Toonz Media Group recently created an animated short to make everyone aware of the importance of wearing face masks during this pandemic. The idea to create a short started with the Kerala government reaching out to creative companies for creating animated COVID prevention videos.
The process was tedious as the employees are working from home. “It was indeed a challenge to manage the process during the lockdown, but luckily Toonz arranged work from home and helped with shifting everybody’s work stations before lockdown started,” mentioned Toonz Media Group CEO P. Jayakumar.
The story concept and idea was conceived by an ex Toonz employee, illustrator, cartoon columnist and scriptwriter in Kerala, Mahesh Vettiyar. The visualisation for the short was done by the Toonz development team. The entire animated short was animated by the students at Toonz Academy, under the supervision and guidance of Toonz Animation staff. “That’s the best part of the video; it was animated by our own students,” added Jayakumar. The voice for the video was provided by Bilas Nair.
The video which is available to watch on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Toonz’s official page, has got good appreciation on social media, because of its quirky approach. The team at Toonz is currently working on a second video, focusing on the importance of washing hands, which will soon be out there for us all to watch.
Talking about the rise of the animation industry as the live-action is at a standstill, Jayakumar said, “Both fields have their importance in entertaining the audience. However, we live in difficult situations now where social distancing has shut down film shoots and much more. In such situations, animation as a medium enables quick – turnaround programming when planned properly.”
The animated short is surely a quirky take on the current situation, spreading awareness amongst young and adults alike with 2D animation technique. The Kerala Government has also been using the video to spread the message to maximum people through various platforms.
