The Simplest Happiness Commercial Animation

With "playing" as the purpose of the video, children who are playing can best show pure happiness, and hope that the audience will have the same feeling when watching the movie. Last year the Chinese zodiac is the pig, so I designed the sliced pig, and it's a pun in "many hot movies" in Chinese. The color is made of red and gold which can best represent the traditional Chinese year but also feel modern.

It's a design job that a channel does every year, this time I set my goal for this job: to make the audience feel happy from watching. There's a highly circulated video on Youtube about a baby laughing all the time, which can induce the audience to laugh. I hope that the video in addition to the channel needs to convey the function, but also let the audience temporarily forget the reality of trouble, think of the most simple happiness as a child.

I will post it to my facebook.

The starting point for the concept came from reflecting on the meaning of the New Year. In Taiwan, the Lunar New Year is more than a traditional festival; it's a time for "reunion" and "sharing." The warm memory of a whole family gathering around to watch TV and movies is a collective experience for many. I wanted to capture this very essence of "the simplest happiness." The zodiac animal for that year was the Pig, which gave us a perfect entry point. In Mandarin Chinese, the character for "pig" (豬, zhū) is a homophone for the character for "all" or "many" (諸, zhū). This immediately sparked the connection to the phrase "諸多強片" (zhū duō qiáng piàn), which means "many blockbuster movies." This pun perfectly linked the zodiac animal with the movie channel's extensive content library. It wasn't just a play on words; it became the cornerstone of my entire creative concept, a cultural code that could be instantly understood by Mandarin-speaking audiences.With this core concept established, the challenge shifted to visual execution. How could I make a "pig" visually represent "many movies"? I went through countless brainstorming sessions. Ultimately, the "sliced ham pig" character emerged as the winning idea. This design was particularly ingenious for several reasons: first, it broke away from the traditional depiction of the zodiac pig, introducing an unexpected sense of humor and modernity. Second, the layered slices of ham visually represented the concept of "many," akin to frames of a film reel or the vast selection of exciting movies on the channel. I deliberately designed the pig to be round and adorable, with lively animations, to eliminate any negative connotations associated with "slicing" and to ensure it conveyed pure, childlike joy. In the animation, the little pig journeys through scenes inspired by various movie genres—sci-fi, action, romance. This not only showcased the channel's diversity but also symbolized that audiences can experience a wide spectrum of happiness and emotions within the world of cinema. The entire process was about fusing a cultural symbol (the zodiac pig), a linguistic pun, and a modern entertainment behavior (watching movies) to distill the core emotion I aimed to convey: that heartfelt, purest, and simplest form of happiness. This is something that, as a designer in Taiwan, I often strive to achieve in my work—to cultivate modern design blossoms from the rich soil of our culture.

In Taiwan, the red and gold of the Lunar New Year are colors rooted in our cultural memory. My goal wasn't to simply replicate tradition, but to "reinterpret" these colors, elevating them from mere festive symbols into conduits for emotion.My core inspiration was to fuse two key feelings: the "warmth of home" and the "fantasy of cinema." Therefore, I avoided flat, primary red in favor of a layered, warmer palette. A rich burgundy forms the background, creating a sense of security like a family's embrace, while the piglet protagonist is a more vibrant coral red, highlighting its innocent nature. Similarly, the gold isn't a heavy, static color but a fluid, lustrous "champagne gold," reminiscent of a projector's beam. I used it for magical elements like sparkles and stardust to symbolize dreams and hope. This color strategy was designed so the audience wouldn't just see a festival, but truly feel that genuine, pure sense of warmth and joy.

Achieving this balance was the most critical aspect of the creative process. The brand identity of Fox Movies is international, high-quality, and centered on being the "movie expert," delivering powerful cinematic experiences. My challenge was to infuse this with the warmth and playfulness of the Lunar New Year in Taiwan, without appearing childish or diluting the brand's core identity.The equilibrium was found in our core concept: the pun connecting "pig" (豬 zhū) to "many" (諸 zhū) blockbuster movies. This concept itself bridged the brand with the creative. The piglet's appearance wasn't arbitrary; its very reason for being was to "embody" the channel's vast library of films. In execution, I insisted on using cinema-grade production standards to bring this "cute" idea to life. For example, the pig's 3D model, its textural sheen, and its movements were all crafted with precision to ensure its quality matched the premium image of the Fox brand. Furthermore, the cinematic references within the animation were a direct homage to the brand. I didn't have the piglet simply parodying films; I positioned it as a "little movie fan," joyfully immersing itself in the magic of different genres. This ensured our creative elements were always serving the core theme of "cinema," striking a delicate balance: retaining festive intimacy without sacrificing the professionalism and style of a global brand.