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The making of...
Piet Hein school project
storyline
Every year the Piet Hein elementary school in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, launches into a four week project with various themes. Children from the ages of 4 to 12 engage with the subject matter and produce something that can be shown to the parents on the big presentation day. Often the feedback the school receives is that the end result is not that impressive - for four weeks work. It is easy to forget that the idea behind the school project is to stimulate creative thinking, allowing children to make mistakes and learn from them and to work in an immersive manner that isn't oriented towards producing a fine piece of e.g. new technology or art. The soft skills that are learned during the process cannot be shown but will bear fruit in the years to come when creative thinking may find solutions to questions we are not even aware of at this moment in time.
This short animation is about demonstrating that a lot of the project process happens literally under water. What the public sees at the end is just the tip of the iceberg.
art direction
Very early on in the storyboarding process, I fell in love with the concept of an iceberg, where most of its immense body is hidden beneath the waves. That idea carried through to the end and is expressed in the diver working and constructing under water in a place that is not visible to the public. In the deep blue ideas are forged, mistakes are made and triumphs celebrated. And there also the most valuable lessons are learned that help us later to become better and more efficient.
I wanted the look and feel of this animation to be very simple, almost childlike as we are dealing with children's projects. The colours are warm and bright and the colour range limited to blues and greens appealing to children and their parents alike and conveying a sense of childlike wonder and adventure.
All assets were created in Adobe Illustrator and I took care to create simple, yet beautiful forms that are easily read and do not distract from the flow of the story.
Working exclusively in 2.5D in AfterEffects I animated the little diver and excavator using the wonderful
Rubberhose
rigging system. All movements were carefully planned and executed to move along to the beat of Financial District
by Olive Musique (premiumbeat.com). The music was chosen to add a hopeful, energetic vibe and carries the animation from beginning to close.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
