Technique
CLIENT
Animation studio
Animator
YEAR
We were contacted by Open University in regards to a second season of Parole they were going to launch with BBCTwo. The commission was to help create animations for an interactive experience to accompany the upcoming series . The animations focused on responses to crime as part of their platform co-produced by The Open University and the BBC, and supported by leading OU academics from the Faculty of Business and Law. The online digital interactive activity was designed to present the different sorts of reactions seen online to true crime programmes and the people featured on them. The presentation of these opinions were to take forma as fictional ‘reels’ in which made-up social media users speak to the camera and give their view. Our job was to create 5 different kinds of characters, all 2D hand drawn animated with added VO’s to be implemented in the interactive platform and framed as if they were filmed on a smartphone for social media. Importantly, we had to showcase a variety of the UK personalities and cultures to be inclusive.
OU handed us a very interesting brief with a clear overview and specific requirements, but the overall style, texture, colour palette and design was left open for us to develop. We were given a deadline and references to understand the concept of the Open University.
One of the challenges was to accommodate everything within budget and timeline. We had presented different options during the briefing round, containing different amounts of elements and complexity to show what the “animation packages” would cost. Open University chose one package and from there on we developed the different elements. We were in touch with Steff in Broadcasting and from the very beginning it was an easy going and kind communication. However, Open University had several people behind the project and we needed confirmation on the progress throughout with different academics to make sure that facts and reality matched the animation and illustrations. Everything from character design to facial expressions, outfits, movement, skin colours, body size and shape, accents and dialects had to fit fictional yet factual criterias. Being able to keep developing assets and amending within the timeframe was of essence and the way to do that was creating an open source art direction deck for the client to look at and follow the progress. This way, we could continue working while assets were being reviewed and not slow down the production process.
Open University delivered references from Parole Season 1, character references and descriptions for visuals and VO so the animations could mimic the existing style.
Flying Duck brought in the talented illustrator and animator Paulo Mosca to do the character design and animations. We got in touch with our guys, Alan and Ant from Airtight Studio to source VO talent to do the different voice overs. Based on all the references given we could start developing initial hand drawn sketches of characters to set tone and style that would also define styleframes and animatics. One of the first steps was getting the final script from OU so Airtight Studio could record different samples to show the client. While the sound studio was working, we were creating styleframes for approval. Once the colours, outfits, styles and setup had been greenlit, we then developed animatics for each character. Early on Paulo did movement and facial expression tests to make sure they looked real. In order to save time and be efficient, Paulo developed the animatics so close to the finish line that we could bring in all the recorded VOs and show them to OU for final review and then refine lip sync to the VO and final movements and details afterwards before delivering the 5 animations.
We designed everything in Illustrator first and then we brought the elements to Blender where we composed them and played with different colours, textures and animation to have more flexibility.
Illustrator, Blender
Open University were extremely happy with the result and workflow, as were we. It was an absolute pleasure working with them throughout and a really cool brief to work from.
Creative Director: Alixe Lobato
Animation & VO producer: Josephine Amalie von Bülow
Illustrator/Animator: Paulo Mosca
Voice Over Recording Studio: Airtight Studio, Alan Lowles & Ant Davey
Automated page speed optimizations for fast site performance