![Github-Header A social media feature design for The Noops, a Github code challenge.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Header-Social-Icon.png)
GitHub Summer Code Challenge
A colorful animated journey into summer-learning code challenges.
Creative Role: Art Director, Illustrator, Lead Animator
In 2019 GitHub needed a concept to engage young developers (high school & undergrad) out of school for summer break. They asked us at Lightboard (Agency) to develop a look-and-feel as well as a program designed with this audience in mind. I worked with my agency CD & CTO to develop this playful, animated program & marketing campaign based on the idea of nonsense machines, or “Noops.”
This project saw broad engagement on the GitHub community and had a full social presence throughout the multi-week event. The challenges remain live onsite today.
The machines & the process
Inspired by old technology and analog parts, we sketched, vectorized, and animated our nonsense machines in sprints. To hit ambitious timelines, each week we finalized 3-5 new bots. I lead the sketching, concepting, and did much of the animation (Lottie compatible, made in AfterEffects).
![Github-Concepts-A Concept sketching for the nonsense machines on the Noops campaign.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Github-Concepts-A.png)
![Github-Concepts-B Color sketches to showing different cute and nonsensical analog features for Noops designs.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Github-Concepts-B.png)
Supporting creative direction from internal & client directors, analog “nonsense machines” were developed from inspiration drawn from clocks, drum kits, and lab devices.
Final Noops
Our final Noops were a variety of shapes and sizes, all designed to be part of the same visual family. Each matched the theme of the code challenge it was associated with—a Hex-bot with an ink tank created for our Hex Code Challenge, a Compass-bot for our challenge for our Direction Key Challenge, and so on.
![Github-Drumbot A friendly cat shaped machine named Drumbot.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-Bot-Cat-300x300.png)
Complexity
From left to right are Noops from Week 1, 2, and 3. As the summer event progressed the difficulty of the code challenge increased: so too did the complexity of the illustrations. Larger or more representative body types as well more features were given to Noops later in the series.
![Production-Github-Bot-Arrow](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-Bot-Arrow.png)
![Github-Mazebot A machine with a maze for a face named Maze-bot.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-Bot-Maze.png)
![Github-Polybot A machine with an arm to pick up colorful blocks named Poly-bot.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-Bot-Poly.png)
Animation
We created a smooth and indefinitely-looping animation style for all Noops. Shapes and animations became more sophisticated as the challenge weeks progressed. Two examples of later-week bots include our Chat-bot and Music-bot, which had larger body-types and more animation points.
![Github-Build-B Outlined machines within their defined library of shapes.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-Build-B.png)
Illustration structures …
We chose to create illustration boundaries to make a cohesive family of robots. These included guidelines for body types, button depths, and color palette to keep our work consistent. Our timeline required us to design, illustrate, and animate in a rolling series: Week 1 would be in final animation at the same time that Week 3 would be in sketch/concept phase. The choice to set these guardrails up front allowed us to hit the tight timelines of this project.
… and digital experiences
We designed interface elements to create a custom experience for those participating in the Noops challenges. These included helpful trigger bots (reminding people to link their account) progress bars, badges, and user badge frames.
![Github-UI-Goals A user interface mockup of the Goals dashboard for completing the code challenge.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Github-UI-Goals.png)
![Github-UI-A](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-UI-A.png)
![Production-Github-UI-Assistants](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-UI-Assistants.png)
![Github-Huebot A colorful machine named Hex-bot.](https://www.eliseloeb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Production-Github-Bot-Hue.png)
Conclusion
This Summer Code Challenge event engaged Github users in a colorful and cohesive journey. Creative play and structure came together to make this project successful. By detailing the process and outcomes here, I hope to help non-illustrators understand how larger bodies of illustration require guardrails for success, and aren’t created from spontaneous creativity or brainstorming alone.