When it comes to illustrated story telling as well as animation in India, Mythology has always been the favorite theme. The legacy now shows in some animated TV Commercials too!
Created by Mumbai based animation studio Cornershop, Smyle Cough Syrupâ€?s latest 3D animated TVC communicates the product’s tag line “Khansi Ki Sanjivanee Butee- Smyle” by using the “Sanjivanee Butee” episode from the Ramayana as a take off point.
Ram and Laxman are wandering through the forest in search of Sita. While on their search Laxman suddenly starts coughing profusely and Hanuman flies off to a chemist shop to get a bottle of Smyle Cough Syrup. As Laxman feels relieved after taking a tea spoon of Smyle Syrup, Ram happily declares Smyle as “Khansi Ki Sanjivanee Butee”.
Elaborating on the look and style of the TVC, Vivek Yagnik, Studio Head, Cornershop shared with Animation Xpress.com, “The project brief from the client was simple in the sense that the film should have a typical mythological look and style, very similar to that of an Amar Chitra Katha comic book. The color palettes, characters and storyboard panels were designed on that track”
He added, “After we received the brief and the subject of the film from the client we were left in the open waters to explore. The designs, style, music and even lyrics were provided by Cornershop. We decided to have the story of the film narrated like a story in a very north Indian folk music style which helped us establish the plot in the first 15 seconds in a better manner”
The biggest challenge in the film was the very realistic looking characters and environments. With the kind of timeframe for the film, the team at the studio knew that they could not achieve realistic detailing. Hence, they went back to their designs and tried reducing the realism.
What they did was take away the muscle details from the torso, arms and face, giving it a stylistic look but not very far away from realism. Their decision of reworking on the design paid off well and it helped streamline the production process.
The Smyle Cough Syrup TVC was completed in a span of 29 days by nine artists.
Cornershop Animation is the animation division of Cornershop Entertainment Company which is part of the Essel group of companies. Established in 2005, currently the studio has 15 artists working in its facility.
Vivek concluded by saying, “Smyle is the first TVC film done here at Cornershop. We were worried about the time given to us for the film as compared to its scale and the resources we had. That added the extra pounds of pressure on the team. But, in the end we think we came out well, we delivered on time with quality”