Tundra* has teamed up with Andersen M Studio to create six new paper-cut animated idents for ITV3. The new idents aren’t due to be aired for a while but we wanted to share them here on the CR blog and reveal something of the creative processes involved in creating them…

The six new idents are the result of a collaboration between illustration and animation house Tundra* and Martin Andersen of Andersen M Studio – who also roped in the model making skills of his model-making sister Line Andersen.

The films follow on from those which the same creative team made for the launch of the comprehensive rebrand across all ITV channels earlier in the year – with each ident representing a genre of programming that lives on the ITV3

“The concept of the stories collected in bell jars was mine and this is what was pitched out to three animation companies,” explains ITV’s head of creative for broadcast, Tony Pipes. “It came from the idea that ITV3 was the curator of great, well-crafted drama. This informed what we wanted the worlds to look like and I became a little obsessed with it all being handmade.”

ITV3 Idents 2013 from Tony Pipes on Vimeo.

You’ll notice that some of the freshly completed batch of idents, directed by Espen Haslene at Tundra* through production company Soup Factory, have a winter theme and have actually been designed to be screened much later in the year, closer to Christmas. However, a screening this week wouldn’t be amiss given the spell of wintry weather we’re currently experiencing here in the UK!

In terms of how the films were made, director Espen Haslene explained to CR that, using a team of animators, illustrators and model makers and working with the Andersen siblings’ expertise, they were able to get round the time restrictions set by the delivery dates and create films that look like they’ve been created in-camera.

“The way we worked around the timeframe issue,” he explains, “was to first make animatics from storyboards and then have Karine Faou [art director on the project] and her illustrators work up all the layers and elements in Illustrator, making the whole world and sculpture work as digital illustrations first.

“Then we fed each layer to the model makers and cutters and these paper models went to Martin and he shot them against green screen which were then fed to an After Effects team of animators and compositors. So every layer you see in the films has been created physically in paper but composited in After Effects.”

Here’s a making-of film to give more insight to the processes involved:

ITV3 Idents: Behind The Scenes from Tony Pipes on Vimeo.

We have, of course, featured the collaborative work of Line Andersen (she was one of our Creative Futures back in 2006) and her brother Martin on several occasions. You can see some of their previous work together here and also here.

See more of Tundra*’s work at tundragroupfilms.com.

Credits

Director Espen Haslene
Co-director Martin M. Andersen
Art director Karine Faou
Executive creative producer Andy Soup / Soup Factory Ltd.
Producers Jason Underhill, Ben Sullivan Production Assistant Jade Bogue
Senior model maker Line Lunnemann Andersen
Model makers & cutters Cat Johnston, Helene Baum, Rosy Nicholas
Illustration Keeley Sheppard, Paulina Slebodzinska
Storyboard artist Oscar Arancibia
Animation & compositing Dominic Burgess, Aaron Trinder, Marc Hardman, Letty Fox , Oscar Granse
Compositing assistant – Adam Stewart, Phoebe
3D modelling & CGI Duncan Burch @ Lumiere Studios
Sound design / Music composition Mikkel H. Eriksen (Instrument Studio)
Studio manager Elina Masai Andersen

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