Mr. Beaver's Yule Log

For several years, agency Sid Lee has created a heartwarming holiday short for client IGA. This year they decided to tell the story through the eyes of two granddaughters listening to their grandfather as they prepare a traditional Yule Log dessert. He has a very special tale to share about old Mr. Beaver and his Yule Log.
Director Kun Chang helped craft a world populated by plush children’s toys, with lovingly crafted touch-worn textures by co-director Fabien Fulchiron.
This is the second year that Tonic DNA has collaborated on the IGA holiday film with agency Sid Lee. We wanted to push the 3D animation quality to new levels, as well as create a new visual style for the story world inspired by stop-motion animation.
“Once we conceived of the story world as happening in the children’s minds and therefore saw the animals as being plush toys instead of real animals, a lot fell into place,” says director Kun Chang. “These characters are more like children themselves, stealing because they are mischievous not because they are bad. It made the dynamic more sympathetic.”
The character textures include a wide range of materials from fabric to fur, and it was important for them all to have a worn-in quality to feel like they had been loved by a child, a bit used and played with.
With cinematography our goal was to have the same live shooting feeling we generally have in stop motion video, where the set and the characters are small, but the lights, cameras, and materials used are actual size.
To push the contrast between the real world and the world of the fable, we changed the fable world animation style closer to stop-motion, with varied frame rates throughout these scenes.