Character Design

Red Cat Motion: Sticker Packs

Stickers are a lot of fun and cool. Everyone enjoys using it, especially when you want to make your conversation more joyful and less serious. Realizing this, we decided to design our own sticker packs for internal use. “Knock Knock deadline is coming..!”

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Even if it is our personal project, we always respect the process. Our character is a Cat in Red. Just by looking at him, he must be a lot of fun. These candidates were initially proposed by our team. They were okay, but not exciting enough.

The team never gave up and made more versions.

Finally, this is the candidate we decided on. You might be wondering why, but if you look at the animated version, you'll see that he's the right one.

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We hope you like him.

Rap Viet: "Dare or not" Music Animation ft Yuno Bigboi

We collaborated with Rap Viet, the hottest TV show of Vietnam in 2020 to produce an animated MV featuring the voice of Yuno Bigboi.

The main character is Yuno Bigboi

We tried a few cartoon character options. The design must reflect Yuno Bigboi in real life. At first, we tried to make him as cute as possible, for example with big round eyes. In the end, we realized we don’t need big eyes to show cuteness.

Yuno Bigboi, the main character in our design process, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion
Yuno Bigboi illustration Process, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion
Yuno Bigboi illustration Process, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion
Final Yuno Bigboi illustration, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion

We only have a few background illustrations in the MV because we wanted to focus more on the character. The MV is about Tet so everything needs to show that feeling.

Rap Viet background illustration, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion

We also have some sub-characters to make the MV more exciting. They are family members, friends. Tet is all about reunion.

rap viet family friends illustration, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion
Rap Viet friend illustration, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion
rap viet friend illustration 2, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion
rap viet friend illustration 3, Visual Storytelling Agency, Red Cat Motion

Let’s see how we did the animation.

More than 100 illustrations were drawn.

Pepsi: Animated TVC

We are proud to work with Pepsi Vietnam on their new TVC spot to celebrate TET 2020. Our scope includes 1 TVC Spot and 2 KVs.

Client: Pepsi Vietnam
Agency: BBDO
Production House: Red Cat Motion, Freaky Motion
Director: Leo DINH

Team BBDO
Account: Nhi Doan, Yen Pham, Huong Nguyen
Art Director: Ngoc Tiny, Khanh Dinh
Copywriter: Sang Huynh

Team Red Cat Motion
Account: Phuong Uyen
Lead 2D Character Animator: Mai Nguyen
Clean Up Artist: Tru Nguyen Hoang, Tuyen Nguyen, Vo Hoan (Hương), Loan, Như, Nhat Lynn Nguyen
Concept Artist: Nguyễn Thành Long

Team Freaky Motion
3D producer: Nguyễn Chí Trung
3D motion design: Nguyễn Hữu Đạt
3D graphic design: Nguyễn Hồng Nhung
Compositing: Leo DINH

Music/Sound Design: Luke Brown, Liam

It is an exciting moment to see our works display everywhere.

Character Design

Pepsi has the design already. However, they are used for the packaging only, so we have to redevelop them for the animation. A model sheet was built. It was a real challenge for us to bring the character to life.

Pepsi Vietnam, Video Marketing Agency, Red Cat Motion
Some design options for its nose.

Some design options for its nose.

Pepsi was very happy with the 2D character, and they came up with another brief which transformed the character into 3D. Unfortunately, this character will be used for another project.

Styleframes

Based on the initial brief, we designed the styleframes with solid blue Pepsi colour background. However, the client didn’t feel the mood of TET there, so we changed our approach.

A real background was added to the scenes. We didn’t shoot the background but used stock images and manipulated it with items to create the TET mood.

Pepsi Vietnam, Video Marketing Agency, Red Cat Motion
Pepsi Vietnam, Video Marketing Agency, Red Cat Motion

This is the final styleframes.

Animation

The project was in a rush, and the TVC spot need to stay 15 seconds only. Also, the 3D team and 2D team didn’t work at the same place so we needed to plan the animation carefully.

Minh Long Ceramic: TVC

Tet is a traditional occasion for Vietnamese people to send out the best wishes for health and good luck in the coming year. People often give meaningful gifts to show their respect and love for the others. For this Tet holiday, we introduce to you Minh Long Pot God, representing Minh Long’s new healthy cooking product, delivering healthy porcelain pot filled with good luck and health to the whole family.

Client: Minh Long
Agency: Redder Advertising
Production House: Red Cat Motion, Planion, Alien Media.

This project is fun but also challenging because we only have 2 weeks to deliver the video before Tet Holiday.

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The character was provided by agency. Based on their rough design, we revise it for animation purpose. From 2D design, we modeled and made it more lively.

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See the main character in Action.

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The client didn’t request these photos, but we tried to add more cinematic look to the scene.

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Biti's Kid's: Animated Short Film

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If you haven’t known yet, in Vietnam we celebrate Tet as our new year day which is the first day of the first month in the Lunar Calendar. It is considered the biggest and most popular festival of the year in Vietnam.

Local people take the longest holiday on Tet, and there are so many traditional activities to do like saying goodbye to Kitchen God, wrapping Chung cake with families, visiting relatives, friends and neighbors. Kids will receive lucky money on Tet.

Nowadays, the young generation doesn’t know much about these traditions and their origins, so Biti’s Kid wants to do a meaningful activity. They create a board game for families to play on Tet with their kids and tell them about beautiful stories of Tet.

Red Cat Motion creates a short film to introduce Biti’s Board Game. The main theme is “racing Tet”. 4 main characters representing 4 traditions of Tet will race together and collect their items along the journey. Who gets the first 3 items and returns to their destination will become the winner.

It was such a long journey to see our imagination comes true.

There was no hesitation when our director decided to combine 2D character animation style on a 3D pop-up background. This was the first time we experimented with a new art style, but the client trusted us and wanted us to do our best.

The Board Game

The board game is a race between 4 characters who are Lang Lieu, Mai An Tiem, Kitchen God, and Lucky Money Girl. Each character stands for a Vietnamese-specific tradition. Lang Lieu was the one who found Chung cake and became the 7th Hung King. Mai An Tiem was abandoned on an isolated island by his king. Living on the island, he found a seed that grew to watermelon. He carved his name on every watermelon and drop them on the water. On the land, people found his watermelon and told the king. The king invited him back to the land. Mai An Tiem was considered to be the ancestor of growing watermelons in Viet Nam.

To win the game, each character needs to collect 3 items. For example, Mai An Time has to collect a watermelon, a boat, his tools and return to his destination before other competitors to win the game.

To play the game, each player chooses a character and drops the dice and moves their character respectively to the number shown on the dice.

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Our Scope

Make a short film to promote the board game. The film needs to feature all the characters racing together and collect items to win the game.

A Map

Based on the board game, 4 characters will run and only one participant will win the race. We need to bring that theme to the film. To do that, we designed a map that is detailed enough to know which items need to be designed.

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Characters

The characters must be fun and cute to attract our target audiences. All characters wear local traditional customs.

From left to right: Lang Lieu, Mai An Tiem, God Kitchen, Lucky Money Girl.

From left to right: Lang Lieu, Mai An Tiem, God Kitchen, Lucky Money Girl.

But appears to help Lang Lieu at the end of the story.

But appears to help Lang Lieu at the end of the story.

In-Game Elements

Because our director wanted to have a fly cam view to see the magical world, we need to design enough elements to bring it alive. It is such a massive amount of works within 4 weeks.

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3D Design

The 3D team did such a great job of bringing all the sketches to life.

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Layout

Only 3 days before the deadline, we sorted this out as we wanted to make every single scene as good as possible.

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Storyboard

The storyboard is a must in every animation project.

Animation

For character animation, we chose the traditional method to make them fluid and smooth. Each character comes with a model sheet to guide the animator.

Each action was drawn roughly to get the right rhythm. When the key action is locked, the animator will draw in-between frames to create smoothness. If the director is happy, all the frames will be cleaned up before painting. Traditional animation requires an enormous effort but it is fun to watch the final outcome. See this video to understand our process.

Title Design

To help viewers remember the name of each character, our client requested to have a title for each of them.

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2D Background for Opening

The client wanted to show the family playing the game before the camera flies into the box and show the in-game world. We need to separate the 2 worlds so we decided to paint the background.

Credit

Client: Biti's KIDS
Brand Manager: Lê Tăng Gia Phú

Agency: Redder Advertising
Video Agency: Red Cat Motion
3D Production House: Freaky Motion

Director: Leo DINH
Producer: Cao Châu
Account: Trần Hồng Phúc

Storyboard Artist: Nguyễn Hoàng Vĩnh Khang
Art Directors: Kim Phụng, Ty Heo (Ngọc Trâm)
Designer: Bi Võ
Illustrator: Nhật Lynn
Concept Artists: Kim Phụng, Ty Heo, Trung Tín, Nhật Lynn, Quỳnh Như, Thành Long, Tuyền Nguyễn

Motion Leader: Minh Phạm
Animators: Nguyễn Tất Viễn, Sơn Vũ

Hand-Drawn Animation Leader: Mai Nguyen 
Key Animators: Mai Nguyen, Khoa Bùi, Nguyễn Hoàng Vĩnh Khang, Lâm Tân Khoa 
In-between & Clean up Artists: Khoa Bùi, Nguyễn Thanh Phương, Tuyền Nguyễn
Colour Artists: Lâm Tân Khoa, Nguyễn Thanh Phương, Tuyền Nguyễn, Nguyễn Hoàng Trụ, Ngọc Mỹ, Nhật Lynn, Quỳnh Như

3D/VFX Supervisor: Nguyễn Hoàng Anh
Technical Director: Đỗ Lê Duy
3D Motion Leader: Nguyễn Hữu Đạt
3D Motion Designer: Dương Thế Anh
3D Model/ Graphic Leader: Nguyễn Hồng Nhung
3D Texture/ Concept Artist: Nguyễn Thị Bích Lan
3D Generalists: Nguyễn Hà Phương, Nguyễn Chí Trung

Sound Designer: Luke Brown, Liam Iliffe
Voice Talent: bé Minh Tiến

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