The weird thing for us about this video, is that for a song called “Winter Trees” we wouldn’t normally base a story in a forest with trees ☺ but saying that when we first heard the song, we wrote ideas down separately just brainstorming it… and we both wanted a forest. So we guess it had to be that way….its the feeling the song gave us. So beautiful but slightly sad and bare too…like a forest. Something emotional.

Then we bashed out the idea back and forth between us – coming up with slightly hybrid animals escaping something, and an ‘owl lama’ with a man/spirit on its back.

We knew from the girls , the song was based on a relationship so we wanted to take it wider and further by showing creatures escaping a flood and hanging precariously to tips of trees….it reminded us of the fisherman who sit on tall poles in the sea…it was a very visual scene. We wanted it to feel emotional while not too twee… and have a story that was symbolic of a relationship and slightly surreal.

We also wanted to make the trees the musicians… so there are three trees that represent the three staves sisters Emily, Jessica, and Camilla.in a very loose way.

As for the visual treatment we wanted to base it on 3d laser-cut wood puzzles – which we’d been researching it for a while. We made some art work examples and ref images….and Saul sketched the rabbit squids and the lama owl.

After that we showed it to Atlantic and the girls, who loved it and gave us the green light.
Then we had to figure out how to make it, together with Aardman’s animation and cg team.

Obviously we are based in one of the best places in the world for animation….so we figured it out pretty quick. It’s a mix of techniques hand drawn flash and CG animation. None of it is classic stop frame though.

We wanted that hand drawn emotional feel with the ease and 3D model feel of the real world that CG can give. So we mixed it up like we usually do.

Then it was a matter of an animatic…and making it look like wood/giving it dramatic lighting and deciding on shape/style of animation/colors all that.

The girls were very trusting in us and the vision….and so we could just get on with it. It was a tight schedule and budget so we had to work fast and make everyone else work very hard with us. But they were all so enthusiastic about the visuals and song that they were willing and super collaborative.

See more work of Karni & Saul’s in Related Content

LINKS

Aardman