How do you make yet another phone launch stand out? That was the poser that Oppo gave Mother Shanghai when it appointed the agency to launch its latest handset, Reno2, initially targeting China.

Oppo is the top smartphone brand in China in 2019 and currently ranked #5 worldwide in market share. But that wasn’t going to lure millions of young Chinese people to upgrade their phones to the latest Oppo version. Nor was a list of the phone’s features.

Instead, Mother demonstrated the creative possibilities of the Reno2. Entertained them with the left-of-field, bite-sized content they thrive on and let the phone’s speak for themselves. The result is a series of ten animated films – each with its own distinctive style, all playful. Every film ends with one simple voiceover aimed to trigger anticipation – Reno2 is coming.

Here are the stories behind each of the films:

Birdsnest:

Director: Laurie Rowan

3D Generalist: Dorianne Fibleuil

Technical Director: Patrick Hearn

Render Wrangler: Derek Walsh

“The design considerations in Birdnest centred around expressing a lot in a short amount of time. I wanted to set the scenario and have the characters go through a range of emotions before the final reveal. For this reason, I paired the characters down to what would be bare minimum to make them recognisable as birds and put all the emphasis on their eyes as an expressive tool. The seesawing nest felt like a good comedic tool, that was fast and volatile enough to establish itself as a concept in the time we had available.”  [Laurie Rowan, director]

Rowan builds characters and worlds composed of their own logic. With a hint of the surreal, they incorporate Laurie’s sense of fun and joy and take inspiration from ceramics, dance and bodily behaviour. He combines creativity and technology both in animating for television and game design, working for clients including the CBBC, British Museum, Sony and Channel 4. In 2019 he headlined Pictoplasma as well as creating a giant holographic interactive character as part of their InterFaces exhibition.

Wrestlers:

Director: Sam Southward

CG Lead: Andy Spence

3D Generalist: Dorianne Fibleuil

Animator: Natalie Ni Chleirigh

Compositors: German Diez & Mathieu Chaillot

Rigger: Lea Georges

3D Generalist: Will Fullager

2D Animator: Malo Douchet

“Our story is all about high energy, weight and impact, anticipating the arrival and excitement of the Reno2. I felt that digital stop motion with an organic and tactile feel would be great to create a colourful, fast-paced and memorable animation.” [Sam Southward, director]

Southward is known for his distinct character design and the combination of live action and CG techniques that he uses to tell stories. He also has a brilliant sense of humour and was recently nominated for a BAFTA for his work on the Gruffalo Spotter AR App. Most recently, he worked on two interactive projects for Google, creating beautiful animations for their installations at the Mobile World Congress and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Cat:

Director: Jack Cunningham

Director Of Photography: Ian Forbes

Puppeteer: Matt Lloyd

Fabricator: Andy Gent

Model Makers: Sofia Serrano, Ciara Mclean, Jade Gerrard & Josie Corben

Sculptors: Christy Matta, Stefano Cordioli & Jim Elphick

Compositor: German Diez

Key Grip: Thomas Heleta

Hand Models: Nicolas Ménard, George Cunningham &Keaton Dekker

Runner: Orchid Vishkaiy

“It was an absolute treat to collaborate with Andy Gent’s Arch Model Studios again on a charming & expertly made cat hand puppet. The ident stokes up a nostalgic Muppets vibe, art directed to feel reminiscent of the taxidermy exhibits seen at the Natural History Museum. The House Cat viewed in its favourite natural habitat, the living room sofa.”  [Jack Cunningham, director]

Cunningham’s distinctive, illustrative and playful characters combined with his love for storytelling and experimenting with different styles has meant a demand for his working across different platforms. He has brought to life the musings of Rashida Jones visually for Google and has had his interactive work for the White House was  talked about by Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

Scientist:

Director: Jack Cunningham

Art Director: Callum Strachan

Creative Supervisor: Nicolas Ménard

CG Lead: Andy Spence

3D Generalist: Dorianne Fibleuil

Compositors: Link Lee 7 German Diez

Animator: Joffrey Zeitouni

Rigger: Lea Georges

“The Scientist is a 3D, 1970s sci fi trip down into the depths of a secret lab, doing very secret things. The ident is made up of completely CG imagery, however, each texture and surface has been painstakingly referenced from real air-fix models and 3D printed sculptures. This all helps ground the spot with a tactile, stop motion aesthetic.”  [Jack Cunningham, director]

Ice Cream:

Director & Animator: Felix Massie

Animator: Sim Marriott

Compositor: Jesse Richards

“I wanted to make the day look as wonderful and hot as possible, so we have bright colours and lots of glow. It’s a beautiful day… and so that means, should something terrible happen to the ice creams in this spot, it’s all the funnier. Fortunately, we had a heatwave at the beginning of the project so we could go out and film a genuinely melt-inducing day and then get some ice creams to inspire the look for the commercial to make sure it’s perfectly accurate. I may have had more than one just to make sure.” [Felix Massie, director]

Massie’s work frequently demonstrates a fantastic sense of comic timing and mastery in moving audiences. He creates charming characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. Felix directed Rain or Shine,  Google’s “most immersive Spotlight story yet”, and more recently created an animated, interactive installation for Google at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Creatures:

Director, Design 7 Animator: Jarrod Prince

Animators: Andrew Onorato & Maeve Baker

Compositor: Chris Angelius

“My spot for Reno2 is influenced by Miyazaki films and ’90s nostalgia. I wanted the aesthetic to feel like Spirited Away meets Twin Peaks.” [Jarrod Prince, director]

Prince’s style blends eclectic tastes with modern design sensibilities. Accomplished in 2D animation, background art, character design and direction, Jarrod has been able to work with world leaders in animation, such as Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

Karate:

Director, Designer & Animator: Michael Shiao Chen

Compositor: Chris Angelius

“Karate is a whimsical and comedic take on the ubiquitous concrete breaking demonstrations by martial artists. It’s a “what if the concrete didn’t break?” scenario that flips expectations on its head (excuse the pun). The art style is cemented (I can go at this all day) in strong graphical shapes as well as drawing on tropes from Japanese anime. The eastern influences extend through to the score, with its Kabuki undertones adding to the exaggerated theatrics of the piece.” [Michael Shiao Chen, Director]

Chen’s  illustrative style embodies a cross-cultural mix of Eastern and Western influences from his time spent living and working abroad in Japan and Vietnam. Michael made his first film at the age of 11 out of Lego bricks and an old webcam! Since then he’s gone on to work on an array of feature films, TV series and commercials.

K9:

Director & all art: Robertino Zambrano

“Sausages are a metaphor for our deepest regrets – no matter how deep you bury them, there’s always that gumshoe that will dig it up.

I wanted to create an aesthetic which felt like a genre mashup where hardboiled noir gets crossed with a retro sci-fi cybernetic organism, depicted in a graphic novel sensibility. I played with a dynamic stippling technique to use a minimal amount of tonal values as possible, and focused on having fun playing with light and shadow shapes to raise the tension in the scene.” [Robertino Zambrano, Director]

Zambrano’s style is a hybrid of a wide range of animation techniques, spanning the worlds of motion graphics, 2D and 3D animation. His work has been screened at over 30 film festivals worldwide. His film for TED-Ed, Accents won the coveted Cristal for a Commissioned Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 2019.

Security:

Directors & all art: Haein Kim & Paul Rhodes

“Our style is simple, fun and funny. Hopefully it’s evident in this little piece.” [Haein Kim & Paul Rhodes, directors]

Haein & Kim are partners in crime. They love fun and fresh designs that are bright, playful and colourful. Their debut film, Peepin has toured at festivals world-wide including Pictoplasma and Flickerfest.. Their work also includes commissions for the likes of MTV as well as countless hand-drawn illustrations.

Hair:

Director & all art: Greg Sharp

“This style is digital stop-motion cut out. Stop-motion is the oldest style of animation – well over 100 years old – but it still feels fresh. If you do it well, it gives a surreal, magical sensation.” [Greg Sharp, director]

Sharp works in multiple styles and techniques including stop-motion, classic cartoon, anime and indie. His approach combines absurd humour and surreal scenarios with traditional storytelling techniques and an unembellished style.

Credits:

Client: Oppo

Agency: Mother Shanghai

Creative: Mother Shanghai

Strategy: Mother Shanghai

Production Company: Nexus Studios

Executive creative Director & Co-Founder: Chris O’Reilly

Producer: Rebecca Archer

Executive Producer: Tracey Cooper

Production Manager: Derek Walsh

Editors: Dave Slade & Thomas Heleta

Production Company: Mighty Nice           

Senior Producer: Tina Braham

Junior Producer: Diana Angelius

Head of Studio: Jeremy Howdin