Orchard worked closely with our friends at Stonedogs and Snap to produce ‘Disney’ level 2D animation for the comically astute recent Purple Bricks TVC.

The team worked on the look and feel of the animated doves right from conception. We provided the director with sketches and poses of all the possible routes we could use to approach the creative.

Once we agreed on the correct route to hit the right tone for the ad, we began animation tests. These tests help us to refine every frame of the character’s animation, this further helps to drive the overall narrative in the ad. As we would not be receiving any plates until ten days before delivery, this process was essential to aid our ability to deliver the project.

CHARACTER DESIGN

The animators worked at breakneck speed to get as much character into the animation. It was essential on such a short turnaround that we worked as efficiently as possible. All the shots had to be worked on concurrently, as the edit would not be 100% signed off until later in the production schedule. So the team had to work as flexibly as possible, something very challenging with hand-drawn animation.

Once all the live-action shots were ready to work on, the team finished refining and finalising all the poses and animations. Each frame was then coloured and rendered, prepared for final comp.

ANIMATION TEST

Our brief for the comp was to give the animation a vintage, ethereal feel. The plates had already been graded to look diffused and dreamlike, so the bird’s had to be stylised to make them seamlessly sit alongside the live action. The main aim of the comp was to make sure that the bold cartoon birds didn’t become the main focus of each shot, and that there was a harmony between the live action and animation.

To achieve this we slightly eroded and softened the hard black outlines of the animations and gave them a overall diffused glow. We then slightly degraded the bright colours and added film grain to add some subtle imperfections. To make the animation further sit within the shots, we also added shadows to make it look like they were cast by the birds on to the live action surroundings.

FINAL 30 SEC AD

The entire team are super proud of the final TVC and the tone it hits. The animation we completed made such a difference to the successful execution of this creative.

Software: Toon Boom, After Effects

AGENCY: SNAP London
PRODUCER: Catherine Long
DIRECTOR: Hugues de la Brosse
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Liam Wilson
CREATIVE TEAM: George Cartwright & Lucas Robin
ONLINE & VFX: Brian Carbin
POST PRODUCER: Richard Hawkins
ANIMATION PRODUCER: Martin Cook (Orchard Post)
ANIMATION DIRECTOR: George Grimble (Orchard Post)
COMPOSITOR: Luke Barker (Orchard Post)
ANIMATORS: George Grimble & Emma Kelly (Orchard Post)
COLOUR GRADE: No. 8