Direct Message

Hello! We’re looking for ⭐️freelance art department support⭐️for upcoming stop motion builds! If you’re a painter, crafter, builder, or visual artist and you want periodic work making small world set pieces for stop motion video, please reach out. 📧Write a nice email about how you could best support and include some links to your portfolio: [email protected]

Welcome to Baseline Baseline is an accelerated 7-week long design internship program hosted by Direct Message Studio. The longterm goal of the program is to offer university graduates or early-career designers an opportunity to gain agency experience in a guided setting with real clients, deadlines, and deliverables. At this time, we’re looking for one intern with the goal of expanding in the future. This is an in-person internship designed for hands-on collaboration at our Sacramento studio. We are looking for versatile designers who are eager to expand their current skillset and are open to explore growth across branding, digital media design, product design, and other creative disciplines. Our selection will be judged based on a cross-discipline portfolio, eagerness to work in a professional agency environment, and a clear statement of purpose. Direct Message Studio is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Apply today. Link in bio 🌀 🗓️ June / July 2026 ☝️ The internship is reserved for university graduates or early-career designers. 📍 Sacramento, CA 💸 Paid opportunity. $16.90/hour. ⏳ 24 hours per week Important Dates Applications open May 1st, 2026 Applications close May 22nd, 2026 Decisions will be made within the week of May 25th–May 29th Expected Start Date: Early June (will depend on availability and graduation dates for the intern)

Sacramento Next Level athletes showed UP to our photoshoot! 💪 End results coming soon! 📸🔥 #NextLevel #NextLevelSports #youthsports #photoshoot #kidssports

Kin lao yang? Have you eaten? In FAMILY THAI, James Beard nominee and chef of the Thai restaurant International Market in Nashville, @arnoldmyintbna , shares his boldly flavorful food and welcoming, heartfelt approach with home cooks everywhere. Don't miss out on this delicious new cookbook—on sale October 7th! . . . #FamilyThai #FamilyThaiCookbook #ArnoldMyint #KatThompson #JamesBeardNominee #thaifood #thailand #thairestaurant #cookbooks #cookbook #foodanddrink #internationalmarket #nashville #homecooking #recipe #recipes #food #comingsoon #preordernow

Here’s a look into how we used facial mocap to pipe real actors from LA into a 3D-rendered Chester Cheetah in a crystal ball in NOLA for our Super Bowl LIX activation for the Cheetos brand. We built out a live fortune teller experience designed and conceptualized by the insane creatives at PepsiCo. It’s within a whirlwind build by New Creatures and their merry band of artists. Super proud of our team: Jonathan Joiner (@mrjonjon ), Dwight Chesbro (@dwightchesbro ), Megan Milliron (@nature.nooks ), and Devon McMindes (@devon_island ) holding it down in NOLA, with Benjamin Farber (@lily_of_thevalley_ ), Eloise Turner (@_eloiseturner_ ), and James Jennings running remote producing and directing from LA. We also couldn’t have done it without Jessica Smith, Jessie Fernandes (@rosemarys.bebe ), and Jimmy Bovard (@jim_mm_my ) crushing the art dept work.

Last fall, we were approached by the production company of Lilly Wachowski, a writer and director of the Matrix trilogy, to create the puppetry explainers for a new 8-part TV comedy series on the occult called Cassie Workman is Witchy AF.
 Our team built everything from scratch, including: face molds, rigging, clothing, and sets. Here’s a peak behind the curtain captured by an incredible collaborator and friend, 11th House Media (@11thhouse.media ). Only a few people are captured here, but this was massive collaborative effort by:
 Joel Goulet, Ben Farber, Kyle Rynicki, Eloise Turner, Matthew Kadi, Justin Pine, Jimmy Bovard, Amanda Cook, Angela Ayala, Hilary Von Joo, Jesse Fernandes, Jessica Smith, Brady Comerford, Phong Tran, Adam “Murph” Murphy, Devon McMindes, Andy Richardson, Matthew H Maxwell, Robbie Landsburg, and Eric Howard

TENTACULT rise again! Sacramento, California based cosmic Death Metal misfits have a brand new album coming soon via Transylvanian Recordings! Here’s a sneaky look at their awesome new puppet master(wink) music video from the Direct Message Studio. In the poetic words of the master illusionist and soon to be friend of the label Criss Angel, “ARE YOU READY?”

❗️WE ARE OUT OF CALENDARS, THANK YOU EVERYONE! ❗️ ✨FREE✨ handmade Direct Message calendar 🗓️ ! Our design team made these beautiful calendars as end of the year gifties. We’ve got a small stack remaining. If you want one, DM us your address and we’ll send one out to ya. As long as you’re in the US, we’ll cover the shipping because, why not, HNY ✴️ We’ll delete your address after btw. This is not a ploy to put you on some mailing list. We just don’t want this lovely, handmade swag to go to waste. We’ll update this post when they’re gone. Props to Phong Tran (@phongdtran ), Guadalupe Joaquin (@lupefromthevalley ), Allison Liang (@liang.allison ), Robert Landsburg (@shodty ), and Eric Howard (@thelucre ) for making these and Brady Comerford (@bradyc.design ) for the photos!

Find the projects you can joyfully sink all of your energy into. The @netflixfamily Magazine is maybe the project most near and dear to our creative lil hearts across DM. It’s a free kids magazine with games, puzzles, coloring, and other educational units. We get to collaborate across every one of our departments to bring it to life. What’s not to love? Issue 8 just went out to households all over, and Issue 9 is in the works! Get on the mailing list at netflixfamily.com! See the case study at dmstudio.com

Real Interview 👉 AI-Supported Art Direction (Midjourney) 👉 Practical Filmmaking A year after our conversation with @comstocksmag on AI, the technical landscape has transformed significantly. What remains constant is that AI tools are performing more cognitive labor across every industry, especially in creative fields. Over the past couple of years, in DM Co-founder @thelucre 's public speaking engagements for businesses, universities, and conferences, he's noticed that enthusiasm and anxiety around AI have evolved. We're now less focused on understanding the technology itself and more on exploring how it might be applied, misused, or exploited. These innovations are undeniably pushing us to reconsider our relationship with technology. Listen to the full conversation at the link in bio. Thanks to Comstock's Magazine and Dakota Morlin Creative Direction and Art Direction: @rosemarys.bebe Pre-Production Support: @devon_island Character Designs + Builds: @frankenpine Builds: @jim_mm_my Builds: @breefin Filming and Editing: @kid.cacti Title Design: @bradyc.design

Here's a pleasant little throwback to a low poly Playstation style made with Blender, honoring the playful 3D anime style of Megaman Legends. Takeaway: With AI promising any style at the click of a button, it begs the question: *why* should we choose a given style for a creative piece? If we can produce whatever fidelity we like, then the new paradigm rests on choosing the best style to meet your audience's needs while still delivering the intended message. It's starting to feel like taste and curation will be critical skills in the future. If or when the AI promise under delivers, we're only limited by our curiosity, passion, and timeline. 3D by @thelucre Music by @super_seck_chill courtesy of DM's Jingle Club 🎶

One of the first films ever made was a simple shot from 1895 of workers leaving the Lumière factory. Film and labor have always been linked. Since the beginning, filmmakers have been drawn to everyday people’s rhythms, movements, and realities. It’s 2024, and it’s evident all around us that the workplace needs improvement: Think quiet quitting, tang ping, the Great Resignation. We want to reflect and respect the efforts of every individual behind the scenes to keep improving the system. That means showing up in return with fair conditions and a healthy work-life balance. Swipe to see the original clip of the Lumière workers and our take with some folks leaving our Dreher Street studio.