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.

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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.

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Omo Matic Wonderland: Key Visual Design

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Omo Vietnam starts a new campaign to share the idea which their products are a combination of natural scents and high technology. In order to convey that Idea, Creative Hunts Agency came up with a concept of showing 2 hands, one is a human hand and the other one is a robot hand, standing on different sides reaching each other. Red Cat Motion was in charge of the technology part where we designed, modeled, and produced the hand.

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Sketches and Proposal

We did a lot of researches and sketches for the hand. Our goal was not to make the hand too complex but friendly and premium.

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Shooting

The other elements were shot in a studio by a shooting company. We joined the shooting in order to advise on the lighting.

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Shooting other elements in a studio.

Shooting other elements in a studio.

3D Robot Hand Development

Based on the approved sketches, we designed and sculpted the 3D hand.

1st Render Test

The first effort was never enough. We needed to adjust the lighting and change some details of the hand.

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2nd Render Test

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Final KV

We were quite happy with the final results. The final images were retouched and polished by the photoshoot company.

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Red Imagination: Virtual Exhibition

RED-IMAGINATION

A collaborative project to redefine Red Cat Motion

At Red Cat Motion, we imagine ourselves as a magic hat. Flip it over and the world around you gets reimagined. You’ll find yourself lost in a book of untold fairy tales, where you would be hunting long-lost treasures, hungry for new discoveries, or traveling deep in the past, or an enthralling land of the future. Call it landing on your dreams and yes, a magic hat can make it happen to you. Join us on an adventure where the magic of creativity drives around an unexpected yet mysterious journey until you reach your ultimate goals. Get yourself equipped to giggle, play, and get so immersed that you may find your own self re-imagined into millions of wildest dreams. Welcome to the show!

The exhibition is closed, but you can watch it here.

Intro Video

We would like to thank our team and beloved partners to make this project happen. 

Artists: Maxk Nguyen, Remon Mabunay, Mason Dickerson, Kim Phung, Thanh Long, Phong Luong, Ngo Quang Dinh, Tru Hoang, Minh Pham.

Studio: Freaky Motion, Planion, Monstio

Developer: Nguyen Tat Dat

Creative Director: Leo DINH

Creative writer: Tien Khong (Dentsu Redder)

Project Manager: Minh Huong

Sound Designer: Luke Brown (The Soundry)

Enjoy and share if you love our creations. 

7up Fido Dido: Animated TVC

7up is now introducing their brand new packaging with a fresher look for this new year.

Client: 7up
Agency: Redder Advertising
Production House: Red Cat Motion

Some still frames of the new packaging in 3D

“Fresh and natural” endframe

“Fresh and natural” endframe

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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We Are Vietnamese: Music Animation

We are Vietnamese is a personal animated project that we proceeded in 2 years to remind us about our ancestors, and how young generations strive for the future of Vietnam. 

Agency: Red Cat Motion
Director: Leo DINH
Art Director: Nguyễn Thúy Bắc, Nguyen Chi.
Animation Leader: Minh Phạm.
Animator: Minh Pham, Ninh Truong, Việt Long, Trần Quang Đức.
Copywriter: Lê Thanh Nga.
Music Composer: An Nguyễn Trọng Trường.
Producer: Nguyễn Đức Trung Tuấn.
Singer: Đinh Nhân Hòa

The whole project took us 2 years to research, study, plan, draw and animate. The music was written in-house by our team member.

Iconic images of Vietnam

Iconic images of Vietnam

Our people

Our people

Different cities in Vietnam

Different cities in Vietnam

Typography Treatment

Typography Treatment

People from different regions in Vietnam.

People from different regions in Vietnam.

Landscape Design

Landscape Design

We did many visual concepts to decide the final look and feel.

We did many visual concepts to decide the final look and feel.

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Facebook Stories: Stickers

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We are happy to join THE GLOBAL ART INITIATIVE which is a platform for artists to creatively express their voice and culture, and share it with their communities through the lens of Facebook Stories. In their first project called Days of the week, they wanted to invite different artists from different countries to share their cultures by designing stickers and frames in their languages. Red Cat Motion was chosen to design artworks in Vietnamese.

Our scope of works

Research, design and illustrate 56 variations of stickers to show days of the week in Vietnamese. The stickers must show local cultures and inspire Facebook users. For your reference, in Vietnam we call:

Thứ 2 (Hai) for Monday

Thứ 3 (Ba) for Tuesday

Thứ 4 (Tư) for Wednesday

Thứ 5 (Năm) for Thursday

Thứ 6 (Sáu) for Friday

Thứ 7 (Bảy) for Saturday

Chủ Nhật for Sunday

Our works in action

In order to use the stickers, the user could post their photos on Facebook or Stories and choose the stickers. Each sticker might come with a color variation or content variation.

Facebook Story Sticker illustration, Video Production Agency, Red Cat Motion

Cultural Research and Concepts

I got a call with the client at 2 am on Friday and had less than 48 hours to do the research and came up with more than 50 ideas for them to select. The research must help the client understand our culture. and becomes the roadmap for the creation of assets from concept to style and color.

The research was much more complicated than this mood board and included many pages. In this moodboard, I just wanted to share with you daily inspiring images from our country. Images were collected from many sources for studying purposes.

Facebook Story Sticker illustration 2, Video Production Agency, Red Cat Motion

Sketches

A ton of sketches were done in 3 days and submitted to the client for selection. We wanted to include our iconic characters and symbols in the stickers, but in the end the client prefer having the day as the main element only.

We had fun playing with the frames because we can be creative with local elements. For example, Monday is very crowded. There are traffic jams everywhere. In addition to that, Monday is the first day of work so people are not really excited. We put lots of smoke and elements of different traffic horns around the frame. On the contrary, many people are so determined on Monday, so we drew "Monday" in the shape of fire.

Final artworks

After some rounds of revision, we had less than 10 days to illustrate all stickers and frames. Here are some final artworks. There are stickers that the client didn't go with, but we love a few of them and decide to illustrate.

More Artworks

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Big thanks to the whole team at Red Cat Motion!

Client: Facebook

Agency: Fake Love

Creative Director: Wiena Lin, Leo DINH (Me)

Art Director: Ty Heo, Bi Vo

Illustrator: Tuan To, Nhat Lynn, Nhu, Kim Phung

Project Manager: Minh Huong

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HSBC: 3D Animated Promotion

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Traditionally, people believe that if your pocket is full of money at the beginning of the year, you will get lucky for that whole year. In this video, we worked closely with HSBC Vietnam to show how people can get full of luck by using HSBC Credit Card. 

We created the visual language with a meaningful message in a very beautiful way with lots of traditional items, patterns, and objects. It turned out to be a unique way for the bank to communicate with their customers.

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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

#TetCoTich #CuocDuaCoTich #VoiBitisBeThemYeuVanHoaDanGian