Character & Concept
We explored extensive sketches and thumbnails to capture both the light and dark sides of email. The characters blend the familiar email icon with the expressive, sometimes offbeat, emotions of the emojis we use in messaging apps.
Pitch Visual
Our initial pitch frame was so well received that we moved straight to storyboarding, using it as the visual benchmark – see below.
Email with expression...
It’s one thing to sketch an idea, but we bring those concepts to life. Playing with the envelope fold as an eyebrow was straightforward, but turning that frown upside down took some thinking - until we realised we could simply invert it into a big smile. Adding various “swear” tags gave the final typographic punch to our ranting emails.
And once we new our concept was working, the world was bult and the characters were rigged it was onto
Storyboarding
A layer within a layer within layer...
Unlike the problematic emails themselves, every element required careful planning. The characters were animated first using a mix of rigging techniques - from Joysticks and Sliders to Duik and RubberHose - then composited into the video screens. Those screens were subsequently rendered and placed into 3D shots onto mesh models, which were then rendered and recomposited to be stylised and finessed into overall video screen design.
If you liked this then have a look at the full film...
