The Story of Coffee
When we set out to produce our first passion project in almost a decade, we had a few things working in our favour. For one, it’s a film about coffee (and who doesn’t like coffee right?). Secondly, it was a great opportunity to flex our creative muscles and really show off what we can do. And lastly, there’s of course the dancing goats. Need we say more?
Actually, we didn’t know about the goats when we started. But we knew that we wanted to produce a project on something we’re passionate about (coffee) and we wanted do it at our own pace with complete creative freedom.
We were also pretty sure that other people would enjoy discovering the story of coffee, especially if it was presented in short animated form with the kind of production values that we bring to all of our client-based work. And when we found out about the goats, we knew there was no turning back.
The Challenge
We were determined to make a video that – like a great shot of espresso – was compact, incredibly flavourful, and exuberantly uplifting. However, fitting the history of coffee into a one-minute format wouldn’t be easy. And, in order to stand out from the crowd (there’s a lot of coffee lore out there), it had to be uniquely engaging.
The Process
With so much fascinating information to work with, it took a few iterations to wrestle the script down to size. The first draft came in at 320 words; we eventually got it down to 125. We tried to make sure that everything we included would lend itself to beautiful animation. Or be funny (e.g., goats).
In the design phase, we had a lot of fun developing the visual style. We wanted it to look like a storybook, with the visual story flowing in an organic way across each scene. After working through a lot of sketches, we found the perfect balance between simple forms and striking design. We didn't want to add too much detail to the backgrounds, so using high contrast elements and bright colours was the key.
All of the character animation was done in Moho and composited in After Effects. We also incorporated some 3d objects like the boat and milk jug for some added depth using Cinema 4d. In total, 5 animators worked on the production and for a bit of fun we made sure to include them all in the final scene skating and having fun outside the cafe.
We then had original music composed to ensure the soundtrack perfectly complemented the story’s shifts in tone (which can be difficult with stock library music). When deciding on voice-over, we ultimately chose an African artist, whose distinctive accent lent authenticity to the project.
Without a deadline, we just kept making everything better until there was no room left for improvement. Six months later, we had our finished animation.
The Result
In the end, we made exactly the video we set out to make – informative, entertaining, aesthetically accomplished, and under a minute. Unlike other videos on the history of coffee, which can be overly serious and as long as 20 minutes, ‘The Story of Coffee’ is thoroughly accessible and engaging, and likely to be watched from start to finish by everyone.
What we never could have predicted when we started out was that our little passion project would go on to win some big awards. We were thrilled when ‘The Story of Coffee’ won Gold (in the Food & Beverage category) and Silver (for 2D animation) at the 2020 Telly awards, the world’s largest competition recognising excellence in video and television across all screens.
Thanks!
If you like what you see, we’d like to hear from you (even if you’re a tea drinker). Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your next project. Or check us out at:
