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.)
Cool work. Congratulations to everyone in the team.
Posted by: Swaroop Biswas | May 24, 2007 at 02:33 PM
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!
Posted by: jrevelos | May 24, 2007 at 07:06 PM
Fantastic work. Well Done Dhimant and the team.
Posted by: Golly | May 24, 2007 at 09:31 PM
It's an excellent piece of work.
Congratulations "Dhimu kaka & team"
Posted by: anuRAG | May 25, 2007 at 12:14 AM
cool.
very nice video.
peter :-)
Posted by: Klettergriffe Sets | May 25, 2007 at 01:05 AM
Extraordinary work
excellent..
BR
Mahesh
Posted by: Mahesh Kale | May 25, 2007 at 07:17 AM
This is simply fantastic. Great work!
Posted by: Urja | May 25, 2007 at 11:39 AM
Great animation.
Keep it up TIS!
Posted by: Shachindra Dass | May 25, 2007 at 04:18 PM
very nice!
congratulation...dhimant,manisha and our partha too.....
Posted by: atul chauhan | May 25, 2007 at 05:49 PM
nice work kaka and crew. it looks great!
Posted by: gareth owen | May 25, 2007 at 09:29 PM
Nice film!{YO parthO...and the team]
Posted by: bhakti | May 26, 2007 at 03:51 PM
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!
Posted by: jo-jo simone | May 26, 2007 at 05:49 PM
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.
Posted by: Shamitha | May 26, 2007 at 09:16 PM
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
Posted by: Sandeep Nair | May 28, 2007 at 11:38 AM
awesome stuff. very beautiful. i like the way its stylised. interesting music as well :)
vineetha, lowe.
Posted by: vineeta | May 28, 2007 at 11:59 AM
Nice work kaka & Team...
Posted by: Vaibhav Shirke | May 29, 2007 at 12:21 AM
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
Posted by: naresh | May 29, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Very well crafted...and thoughtful too...
Posted by: paul sandip | May 29, 2007 at 02:33 PM
Amazing!!
Love the technique used...
Inspiring!!!
Posted by: Siddharth | May 29, 2007 at 08:35 PM
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?
Posted by: Hema Singh | May 30, 2007 at 12:20 AM
Beautiful and inspiring. It would be a perfect addition to Al Gore's worldwide circuit on global warming. Wonderful music as well!
Posted by: Tanya Goyette | May 30, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Great work guys!!!!!!!Congratulations
keep it going
Posted by: Abhiram | May 31, 2007 at 08:28 AM
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 -
Posted by: bala | Jun 01, 2007 at 02:46 PM
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 :)
Posted by: Prachi Patil | Jun 01, 2007 at 10:18 PM
Beautiful. It was one of my favorites for the Anifest awards. Looking forward to seeing more.
Greg
Posted by: Greg Acuna | Jun 05, 2007 at 05:14 PM