Brico Christmas greetings
Headvertising wrote two lovely scripts for me to animate for their client, Brico.
One of the scripts was meant to be for internal use only, but they liked the final animation so much they released it also on their public social media.
Brico | Animation 1: Robot Hugs
The script shows a cat sleeping under a christmas tree. Two wind-up tin-toys enter the screen from opposite sides, they walk towards each other with arms up, going for a hug. Unfortunately just a few steps from each other, their wing-up keys end their rotation, stopping them in their tracks. The sleeping cat notices this, and nonchalantly pushes one of the tintoys to the other, helping them to arrive in full embrace.
While the brief was written as a mute animation, I felt the story would benefit immensely from having sound, especially to help portray the mechanical movement of the tin toys, and to have some silent moments before the "crashing" embrace- so I suggested incorporating sound design as well. It was fortunate that this project was well-organized and there was time for this extra execution. (Thank you Head team!)
Storyboard
Character design sketches
The look of our main characters are important, so I made character design sketches first before cutting the animatic. The challenge is to add little details to the characters so they feel like an old school tin toy, but the overall shape and color must be strong to stand out from the complex and rich background, that should be filled with half-open presents under a decorated christmas tree.
Background styleframe
Animatic
Since the tintoys come in from opposite sides off screen, it's especially important to be aware of safe space on various social media interface. UI elements cover a lot of the image, so at animatic stage the unsafe areas should always be present to plan for animation layout.
The client also wanted the animation in both 1920x1080 and square, so active area has to be carefully designed.
Styleframes
After the animatic and styleframes are done, we move on to final animation and add sound fx after picture lock.
Done!
This animated greeting solicited a lot of "awws" and "we want episode two!" from viewers, so I'm happy to report it was a success!
Brico | Animation 2: Snowman (15 sec)
The script from Headvertising: We are inside a larder, in front of a fridge. On the fridge is a child's drawing of himself, holding hands with a snowman. Suddenly the fridge door opens, revealing the same snowman inside the fridge, having made himself comfortable in what seems to be his home now.
End with packshot: "Keep safe the good memories you've made this winter. Happy Holidays from Brico"
Storyboard
Animatic
Styleframes
I designed the styleframes with temperature contrast in mind. We start in a warm, dark cellar of a larder room, but as we open the fridge door, the snowman's room is in a cold but bright colors.
After the animatic and styleframes are approved, the animation is then finalized.
Thank you!