By Nicola Bible, Junior Animator at Orange Fox Studios
Hello there! Thank you for taking the time to join me as I talk through the making of ‘The Orange Fox’ animated advert for Orange Fox Studios. Firstly (if you haven’t already) please check out the finished advert here.
If you didn’t already know, I joined Orange Fox Studios back in July 2020 as an intern, after using the first lockdown to work towards a portfolio of Motion Graphic work. At the beginning of September, Creative Director Lee Tomes asked me about working on an advert for the studio. The idea being for the advert to promote Orange Fox Studio’s ability to create high quality animation that ‘banished the bland and the boring’ (the studio’s motto and mission statement).
STARTING THE PROCESS
The first step was to get the thinking caps on, jotting down ideas and searching for inspiration (mainly on Pinterest). Lee suggested that the Fox could ‘bring the forest to life’ as a metaphor for Orange Fox being able to take animation to the next level. This was where the idea was born for the fox coming out of hibernation and by doing so, waking up the rest of the forest (by having a bit of a party!). From here we created what we call a ‘story flow’ document which outlined our chosen story. Think of it as a written storyboard of sorts.
Initial mood-board of ideas.
Below is the initial sketch of the fox character. I really liked this, but soon realised there were limitations to the design if I were to make the character walk and dance. When discussing the design with Lee, we agreed that the fox needed to appeal to a different audience as this first design was very child friendly. Back to the drawing board it was!
Some simple and initial storyboard frames
These were created to get a rough idea of what assets and backgrounds would need to be made. The next step was to get into Adobe Illustrator and get creating!
CREATING ASSETS AND THE ‘LOOK AND FEEL’
The first thing that I created in Illustrator was the Fox, as this was the star of the show, it was pretty important! This part of the process was a huge learning curve for me. My experience in Illustrator was very minimal at this point so there were a few things that, later on in my process, I had to overcome because of the way in which I designed the fox initially. (But I will talk more about that later).
A snapshot from my Pinterest inspiration board
Like the look of how we work? Looking for an animation film for your own company or business? Look no further! Head over to our showcase page to check out more of our films. Or if you are ready to chat, get in touch worth us here.
