Someone's Cousin

Someone's Cousin is an independent animation and visual effects studio creating character-led advertising for television, web and social campaigns. Founded in 2015, the Toronto-rooted boutique operates remotely, bringing together specialist artists around the requirements of each production. Its work combines character design, 2D and 3D animation, motion graphics and commercial finishing.

Character development is a central part of the studio's practice. Projects range from exploring new mascots to updating established brand characters and expanding the environments around them. Its capabilities cover concept art, storyboarding, modeling, texturing, rigging, grooming, lighting, rendering and compositing, allowing character work to progress from early visual exploration through final delivery.

Commercial animation and visual effects

The studio's portfolio includes redesigning Leonardo the Painter Elf and expanding Keebler's Hollow Tree world for the Meet Leonardo campaign, produced for Kellogg's and Leo Burnett Chicago. Further Keebler work includes commercials featuring Ella and Joy Elf with agency Terri & Sandy. Other character projects include the Turkey Farmers of Canada's animated potato mascot, Dr. Oetker Giuseppe Pizzeria's chef and Walmart's Smiley character.

Beyond character animation, Someone's Cousin produces photorealistic product imagery, CG food, automotive animation and technical visualization. Its commercial work includes General Motors Certified Service campaigns, Pfizer healthcare advertising and an animated Small Modular Reactor visualization for Ontario Power Generation. These projects span consumer goods, food and beverage, automotive, healthcare, retail and energy communications.

Production capabilities

The studio supports both fully animated productions and visual effects integrated with filmed material. Services include environment and set design, camera tracking, on-set VFX supervision, lighting, multi-pass compositing, pack replacement, Flame conform, color grading and finishing. Remote visual review sessions support collaboration during production.

Its agency collaborations include Leo Burnett, Terri & Sandy, Dentsu, Cossette and Zeno Group. The remote production model supports project-specific teams across animation, technical direction and post-production, with specialist contributions coordinated around the creative and delivery needs of commercial campaigns.