Not To Scale LA and Hello Savants Create Watercolour-Inspired Heritage Film for Asics

Not To Scale LA, Hello Savants and Saatchi & Saatchi LA bring to life an episode in the ‘Sole of Kobe’ film series celebrating the heritage and future of the ASICS brands, as part of the centennial commemoration of the ingenuity and philosophies of company founder Kihachiro Onitsuka. 

Directing collective Hello Savants interpret traditional Japanese watercolour techniques through the language of contemporary animation, in the wonderfully realised ‘A Shot at the Title’ sequence which explains how Onitsuka-san came to create his iconic basketball shoe. Via beautiful illustrations we discover how, upon eating his mother’s homemade octopus salad and realising the strength of each tentacle’s suction cups, inspiration struck on how to increase the grip on his footwear’s sole.

“We first researched traditional and modern Japanese visual culture and then we started illustrating – the process came quite naturally because we have backgrounds in painting and traditional illustration", states Marco Galmacci, Hello Savants

As masters of multiple techniques, Hello Savants use a crossover approach of traditional frame-by-frame animation, real footage of watercolour ink and digital 2D and 3D elements. Animating delicate watercolour brush strokes and organic shapes for each scene, they apply transitions that are natural and fluid while always emphasising the shape of the shoe. The use of overlapping layers elegantly integrated into this painterly environment conveys a perception of depth throughout the story. 

Marco Galmacci continues, “Hello Savants is a collective of five really talented people, each one with a specific visual attitude. This video represents our ability to blend different techniques together into one look, creating a style that is at the same time fresh and unique".