Behind the Craft: Thatchers Juicy Apple

The starting point

We were approached by Thatchers and the agency Bray Leino to create an advert for a new cider, Thatchers Juicy Apple. As fans of cider and filmmaking, we were very pleased! The brief was to create a journey into the Thatchers world, featuring Myrtle Farm, renewable energy with solar power, and of course, sun-drenched apples and cider.

Aardman directors Will Studd and Magdalena Osinska had previously made adverts for the Thatchers mainline brand, creating a beautiful stop-motion version of the Thatchers world. With Juicy Apple being a new brand, there was an opportunity to do something a little different, and we were tasked with thinking about how a 2D style could be applied to that world. That’s where we started.

How it feels

Thatchers, understandably, is all about taste. So, our aim was to make a film that feels like Juicy Apple tastes—full of fizzy, sparkly, summertime loveliness!

Thatchers also shared with us the packaging for Juicy Apple, which we really liked. Its palette and texture hinted at a world that could look really interesting. So, we set about thinking how that could inspire a much wider world and how we could make a graphic style into something with more depth and form.

Farms, apples, and glasses of cider

This stage was all about drawing—lots of drawing! We also asked lots of questions: How graphic? How realistic? How many colors? How much depth? Do we have characters? What does the light feel like? All in close collaboration with the agency and client, until we found that image that just ‘felt right.’

We also looked at everything from the way the liquid moves (thanks to our producer for making lots of videos of himself opening cans!) to how to bring the dappled effect used in the packaging to life so that it mirrors the summery, fizzy feel directly on the screen.

Story

At the same time as we were generating art, we were developing boards and, like the visuals, going through many stages to get a feel for what’s right. Starting with the agency boards, we thought about flow, transitions, and if there was anything we could add to what was already there.

The glass scene, for example, where we transition from a pub garden to the ‘Thatchers world,’ we explored various ideas to find what worked best: Could the camera run across the surface as if over an ocean of glittering cider? Could the apple on the glass morph into a bubble inside? Do we pass through the glass into the cider, with bubbles swirling around us? Eventually, we started to hone in on what worked best.

The how

Once the design and boards had solidified, we started thinking about the how. Looking at the board ideas and the designs, we thought about how to animate in a way that retains the style but allows for a flowing camera that makes you feel immersed in the world. After a fair bit of trial and error, we settled on what seemed like a combination of everything!

In the final piece, there’s 2D animation, some in a more traditional sense, some on cards placed in a 3D environment. There are 3D objects, some brought into After Effects and some rendered from 3D directly, all knitted together with a camera that jumps from program to program. If we’ve done our job well, you hopefully don’t see the workings; you just see a 2D style brought to life.

Ultimately, like with all commercials, time is tight. But we are really happy with the end result and super pleased with our small team who, as always, went above and beyond.