Enter a Paper Craft World with New Animated Spot for Gas Networks Ireland

Seed Animation has recently created a 40-second commercial for Gas Networks Ireland, that introduces the fully renewable gas network to Ireland. Seed worked alongside artist and director, Hattie Newman.

We follow protagonist Dan through quaint Irish towns and lush landscapes that appear to have been created in stop motion paper craft.

Paper was the obvious choice to create a world that feels natural and homemade. However, due to the limitations of producing a 40-second, one-shot stop motion film, the decision was made to go full CGI, yet maintain the authenticity of paper. Creating the commercial this way allowed for an iterative approach to production and provided the agency with the flexibility to alter both look and movement right up to delivery. 

Hattie and her team built almost every prop in the film using her signature style and then Seed faithfully rebuilt them in CGI. The goal was to create an authentic world that would remove the all-too-common CGI perfection and celebrate all the beauty, tactility and imperfection of hand crafted paper. This was achieved by considering the qualities of paper – including the paper types, how they fold, where cuts should be placed, and also how paper characters move in a convincing stop motion way. Every element of the CGI production was broken down and analysed – from cameras, lens artefacts, set construction, lighting – nothing was created or animated if it couldn’t have been replicated in real life. So technically there’s CGI trickery, but technically there's no CGI trickery. 

The spot was produced by BlinkArt and Seed Animation for Rothco in Ireland.