Happy Planet

Happy Planet is an animated short film about the beauty of life on earth. The film eliminates dialogue and speaks with its visuals and music. Much like life with its unexpected surprises, the flow of visuals in the film is organic. The interplay among the creatures or between the creatures and the environment in each shot creates the visual room and space for the next interplay. These visuals and the movement within them blend seamlessly alludes to the connected life that all we share. The film ends on a poignant note – a child’s hand appears on screen, requesting us humans to take responsibility for protecting and conserving our environment.

Happy Planet was the outcome of an animation workshop conducted by Dhimant Vyas for our animators, for many of whom it was their first foray into claymation. The concept and storyboard was done by the entire team, under Dhimant’s guidance and direction.

The setting and characters were created by the whole team working together, they are intentionally kept realistic or semi-realistic because the movement of the characters could not be made too exaggerated and cartoonish – considering they were made out of a rigid material. The characters are made out of clay – and are mostly relief work on glass. It was a challenge to give them a three-dimensional look on the screen. The team studied wild life videos for reference in character design, and to get a sense of timing for the character movement.

Each sequence was animated by a different animator. It was a challenge to link different animators’ ideas effectively and make smooth transitions between the sequences.

We hope you enjoy watching Happy Planet. Even more so, we hope the message in it impresses you enough to make you contribute your bit to make our planet happier.

(Happy Planet is a claymation (stop motion) film directed by Dhimant Vyas, Deputy Head – Animation at Tata Interactive Systems.)

Comments

[Swaroop Biswas]

Cool work. Congratulations to everyone in the team.

[jrevelos]

Hat's off to the entire team behind this fantastic work of art!

I'm repeatedly in awe of the talent that TIS has on staff, and the innovative ways that talent is applied on projects.

Keep on growing and learning!

[Golly]

Fantastic work. Well Done Dhimant and the team.

[anuRAG]

It's an excellent piece of work.
Congratulations "Dhimu kaka & team"

[Klettergriffe Sets]

cool.

very nice video.

peter :-)

[Mahesh Kale]

Extraordinary work
excellent..

BR
Mahesh

[Urja]

This is simply fantastic. Great work!

[Shachindra Dass]

Great animation.
Keep it up TIS!

[atul chauhan]

very nice!
congratulation...dhimant,manisha and our partha too.....

[gareth owen]

nice work kaka and crew. it looks great!

[bhakti]

Nice film!{YO parthO...and the team]

[jo-jo simone]

beautifully coherent, this is a very inspired team effort, and one of the best indian claymation films i have seen, hats off kaka and the crew!

[Shamitha]

Great work! Never thought that clay models can be used to achieve such a video. The models look so real and the theme is very beautiful and wonderfully executed. Kudos to everyone behind this wonderful piece of work. Hope u guys keep making more such stuff.

[Sandeep Nair]

Awesome stuff. A very well executed and smooth clay animation.

Keep up the good work going Dhimant.

Also let me know if your are interested in giving some lectures or workshop for clay animation as we are very keen in learning this stuff.

Thanks.

Regards,
Sandeep Nair
sandeep@c2w.com

[vineeta]

awesome stuff. very beautiful. i like the way its stylised. interesting music as well :)
vineetha, lowe.

[Vaibhav Shirke]

Nice work kaka & Team...

[naresh]

cool ...dhimath kaka tooo good animation...and congratulation to dibu.oscar.riki n all...such a nice work...love the tiger drinking water.....keep creating...

naresh

[paul sandip]

Very well crafted...and thoughtful too...

[Siddharth]

Amazing!!
Love the technique used...
Inspiring!!!

[Hema Singh]

Simply Outstanding ! I sure can apprecaite this claymation as an ID but seeing my two and a half year old son and my husband enjoy it makes it even better. This was created as a product of a workshop and I am wondering where is it going to end up? Is airing it on TV a consideration; more in a charity like manner, sponsored by TIS way?

[Tanya Goyette]

Beautiful and inspiring. It would be a perfect addition to Al Gore's worldwide circuit on global warming. Wonderful music as well!

[Abhiram]

Great work guys!!!!!!!Congratulations

keep it going

[bala]

Hello Dhimant,
fantastic titling, liked the entire film a lot and especially morphing of scene transition.
and my fav set is panda in bamboo...

-bala -

[Prachi Patil]

Hello Kaka and TIS friends,

Great Great Great!!!
Really Great work People!!!
The concept and execution are AMAZING!!
All the clay characters and there movements are looking so natural!!!
I just wanted the animation to go on and on and on.... :)
Really Very creative and perfect conceptual film you have made!!

All the Very Best for your next Project!

cheers,
Prachi :)

[Greg Acuna]

Beautiful. It was one of my favorites for the Anifest awards. Looking forward to seeing more.

Greg

[Bhavesh Sheth - Team BUDDYZ]

Dear Dhimantbhai & TEAM "HAPPY PLANET",

- I really enjoyed watching the film. It is so different, very touching & highly thought-provoking.

- Good-luck & special regards,

Bhavesh Sheth & TEAM BUDDYZ
Wednesday, 6th June 2007

[Arvind Tiwari]

Excellent creation. Many Salutes.

Apart from the fantastic music, All scenes were great - Tiger, Panda, Mountains, lotus & dragon fly, frog beneath the mushrooms, beetle, caterpillar turning to a butterfly, Hippopotamus, penguins.

[rajashri]

hello kaka,
Amazed!!! to see this art work...the best was the starfish it give the feeling of water(how!!!!???)...n hippos disappearing...missing being part of it :(...wish to have one workshop in J.J.....hope to see you soon...kaka.
You Rock!!!

[Binita]

Terrific! Will wait fr more! Congratulations to all.

[venkatbabulanka]

Amazing!!
...dhimath sir tooo good animation...and congratulation to dhimath....such a nice work...

[Subbi]

Hi Dhimant,

Cool stuff !!!! Very creative.
I wish i was a part of this TEAM too :-)

Regards
Subbi.

[Anand Shenoy]

Hi Mr.Dhimant and team, it's very inspiring work, especially youngsters like me.

Anand.

[Anjali]

Awesome... Concept and the whole work is incredible... Ur team actually made the planet a beautiful place to live in.. Amazing talent... The background chore was unbelievable good..

[Tushar Patil]

Dear kaka and all designers,
You have done Mind-blowing work for this "Happy Planet" Project. Good Concept with perfect music syncing. Especially I like the tiger drinking water and panda eating grass animation. That is amazing.

I missed you all of you guys. Keep doing...