“The Bear and The Hare” for John Lewis

UPDATE: The making of video is up, and it’s simply astounding:

The Making Of: The Bear & The Hare from Hornet Inc on Vimeo.

Yves Geleyn and Elliot Dear worked with the talented team at Hornet / Blinkink to produce this heartwarming story of The Bear and The Hare.

The style and content harkens back to classic English illustrated children’s books, and the campaign extends to other platforms such as interactive ebook, classic kids book and an Ipad app. I love the blend of 2D characters against the background which I’m guessing is a combination of miniature and 3D backgrounds.

From the press release: ‘The marriage of traditional hand-drawn 2D animation with stop-frame model animation creates a tangible world full of texture and detail that conveys the honesty behind the John Lewis Christmas message.’

Also a nice informative Guardian article about it here. 

Executive Producers
Bart Yates
Michael Feder
Producers
Bart Yates
James Stevenson Bretton
Josephine Gallagher
Line Producer
Kev Harwood
Production Manager
Benjamin Lole
2D Animation
Premise Entertainment LLC
2D Animation Supervisors
Aaron Blaise
Dominic Carola
2D Line Producer
Iris Pearson
2D Animators
Erin Humiston
Darko Cesar
Head of Clean-up 2D Animation
Janelle Bell-Martin
2D Clean-up Artists
Mi Yul Lee
Teresa Quezada-Geer
Jacque Pierro
Chad Thompson
Jason Peltz
2D Compositor/Scene Setup
Mac Masters
2D Artistic Coordinator
Pam Darley
2D Digital Artist
Anthony West
Enoc Castaneda
2D Lead Colourist/Coordinator
James Lancett
2D Colourists
Sean Weston
Joseph Sparkes
Frankie Swan
Harriet Gillian
Assistant 2D Colourist
Lila Peuscet
2D Illustrator Technician
Albert Sala
Printers
The Graphical Tree
Laser Cutting
Ewen Dickie
Designer/Typographer
Robert Frank Hunter
Storyboard Artists
Sav Akyuz
Steve Tappin
James Lancett
Robert Frank Hunter
3D Technical Director
Patrick Hearn
3D Previsualisation Artist
Simone Ghilardotti
Lucas Cuenca
Johannes Sambs
Lead Stop-Frame Animator
Andy Biddle
Stop-Frame Animators
Daniel Ojari
Daniel Gill
Production Designer/
Supervising Modeller
John Lee
Art Department Modellers
Colin Armitage
Sonya Yu
Maggie Haden
Collette Pidgeon
Yossel Simpson Little
Richard Blakey
Gary Welch
Christy Matta
Lucy Begent
Scenic Painters
Fiona Stewart
Beth Quinton
Rigging Department
Richard Blakey
Art Department Assistants
Morgan Faverty
Anna Ginsburg
Jennifer Newman
MOCO/Camera Assistant
Max Halstead
Director of Photography
Toby Howell
Gaffer
Aldo Camilleri
Runner
Robert Gould
Post Production
Blinkink Studios
Post Production/Compositing
Alasdair Brotherston
Ian Sargent
Carlos Diego
Jonathan Gallagher
Elliot Dear
Editors
Sam Sneade at Speade
Ellie Johnson at Speade
Sound Design
Sam Robson at Factory Studios
Colourist
Jean-Clement Soret at MPC
‘Making of ’ Film
Jake Hopwell & Josh Hine
Studio Manager
Elizabeth Day
Studio Assistant
Toby Goodyear

Catering
Laura Barbi
Advertising Agency
Adam & Eve DDB
Executive Creative Director
Ben Priest
Creative Directors
Aidan McClure
Laurent Simon
Agency Producer
Anthony Falco
Assistant Producer
Catherine Cullen

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About the author

Lilian Darmono

/ www.liliandarmono.com
Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lilian moved to Singapore and eventually Australia for her studies, eventually graduating from Swinburne NID in Prahran, Melbourne. She then worked in print design before deciding to switch to the field of Motion Design in late 2003. Her obsessions include travelling, illustrating, and cats. She is currently in the London leg of her 'Mograph Tour Around The World', and calls Melbourne home.

19 Comments

eti

amazing!!!!!!

woebot

The bear looks EXACTLY like the slightly ugly bears in Disney’s “Brother Bear”. Otherwise a nice spot.

woebot

i see the 2d animator worked on that film.

lumerbub

I was actually surprised how expensive a spot like this is, how long it takes and how many people are involved… but anyway nice work

Lilian Darmono

Yes, this is why we at Motionographer strive to obtain a full credit list whenever possible. Be sure to check the making of video as well, it’s breathtaking.

Kris

Fantastic animation! Beautiful.

But I still don’t understand why they shot 2D cutouts, vs. compositing in the 2D animation. Its so precise you lose the tangible feeling of the paper cutouts.

lumerbub

After watching the making of, I really was surprised why the made the extra effort using cut outs. I think it would be possible with pure compositing as well, concerning DOF and lightning.

Adam

The making of the video is crazy.

Tyquane Wright (@tyquane_wright)

Haha…Yup, thats the first cel-animated looking stop-motion making of video I’ve ever seen. Dang

persabersaPjotrr

Don’t get me wrong, it looks really nice and all but why on earth would go thru the pain of all that. Whats the gain instead of doing it in comp or 3d? Waste of money, but atleast it employed some animators.

nick oh

Well, it simply look different than all of those 3D stuff. AND in times of UHDTV it could be the faster and cheaper way in future ;).. just kidding.

James

The video looks great, but I agree; why the cut outs? I am sure they could have created the same look in post. As well, there is a lack or weak story… but maybe that has something to do with the fact that there was no director? which is very surprising in the first place. Seems like the animation has been made a bit too democratically..? But again overall the look is very nice, just could have been better with so many people involved…

Toby Howell

It was directed by Elliot and Yves!
We had a lot of value added by the whole process- Andy Biddle was able to add and change animation on set by using the set of cutouts as a “kit of parts”- replacements he could switch around as he felt fit. So it was animated in two completely different disciplines.
Toby

Chris Roth

Wow! I was sure that was all CG! Great work! Great lighting!

tuesday mcgowan

Incredible . . . the tedious process of using cutouts produces a tactile and more physical result. It’s in the details of light, shadow and texture. Nice work.

Ed

It looks great! I just couldnt see any point in shooting cutouts instead of compositing afterwards in some compositing software. It looked like it was a 2d animation, so why the extra effort? Great work anyways…

biglou

it really added nothing for it to be cut out.

Comments are closed.