Count Me On: Music Animation

We love music and when it comes to Music Animation, we never deny any opportunity. Here is one of the exciting projects that we did the animation for the band Luca Brasi. Enjoy!!!

DIRECTOR / PRODUCER - Elder

CINEMATOGRAPHER / EDITOR / COLOURIST - Ed Reiss

ANIMATION - Red Cat Motion

AUDIO POST - Pierre Duyker

PYROTECHNICIAN - Dan Martin

VFX - Ben Kalgovas

CAMERA ASSIST - Harry Vincent, Chris Green

ACTORS - Chris Stanley, Ken Elder, Monique Dilernia, Siena Cole, Dan Martin, Pierre Duyker, Cam Gardner.

How did we make this?

The drawing character was based on the real actor.

Some animation tests used traditional techniques.

Bitis Hunter VS Marvel - Infinity War: 3D Animated Social Ads

We got a chance to work on a 3D Promotion Video to introduce the first international collaboration between Bitis Hunter Vietnam and Marvel - Avengers: Infinity War.

How we did it?

We watched all the movies, read all the comics which are relating to the topic before ideation.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Never underestimate a storyboard. This is a must in every video project. After getting approval on the concept, we convinced our client about our vision by storyboarding all the actions.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Previz is an important step before we add texture, lighting or polish and smoothen all the motion. This helps us to visualize our story better.

Look Development

Into the wonderland: Interactive Animation

On the occasion of opening the new Lotte Department Store in Ha Noi, BreadnTea and Red Cat Motion worked together to deliver a virtual interactive experience for customers.

About the concept

The client wanted to have a journey into a wonderland where fantasy creatures are living. Audiences can touch them and make them alive.

We proposed a surreal style illustration for the project.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Blame: Music Animation

Blame is a new release of MaWayy (Brian Wayy and Masoud Fuladi), and we had the honor to create, tell, draw and animate their song in our way.

If you like the video of MaWayy, be sure to subscribe, give it a thumbs-up and share.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaWayyOfficial/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaWayyOfficial

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mawayyoffic...

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mawayy

Website: http://mawayy.com

Composed and Produced by Brian Wayy, Masoud Fuladi

Vocals and Lyrics: LaVoyce

Mix Engineer: Austin Leeds

Director: Leo Dinh

Art Director: Kim Phung

Motion Director: Minh Pham

#MaWayy #Blame #FutureBass #Bass #EDM #music #musicscene #housemusic #dance #rave #trap #dubstep #trance #edmlife #edmlifestyle #edmfamily #trapmusic #dancemusic #ravers #edmgirls #ravegirls #electronica #edmnation #spotify #newmusicfridayonspotify #electronicdancemusic #edmlife #festival #electro #edmvibes #edmmusic #festivallife #edmaddict #electromusic #edmfriends #edmlovers

The story

They were very open to ideas and suggestions. When they shared the lyrics, our director Leo DINH planned the story and suggested how the animation should work to support the story. Everyone in the MaWayy bought the proposal without rejecting any single idea. It was a big momentum for us. We were so glad to invest more time into the project as we knew this was the project for us.

This is how our director planned his ideas. Luckily we still got his idea book.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The Styleframes

The client was not difficult, but our Director was very strict. Many options were presented, but our artists only depicted what he wanted until the third round.

Little Big Smala: Explainer Animation

Little Big Smala, Red Cat’s partner ordered us to make a short video to explain their service and we were honored to help them out.

Client: Little Big Smala
Agency: Red Cat Motion

Define the direction

As usual, we spent lots of time working on the concept and direction for any animation project. The concept was very fun. It was the first time we heard of the term “Smala”, and it became a big idea. If you haven’t heard of it, the term “Smala” means a group of servants around a chief in an Arabic clan. When any client is working with us, they deserve the same approach to achieve the best result.

Styleframes

We got many rounds to define the right direction. This step might take time, but it is very important.

For the gallery, we presented many options for the characters and the design style.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

This is the final style that everyone was happy with.

Storyboard

We had fun making visual ideas for this project. A lot of options were considered before we nailed down to this board.

Bphone: 3D Animated TVC

Bphone is the first Vietnamese phone brand. We worked with them to produce a couple of Animated Promotions.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Biti's Smart: Explainer Animation

Have you ever heard about the scientific fact that activities make kids smarter? Biti's Smart is an ambitious project of Biti's to help kids grow smarter through physical exercises. In order to achieve that, Biti's Kid creates a range of shoes with 3 main purposes:

Comfort: Shoes are designed with the latest technologies such as Phylon, EVA and Airmesh to make kids comfortable while wearing. As a result, shoes are softer, lighter and more comfortable.

Smart: Inside every pair of shoes, there are chips designed to track kids’ activities. These chips are connected with Biti's Smart app so parents can review all the physical data and suggest to them the best activities for their children.

Together with IPD, Biti's wants to study and research the activity benchmark for Vietnamese kids.

Our scope of work: Create a story to inspire audiences of the latest Biti's Kid's product. 

Client: Biti's Kid
Agency: Redder, Red Cat Motion
Director: Leo DINH, Hoang Anh
3D Production: Freaky Motion
Live Production: Draco Film
Sound Designer: Luke Brown

 How did we make this?

The project was very inspiring and so challenging. We only got the right outcome until the last minute. From the beginning, this project was strictly confidential because it would become a game-changer. Our Director Leo DINH had to work on the concept alone himself without letting anybody knew.

Storyboard

The brief was very simple in the beginning. We only knew that the client was making the product while briefing. They also provided lots of facts and inspiration sources to us. Based on that, we had to think of the story concept and propose it to the client. In the proposal, the storyboard was drawn very roughly to catch the ideas

Moodboard

Our director wanted to combine live-action with 3D animation. This was a challenging approach as we only had less than 6 weeks to produce the film. We wanted to achieve a kiddy, bright, colorful, and hi-tech look.

Look Development

All the 3D animation was executed by the great team at Freaky Motion. Hoang Anh was in charge of animation direction. This task was never easy to get the right look and feel, especially since Biti's did not have a clear branding guideline as they were building them.

First Attempt

The video talked about brain growth, but our director didn't want to show a real brain, or too scientific images so he briefed Hoang Anh to use spheres and connected them in a pattern. The first approach impressed the client but all the images didn't connect to the brand very well, especially the colours.

Second Attempt

We met the client and agreed to keep the video colorful but add more red and blue to every single image. When you looked at one single image, it looked fine but they didn't connect very well as a video.

3 split screens stood for different functions of the shoes.

Styleframe for the brain part.

The design of the chip pattern inside the shoes.

Third Attempt

After working on many options, we discussed with the client and convinced them to use blue as the key colour and other colors like red, orange, yellow were secondary only. The final result was very pleasing. It worked very well with the brand and connected everything seamlessly.

HUD Design

We featured HUD in the video to share an idea of parents can track their kids' activities on a mobile platform. The first design brought the hi-tech feeling but didn't fit our theme. As a result, we revised and used the second design as a reference for all the HUD designs.

First Draft

If you look at the first draft, you will see that there is a big improvement on the latest version. Finally, we did it.

Wisepass: Explainer Animation

Wisepass is a lifestyle subscription-based app that allows you to enjoy complimentary perks daily in Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, and more. Just simply download the application, let it know your taste and it will suggest to you the best places in town each time you want to go out for dinner or enjoy your favorite drinks. 

Client: Wisepass
Agency: Red Cat Motion

Congrats Mr Lam for winning a deal at Shark Tank Vietnam.

Styleframes

The client decided to go with the second approach which was more application-focus with fewer details. The style should evoke the feeling of delight, modern and high-end.

Our Art director was very passionate so his input was enormous until we get the right mood and tone.

Storyboard

A storyboard is the best way to visualize your story and animation ideas.

Kao Attack: 3D Animated Short

Together with Dentsu X, we helped audiences discover the mysteries of Stinky kingdom and learned how to fight back the bacteria with Kao Attack.

 Let's see how we did this.

The agency already proposed a story to the client before reaching us. We received the storyboard and started to develop the characters and the environment. The main characters are bacteria.

The initial idea of the environment was a desert. It must be extremely hot and dry. We made some options in terms of styles.

Then we thought deeply.... and proposed another idea. We suggested creating an environment that combined both desert and fabric.

Well, do you want to live in this peaceful world? This is just the same place, but it is very much better after trying Attack.

There were some scenes that took us a lot of time to develop and render, especially the 24-hour scene in which we had to create a crowd of bacteria.

Animatic is a must in every 3D project.

DJI Care Refresh: Explainer Animation

DJI Care Refresh is an effective program to help you cover damages or replacements of your DJI products with a small amount of charge. Red Cat Motion got a big mission to entertain DJI's audiences with useful information about the program.

Client: DJI
Agency: Red Cat Motion

How did we make this?

This project was a combination of 2D animation with 3D drone as we had to show the key product turning around when flying. The 3D model was made in C4D then imported into After Effects with Element 3D.

Styleframes

The timeline was rushed and the client knew what they wanted so we locked the styleframe very quickly.

Graphics

Graphics were made in 2D. The color palette looks fun, fresh and branded. Other characters such as cat and crab were designed to bring more fun and details to the visual story.

Little Leo: Character Design

This is a personal project which our Creative Director did to share his big love with his 6-month son. The concept was personally done by Leo, Founder of Red Cat Motion.

Drawing is such an amazing thing to visualize your ideas

He drew on his favorite "device", paper and decided on the final models after many rounds of revision.

When Leo was happy with his sketch, he sent it to our Art Director Kim Phung and had her colouring his sketch. He wanted to have a blue Cat (as blue represents the colour of Ocean). To back up, he did another version with yellow.

The fun begins

All the drawings were sent to Planion. Based on the sketches, they explored Leo's idea by sculpting the cat digitally.

Adding Colours and textures

After a few rounds of revision, colours and textures were added to the character. After this round, we decided to go with the backup plan, the yellow one.

More fun with fur

We added fur on the character. The render took longer but it was worthy.

Rigging and bring the character alive

The rig looks complicated to control all the body parts.

More Clothes

As a personal project, we wanted to have fun and explored more possibilities. This project will keep going on and we will share more when we have a chance.

Crunchbase Marketplace: Explainer Animation

Crunchbase Marketplace Video is one of the most exciting projects that we have a chance to work with. The client was open for us to play with the theme of outer space, space ships, planets, and robots to explain how the tech platform works.

Client: Crunchbase
Agency: Video Sharks
Production: Red Cat Motion

Styleframes

To convince the client, many styleframes were made. We experimented with different settings, different styles, and different colour schemes.

Screencast

We designed some options to feature the interface of the marketplace in the video. The initial intention was to redraw the interface from a very simplified version to a more detailed interface.

When the user chooses an app, a new card will show up on the profile page. We suggested an idea as an interpretation to showcase this feature.

Character

We worked on many options until we get the right style that the client loved the most.

Spaceship Design

Icon Design

Station Design

Crunchbase is a station where you can find all the data you wanted. We designed the Crunchbase Planet and its interior with a high level of detail.

Storyboard to Graphic

The storyboard was made roughly to explain the idea before going to the full graphic.

Animation

This project was a combination of different animation techniques from frame-by-frame animation to cut-out technique, and 3D animation.

Knorr: 3D Social Ads

This is the first time we got a chance to work on Knorr brand of Unilever. They require us to make 2 short digital video ads on the occasion of launching a new product "Vegetarian Mushroom Seasoning". 

Director Cut Version

Our initial brief is making two 6-second video ads to introduce their new product with double mushroom essence. After many discussions with the client, we suggested making the product alive by turning the mushrooms and the package into funny 3D characters. 

This is our first attempt at developing the look and feel.

Unfortunately, the client wanted to go in another direction. At first, they preferred a realistic style, but in the end, they wanted something simpler.

Here are the final ads.

Pixel Project

We had lots of fun making and animating pixel arts for Vice in collaboration with AKQA.

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

EuroStar: Social Ads

We have never got bored of doing Eurostar projects. Each time we get an animation request from AKQA, the team can't keep their excitement. This is a collection of animated shorts that we did for Eurostar since 2015.

Lavie on Board

Eurostar has created an online Instagram 'tapestry' called @LaVieOnBoard comprising 200 still and animated image squares depicting life onboard its new e320 train as it travels from London to Paris. Each of the squares uses a combination of still and animated images to tell stories, such as that of a couple falling in love and that of a group of senior citizens having a party onboard the train. We got a chance to do all the animation parts for the journey.

Read the full article from campaignlive.co.uk here

Explore beautiful cities with famous illustrator

This is the second project we did for Eurostar. Famous illustrators were invited to take people around their city. They also drew some illustrations for each city, then Red Cat animated them and place them on live-action footages.

Let's see Bruges and find Pieter's illustrations.

and Charlottes's ones.

Bikes on board

This project is more like a tutorial on how you can grab your bike on Eurostar trains. Sounds boring? Not really, we had lots of fun doing this project. It was simple but in style.

U by Uniworld

We got a chance to work on the project with Director Henry on this amazing project, U by Uniworld which is a new take on experiential travel, with cruises designed for those with a passion for exploring and a taste for authentic adventures. Experience the most exploring authentic travel with Uniworld cruise. If you haven't got a chance to do this, enjoy our animation.

 

Some images from our working progress

While working on the project, there was no real ship. Based on the technical drawing, we came up with an animated version with some adjustments.

We developed many character options with different details such as hairstyle, accessories. It was fun that we can try many items on each character.

The interior of the ship was designed and illustrated with enough amount of detail to reflect the real experience of the ship.

All the locations were drawn based on real photos.

This is one of the storyboards of the project that we used to communicate ideas with the client.

Our animators built all the buildings with depth so we are able to create parallax effects or 360 degrees turn around.

Let's work together

FIGS: Explainer Animation

FIGS is an online platform that helps you make better investment decision by integrating different expert-level tools and information. Red Cat creates an explainer video to explain to new audiences about FIGS.

The design style was a combination of isometric views with gradient stylized graphics. The client wanted to have cute characters in the video, so we developed characters with rounded details but not too childish.

Chosen images with gradient color grades create a feeling of high technology.

Fisher Price: Animated Social Ads

Animation and music are the best combinations to connect brands with audiences. In this project, Red Cat Motion creates a series of 10 animated videos to promote 10 toys of Fisher Price brand.

The live-action part was shot in Singapore by Chimney Singapore, and all designs and animation were executed at Red Cat Motion Vietnam.

The project was a fun collaboration between JWT Hong Kong, Red Cat Motion Vietnam and Chimney Singapore.

Each video comes with a story. We translate the skills that children can learn with Fisher Price toys into images, symbols and make fluid transitions between them in animation.

Fisher price has a strict brand guideline on their illustration, so all new assets need to stick to that.

The Happiness Factory

This is a personal project we did in collaboration with Freaky Motion to compare 2D animation vs 3D animation. Then we posted it on our Facebook page and allowed people to vote. Even though we made the 3D animation seem to look better than the 2D version, the number of votes was quite similar.

The behind-the-scenes video is placed at the bottom.

We are quite comfortable with the project. All concepts were done at Red Cat Motion. After the final 2D animation was released, we sent it to Freaky and challenged them to make it in 3D animation. The challenge was accepted and the final result freaked us out. 

Behind the scene