“Swatch has teamed up with kidrobot, an art-driven toy and lifestyle brand, to create ‘kidrobot for Swatch’, a collection of eight Gent watches, each accompanied by a complimentary Dunny. Dunny is kidrobot’s iconic and highly collectible bunny-like vinyl toy, a customizable canvas for artists from widely varying backgrounds”.
The italian studio has produced 8 dynamic minifilms, bringing to life in full throttle technicolor glory, the Gent & Dunny designs of renowned artists Gary Baseman, Jeremyville, Frank Kozik, Joe Ledbetter, MAD, Tara McPherson, SSUR, and Tilt.
After 1404 artfully crafted frames, the Happycentro team details the making-of:
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When we started the project we had:
-a good brief
-a blank Dunny
-and eight .ai files with graphics, the colour palette of each toy, and a watch from each artist.
The process:
*choosing to have our one and only Frankenstein experience creating a unique object synthesising these two powerful products: thus the ‘Kouniklochronocephalus’ was born, a rabbit-bodied and watch-headed creature. It is the symbol of the project and the basis for all our clips
*hotwire-cut, glued, sanded, smoothed, cam-shaped, assembled, painted, and mechanized our creature. (thanks a lot to Piet)
*staring at graphics for long hours trying to take each Dunny into its own world- to animate the designer’s idea, while adding our own touch.
*drawing real pencil storyboards, projecting virtual 3D objects, animating simulated animatics to study and determine positions, heights, widths, sizes, rotations, shifts, directions, persistences, speeds of everything in the videos.
*filling, with a custom language, a 156 column x 15 row grid sheet, each box being checked off frame by frame, tracking the status of every single object.
*plasticine-squeezing, sylicone-moulding, wax-melting, paper-cutting, wood-drilling, tissue-sewing, and character-designing.
*capture: Enter, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, -, +, -, +, 0, 8, 3, Enter hitting; (thanks a lot to Dragon)
*looking for proper sounds for each episode, catching the right vibe by mixing played instruments, electronic beats and special fx, and matching the right frame with the right sound; (thanks a lot to MellowSong Studio).
*re-doing one of the episodes ;(
*backing up, exporting, color correcting, compositing, masking, demasking, reframing, finishing, appleProRessing, H.264ing, uploading, and backing up again-everything; (thanks a lot to Darkside).
*having a great time with the guys at Swatch and Florian above all.
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“Since we’ve discovered Dragon, our work has changed for the better!”
-Federico Galvani of the Happycentro Team
The making-of video (also with great sound design) is below.
Client: Swatch AG
Written, Directed & Produced by: Happycentro
Director of Photography: Federico Padovani
Animated by: Federico Galvani, Federico Padovani, Andrea Manzati, Andrea Donà
Sculpting & Models: Piet Paeshuyse, Andrea Manzati, Federico Galvani, Andrea Donà
Set Design, Construction & Props: Federico Padovani & Roberto Solieri
Original Music, Sound Design & Mix: MellowSong Studio
Visual Effects Supervisor: Massimiliano Mazzi (Darkside Studio)
Compositors, Editors & Colourist: Massimiliano Mazzi & Simone Venturi (Darkside Studio)
Art Director: Federico Galvani
Producer Mentor: Federico Padovani
Making-Of Video Operator: Rodolfo Hernandez