BACKGROUND
We were approached by Samsung UK’s creative marketing department to create video bumpers for their exclusive TV Plus channel, Comedy Hub. These bumpers would be featured between ad breaks and the shows they aired, embodying Comedy Hub’s core brand identity – playful, lighthearted, and above all, humorous.
After accepting the job, we were handed a brief and asked to produce these bumpers from the ground up. This means producing an animatic, starting look development, animation tests, and ultimately delivering the final piece. Here we hope to explain the process step-by-step.
THE BRIEF
The creative brief drew inspiration from the golden age of slapstick comedy. Our characters follow in the footsteps of comedic icons like the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin. Being squashed, squeezed and shot out of cannons, we follow them on their hijinks through familiar comedic situations that are synonymous with humour, all the while reinforcing the Comedy Hub brand with smooth logo animations and a strong visual identity.
LOOK DEVELOPMENT
Our characters had only existed in 2D up to this point, and the next mission was to translate them into 3D. After some iterations, we landed on a look that our client was happy with, which was consistent with the Samsung Comedy Hub brand, and existing marketing material. We rigged these characters so they could be animated easily without straying from the approved models, and moved onto giving them their little personalities.
ANIMATION
Once approved, we used the animatic as reference and began implimenting final animation in 3D. It was really important to breathe personality into our very simple characters, which meant being as expressive as possible with the animation. We paid close attention to established animation principles, taking inspiration from classic cartoons. The limited facial expressions meant that personality had to be expressed through movement – the way the balls bounce around, bump into eachother, and move with purpose.
Meanwhile, other members of our team began working on a 2D animatic based on the storyboard. This helped us to establish timings, which was important to iron out at the start, as we had a rather strict 90s time limit. It also enabled us to get a feel for the tactile properties of our characters – their rigidity and squishiness, and the ways in which they express emotion with their very simple, but emotive facial expressions.
THE RESULT
After rendering and adding sound, we ended up with our final piece. These bumpers are a central part of the Comedy Hub brand, and are shown on Samsung’s TV channel all across the world. You may even recognise them.
