Rocket Saves the Day is an animated preschool television special produced by Atomic Cartoons and broadcast on PBS Kids. The one-hour feature is based on the New York Times bestselling Rocket book series by Tad Hills and brings its joyful, reading-focused world to life in animation. The story follows Rocket, an enthusiastic young pup, and his best friend, Little Yellow Bird, as they journey through Letter Land, Sound Slide and Reading Woods to discover the power and wonder of words.

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The special combines adventure, curiosity, and literacy-based storytelling, woven into engaging character interactions and fun scenarios designed for a preschool audience. It embraces a distinctive hand-drawn style reflecting the warmth and texture of the original book illustrations, while keeping performance and clarity essential for animation production.

 

My Role

I worked on Rocket Saves the Day as a 2D Character & Prop Designer, contributing to the development of expressive, animation-ready designs that supported both the personality of the characters and their interactions with the world around them.

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My work involved designing characters and supporting props that remain:

• clear and readable for young viewers

• expressive in action and performance

• consistent with the series’ visual language

• functional for production animation

 

I ensured that design decisions were grounded in both performance clarity and production usability, helping the characters perform effectively within a broadcast pipeline.

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Character Design Focus

On Rocket Saves the Day, my focus was on:

• creating characters that read well in motion and in interaction

• establishing design consistency across the cast

• supporting character action through well-integrated props

• preparing clean, animation-ready assets

 

Design choices were guided by the need for strong silhouettes, readable gestures, and expressive features that support storytelling and performance in preschool animation.

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Contribution Highlights

• Character and supporting prop design

• Production-ready artwork aligned with the movie’s visual style

• Collaboration with art direction and production teams

• Designs tailored for expressive animation and clear performance

 

Production Context

Rocket Saves the Day premiered on PBS Kids on December 26, 2023 as a 60-minute animated special aimed at preschool children and their families. It was developed with the goal of celebrating curiosity, exploration, and foundational reading skills through engaging, character-driven storytelling.

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Artwork shown is production work created for the series and shared here for portfolio purposes.