Blunt Action is a New York City-based creative studio specializing in art, animation, gaming, and music. Co-founded by longtime collaborators Colby and Ethan, the studio evolved from a shared passion for music production and visual storytelling. What began as beat-making and rough mixes in college quickly expanded into immersive 3D world-building, merging their skills in sound, animation, and design under the Blunt Action name.

Known for crafting imaginative experiences that blend fantasy, history, technology, and futurism, Blunt Action builds universes that feel both fresh and oddly familiar. Drawing inspiration from ancient ruins, sci-fi dreams, internet culture, and even offbeat TV quotes, their creative process thrives on intuition and exploration. Whether producing for art, games, or music, their goal is always the same: to spark wonder and leave a lasting impression.

We asked Blunt Action about their art, creative process, and inspirations.

Can you tell us a bit about the team behind Blunt Action and how you all work together creatively?

Blunt Action grew out of a friendship built on nonstop creative tinkering. For me (Colby), that itch started early—my parents put a violin in my hands at three, then piano soon after. By middle school I was deep in the Newgrounds flash-game scene, cranking out little games and cartoons, even landing a Big Fish Games sponsorship after a summer at an RIT game-design camp. Music pulled me back in during high school—beat-making, writing songs, an EDM side project, then a solo run under the name AIRWAV.

When I met Ethan at SUNY New Paltz around 2014, he was DJ-ing and producing too, so our first conversations were literally over rough mixes and half-finished tracks. That collaborative chemistry snowballed: another friend pointed us toward the exploding 3D-art community, I dusted off my animation chops, Ethan dove in beside me, and suddenly we were building worlds visually the same way we’d been building them in sound. Two halves, one energy. We wrapped it all under the banner “Blunt Action,” and we’ve been blending music, art, gaming, and storytelling ever since.

You describe your work as blending fantasy, tech, history, and futurism. Can you walk us through how a world-building idea usually begins at Blunt Action?

World-building for us often starts with a feeling, a visual, or something we’ve come across in everyday life — a piece of history, a wild dream, a glitch in the matrix, or even a random Sopranos quote. We don’t always know exactly where an idea is going when we start, but that’s part of the process. We stay open-minded, inspired by everything from ancient ruins to sci-fi futures, and let our curiosity guide the style, tone, and universe we create.

Your projects span everything from gaming to music to animation — what’s one unexpected overlap or lesson you've discovered while working across these different mediums?

What we’ve realized is that each medium strengthens the others. Gaming, in particular, has become a sweet spot for us because it allows us to combine all our creative tools — animation, music, interactivity, and storytelling — into one cohesive experience. That synergy has taught us that the most powerful work often comes when you're not limited by format. Whether it's a game, an animation, or a billboard, we approach it all like a living world we can build and immerse people in.

Do you have a favorite project or world you’ve created that still sticks with you? What made it special?

Tough one — but if we had to choose, we’d say our first 3D billboard with KeyGlock in Times Square really shifted things for us. It was one of those moments where everything we had been experimenting with finally clicked. The scale, the impact, the ability to stop people in their tracks — it pushed us into the world of experiential art in a big way. That project made us realize what was possible, and now we're always chasing that next moment where illusion, tech, and art collide to blow people’s minds.

What inspires you as a team — books, games, places, philosophies?

We’re both naturally curious and constantly feeding our creative brains. When we met in college, it felt like we shared a giant mental database — music, gaming, film, science, internet culture, history, design… we were absorbing everything and anything. That’s still how we operate today.

We try to stay open to all sources of inspiration. Sometimes it’s dinosaurs or a 15th-century artifact, other times it’s a random 80s or 90s sci-fi movie. That blend of curiosity and freedom keeps us inspired and evolving. And we still make sure to have fun with it — a big part of our creativity comes from not taking ourselves too seriously.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone looking to start a creative studio today, especially in such a multidisciplinary space?

Stay consistent and stay curious. The landscape moves fast — tech changes, platforms shift, styles come and go — but if you keep showing up and stay excited about learning new things, you’ll evolve naturally.

Also: build a strong understanding of the tools. Whether it's software, hardware, or social platforms — being comfortable with the tech will help you unlock your creativity rather than limit it.

And just as important — make friends and be part of the creative community. A lot of growth comes from sharing ideas, collaborating, and supporting others. Some of our biggest opportunities came through relationships, not just skillsets. So don’t underestimate the power of being approachable, staying connected, and showing up for others.

What are you curious to explore next — any themes or mediums that feel exciting or unexplored for Blunt Action?

This is a great question because we want to explore a million thing all at the same the time. We’re really interested in pushing deeper into immersive storytelling and spatial design — things like virtual reality, AR, or narrative-based environments where people aren’t just viewers, they’re participants. There’s so much room to play with how people experience art and story when it's surrounding them. That frontier still feels fresh to us.

Does the Blunt Action team have any inside jokes or funny studio habits you can share?

We have a running joke that every project starts with “this is gonna be easy,” and then we’re still up three nights later perfecting one animation frame. We also tend to give internal nicknames to all our projects — most of which are completely unhinged. There’s also a lot of loud, random soundtrack breaks. Sometimes we’ll just drop everything and start working on a new track or render that have nothing to do with the project at hand — but that spontaneity often leads to our best ideas.