Giraffes
Case Study
Arc Encounter
The Arc, well, is THE ARC. Yep, the same one from the Biblical tale that Noah constructed. This Arc was constructed to attract guests to view the interactive exhibits and zoo onboard the ship.
The team at the Arc were looking to promote their new experience with some good ol’ animated characters. Big Grin handled all the animation and other aspects of production which we share below.
Located in Kentucky you can learn more about it here
The Strategy
Big Grin’s super strength is working with the industry’s top talent.
We immediately got to work on creating some updated storyboard panels to help push a more cinematic look, carefully watch eye lines, and encourage on-set tracking of characters. We also provided painted boards for art direction.
Animation Process
Giraffes Swing Both Legs On The Same Side At Almost The Time During Their Walk
Animation was supervised by Toby along with the talented Colin Brady from Animagic. Once Big Grin got into a routine for dailies the animation
took about 5 weeks to complete.
To the right is a nearly finished Overcut of the commercial.
We worked with a local rigger by extensive testing and made adjustments into production to assure a smooth and functional character
through the pipeline.
The Look & Feel
The original goal with the groom was to make the Giraffes photo real. Within 2-3 weeks. Easy right? As we were sending test renders the client liked one of the versions that was much softer and made the animals look like a plush doll.
We quickly created Look Dev reference as guidelines. The client made requests to the Giraffes’ horns to make the characters stand out from one another. This was often the most challenging part of the process. We stayed on after final delivery to ensure the groom, look and everything else was working.
Below are a few sneak peeks at a few internal/ external review notes.
Lighting
We got the ball rolling early on with interior and exterior lighting tests. Used mostly to help sell the client on direction, it also allowed us to
test internally on what was and wasn’t working. Our goal was for an easier hand off when finished.
Let's Have Some Fun!
