Mayfly // Vienna
Client // Vienna
Agency // Jung von Matt Donau
Director // Sam Gainsborugh
Production Company // BlinkInk
Our team // Alex Wolf, Herman Friberg, Kasper Christensen,
Sondre Nymoen, Klaas-Harm de Boer, Ida Kielland,
Jan Ivar Solås
Character Development
Fugly
This piece required a quirky, "fun ugly" (fugly) character, so we designed them with a highly tactile and elastic quality. They also needed to convey a strong sense of wonder and joy. A large, flexible mouth and highly reactive eyes allowed for exaggerated expressions while remaining adaptable enough to show secondary motion caused by speed or impacts.
This presented a fun technical challenge in animation, as we aimed to push expressions to their extremes without distorting the overall shape of the face.
Additionally, we had to develop an aged version of the mayfly as the character nears the end of its life at the close of the day. To emphasize this transition, we added an aged beard and a walking stick. We also focused on conveying this change in age through animation.
There was one additional character which is that of the Grim Reaper, who visits our character at the end of his day. This playful take of a Mayfly version of death, was another great element to this commercial piece.
Look
Development
Process
The process often requires a character to be active in a shot to truly refine its final look. This is an example of that approach, as we developed the character’s shaders to suit the close-up nature of various shots throughout the piece.
Animation
Process
This illustrates the process a shot goes through to achieve the final motion. It begins with refining positioning and timing, followed by adding exaggeration and secondary actions from the more elastic elements.
Process
All the steps
This sequence provides a snapshot of the stages a shot goes through to reach its final form. It begins with previsualization (previs), the initial stage used to establish scene layout and timing. Next comes animation, where the character’s performance and motion are defined. Once the animation is finalized, lighting is refined and prepared for rendering. Finally, compositing integrates the rendered CG elements with the live-action plate, bringing the shot together.
