1000 Heads London tasked us with creating nine animated films for Amazon’s Career Growth program on a tight 11-week timeline. It was an incredible marathon to design and direct to bring each story to life, working closely with our talented crew at Onion Skin Studio.
Here’s the final result. The films are presented by country in sequence.
UK Films:
This first one highlights Ieuan's journey. From travelling the world to working at Amazon's HR team.
Each film centered around a real Amazon employee, with stories crafted directly from their experiences.
Our task was to visualize these stories for four key Amazon markets in Europe: the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.
This second film showcases Rayman, who left construction to start fresh at Amazon and he’s now thriving as an IT engineer.
Meet Jayshri, whose love for the outdoors and family time is supported by Amazon’s Term-Time Contracts.
Germany Films:
Marvin’s story leading him from logistic to his new role as a Human Resources Partner.
Dennis got a Master’s Degree funded by Amazon, now he is fine-tuning Amazon’s machines and his own expertise.
France Films:
This sixth film shows Catherine, one of Amazon France’s first employees.
Chloe, after deciding university wasn’t for her. Now she coaches others on their Amazon journeys.
Italy Films:
Desaina’s love for learning led her to Amazon’s career program. Today, she’s an HR Associate Partner.
Cristian's early fascination with machines brought him to Amazon. He now works as a Robotics Technician.
Design
Each story centered on a unique Amazon employee, meaning we’d need nine distinct 3D characters which was something we couldn’t afford within the schedule. To solve this, we created two base character models, altering their appearances with props like hair, glasses, beards, and more.
Base character design
The client was convinced when they saw the character variety achieved through props and different outfits.
Next, we moved on to designing each employee.
Expressions also had to be limited. Fortunately, there was no lip-sync so we could make this level of variety work.
Storyboard & Animatic
Then we jumped into sketching quick storyboards and assembling rough animatics to define the flow, rhythm, and transitions of each film early on.
Environment
In the meantime, we began designing the environments for each story.
Modeling
Once the designs were approved, our character modeller Beril Öztürk did a brilliant job translating the 2D designs into detailed 3D models.
Meanwhile, environment modellers Civan Sarı and Pelin Korkmazel were busy turning our environment sketches into fully realized 3D sets.
Rigging
Our seasoned rigger, Cüneyt Güçlü, built versatile and animator-friendly rigs for all the characters. His setup allowed for seamless prop switching, and generate entirely new characters with distinctive looks using the same base rigs. Smart, efficient, and essential for staying on schedule.
Animation
It was time to bring everything to life! Mehmet Berber did an outstanding job animating all nine films under an incredibly tight schedule. His skill ensured that each character’s performance felt natural, engaging, and full of personality.
Finally, we exported everything and handed it over to 1000Heads. They worked their post-production magic and brought everything together with beautiful final renders.
The client was happy. The agency was happy...
And that made us happy too.
And that made us happy too.
CREDITS:
Client: Amazon
Agency: 1000 Heads
Animation Studio: Onion Skin
Creative Director: Ian Mann
Director: Cenk Köksal
3D Layout: Cenk Köksal - Cihan Ezerbolat
Character Modeling: Beril Öztürk
Character Rigging: Cüneyt Güçlü
Animator: Mehmet Berber
Additional Animation: Onur Akkayuz - Cenk Köksal
Environment Modelling: Civan Sarı - Pelin Korkmazel
Lighting/Rendering: Ian Mann
Compositing: Ian Mann
Thanks for watching!
