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Michael J Fox Foundation

Back in Summer 2019 the Michael J Fox Foundation in New York contacted us. They wanted to make a film to describe how Parkinson’s Disease can impact a family, how symptoms may manifest and to communicate the need for volunteers to take part in testing. Working closely with our great American rep Cath Berclaz, it was great to be involved from the preliminary stages, we did a lot of reading around the subject and had long calls with the researchers at the Foundation who talked us through the stages of the disease. From this crash-course we wrote a script.

Layla did some initial character designs which the Foundation loved. The aim was to use simple avatars rather than recognisable human characters.  This meant the story could be effectively told in it’s simplest form without showing gender, class or race.

Using Layla’s characters we collaborated with the excellent Spencer Wilson of Peepshow Collective who used his Illustrator magic to create backgrounds for the piece. Here you can see how Layla’s animatic sketches were worked up into finished designs.

We pulled a small team together and got down to the animation once the script, animatic and designs were signed off. Most characters were rigged and animated in Adobe After Effects using shape layers. Our lead animator Alex Potts created hero animation in Adobe Animate. This was an effective way to animate multiple characters.

This film is aimed at a wide audience so our challenge was to translate some of the complicated scientific in as concise a manner as possible. This lead to some fun experiments in data visualisation.

Although a longer process than usual, we are super pleased with how this film came out. The cherry on the cake was getting to work with the great Alan Alda who provided the narration. His warmth and empathy for the subject are an important part of the storytelling.  We can also recommend Alan Alda’s Clear and Vivid podcast where some fascinating scientific topics are explored.

Tags | 2d animation, after effects, alan alda, alex potts, animate, cath berclaz, illustrator, Layla Atkinson, michael j fox foundation, MJFF, Richard Barnett, spencer wilson

Madness | It Must Be Love

Here’s the original file for the “It Must Be Love” projection. This was directed by Aladsair Brotherston and Jock Mooney. The producer was Richard Barnett. Commissioned by Sam Pattinson at Treatment

Tags | Alasdair Brotherston, it must be love, Jock Mooney, jubilee concert, madness

Madness | Our House

Here’s the original file for the “Our House” projection. This was directed by Rok Predin and Layla Atkinson with additional illustration by Sara Savelj. The producer was Richard Barnett. Commissioned by Sam Pattinson at Treatment

Tags | jubilee concert, Layla Atkinson, madness, our house, Rok Predin

Show Me Show Me | Summer Special

Here’s a new title sequence we made for the summer time special editions of the Cbeebies programme Show Me Show Me. It was directed by Layla Atkinson with design by Siri Melchior. We also made a few other bits and bobs which appear throughout the show.

No-mato

Look at the utterly pathetic state of our window box this year after last year’s tomato-fest. I’m blaming the english summer time. Have we still got time to plant something this year?

Tags | lazy gardeners, tomatoes

yo

Hello, this is our new site. We like it better than the old one

Tags | elvina flower, Layla Atkinson

The Brand Shop

Here is another lovely piece of work by Trunk’s directing duo Sebas&Clim. The Brand Shop, an advertising agency based in Rome, commissioned the guys to create a story detailing the agencies marketing abilities. They wanted to represent these skills in a friendly and relatable way.

Sebas &Clim decided to represent the agency as a pâtissière with the client as a cupcake, which has lost market share. The cupcake has a discussion with the pâtissière who distils their ideas and continuing with the baking metaphor cooks up a successful campaign. Using the baking theme throughout enables The Brand Shops marketing concept to be clearly communicated with out being dry or stuffy. A pastel palette and wonderful sound design by Flow Audio echoes the friendly feel of the short.

Tags | cupcake, Sebas&Clim, The Brand Shop

Dun and dusted

Hooray! Richard did the Dunwich Dynamo in a cool 10 hours, had a kip on the beach, got the bus home then went for a roast dinner…..and a curry. Well done old chap

Dunwich Dynamo 2012

Our intrepid producer Richard Barnett will be riding in this year’s Dunwich Dynamo tomorrow evening. It’s a mammoth 120 mile bike ride from East London out to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast starting at 8 o clock in the evening and riding overnight to arrive at the coast at dawn. Best of luck Richie. Ride like the wind (and eat plenty of bananas)