Canyon High and CalArts alum David Levison helped create the Google “Doodle” viewed by millions Tuesday for Halloween.

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The video, which currently stands at No. 25 on Youtube’s “Trending,” and was sent out to the
425,000 Google Doodle subscribers, is an animated story revolving around “Jinx, the lonely ghost, who embarks on a mission to find the perfect costume — and a place to belong,” according to YouTube.

In early September, Levison, his agent and Google began to discuss what collaborating on a project would be like, Levison said. And after a preliminary video conference call with the video’s director, Levison and his studio, Harmony Machine, began the process of creating the entire audio experience for the animated short.

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“I have always been a fan of the Pixar films and paid attention to the soundtracks so that was one part of our inspiration,” Levison said. “But the director was also originally imagining a sound combination between Danny Elfman, who did ‘Corpse Bride,’ and Jon Brion, who did ‘Paranorman.’”

The process took a little over a month for Harmony Machine to complete their work, which wrapped up October 15, after weeks of back and forth between the animators and Levison’s sound design team.

“Once the rough artwork, animation, story-flow, pacing and timing are worked out, that’s when we start with the audio,” said Levison. “Throughout the entire process, there was a lot of back and forth where they’d send me the new version of video, and I’d update on my end.”

Levison noted that the process for him was rewarding because the vision that he shared with the director of the film conveyed what they believe to be a positive message.

“Both the story and the artwork were really inspiring to work with,” said Levison. “It was a great experience because the narrative and message they came up with was great: ‘Be yourself and accept who you are.’”

Long before the Google project came about, Levison began his career by cultivating skills individually and then creating his company back in 2003, he said.

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“After graduating from CalArts in 1993, I began working for Lucas Arts, working on many of the Star Wars video games that were released from 1996-2003,” said Levison. “Then (14 years ago), I left to make my own company, (and have since) worked on projects such as EA’s ‘Deadspace’ series, the ‘Skylanders’ series for Activision and the ‘Ghostbusters VR’ experience for Playstation.”

As for the future of Harmony Machine, Levison stated that he enjoys working on video games, but hopes the company can expand to other entertainment mediums.

“In addition to our game work, I’d like to begin expanding into television and film projects,” said Levison. “But for now, I just feel lucky (to) have worked on the (Youtube) project and having done what I’ve done.”

For more information about Harmony Machine, visit the company’s website here.

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