Post Office Studios recently worked on an animated, live-action campaign for Red Bull. The series created, titled The Mind Behind is a wonderful piece of art. Post Office Studios’ sister company Supari Studios, a live-action content studio has been in collaboration with Red Bull Media House since the past three years, and they have been creating some groundbreaking content together.
Post Office Studios naturally came into the picture when the idea for the series was conceptualised. The creative directors from each team would have design thinking and brainstorming sessions, a lot of back and forth, debates and discussions, which finally gave birth to the visual treatment that we see today in the series. The studio has been nominated in the best brand film series category at the Digiday Video Awards.
The Mind Behind is a three-episode documentary series that was developed by Red Bull Media House in collaboration with Supari Studios. Directed by Niyantha Shekhar, the post production and animation of the series was creatively driven by Post Office Studios CCO Aditya Tawde and lead designer Adarsh Panicker. The series dives deep into the inner mind and workings of India’s finest artists and athletes and is told through a mix of live-action and animation, with each episode having a run-time of eight to 10 minutes. The first season concentrates on three extremely talented individuals- rapper Emiway Bantai, chef Thomas Zacharias from The Bombay Canteen and off-road racer CS Santosh, exploring how they react to extraordinary situations in their respective professions.
The Post Office team used an amalgamation of 2D After Effects and Cel animation to convey these stories. “We had to visually showcase the incredible working of the human mind to accomplish extraordinary possibilities, thus each film has its own art style and unique animation technique specifically crafted and designed after each individual’s personality and profession to fit seamlessly into the zone of the live-action shots,” mentioned Post Office Studios creative director Kunal Prabhu. The animation speaks of their gestures, behaviour and reflects their body language. The team wanted to show what their mind experiences, as the series ties itself together with a common thread of how the human mind works when they’re at the top of their game.
Creating 2D animation has always been challenging to every artist, even before 3D was introduced to the audience. “3D animation is definitely trending now a days (even we have ventured into creating hyper realistic CGI and 3D motion design from more than a year, you can check out our website) but 2D design and animation has its own audience, if done right, it could create something more magical, fluid and realistic in its own way,” added Prabhu. 2D animation adds a human touch to the art form and connects with the audience on a different level hence, Prabhu thinks that cel animation, although a niche in India, is still preferred over 3D animation.
While talking about the impact animation has while discussing any topic, Prabhu elaborated how live action is limited to external influences like the ability of talent, suitability of locations, weather and the laws of physics, whereas animation is only limited by one’s imagination. Animation’s strength lies in its ability to express complicated ideas quickly and easily. “Simply put, live action has become mainstream, while animation gives infinite possibilities to project an idea and never gets boring!” concluded Prabhu.
The Mind Behind series is definitely imagined out of the box and brought out to the audience in the most amazing way possible. With animation giving the live-action a silver lining, this combination can do wonders in the years to come and make brands stand apart in the ever-growing competition.