studio pro file
Having created the best animated commercial of the last decade, Nexus Productions hasn’t rested on its laurels…
Nexus Productions and Honda Grrr
N exus has created clever, catchy animation since 1998, and it doesn’t get more memorable than its 2004 Honda Grrr spot. You remember it. The commercial featuring a bunch of noisy, dirty diesel engines hovering along a crayon colourful countryside, each being blown up by rainbows, flying fish or white bunnies, with a whistling soundtrack professing, ‘Hate something, change something, make something better.’ After a string of industry gongs it won Adweek’s Commercial of the Decade. “I worked on my first job as a Nexus freelance animator ten years ago on Honda Grrr,” recalls animator Mark Davies. “I don’t know if anyone was expecting the commercial to be as sensational as it became – it was just a fun summer of animating angry bunnies.”
Mark needn’t be that surprised. Behind a friendly exterior, the team at Nexus revel in their clear ambition. Casting their net over TV animated ads, music videos for bands as diverse as Slayer and Franz Ferdinand, feature film trailers and short films, they create animation that you just can’t shake off. “Our aim is to make talked about work that hides the challenges behind the beauty of the characters and images,” says studio head of production Julia Parfitt. “We all try to work on projects that create a buzz and are ultimately talked about,” she adds. The core team of seven, housed in their London, Shoreditch headquarters, are clearly singing from the same hymn sheet.
Trust and respect
Before the awards, half the job was convincing clients that the Nexus approach had a future worth investing in. “In the early days we were educating the clients as to how animation was produced and encouraging them to take a leap of faith in our abilities,” Julia says. “We consistently delivered high- end work and gained respect for that, ensuring that adult- orientated animation was something that people took seriously.”
Animation is no longer a long shot. Whether handcrafted, photoreal VFX, stop-frame animation, or interactive real-time installation projections, there are loads of studios making awardwinning content today.
“Creatively there is more interest and development on the interactive side of our business,” says Julia. The industry wants content and ideas across all platforms and the challenge is finding unique but integrated approaches to all our projects.” Nexus has got this covered with its division Nexus Interactive Arts that works on digital, web- based projects.
The future is photorealism
Sixteen years in and the Nexus team has no ready prophesies about the next big industry trend. They do know where they’re taking their creativity though. “We’re interested in developing the look of our work more into the photorealism/hyperrealism area,” says Julia. “We want to continue development of our 2D pipeline from a technical level, working on production integration across various platforms – we are even developing an interactive storybook.”
With space to house 110 souls in its London studio, Nexus is always looking for a bright animator, a talented scriptwriter, or a deft coder. You don’t need to be told that things are competitive out there, so come prepared, suggests Julia, “You have to set yourself apart and create a unique voice. In production we need staff that are flexible and brave. In the studio we look for talent first and foremost, creativity and personality.”
Internships are one way you can get into Nexus, “eating, breathing and sleeping animation,” is another according to Mark. “Some of the student work out there is exceptional and everyone beginning on this journey now should look at what schools like Supinfocom are achieving and aim to do better,” he says. After all, making something better is the name of game. For more details on Nexus’s work visit www.nexusproductions.com