In this episode of our lovers' animated love story, the atmosphere is warm and intimate. Paddy and Cardy (yep, these are their nicknames) are sharing a cup of hot chocolate by the fireplace. But cozying up on that carefully painted couch behind them is not an option for us, humans. We'd need to transform ourselves into a handful of colorful pixels to fit in the picture, but thankfully we can always use illustration to create enriching extensions of this reality.

This animated ad is part of a FAN Courier & VISA awareness campaign that advertises card payments on your delivery, starring the love story between a PDA and a VISA card. Depicted in 4 short episodes, their love is stronger than ice at the North Pole. 

Animation & creative direction played an important part in this series: we wanted to create richly painted backgrounds inspired by matte paintings with a pair of bold and colorful characters. What challenged us the most was simulating a 3D camera movement in Adobe After Effects. The camera movement that is following the lovers has become a recurring element. The up-close shots we chose have set an intimate tone to the whole series, immersing the viewer into the stories. 

Throughout the series, some elements have been modeled in 3D, while others have been recreated with 2D panels to simulate a 3D look. The sweet movements of our characters were meticulously animated frame-by-frame.

We were highly inspired by classic cartoons, so the Inkblot Cartoon Style perfectly fit our characters. With a romantic cliché mood board in mind, we built the two lovers to be a little clumsy with a pinch of shyness and a lot of cheesiness. 

We've been experimenting with different proportions, facial expressions, poses, and details such as clothing items to give them more personality until we reached the desired outcome. Everything that surrounds them reinforces a cozy and intimate atmosphere.