Flash

Flash was created to mark Guide Dogs’ 90th anniversary, and it became the charity’s best performing video. We created a comprehensive campaign around a 3 minuted short film that premiered on ITV, and included several different deliverables and adaptations, including two audiobook versions of the film, created specifically for people with sight loss, and starring Gavin & Stacey actress Joanna Page as Flash.

Sight loss charity Guide Dogs partnered with Studio Kimchi to create a three minute animated story about a puppy called Flash, named after one of the first guide dog puppies raised in the UK in 1931.

We were in pre-production and really excited about this project when the 2020 pandemic hit. Both us and our client Guide Dogs had to adjust to a new reality and a new way of working amidst some chaos and uncertainty. Despite the circumstances, Flash became our lockdown project and we managed to tell the story we set out to tell and we couldn’t be happier with the results.

This sweet and colourful film follows a Labrador puppy called Flash and her puppy-raiser Annie as they go through Flash’s first year of training. We watch as Annie helps familiarise Flash with different environments, teaches basic obedience, and instructs Flash on how to ignore distractions like loud cars and lightning. It celebrates the work of volunteers that train puppies destined to become guide dogs, highlighting the challenges but also the rewards.

For this film we designed several characters, sets, props and vehicles, that were later modelled, textured and rigged in order to be used in the film. As for the animation, we went with a stylised CG animation style.

Apart from the main film, we delivered several other pieces, such as different cutdown edits with different lengths and focus, each of them in different aspect ratios, from horizontal to square to vertical.

Flash first premiered on ITV in the United Kingdom, and can now be seen online. Apart from the main film and its several different cutdowns and trailers and conventional audio description and accessible subtitle tracks, Studio Kimchi also created two audiobook versions of the film, created specifically for people with sight loss, and starring Gavin & Stacey actress Joanna Page as Flash.

Client
GUIDE DOGS

Animation Studio
STUDIO KIMCHI

Directed by
BRUNO SIMÕES

Written by
DAVID KILGO
RICHARD MATHER

Production Coordinator
ELISABETH CARRERA

Storyboard
JORGE RIBEIRO

Character Design
ESTRELA LOURENÇO

Set Design
SABINA SUAREZ
ESTHER VIDAL SOLER

Matte Painting
REGINA INSENSER

Model Sheets
LAURA PORTOLÉS

Set & Props Modeling
LUCIE PRIGENT

Textures
IGNAZIO ACERENZA
EVA DE PRADO

Grooming
GERARDO CASTELLANOS

Prop Rigging
DIANA ARAUJO

FX
WILLBERT ALVAREZ

Compositing
BRIAN MARTINEZ

Lighting
BRUNO SIMÕES

Sound Design
BRUNO OLIVEIRA

Music
AURÉLIEN VIEIRA LINO

Character Modeling & Rigging by
NU BOYANA PORTUGAL

Character Animation by
ROCKET FRAMES