IGA’s Christmas campaigns capture the essence of the Quebec holiday experience. Family, friends, and good food! Over the years these touching, and even avant-garde stories have helped to lead the field of animation in Quebec, and we are proud to be part of this chapter together with agency of record Sid Lee.
The objective this year was to make people laugh and to cry, with a story about an eccentric aunt, her family, and her not-so-tasty meatloaf. With humour playing a stronger role, we needed to strike a balance between honoring the character design style of years past while adding a dash of comic exaggeration to the recipe.
On Christmas eve, IGA revealed a special holiday surprise: a 45-second epilogue that added a heartwarming twist to the story of Aunt LouLou.
The Characters
We wanted these characters to be relatable and representative of the modern multicultural Quebec family. We also wanted to create unforgettable personalities that become a cherished part of the holidays this year!
We tried to stretch the proportions and features just a bit in certain characters to communicate strong
personalities and bring some silly fun to their expressions when tasting Loulou’s meat loaf.
The Family Home
We put a lot of effort into the small details that make the environment cozy and authentic. The goal was a blend of nostalgic items that people in Quebec would recognize from their own family homes, and modern touches to keep the family feeling contemporary.
For promotion, posters for the campaign featuring LouLou and QR codes that linked to the video made it easy for everyone to watch online.
We started with traditional hand-drawn designs to create the energy and empathy of classic cartoon characters and keep that guiding vision through modelling and rigging in 3D.
Each character needed multiple outfits to show their story over the years, and our narrator Leon actually aged throughout the course of these films.
Textures and lighting were lovingly rendered to create an authentic tone despite the comic exaggeration of certain elements.
Each character needed multiple outfits to show their story over the years, and our narrator Leon actually aged throughout the course of these films.
Textures and lighting were lovingly rendered to create an authentic tone despite the comic exaggeration of certain elements.
Watch our process video for behind-the-scenes insight into how we put these films together!
Credits
Client: IGA
Agency: Sid Lee
Director: Joe Bluhm
3D Supervisor and Co-Director: Fabien Fulchiron
Executive Producer: Stefanie Bitton
Producers: Catherine Gaucher, Frédérique Parenteau
Coordinators: Stefen Lamontagne, Ana Fino, Elisa Cura
Creative Strategist: Jay Mark Caplan
Storyboards: Joe Bluhm
Concept Art: David Goldstyn, Valentina Brancati, Maia Zeidan, Josiane Fortin, Nick Vallinakis, Colin Bigelow
Character Design: Valentina Brancati, Joe Bluhm
Lead Environment and Rigging Supervisor: Juan Paulo Mardónez
Character and Food Modeling: Juan Paulo Mardónez
Layout and Posing: Cindy Foucault
Lighting: Eloi Forest, Miguel Madaíl de Freitas, Fabien Fulchiron
Character Textures: Fabien Fulchiron
3D Environments: Angel Canales, Andrés Armstrong, Rasika Jayawardene, Fabien Fulchiron, Juan Paulo Mardónez
Animation Supervisors: Miguel Madaíl de Freitas, Guilherme Afonso
Character Rigging: Ricardo Muñoz, Diego Santibañez, Franklin Ventura, Walter Delgado
3D Animation: Sebastião Lopes, Guilherme Afonso, Salvador Artero, David Omair, Emma Manske, Ahmed Adel, Sreeparna Basu
Matte Painting: Michael Renaud
Compositing Lead: Marc-André Bourgoin
Compositing and Offline: François Lafontaine
Senior Flame Artist and Online: Jean-Marc Laurin (KAOS KOLLEKTIV)
