Animated Olympic Ident for France Télévisions
A sumo wrestler brings Olympic sport into a Japanese woodblock world.
The Mill/Mikros MPC produced SUMO, a one-minute animated film for broadcaster France Télévisions, in collaboration with MullenLowe France. Created to announce the channel's Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games coverage, the film depicts skateboarding, climbing, basketball and surfing through a sumo wrestler character. Its entirely 2D animation draws on 18th-century Japanese woodblock prints, using bold outlines, graphic compositions, cavalier perspective, text cartouches and an aged-paper image treatment. The restrained animation was produced on threes and fours to retain the static, handcrafted quality of the print references.
Insights
- Mikros MPC produced the one-minute SUMO film for France Télévisions with MullenLowe France; it was unveiled in May 2021 ahead of the Tokyo Games.
- The entirely 2D film draws on eighteenth-century Japanese woodblock prints, using strong outlines, graphic compositions, text cartouches and an aged-paper treatment.
- Cavalier perspective without vanishing points constrained camera movement and transitions between foreground and background, making previsualisation important to production.
- The character’s line work was adjusted to its scale within each frame so that the sumo wrestler remained consistent with the environments.
- Animation on threes and fours helped retain the static, handcrafted quality of the print references.
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