Our television commercial (TVC) for Zoos Victoria

One of the advantages of animation is that it can address serious issues in a succinct yet subtle way.

This was true of Jumbla’s collaboration with advertising agency Grant Day James for Zoos Victoria, who wanted to highlight the issue of animal extinction with an animated pop-up book.

We loved the concept and contributed a wealth of additional ideas, creating a TVC that featured real children interacting with origami animals.

Developing creative ideas

The original concept was to have a monochrome pop-up book, which would underline the TVC’s thought-provoking message.  

But during development, the team decided to introduce children, who would interact with the book and see the difference that positive change could make.

So, when the TVC’s main message is delivered, a world full of colour represents the end of extinction.

“We wanted it to be an explosion of colour, with all kinds of animals jumping out and birds flying out of the book,” said Jumbla’s Creative Director Callan Woolcock.

Another important aspect was creating a fantasy-like world, where kids could actually interact with their favourite animals.

“We decided to place the children in an environment where you would love to have been at that age, so thought of an attic with the cosy feeling of a cubby house,” said Cal.

Overcoming obstacles other than animation

While the decision to cast children made for a more endearing TVC, it also created a few added obstacles.

“Directing the children was quite challenging, especially getting them to all do the right thing at once,” said Cal. “But rotoscoping helped us combine the best performances into effective shots.”

Our creatives were pushed to the limit in other ways too…

“The one master shot when the book explodes out of nowhere took several weeks to create inside of After Effects,” said Cal.

However, with a bit of intuitive and innovative thinking, they managed to make the most of their time.

As Cal explained: “We didn’t manually animate every single keyframe for every animal. One of our animators put together an After Effects expression that supported automatic secondary animation controlled with mathematical equations.” 

With around 20 to 30 animals featured in the video, there was a collective sigh of relief across the entire studio.