Created using stop motion animation, the beautifully-rigged characters and worlds highlight just a few coins can help change people’s lives, take people off the street and give them food, clothing and shelter.

There is a stark contrast between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ scenes, and to make the transitions feel as immediate and straightforward as possible, the team used quick lighting changes, immediately shifting the colour from cold nighttime to warm daylight.

The director on this project had been a childhood fan of the Royal National Lifeboat charity’s ‘automata’: you drop in some change and the miniature wooden world is briefly brought to life, triggered by the weight of a coin. In order to evoke this realism the director opted for stop motion animation, designing a physical world which could transform seamlessly from a cold street scene to a warm caring environment with the help of Salvation Army. Sets were built in a way that furniture could slide in and out, in-camera lighting changed from cold to warm frame by frame. With no post production required, a complete visual change occurs over the course of the animation, in the process empowering the person at the heart of this transformation.

The challenge was to create an emotionally resonant piece in fifteen seconds, without being manipulative. Animating stop frame not only allowed us to quickly achieve the right physical look, but also the subtle gestures and touches that give the final spots the right emotional warmth in what is a very fleeting moment.