Beans

Cinesite’s first, cheeky foray into animation, BEANS, met with world-wide acclaim.

Written and directed by animator Alvise Avati, the short film was produced by Cinesite’s director of animation, Eamonn Butler. To date, it has received over 15 million views on YouTube, has won gold award for Best Web Viral at the AEAF awards and was also selected for the prestigious opening slot at Siggraph’s electronic theatre in 2014.

Alvise approached Cinesite with an idea for the film.

Alvise: “Working in visual effects, it’s usually other people’s visions and creatures that you’re creating.  This was an opportunity to take some creative control and make our own.”

Eamonn: “Our team of animators, texturers, modellers, TDs and VFX artists are some of the best in the world and BEANS was a fantastic opportunity for us to show off the quality of their work.”

The start of Beans is serious, dramatic and cinematic.  The look of the environment is based on NASA reference footage and real photography from the moon. The environment needed to be realistic and we wanted to push our photorealistic effects hard, as well as the character animation.

In terms of the creature design, we worked in a very collaborative way. Alvise had some cool starting points and we developed the look, modeling, rigging and animation together.  Because the creature would be seen so briefly, it was important for him to stand out and be scary.

Alvise: “I wanted the creature’s eyes to glow. We also added bioluminescence effects to his head to make him stand out.”