You never know what kind of wonders animation is doing in a small part of the world…
Freitag – a Swiss-company that transforms truck tarps into highly functional bags – came up with a unique way of engaging animators. They approached five animation movie artists from Zurich to Argentina and asked them to narrate the process from truck tarp to bag-making the way they see it, for their Tarp Blanche campaign.
At Freitag’s F-actory, the process involves five steps: 1. Find and bring truck tarps, 2. Free the tarps of material not needed and cut them into standard sizes, 3. Wash the tarps and dry them, 4. Design the bags according to templates and carve an exquisite design, 5. Sew the bags, check final products and photograph them.
The animators were not told what to do, hence the entire process is told in five completely different ways, plots, styles and agendas.
In Flythrough, Argentina’s Gabriel Agustin Freire manages to convey the story of Freitag bags in just one minute without leaving out any details.
Freire, who has been working as an illustrator, animator and producer for animation studios all around the world, wanted to do something dynamic. “So I suggested creating the entire film frame by frame through traditional animation, using a subjective camera to tell the Freitag story,” he said. Hence, he decided to tell everything from the point of view of a beetle, which goes through the factory and sees the product creation process.
After modelling the insect’s perspective, Freire and his team of about 15 artists set more than six hundred frames in motion, each of which contained characters and backgrounds that were drawn over and over again so as to achieve the necessary sensation of dynamic movement for the insect.
The subtle spirals in the film symbolise the importance of recycling materials. “The aim of our work is to promote this (recycling) and to show the importance of the cycle of elements,” stated Freire, who has animated and directed Flythrough. The music is by Agustin Arman, colours by Pamela Wehrhahne & Murilo Marcondes and composition by Alejandro Bonafina.
Truckin’ by award-winning Swiss-British motion director Neil Stubbing from Zurich is told in a Looney Tunes style. The five-minute long video combines family drama and an inspiring coming-of-truck story.
Stubbing already had an idea of trucks being raised like pigs which left him with figuring out only the rest of the story. He first came up with the truckers (who stand for Freitag brothers) and the trucks in their specific stages: baby, teen and adult. He then built the world that the story takes place in- the design of the farm and the basic look of the whole film. “It (the film) takes place in Switzerland, so I tried to build an exaggerated, almost kitschy, version of my surroundings,” Stubbing explained.
Stubbing wanted the bags to stand out, hence went with the greyscale tone to reduce the surroundings. “I like the look of American cartoons from the 30s, where everything was black and white. This style was the perfect thing to emphasise the colourful bag design,” he said.
The project which took 600-700 hours to complete has Stubbings doing the story, design and animation with sound design by Gregor Rosenberger. The script is written by Daniel Pieracci and narrated by David Browner.
For many years, Freitag has created their own how-to movies for every F-product (Freitag products) in stop-motion. Animation as a result is already close to the brand. “Furthermore, we love the diversity of the animated movie form,” said Freitag’s Lena Fisler. “You see amazing new created characters and unlimited possibilities to interpret the Freitag story in a playful and fun way.”
Moreover, Freitag also collaborates with the international animation film festival Fantoche in Baden, Switzerland, from where Frietag’s brand manager found inspiration to create the Tarp Blanche campaign.
Following soon will be works by animators Beni Morard & Frederic Siegel, Vik & Nes and Burcu & Geoffrey.