Starface - Tiny Stars

The Mill was brought onto the project at an early stage, just as Starface began exploring the idea of incorporating cute, animated characters to populate a social-first campaign using traditional animation techniques.

Character development started when the live-action shoot took place in Los Angeles in late 2025. Starface provided our team with an eclectic range of visual references, from classic animation to contemporary manga, gaming and film, and even some beloved personal cats. Above all, these characters needed fully realized personalities, grounded in the real world while remaining surreal, cute, and dreamy. 

The team put pencil to paper, embracing a traditional, craft-focused approach to create something authentic, perfectly imperfect, and unmistakably Starface. After dozens of iterations, the final designs struck the right balance: soft, rounded characters with no harsh edges and intentionally sketchy finishes. 

And so, The Mill brought to life the ‘Tiny Star Helpers’, a cast of flying sea turtles, cheeky kittens, and the most huggable panda to ever grace the small screen. 

On set in Los Angeles, Iris was directed to interact with invisible characters, guided solely by the script. The Mill team then reverse-engineered the shots, animating each movement to the rhythm of the scene and carefully curating key moments of interaction and eye contact. 

From just a few lines on paper, our team blended magic and whimsy, giving these characters a life far fuller than their two-dimensional form.