In 2022, 1,920 people were killed or seriously injured in drink-driving-related collisions, with young men disproportionately affected. To address this, The UK Government and Department of Transport road safety body THINK! has launched a winter campaign using bold visuals to emphasize that even a little alcohol can risk your licence, freedom, and safety.
In collaboration with design agency VML, Tim McDonagh depicted a whirlpool of beer in a pint glass, into which a young male subject, and his driver’s license, is falling. Tasked with creating animation-ready artwork, Tim meticulously hand-inked the watery scene and its movable elements, before assembling the composition in photoshop to add colour and depth.
Bristol based animation studio Yatta were then hired to bring Tim’s vision to life as a 15-second animation. Since multiple hand-rendered keyframes would surely break Tim, Yatta turned to a 3D mapping process- creating a 3D model of the scene and overlaying Tim’s artwork giving it dynamic movement.
Targeting young male drivers, the campaign's stylised character featured a range of terrified expressions and lifelike paddling, thanks to Yatta’s expertise. They also managed sound design (we can't verify, but hope a paddling pool was involved in the splashing sounds) and typography, delivering assets for Snapchat, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, pubs, and radio ads airing on Kiss and TalkSPORT.
You can follow some key steps in the process below:
Process: Step 1
Tim McDonagh shared his interpretations following a client briefing call. Two concepts were proposed, a wave and a whirlpool, but the latter offered a more interesting central composition and animation possibilities.
Process: Step 2
Once the concept was agreed, Tim began inking the illustration in more detail, supplying a range of alternate poses and expressions for discussion.
Process: Step 3
The chosen pose was developed as two character routes, one for the OOH usage (posters and printed materials) and the other for social media and online use.
Process: Illustration Final
After experimenting with a few colour-ways, the limited colour pallete was decided upon, and Tim took his illustration to final. Keep scrolling to see how Yatta tackled the animation at the next phase...
Process: Step 4
While Tim was refining the final artwork, studio Yatta started exploratory work using his sketches, creating a 3D model of the whirlpool and character, onto which Tim's illustration would be mapped. At this point, we felt like we'd fully entered the matrix...
Process: Step 5
Tim's character was mapped in 3D using just one keyframe, with animators Yatta 'painting in' a 360 degree perspective so the character could be given full articulation.
Process: Animation Final
Taking Tim's final illustration as a reference, Yatta added motion to every reflection, bubble and splash, rendered in incredible detail and various formats for the Think! online and social media campaign.
Credits:
