Toyota ecard

The animated eCard that is Ho Ho Oh what a feeling!

Spreading Christmas cheer to Toyota customers with an emotive animated eCard. Oh what a feeling!

Each year, Toyota Motor Corp Australia (TMCA) sends an annual Christmas eCard to its subscribers to mark the end of the year and to celebrate the holiday season. T-bone successfully tendered to create the Christmas eCard for it's fifth year running. The theme of the 2015 creative was ‘Oh what a feeling!’.

The Christmas card was used by dealerships and internal TMCA staff (including President, David Buttner and Chairman, Max Yasuda). Designs were to have a broad appeal and be of high production quality.

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Responsibilities

Art Direction
Illustration
Motion Graphics
Editing

Created

2015 at T-bone Productions

Mentions

Hayley Short, Account Management

Pitch Concepts

'Oh what a feeling!' (OWAF) is more than just the Toyota Jumper. It's about how Toyota delivers OWAF moments and feel good emotions to it's customers.

Pitch concepts were centred around connecting these OWAF moments with festive themes.

CONCEPT #1 - FAMILY ECAR-D

CONCEPT #1 - FAMILY ECAR-D
Themes: Christmas spirit, Fun, Excitement, Happiness

Historically TMCA Christmas eCards have been based on stereotypical winter Christmas scenes and original pitch ideas mirrored this approach.

However, following feedback from a new brand manager, the following concepts were adapted to summer activities to suit Australian audiences this time.

CONCEPT #2 - FAMILY SNOW/WATER FIGHT

Themes: Togetherness, Love, Family, Fun

A snowball fight was adjusted to become a water balloon fight in the front garden of the family home, using Toyota vehicles as props and obstacles. This concept is centred around family togetherness and fun with all the family members enjoying time together on their holiday break.

Winter Variant

Winter Variant

Winter Variant

Summer Variant

CONCEPT #3 - A MESSAGE IN THE SNOW/SAND

Themes: Fun, Freedom, Joy, Excitement, New

The freedom of running out of a car into fresh snow and making snow angels was switched for a warm, refreshing run into the ocean at the beach! A message in the snow became a message in the sand with a fleet of Toyota vehicles drawing out the Season's Greetings note.

Winter Variant

Summer Variant

Animatic

After Concept #3 (Summer) was selected by the client, a storyboard and animatic were produced to better represent how the concept would translate to a full length animation. By previewing scenes of the eCard before I began animating I was able to establish how many scenes were required whilst checking camera angles, timing, expressions, cuts and transitions.

The animatic was one of the most important parts of my process. I experimented with numerous versions of the timeline and adjusted the story to better fit the budget and time restrictions of the project. This was achieved by limiting the number of camera angles involved thereby reducing the perspectives required for character design and background staging.

Character Design / Concept Art

Based off scenes established in the animatic, character design and concept art were developed to portray each component.

We set out to create a friendly, personable but "cool" and edgy representation of Santa. He was to look relaxed and happy and still easily recognisable as the main man in red, Santa Clause.

To match the summer setting, Santa was dressed in a short wetsuit in bright Toyota red with a pair of aviators. Walking and swimming cycles were established. The flat design aesthetic was modern with subtle shadows to give the character some depth.

Vehicles - Aerial

Santa - Aerial

Santa Swimming - Aerial

Typography in Sand - Aerial

Typography

Santa Toyota Jumper

Finished Work

The final steps in production of the eCard included animation, audio selection and editing.
Flat digital assets were also created for eDMs, banners and other marketing purposes.

Dreaming of the beach or a way to reach your customers with an emotive animation for your brand?

Get in touch today to discuss animated (or non-animated) ideas.

I want the feeling