Head Gear offers all kinds of visual delights for clients around the world.
About us
Head Gear Animation will be partnering with Stop Motion Dept for this project.
We have a long history of working together! Head Gear & Stop Motion Dept specialize in Stop Motion Animation and Claymation.
‘We like to create things. Building models, puppets and sets using all kinds of materials and then nudging them, frame-by-frame in front of a camera makes us a happy stop motion animation studio. We bring humour, charm and warmth to all of our projects.‘
When you work with Head Gear/Stop Motion Dept, we walk you through the entire process from start to finish and make sure everyone is having a lot of fun along the way.
The examples below demonstrate our craft.
Approach
In order to drive home the heart of this story, we’ll want to make the campaign feel rooted in the real world. We want to make it feel like a documentary showing something magical. Leaning on the cinematic aesthetics people are familiar with seeing in docs, such as handheld cameras and natural light.
Most importantly, we’ll create the characters in the way that we’re known for: hand-crafted out of real materials, and shot in both stop-motion and live puppeteering. The mechanically constructed lamps and light bulbs will all be recognizable objects from our everyday life, transformed into characters with subtle naturalistic emotions, incorporated into the live action in a seamless way.
Whether it’s a tangled power cord dragging along the sidewalk as a lamp walks down the street, or the bobbing frills on a fancy lamp shade - these are all extremely relatable things that all viewers will have a direct connection with. Especially in key moments of the story, watching the tiny orange filament of an incandescent light bulb dim down, the audience will have a subconscious emotional reaction to seeing a real thing struggling to survive.
Reel
Press ARROW to view full spot.
Stop Motion Dept - Air Canada - Snow Globes
Head Gear - Toyota Prius Motion Test
Stop Motion Dept - Ford
Head Gear - Movember
Stop Motion Dept - Van Randomizer
Head Gear - Honda Chum
Stop Motion Dept - Cassels Brock - Transformers
Stop Motion Dept - Cassels Brock - Twilight
Bio
Head Gear Animation has been solving creative riddles for over 20 years. Conceived by partners Steve Angel and Julian Grey, Head Gear offers all kinds of visual delights for clients around the world.
Head Gear’s strength has always been its designer/directors who bring warmth, humour and character to their stories. Located in Toronto Canada, Head Gear also benefits from a huge pool of talented artists, live action directors and production people who contribute to their wonderful brand of storytelling.
Stop Motion Department Inc. is a Toronto animation studio founded by Philip Eddolls and Evan DeRushie, with a singular focus on keeping the rich tradition of frame-by-frame puppet animation alive. They’ve directed commercials for Air Canada, Nikon, and Google, as well as interstitials for the PBS Kids show Let’s Go Luna! Their nuanced character animation for Zacharias Kunuk’s The Shaman’s Apprentice garnered top film festival awards such as Best Canadian Short film at TIFF 2021, and Best Animated Short at the Canadian Screen Awards 2022. Producing everything in-house with a small team of puppet builders, miniature set experts, and animators in their North York workshop, SMD brings a world-class level of stop-motion knowledge to their work, combined with a modern technical approach that keeps the medium progressing forward.