australian turf club - expect it all
Hype Republic and Squeak joined forces to create an eyecatching campaign for Australian Turf Club. Inspired by vintage travel posters, the collaborative effort seamlessly integrated 2D animation into live-action visuals, crafting visually dynamic imagery and reinforcing brand identity through a storytelling narrative. This combination of techniques effectively captures the essence of the racing carnival—its energy, excitement, vibrancy, and colour.
This project was featured in Campaign Brief! Check out the article here.
The Process
1. Look Development
Edits from the Hype Republic team were storyboarded by the Squeak PreProd team before we commenced on concept art, crafted in SBP & PHOTOSHOP to ensure we aligned with the style and aesthetic of the reference vintage vacation posters.
2. Previs
3D Previs in Maya was drafted to streamline visual communication between stakeholders before we proceeded with 2D hand-animation. This allowed us to craft cameras and finalise timings before starting illustration.
3. Animation
Characters and foreground animation was all done in a traditional 2D animation style - keyframes were illustrated in Photoshop, which were then cleaned up and turned into an animation sequence by illustrating in-between frames. Each frame then was hand-painted in the vintage poster style.
All background elements for the wide scenes were rendered out of Houdini with custom shaders to match the hand painted art style. Additional embellishments were added in After Effects, adding the final flourish to each scene.
4. Compositing
Edit and Grade completed by the Hype Republic team and then plates were passed onto us for compositing. For this project, we used a combination of Nuke compositing for the 3D elements and After Effects compositing for the 2D elements and embellishments. This workflow gave us full flexibility and control of each type of element to craft the final look.
The team
Australian Turf Club
Yael Bradbury – General Manager Marketing
Nathan Gray – Content Production Manager
Matt Jenkins – Senior Digital Manager
Emma Reynolds – Senior Brand and Marketing Manager
Peter Hoskins – Digital Producer
Post Production by Hype Republic
Executive Producers – Allan Hardy, Macario De Souza
Creative Director – Allan Hardy
Post-Production Producer – Camille Cannings
Editor – Jarred Lammiman
Colour – Joe Lancaster
Music Composition – Oliver Kennan Lyu
Sound – Underscore Audio
Animation by Studio Squeak
Animation Director – Ian Anderson
Animation Producer – Sarah Taylor
Animation Coordinator – Rylee Bannan
Animation Team – Ahmed Nashabe, Rob Conn, Cam Wright, Leyton Brown, Julian Burgess, Amy Wheelhouse, Phil Jackson, Bruno Ribeiro Profeta, Brad Coomber
