Time is a Malaysian telecommunications provider.

Time proudly delivers the fastest 100% pure fibre broadband service in the country—but they wanted to be more than just that.

Through For The People’s (FTP) irreverent and language-led rebrand, Time came to better connect with and represent how their consumers Live, Work and Play. Never Sit Still felt privileged when asked to come on board and help bring this fresh look and feel to life in motion.

Armed with some lovingly crafted storyboards and a tight script (as well as an equally tight timeline), we set to work to create a high-octane brand video that would do FTP’s brilliant creative justice. However, as we rifled through all aspects of the toolkit, we quickly clocked a few key challenges that lay ahead of us.

In addition to its playful new triple-weight typeface and vibrant pink-centric palette, the Time toolkit now also featured a strong illustration component full of tongue-in-cheek characters—these were lovingly drawn by Cloakwork and Shu Yee, two Malaysian illustrators engaged by FTP to be a key part of the process. However, these characters’ bold, gestural linework, dynamic poses, and differing programs of origin posed a few technical hurdles on the animation front.

Challenge #1: A different puzzle every time.

Every character’s dynamic pose and method of illustration created a unique puzzle. From regular walk cycles to a wacky inflatable tube man—each illustration needed to be approached through a different lens, though the outcomes all still needed to feel unified in their movement.

We looked at which illustrations were highlighted within the storyboard and focused on solving these first, breaking down how each would need to move and working backwards to the best workflow to achieve it. Things that floated or flowed like hair and fabric could get away with light tweening or warp/turbulence effects, but more static objects or scenarios needed full cel-drawn rotations or rigs to give them life (with a Posterize Time effect applied to all to unify framerates).

“We’d been given the gift of great creative and a very game client, but the requirements of each asset were incredibly varied. Some were clean keyline strokes, others outlined fills. Some characters could be turned into puppets cleanly, others needed to be redrawn and rigged from the ground up. The whole series was a combination of redraws, cel, rigging, puppetry, tweening and ambient FX animation (and even a small amount of 3D) to do each illustration justice.”

‍— Ben Walker, Senior Motion Designer

Challenge #2: So much Time, in so little time.

The breakneck speed of the video edit meant that a number of these animated illustrations would unfortunately only be seen for a split-second (outside of the value-add for a future case study).

To combat this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pace, we explored a number of workflows and effects that could playfully yet efficiently add movement to each and every illustration—respecting and bringing life to their dynamic posing without breaking the bank.

“Process-wise, puppet pins were a quick way to add some life and movement to the complex shapes of the characters when the budget didn’t allow for full frame-by-frame re-draws on every illustration. A combination of 40% puppet pin, 40% wave warp, and 20% cel allowed for a pleasing but time-efficient level of character and movement.”

‍—Nancy Li, Midweight Motion Designer

Challenge #3: Time for something completely different.

FTP’s storyboards also had a few scripted moments requiring additional bespoke illustrations that were beyond the original suite crafted for the brand, but still of a piece with the established style—the challenge fell to us to fill out these gaps.

"The time illustrations have a super fun feel to them so I was stoked to be able to design a character in their style. I think it was a challenge to take an existing illustrator’s style and intertwine it with my own to create something ownable for Time that fit within the brand video. The linework was also especially hard to keep consistent when doing cel/rigged animation.”

‍—James Vallance, Junior Motion Designer

Thankfully we have a few gifted in-house illustrators like James who were up to the task, and the slight variances between Cloakwork and Shu Yee’s respective styles left us some wiggle room to work within. Drawing specific aesthetic queues from both illustrators (hard shadows, thick black outlines, small white highlights, casual streetwear for any attire), we crafted a few options for original characters. After some guidance and subtle localisation from client—they enjoyed the most androgynous design from an inclusion standpoint, and also appreciated leaning more toward a realistic Malaysian skin tone—our little friend on the lower left was approved.

We were then able to take these stylistic learnings and use them to fill any other illustration gaps in the script, tying in our own additions with the already-great creative and allowing the sequence to truly sing.

Credits

Client — Time
‍Brand Agency — For The People
‍Storyboards — For The People
‍Brand Illustrations — Cloakwork, Shu Yee
‍Sound Design — Smith & Western
‍Animation — Never Sit Still