by tompainter | Sep 13, 2022 |
Circle Health 3D ‘MTV’ Dance Animation for the TikTok Era Bring the energy! The lovely folks over at TMP worldwide came to us with an amazing brief, to create a bold and exciting promo video to help recruit experienced theatre staff into Circle Health’s hospitals. To get a rep Specifically, Circle wanted the campaign to stand out in a very ambitious way from the standard healthcare fare, which lacked the pizazz they were looking for. They wanted to build a reputation for high standards and a dynamic, modern culture. “Don’t try and make me cry. I’m sick of that John Lewis Christmas film tone that seems to have infected every film in this industry. I want this to be cool.” David Cooper Chief People Officer Circle Health Group The Strategy Bring the fun! The idea was to use movement, colour and character design to embody Circle’s brand values into a dance animation that would to energise and inspire potential recruits. Get your freak on! Al Wotton, head of creative at TMPW, had the genius idea of styling these videos like the classic 90’s MTV hiphop videos by Hype Williams – that was all he had to say, we were ON IT! The cinematographers party We knew to do this successfully, the elements we would need would be… > Some nice character design > Dance choreography with the energy of a TikTok / MTV dance video. > Great costumes > Cool lighting > Funky camera moves/angles and the obligatory VX1000 Mk1 fish eye lens of the era To integrate all of these elements together in a holistic manner, we’d...
by tompainter | Dec 3, 2019 |
TMP Worldwide – AABot Drop AR App Hello, how can I help? TMP Worldwide approached us with an exciting project that would result in a unique augmented reality app. They wanted us to develop their existing AA robot character, Bot, who was the face of the AA careers website, helping answer people’s questions via a chat window. He had a limited facial range and a few personality variations when TMP Worldwide first came to us. Our brief was split into three stages. First of all we were to take what existed, a 2D vector style head, and create a full 3D robot with a body and more facial expressions. The next stage was to then create 11 animations featuring Bot in various scenarios and environments. The final stage was to create an app that would allow the animations to be access via AR. The unique part of this app would be the ability to share videos and images from the app via social media and the plan was for this feature to be utilised for a competition the AA would run. Character design It was a lot of work, but work we were thrilled to take on. The first step was to take Bot who was a simple 2D vector head and transform him into a 3D character with a body. Vinyl toys were the reference we used for Bot’s body and informed the animation style to come. We started with a cute body that was based on a panda toy, a glass style monitor for the head that was curved on both the front and back. We worked...
by tompainter | Jul 2, 2018 |
BBC Doodlebugs The Beeb We were approached with the fantastic opportunity to work on a character animation project for the BBC. The brief was to create short animated clips of three bug characters. The work we produced would be used in the BBC’s comedy sketch show Doodlebugs, a combination of live action clips with animated elements to bring inanimate objects to life. Triple Act We were given the sketches and concept design of the three characters we were to animate. We then created the 3D models based on those original concepts. The result was cute and engaging main characters that the audience could enjoy and that created continuity throughout the show. The bugs would interact with each other in order to help bring the next skit onscreen. Characterisation Character animation is among the hardest to achieve. Each of the characters had a distinct personality, we had the short lazy bug, the tall enthusiastic bug and the flying clever bug. We had a very short time frame for this production so we scaled up our team our team of animators and ended up working with 15 animators. The challenge was to define each character and keep that characterisation consistent across the the large team of animators we were working with. Comedy Greats Not only did we have to inject the characters with their own personality, we need to do it in a comedic way. We looked to classic comedy such as silent stars Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton for inspiration. We referenced their comedy stylings such as exaggerated facial expressions and body gestures to help our little bugs tell their...
by tompainter | May 25, 2018 |
National Secular Society Faith Schools Highlighting the issues Having already made the National Secular Society’s 150th anniversary video in 2017, the organisation approached this year to make an animation about faith schools. The purpose was to highlight the issues of faiths schools and how they impact their communities. The National Secular Society want to make clear the amount of discrimination inherent in the faith schools system. Getting personal The topic of faith schools is a very human story about an issue that people feel very passionate about. With this being the case, rather than using computer software such as photoshop or illustrator to create the assets, we approached this in a more human way. We hand drew the characters, buildings, school signs and all the other assets needed for the animation. This method allowed us to create charming imperfections in the art work that computers would lack. The result Everyone involved was really pleased with the result, a dynamic and educational video that explains the issues that are ingrained within the faith school system with a warm, hand drawn aesthetic that complements the important story being told. Similar Projects Circle Health TMPW AAbot Augmented Reality Buhler Sorting Machine Explainer BBC Doodlebugs NSS Faith Schools Sony Eyepet Augmented Reality The World in Your Hands mCommerce TIPPS Ear Plugs Brugal Rum Talk to a Doctor Aqua Card Duracell Professional IRIS Explainer MONK DBG Truchet Skillsoft Systagenix Bacardi NCP Animated Customer Journey Blackberry Bertie’s Blanket Action Man NCP Nuance Pixar Euro Pixels Vodafone Freebee Gadget Buddy Flex Pollock Pixar Render Farm Decca Records LV= Mazda Qatargas Honda NCP Christmas 2012 MotorStorm Verizon Ninjas Capital FM Virgin Trains...
by tompainter | May 6, 2016 |
The World in Your Hands Stop motion style animation Corporate communications For this project, the brief outlined the need for a short video that combined live action footage and CGI, to promote international banking services. He’s got the whole world To help get across the script in a visual and engaging way the video would star Steve, holding the Earth in his hands, to show just how small the world can feel thanks to modern banking. A mix of old and new We wanted to develop our CGI in a visually engaging style but there were a number of things to consider, we needed to ensure that the important message wasn’t lost in the visuals and that the style worked well. It was agreed that there should be a handmade charm to the campaign with a stop motion style, but our schedule was extremely tight. To combat this we used a combination of traditional techniques and modern CGI to achieve our desired look, this gave us the flexibility to incorporate the best of both techniques in a short space of time. Hand painted props To give our computer generated earth a quirky handmade look, we carefully studied how hand painted wooden props look. Inspired by this we incorporated these ideas in our design, striking a nice balance between clean, simple design and a quirky artisan look. Talk to the gaffer On set we used a real basketball painted blue as a placeholder for our CGI world, which meant all we would need to do in post production is swap the ball for our digital earth. Catching polygons! The last shot...
