Fresh From The Field — Trailblazer Honors 2017 by Fox & Co Design
This Fresh From the Field coincides with pride celebrations in Wellington this month. A motion design project which celebrates leaders at the forefront of LGBTQ equality, Trailblazer Honors 2017 by Fox & Co Design
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The Project Brief
The LogoTV Trailblazer Honors celebrates leaders at the forefront of LGBTQ equality. For the fourth annual show, we were given the opportunity to show our support by creating ten 45 second original animations highlighting ten LGBTQ pioneers and six 15 second pieces of introductory content featuring the show’s honourees. We crafted delicate stories that signify how history has come to play a great part in honouring LGBTQ Trailblazers and Gay Pride.
The Response:
We worked in collaboration with Daniel Arzola, the Venezuelan artist known for his vibrant style and concept of “Artivism.” The latter is the use of art as a non-violent method to change mentalities, cut through divides, and confront major and divisive social problems. As an artist and activist, Daniel uses his art to debunk stereotypes about and raise awareness of important issues in the LGBTQ community.
Provided with only a couple of Daniel’s illustrations and a proposed script for each video, one question came to mind: How were we going to turn two (sometimes unrelated) images into a moving, 45 second animated story? We played around with blinking eyes, kissing lips, swaying hair and various head movements. We used projection mapping on a 3D model and pushed our 2D capabilities in order to explore all angles of what we could potentially do with the illustrations, which were created by Daniel. We decided that a mix of classic animation and 2.5D would be the best approach.
Creating storyboards for this project was vital, as they enabled us to create the flow of each animation based on 2-3 art pieces from Daniel. Due to the limited amount of artwork we had to work with, storyboarding each concept provided a great proof of concept not only for ourselves, but also for the client. There was only so much that 2-3 images could portray, so we needed to be clever in creating a story within the animation.
Asset creation presented a bit of a challenge because we needed to develop supporting assets that 1. fit within Daniel Arzola’s world and complimented his artwork; and 2. supported the narrative and strengthened the story as a whole. When creating 3D assets, we needed to find the optimal balance of 3D within the 2D landscape.
For 2D assets, we focused heavily on classic animation techniques and a lot of key frames. In addition, transitions needed to be consistent with the style and have an organic, natural flow.
In the end, we worked on this project full-speed for about 2 months. As part of their marketing strategy, LogoTV used these animations, to the tune of Laverne Cox’s voice, on their social media channels and also featured spots on TV. We’re honoured to play our part in celebrating LGBTQ Trailblazers and Gay Pride as a whole. The client was thrilled with the success of the videos, so they asked us to create looping animated screen designs for their awards show the following year. Check out a further breakdown of the project on our Behance: https://www.behance.net/gallery/56162175/TRAILBLAZERS-AWARDS
About Fox & Co
We’re a creative studio based in Wellington, New Zealand, specialising in creating innovative 2D and 3D animation, motion design and visual effects. With a tight-knit, versatile team of creative critters, we handle everything from the concept to the final frames. In order to celebrate Pride Month in Wellington this March, we thought we’d look back to a project we completed two years ago that shines the light on the history of LGBTQ Trailblazers and Gay Pride as a whole.
