Techniques
- 2D Animation
- Character Animation
Agency
adam&eveDDBCommercial
Five Get There First
Great Western Railway
The story continues as the Famous Five return for their next Great Western adventure, racing across the charming English countryside.
Guy Manwaring, a talented performance director, teams up with the directors of Headless, who specialise in character animation, to breathe new life into the next chapter of ‘Five go on a Great Western Adventure’. Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ adventure series forms the backbone of the campaign, as it intends to create a sense of collective nostalgia through the storytelling, the illustrative execution and its trademark vintage paper look.
This time round, Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy discover the ease and comfort of taking the train over the car.
Rich in both action and detail, this chapter captures moments of comedy and charm in a seamless blend of 3d, 2d and hand-crafted animation. It follows Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny who race to the beach via car against the children who climb onboard Great Western Railways. Pretty soon their car ride becomes a journey from hell, in contrast to the children who play cards and drink tea against a backdrop of idyllic countryside and famous landmarks along the GWR coastline.
“Meticulous craft and storytelling have always been hallmarks of this campaign. We enlisted a new team of animators from Not to Scale, who did a fantastic job, embracing and building upon the look and feel of our campaign. Guy Manwaring (Merman) was brought aboard to guide the project from departure to arrival – bringing cinematic camera language and gags aplenty. We couldn’t be happier with the final film.”
Steve Wioland & Matt Woolner, Creative Directors
Hand-painted matte illustrations of the English countryside by Not To Scale’s team of matte painters
The film fuses together the modern and the nostalgic, and crucially maintains that sense of passing real places in the English countryside. The scenes and backdrops are inspired by our environment today to create that contemporary feeling but are brought to life in a way that the Famous Five characters undoubtedly belong.
Meet the Famous Five
And after the car journey from hell…
The Making of the GWR Universe
The revival of that warm vintage quality, which brings such great renown to Eileen Soper’s original illustrations, was essential. The combination of 2d, 3d and CGI animation work in tandem with the more handcrafted elements of the spot. Given the vast amount of CGI necessary to animate the spot, the illustrative matte paintings and hand-drawn components help degrade the smooth, perfect finishing of CG animation.
Colour Swatches and Palettes
These colour swatches were created by Not To Scale’s Animation Director, Adri from Headless. It’s a very important moving part when creating 2D animation as you begin to see the likeness coming through.
“I love this style of animation as it gives us the opportunity to create hand-drawn animation alongside 3d in a creative way that brings about the best of both worlds: the warm human quality of the hand painted look and stylization of line work in character animation, and the freedom and detail of the 3d space for staging the film. We can transport our audience into a world that feels like it’s part of an illustration, not only by making things move on a flat canvas but by creating an image that feels alive.”
Adri, Headless
The spot is a beautiful respite from our digital world, effortlessly transporting us to the organic, textured and illustrative universe of the Famous Five.
