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American Heart Association – The Hero In All of Us

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An emotive 5min illustration based on three young heroes who each have a remarkable story to tell on how their quick thinking saved lives.

Our London office produced the entire piece including script writing and direction. By interviewing the children, the team had a firsthand understanding on their characters and story. All frames were hand drawn in house by our skillful artists and we were proud to be part of the black tie annual fundraiser aboard USS Intrepid!

Concept

CGI

animation

Concept

We were asked to create an emotional and engaging short film telling the stories of three inspiring young people in America who are contributing to the AHA’s fight against heart disease and stroke. With top healthcare agency CDM New York, we started with the theme of Super Heroes.

‘The Hero in All of Us’ shares the stories of 3 young heroes who each have remarkable stories of bravery. Personal accounts of their quick-thinking to educate thousands of others in helping combat and deal with heart health. The 6 minute animation was shown at a gala event aboard the HSS Intrepid in New York – the short led the evening of outstanding tales and presentations to raise awareness and money for the life-changing cause.

  • AHA_RESEARCH_AND_REFERENCE_2
  • AHA_RESEARCH_AND_REFERENCE_3
  • AHA_RESEARCH_AND_REFERENCE_1
  • concept_kids

Character Development

We started with an extensive research and script writing phase, to find the right tone of voice, and narrow the focus of what to put in and what to leave out. The next part of the process was to explore the look and feel with sketched character designs and concept art.

  • CC-hero-pad-A - American Heart Association
  • C&C-AHA-SUPERS-001 - American Heart Association
  • Arnette_modelsheet
  • Sam_modelsheet
  • Tommy_modelsheet
  • AHA_KIDS

Storyboard and Style Frames

The storyboarding and animatic phases were next, and really important for working out how best to tell each story. 

  • AHA-SB-ARNETTE
  • AHA-SB-SAM
  • AHA-SB-TOMMY
  • AHA-SB-CONCLUSION
  • Robot-hero-style-frame - American Heart Association
  • Squirrel-guy-Style-Frame - American Heart Association
  • Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-11.53.33_American_Heart_Association
  • AHA_styleframe
We think it has the best of both worlds, with dynamic camera moves and sense of lighting and depth, whilst retaining the charm, warmth and human qualities associated with traditional hand drawn character animation.

Animation

With the paper animatic approved, we were able to progress with blocking out the animatic with 3D camera moves and the animated comic book transitions etc.

TJ then used a team of specialist Flash character animators and FX animators, working in a traditional 2D animation workflow (i.e. drawing each frame by frame, rather than tweaking between key frames). Characters were animated as 2D cards, which we could then drop back into the 3D camera moves.

In the comping stage TJ bought everything together combining the 2D character animation, 3D assets, illustrated background elements, lighting and VFX to create the final shots.

American Heart Pepper Sketch
American Heart Pepper Wireframe
American Heart Pepper Chalk
American Heart Pepper Final

Results

One of the most interesting aspects of this animation was combining traditional hand drawn 2D animation, with 3D camera moves and environments. A good example of this can be seen in Arnette’s ‘helping hand’s scene’ where 2D animated characters live in 3D space, and are interacting with 3D elements.

We think it has the best of both worlds, with dynamic camera moves and sense of lighting and depth, whilst retaining the charm, warmth and human qualities associated with traditional hand drawn character animation.

 The animated short commenced a moving evening of outstanding tales and presentations aboard the HSS Intrepid in New York, where significant sums were raised in support of AHA’s mission ‘to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke’.

AMA Event 5 500pxl
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AMA Event 2 500pxl
AMA Event 1 500pxl

Testimonial

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“The AHA video was awesome. And I use that word to its truest definition. I was literally in awe at the Gala while watching it, even after seeing it for the umpteenth time. So again, thank you for all the effort, devotion, and passion that went into creating this amazing, awesome piece. People were tearing up in the audience. The CDM NY Team was truly ecstatic to work on this project with Taylor James. We look forward to working together again.”

Stephen Minasvand, Senior Vice President, Associate Creative Director, CDM