Uclan

Uclan Chog Zoo Animation Brief

We were honoured to be asked to take part in Uclan's 2nd year brief for the university's animation course, with the students task being to create a 30 second promotional animation that could publicise Chog Zoo. We then offered guidance and technical advice to the students as their brief progressed, before eventually selecting the top three.

It was a difficult task to say the least, but it was rewarding to be able to help out students and hopefully give them an insight into the hazy, crazy world of professional briefs and adhering to time restrictions in animation.

With students producing work of such an impressive quality, we were faced with an incredibly tough choice. Nevertheless, we had to select "winners", and here are the top three:

3rd - "Dream" - by Kate Muldowney & Hannah Williams

The storybook feeling and nostalgia that Hannah and Kate have created really impressed us, and at the animatic stage we had already been really blown away. Communicating the idea of a love for creativity, and how dreams can blossom from a young age was very in keeping with our personal history and lifelong love for storytelling. Watch "Dream" here!

2nd - "Park" - Kevin List & Jamie Sellers

The clever idea of integrating varying styles of animation was a great way to collaborate using very different technical approaches. The final render came together very nicely, and the attention to detail in the 3D really impressed us - notice the way certain parts of scenery pop out, like the bench unfolding and picnic bench umbrellas growing. Watch "Park" here

1st - "Rusty Beard" - David Applegate & Heyi

We found the surreal atmosphere that Heyi and David created to be very entertaining, and the comic timing had us chuckling on each repeat view. Rusty Beard is a very memorable creation, neatly edited and consistently amusing. We feel that creating memorable situations is essential in brand promotion, and it is for this reason that we awarded Rusty Beard first place. Watch "Rusty Beard" here

Offerly

What the heck is Offerly?

Chog Zoo was recently approached by Offerly to conceptualise, design and completely produce a new informative video about their service. Once familiarising ourselves with the key points, we were able to creatively communicate the core values of the Offerly brand, and deliver a simple breakdown that is easy to understand. We think we nailed it; because we're nice, and that's the sort of thing that we do.

To lighten up the piece and add humour (along with a bit of humanity in what has become a stale, robotic world of commercial videos), we created a character to communicate ideas dynamically. Along with the clean graphics which appear throughout, an anthropomorphic character should hopefully make the animation memorable, but we'll leave that up to you. We obviously remember him because we spent ages designing and animating him.

All in all, a fantastic client, and we're very happy with the outcome. Take a look at the video below and see the fruits of our labour, while at the same time you can discover what on earth I've been babbling on about!

Cowabungalow

...and graphics tablets.

Lost in a whirlwind of life related occurrences, we have somehow had Cowabungalow in production (on and off - mostly off) for hundreds and hundreds of days. We have resumed production yet again with fresh 2013 eyes, and it is looking beautiful. It really is quite lovely. Traditionally, we kept things to a distinct pencilled style, scanning in doodles for a home grown look, but since Father Christmas bestowed a graphics tablet upon Kyle back in December, experimentation has been under way. I created a Photoshop brush to mimic my heavy old 5B pencil, and these two frames (above, and below) are the initial product. This digital shift should hopefully speed up production a bit with us no longer having to do things like sharpen pencils, switch the scanner on, scan things and so forth. Okay, it might save a few minutes, but that's cool, right?

Anyway, it's time to get back to work. Lots of animating to be getting on with, so goodbye for now. Keep an eye out for our new show that should be definitely be finished some time in the next decade!

Kiroco Jewellery

Chog Zoo Ventures Into Live Action

Kiroco jewellery entrusted Chog Zoo with the epic task of creating a video that could communicate the concept of their new product quickly and concisely. When, during early development, the idea of combining animation with live action was discussed, we stepped it up a gear and decided to deliver the whole package in-house; from concept and storyboards, all the way through to filming, post production, animation, effects, edit and many many cups of coffee. Look, there are more screenshots below for your immediate pleasure!

Along with the need to explain the function of the jewellery, the short film had to be accessible to a target market that essentially covers childhood to the elderly. An impossible task you might say. Wrong! Chog Zoo delivered a short film, using fancy DSLRs and directing real life flesh and blood actors (not the usual cartoon characters we’re typically used to) to show the journey of a message through jewellery.  We fluidly combined this live footage with an animated segment (aha!) and applied some swanky After Effects magic, creating particle effects and pixie dust to visually suggest the concept of a travelling message. Watch the video below to see what the hell we’re on about.