Into the Library with Yves Geleyn

'The Creative Library' is LBB’s exciting new launch. It’s been months - years, probably - in the making and we reckon our re-tooled archive will change the way you work, whether you’re a company looking to store and share your work, or a marketer or creative looking for new partners or inspiration for your latest project.

This isn’t a dusty old archive. It’s an easy-to-search, paywall-free library where all our members can store and share all of their reels and creative work.

To coincide, we launched a new regular feature called ‘Into the Library’ where we catch up with the industry’s most influential directors and creatives to talk about their career highlights, past and present. Think of it as a reel showcase with a big dollop of personality. We interview directors and top creatives about their favourite commercials and music videos from their catalogues to find out how these works shaped them.

Sharing his work and insight today is Hornet’s director, Yves Geleyn. Known for crafting visually stunning animated films for the likes of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and John Lewis, he spoke with LBB’s Ben Conway about employing an “ethereal mix of CG and 2D”, the challenges with 3D-printing models for stop-motion animation and how he’s used a variety of techniques to create timeless visuals.

Coca-Cola - Celebrating Together Is Magic 

This was the second year in a row we worked with Coca-Cola and Ogilvy for their Lunar New Year campaign. We were all really looking forward to working together again, and it felt like reuniting on the first day of school after summer break. I think it's something I truly value and like to nurture in my career now – building creative relationships and trust. I really loved diving back into Chinese culture and creating something totally different from the previous year: different animals, different look, different scale, different story. Everything was new.

I had the chance to rework with Peter de Sève and could not have asked for a better partner for character design. Peter has an unparalleled ability to express emotions with the flick of a pencil’s line. His contours and features bestow a human-like manner that allows these anthropomorphised animals to carry the weight of this story’s dramatic arc. I think this film exemplifies what is important in my work and what makes a new project right for me: the opportunity to explore new techniques, new looks and work in new mediums. And I can’t wait to explore the Year of the Dragon!

Kroger - Today’s Holiday Moments Are Tomorrow's Memories

Hornet had been working on Kroger campaigns for the past three years… but in 2022 they wanted something different for the holidays: a sort of ‘holiday special’ that would live inside the original campaign but feel more emotional and cinematic. I think our biggest challenge was to hit so many different emotions in the run time we had, without anything feeling underdeveloped or over the top. This experience to push a world that already existed into new but familiar territory was a fun challenge for me. 

I loved co-directing this piece with Michael Thurmeier - it’s fun to team up with other directors to create something you wouldn’t have created by yourself. We had great chemistry and I feel this shines through in the final film. I loved developing the story arc and he loved pushing the characters and emotion - it was a perfect combination and we had a dream team in production. 

Coca-Cola - Real Magic Lunar New Year

I’ve done a lot of work that has been displayed in Asia in the past three years (Japan, India, Singapore, China) and it's been a big shift in my career to learn about a new territory I haven’t explored before. With this project, it was really interesting to develop a story that resonated with the audience in Asia. The client, the agency and the production team were on the same page and they really trusted me and gave me a lot of freedom to push the creative and the craft. In our studio, everyone was excited to work on it and push it. I think you can feel this energy in the final piece.  

I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in this project. I was able to make something truly unique - with foundations in Chinese tradition but manifested in a modern way. Harmonising the old with the new and surprising people with something both familiar and completely unexpected was a fun journey.

When I came up with this idea of making articulated wooden marionettes, I didn't think about the technical and engineering challenges we would face to give the tigers life. Combining articulated limbs, painted expressions on their faces, and fluid, dynamic animation while staying true to the reality of their material and how they are ‘put together’ was quite an experience.  A lot of research was done in the space of marionettes, Chinese painting patterns, and real tigers. 

Eli Lilly - Planimation

Working on a film about cancer sequencing treatments can be overwhelming and quite abstract. The idea was to create a poetic metaphor illustrating the complexity and importance of sequencing in gastric cancer. The goal of these films was not necessarily to sell a specific drug, but instead to express the critical importance of the treatment process of sequencing. The main thread of the story was how a small interference can un-synchronise an entire universe. I was able to design this world based on a series of interviews I did with real, world-renowned oncologists. 

I loved creating an ethereal mix of CG and 2D, something with depth, volume, spatial lighting, painterly texture, and smooth animation. We wanted the viewer to be mesmerised in the same way people are when they look at deep-space photos. I love this piece and it is important to my career because the whole film was created from scratch just based on the information, interviews and documentation about the subject. This film was almost birthed like the Big Bang, starting from nothing and turning into this intricate, complex world. I love when an agency trusts me to creatively problem solve in order to tell a story.

McDonald’s - Always Working

I loved directing this project because we were able to build an amazing British landscape out of miniature textures. We were working with such a small scale that we were able to really submerge the camera in the set and feel like we were tiny figurines living on a tiny planet. One of the most satisfying parts of this project was that we shot everything in camera: the lighting, the sets, the animations and so we really created a unique look that would have been impossible to replicate with a different technique.

This project was an exercise in dedication and patience. It was quite a challenge to pull off, but I love challenges and trying new techniques… I'm always exploring what is doable. One of the main challenges was that we 3D printed our little figurines 1.5 inches tall, and I decided to separate the head from the body in order to have more head positions in stop motion. But it ended up being a nightmare to move these tiny pin-head size heads. So for all future projects using this technique, I printed all the figurines with heads attached, even if we had to 3D print more of them to do a head turn.

La Gaite Lyrique - Motion Factory 

Personal projects are always important to me, and it doesn't have to be a film. In this case, I created and curated an exhibition in Paris. It was a long personal project that took over six years to complete. ‘Motion Factory, les ficelles du monde animé’ took viewers on a trip around the world with some 15 guest filmmakers belonging to a highly creative generation that combines tactile animation technology and traditional craft methods in perfect harmony with the infinite digital possibilities available today.

My favourite part was having all the directors come for a couple of days to Paris to see the exhibition. We all hung out together, had dinner, partied and celebrated our shared love of the craft. The main creative challenge here was in wearing so many hats - curating, writing and printing the exhibit book, selecting the art that would go into the window display, setting up the work with the participants' experience in mind, PR, etc.

I learnt that sometimes you need a team to make this kind of project happen. Everyone involved volunteered their time and got really invested in its success. We had a very restricted budget, so a lot of things happened because of the love and passion from everyone. I’m interested in so many mediums, so this project is very different. I would love to work on a musical comedy for example… because why not?

States United to Prevent Gun Violence - The Monster Is Real

The message of this campaign hit me right away and I very much wanted to work on this impactful piece. We had to be smart with our budget so I decided to work in a very Edward Hopper-esque way; all about evoking the spaces, graphic but realistic proportions for the characters, and a very limited palette of colours. This allows the viewer to focus on the story. 

The main challenge was to mix the CG and 2D animation. This was one of the first spots doing cel shading on CG, so we explored and developed brushes to create this painterly look.

John Lewis - The Bear & The Hare

This piece has a very important place in my journey because it slingshotted my career to another level. This piece had a tremendous impact on the people in the industry when it came out and still does. I suddenly didn't need to introduce myself and was given the chance to have many great opportunities around the world.

It was a one-of-a-kind experience with some of the most amazing talented people I’ve had the chance to work with over the years (Elliot Dear, John Lee, Aaron Blaise, Dan Ojari, Andy Biddle and Toby Howell, just to name a few). Some even became very close friends, so If I had one thing to take from this project it would be the people and the memories. 

This project was a marathon - seven months from beginning to end. So the challenge was to keep the pace, but I think we all knew we were doing something special. Surround yourself with the best people and you can achieve amazing things. The biggest satisfaction came from creating a unique look out of this crazy mix of techniques. We brought it to a level of perfection where, even after 10 years, it doesn’t have a single wrinkle - it’s timeless.