a group of judges chose the final mascots in august 2013. the group included members of the rio 2016 organizers, the international olympic committee, the brazilian olympic committee, and the brazilian paralympic committee, and people who worked in animation, illustration, advertising and market research. all of the judges agreed to choose a set of two mascots, one for the olympic games and the other for the paralympic games. a são paulo-based animation company named birdo created these mascots. birdo and the organizers began to create content featuring the mascots, working in secrecy.