Dragon and Fairy Legend: Animated Shorts

Every culture has a story about where they came from and how they came to be, and we - Vietnamese people have stories like that. Dragon and Fairy Legend: The Untold Story tells a story about our Vietnamese ancestors. The story is about the origin of popular beliefs that the Vietnamese are descendants of Dragons and the Fairy. The story was told many times in Vietnam, but in a quite boring way. Now, we reinvent the story and tell it in another way that no one has ever expected. Through this short film, we infused historical and spiritual values with the hope to nurture the young Viet's love for the country, awakening their pride for origin. In addition, we hope that people will have a stronger belief in the Vietnamese Animation Industry through the breakthrough techniques being used in this film, comparing to the general Vietnamese Animation Industry. This animated short film could be considered as the first well-crafted animation in Vietnam so far. We are proud to present this to the community all around the world.

Enjoy the film here

How we did it?

It was such an amazing journey when we went back in time to explore our origin.

LAC LONG QUAN

Lac Long Quan is the protagonist in the film. He is the king of Vietnam in Ancient Time. In the legend, Lac Long Quan is the dragon who eliminates all the Ancient Monsters.

AU CO

Au Co was a young, beautiful fairy who lived high in the mountains. One day in the form of Lac Bird, she travels to Xich Quy (the country before Vietnam) and gets caught in a giant storm caused by Ngu Tinh (Fish Monster).  Then she is saved by Lac Long Quan and falls in love with him.

Lac bird and Dragon are the true forms of Au Co and Lac Long Quan in our fairy tale.

The Monsters

NGU TINH

In the Eastern sea, there appears a giant fish, called Ngư Tinh (Vietnamese for "fish monster"). This fish has lived for centuries, with the size of its mouth, it can consume a ship with 10 fishermen at the same time. Whenever the fish swims, waves can reach the sky, drown multiple ships, all the people passing through the area were all eaten by the fish. Ngư tinh lives in a big cave under the sea, above the cave is a huge mountain that divides the sea into two areas. In the movie, Ngu Tinh attacks Ac Co and is slain by Lac Long Quan.

HO TINH

Ho Tinh (Fox Monster) in the movie has 8 tales and lives in a deep cave with Moc Tinh (Tree Monster). Her ability is transforming to human form and controlling animals. This character adds humor to the film. 

MOC TINH

Moc Tinh (Tree Monster) is the big boss in the film. He is a giant tree who lives on Earth for so long. In order to save humans, Lac Long Quan has to defeat him. 

The environment

Full Credits:

Client: BITI’S
Creative Agency: REDDER ADVERTISING
Content Advisor: Dương Trung Quốc

Key Production House: REDCAT MOTION
Director: Leo Dinh
Screenplay: Lê Thanh Nga, Trần Thái Minh, Phạm Vũ Việt Dũng
Art Director: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Chi
Lead Animator: Leo Dinh, Phạm Quang Nhật Minh
Producer: Trần Hồng Phúc, Nguyễn Xuân Bích Ngọc
Editor: Trương Duy Ninh
Special Effects: Leo Dinh, Nguyễn Hoàng Anh, Trương Duy Ninh
Character Design: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Chi, Đào Kim Phụng, Tô Anh Tuấn, Trần Thị Phương Thảo, Võ Quang Bi, Mai Thị Tuyết Trinh
Storyboard: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Chi, Đào Kim Phụng, Tô Anh Tuấn, Trần Thị Phương Thảo
Background Artists: Mai Thị Tuyết Trinh
Animator (2D): Leo Dinh, Phạm Quang Nhật Minh, Nguyễn Hùng Minh, Trương Duy Ninh, Lê Quốc Dương, Nguyễn Việt Long, Vũ Sơn, Nguyễn Tất Viễn, Hắc Ngọc Tâm, Trương Nhật Diễm Quỳnh, Võ Quang Bi

3D animation: FREAKY MOTION
3D lead animator & VFX Supervisor: Nguyễn Hoàng Anh
3D Lead Modelling: Nguyễn Hồng Nhung
3D Modelling: Nguyễn Hà Phương
Texture Artist: Trần Thị Phương Thảo
VFX Technical Director: Đỗ Lê Duy
3D Technical Specialist: Nguyễn Chí Trung
3D Lead Animator: Nguyễn Hữu Đạt
3D Animator: Trần Khôi Nguyên

Sound Production: DIGIPOST

OMO Safari Treasure: Animated Short

In 2017, OMO Vietnam organized a playful event for kids called Safari Exploration. Together with Ogilvy, we created a short animation to promote the event. The video works as an opening story to invite the kids to the event and explore more.

The story: Deep inside the Safari, there is a treasure that keeps all the animals clean. Unfortunately, it is stolen and damages the forest. To save the Safari, the little adventurer with his company has to bring it back.

Enjoy our working process

Characters are the key of the story. We designed characters and presented them to the client before we chose our final hero for the film.

At first we developed this background concept. However, during the design process, we felt the design was not strong enough to capture the adventure concept.

So we work on the new design that captured the deep Safari and apparently, it showed what we wanted.

This is the cave where the treasure is stored. The treasure is the PROMO Product. It is surrounded by beautiful flowers.

In order to save the forest, the little hero couldn't do it alone. He has his companies to help him.

#noregret with Contiki: Social Ads

Have you ever regretted traveling on your own? Whoever you identify with, we’ve got a trip to turn your FML to OMG. With Contiki, there is no regret. Sounds fun, right? We had a fun time working on this project with Where There's Smoke. Our scope was developing some characters, storyboards, designs and animation for 4 videos in the series.

 Some images from our working progress

A new design of Contiki website became an inspiration for the vibrant color palette and bold typography.

We develop some visual concepts for the character.

These are the final characters.

Each story was interpreted in a storyboard with details of the action, camera movement and transition.

Based on the style frames and the storyboard, our illustrators draw the full graphic board with colors and details.

Google Sport: Animated GIF

Everyone loves sport, and so does Google. We collaborated with AKQA to produce more than 100 animated gifs for Google Sport on the occasion of Euro Basket and Rugby. The project took 2 months to complete as the event took place for 2 months. Each gif was produced after every match within 4 hours from design to animation, so our team had stay active everyday. It was tough but there were lots of fun around.

Enjoy our selections from the collection!