspired by shows including 'Bob's Burgers’, ‘Family Guy’, and ‘The Simpsons’, in addition to dynamic camera movement, the edit, and expressive character animation. 

Animating frame by frame, Niceshit was able to hit every mark for the 2D character’s transformation with full control. Modelled on real human proportions and movement while still being heavily stylised, his playful rendering bounces off a CG Colorado Lottery Dream Machine in Niceshit’s signature blend of surrealism and realism.

Given the largely clear slate, the environment is instead reconstructed through music and sound design – a key part of all Niceshit’s work. The sound of the footsteps, an opening door, and the familiar bell as a shop door is entered bring the surroundings to life, while the protagonist’s headspace, moving between everyday thoughts and vacation daydreams, is mirrored by the transition from shopping mall tunes to a bouncing groove.

Guido Lambertini, Creative Director and Partner at Niceshit, comments, “We are very thankful to Cactus and Colorado Lottery for trusting us and for being so bold and forward thinking and let us work with such freedom and creating a very bold and fun spot - not too many brands go ahead and create spots like this one and we are very thankful for that. We’ve put lots of time and care into the execution - our premise was that ‘each frame had to feel like a print’ - and are really happy with the outcome.”