XYZ Studios - Eran Hilleli
XYZ Studios is an animation company founded in 2003 made up of several international animators working on briefs for companies varying from McDonalds and Honda through to Ribena and BankSA.
In particular, the animation style which stood out the most to me was the work of Eran Hilleli.
Between Bears
Between Bears was Hilleli's graduation film from bezalel academy of art and design and won him numerous awards, helping jumpstart his career and promoting his work through various festivals and award processes.
Between Bears begins with a bear shaving off its dark fur and becoming white in the middle of some woods. The fur then transforms into butterflies and leads several cloaked men on a journey towards the bear. When the cloaked men reach the bear, it is floating on a piece of ice past them. The scene then changes to the white bear dancing with its past self and changing back to black infront of all the cloaked men.
Initially in the beginning of the animation, the camera is used to show everything apart from the bear, giving a sense of suspense which ends as the butterflies take off and the camera pans upwards to track them, showing the bear in the foreground. This section of the animation serves almost as a prelude to the "journey" the hooded men take. The camera for the majority of the animation follows their journey from a side view, often cutting in time with the music mid walk cycle to give the impression that a lot of time has passed and the characters are still walking.
The animation seems to be made to look like all the objects are constructed with paper, the people, the bear, the trees and even the bears fur are constructed in a 3D program but due to the sharp edged nature of the characters, appear to be crude paper characters. The intensity of this effect varies depending on the lighting and other effects used in the scene such as rain. For example, the scene where the hooded men all look out across the water appears much more 2D than the scenes of the men travelling through the woods. I believe that this variation in effect is entirely down to the particle effects and lighting of the scene making the characters figures change from looking like 2D cutouts to origami figures respectively. Another factor contributing to this 2.5D appearance is the ribbon each of the characters wears, helping to give the animation depth and contribute to its style.
With the characters being designed to appear so basically constructed, the animation relies heavily on its colours and effects to help add intensity to the scene. By sticking to a basic matte colour scheme for the main characters (the hooded men and the bear) Hilleli is able to manipulate the environments to compliment and contrast the characters helping them become the focal point and to add a sense of isolation to the world and by adding fog effects and varying gradients, indicate the weather in these barren, highly stylized environments.
With the exception of the introduction with the bear shaving off its fur, the animation seems to mainly follow the journey of the men, perhaps symbolising a passage through some sort of time personal to the Eran Hilleli such as adolescence or growing up with the hooded men joining the main characters on the walk representing friends or key events which helped change him throughout the "journey". At the end of the animation, the bear turns black again returning the character to the same colour it began with at the start of the animation creating a full loop in some sense.
The animation seems to be made to look like all the objects are constructed with paper, the people, the bear, the trees and even the bears fur are constructed in a 3D program but due to the sharp edged nature of the characters, appear to be crude paper characters. The intensity of this effect varies depending on the lighting and other effects used in the scene such as rain. For example, the scene where the hooded men all look out across the water appears much more 2D than the scenes of the men travelling through the woods. I believe that this variation in effect is entirely down to the particle effects and lighting of the scene making the characters figures change from looking like 2D cutouts to origami figures respectively. Another factor contributing to this 2.5D appearance is the ribbon each of the characters wears, helping to give the animation depth and contribute to its style.
With the characters being designed to appear so basically constructed, the animation relies heavily on its colours and effects to help add intensity to the scene. By sticking to a basic matte colour scheme for the main characters (the hooded men and the bear) Hilleli is able to manipulate the environments to compliment and contrast the characters helping them become the focal point and to add a sense of isolation to the world and by adding fog effects and varying gradients, indicate the weather in these barren, highly stylized environments.
With the exception of the introduction with the bear shaving off its fur, the animation seems to mainly follow the journey of the men, perhaps symbolising a passage through some sort of time personal to the Eran Hilleli such as adolescence or growing up with the hooded men joining the main characters on the walk representing friends or key events which helped change him throughout the "journey". At the end of the animation, the bear turns black again returning the character to the same colour it began with at the start of the animation creating a full loop in some sense.
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