Sweetly Understated Stop-Motion From Telstra

The human touch trumps AI

Hey, Mr. Farmer way out in the middle of nowhere. You need satellite messaging to stay connected. Your sheep knows it, and so does Australian telco Telstra in the first of three impressive stop-motion spots from Bear Meets Eagle on Fire:

“The team had to build a set that could cleverly transition from each scene to space in a way that was as playful as it was direct,” agency CCO Micah Walker tells Muse. “The rotation of the foreground, mid ground and backgrounds all had to be built so that when whole, you see the right depth and detail for the scene to work, but also so that the transition was possible without just looking like a post-production trick.”

Bear Meets Eagle and Telstra have done similar animations before. Those were great ads, dabbling in whimsy and strut-worthy shenanigans.

This new batch revels in quiet contemplation, with subtle storytelling conveying the brand proposition. The stop-motion instantly draws the eye. Live action might’ve seemed too familiar and easy to ignore.

“The beauty of stop-motion is that so much work goes into making something appear simple, and those micro decisions all add up to giving something a distinctiveness you just don’t see as much anymore,” Walker says.

“A core characteristic of how we make the things we make for Telstra, is the presence of the human hand at work,” Walker says. “That commitment, to making something with tactility and human fingerprints, so to speak, creates a warmth and distinctiveness in the craft of the work that’s become a brand trait. This often means taking the longer route, rather than the easiest, and we know that has made a difference to how the work performs.”

Bear Meets Eagle partnered with +61 and Passion Animation director Catherine Prowse on the project. Here’s an entertaining look behind the scenes: