About The Project
From a very early stage, BaconX got involved in developing the Fritsie campaign for Staatsloterij together with TBWA \VIDIBOKO, CZAR Amsterdam, and Director Martin Werner.
Instead of creating the birds in full CG, we decided to go the practical way, to gain the true look of real craftsmanship to support the storytelling in the best way.
For the build of the birds, we were strongly inspired by the concept of Automata - an analog machine that moves so realistically it seems to be alive. A regular cuckoo clock bird uses the same principles, just simpler.
During the design process, we didn’t have to limit our ideas to what could be done with a practical model, knowing we had the chance to add CG elements, being able to take the best of both worlds, and create the characters that would work best for the film.
We teamed up with model builder Teun Vrolijk and had a close collaboration with him adjusting the design and model from start to finish. The birds were animated by hand using internal wires and later on we added CG animated beaks, eyelids and eyelashes to give the birds that extra bit of life.
The Design
Developing the characters
Final character designs
The Build
The build and paint job was a close collaboration between the model builder, painter, and us who gave creative directions
The Shoot
The model builder and a puppeteer were animating the birds from the backside of the cuckoo clocks using wires and cables