We might have had a bit of winter blues when we designed this little number. In our fourth instalment of the Fandangles saga we’re introduced to a couple of reckless Bubblegum Balls about to embark on a daring beachside balloon race. Things come a little unstuck as our heroes meet a couple of unexpected beach side calamities.

We took hundreds of photos of real world things to construct incredibly detailed 3D models. This is the secret sauce when trying to achieve richly textured characters and environments. We then remixed and sculpted it into carefully designed elements based on our hand-drawn designs.

We always find the best way to attack the early stages of story is with a pencil and paper (or at least their digital equivalents). So after catching up with the team at Leo Burnett we sat down and drew lots and lots of storyboards. We were determined capture the fun of the scripts while pushing our experience with visual comedy and story telling.

To achieve the hyper-real feeling of the Fandangles world we carefully modelled the cows as tiny plastic toys and the cookies were intricate 3D scans of home cooked cookies. The team developed all new methods of creating 3D fairy floss that could float and fly elegantly, not to mention burning marshmallow, elastic caramel and flying chocolate!

Our master-3D-crafter Greg worked pretty damn hard on the starchy, sugary, cornfloury substance that is unique to marshmallows. He battled with it looking like Camembert cheese in the early stages… add more sugar Greg! It absorbs light, is crunchy but also appears soft.

The team at Leo Burnett brought with an existing pack and character designs that were already rocking. We added more ideas, design and expressions to fully round out the idea.