Heckler and BLKJ Havas Singapore help Grab make a world of impact in new animated campaign

Creating a charming, animated world for Grab, Heckler Singapore has brought to life a trio of captivating finger characters to showcase how a mere tap of the digits can empower eco-friendly choices in the sustainable brand’s newly launched campaign via agency BLKJ Havas Singapore.

 

Aimed at raising awareness among consumers about the significant impact they can make with their choices, Heckler Singapore was tasked to bring to life finger–characters that usually spend a lot of time endlessly scrolling but could now be used for better things, like tapping for good!

Commissioned to create a captivating world for Grab’s “Wonder Fingers” campaign, the team got to work using Maya and Cinema4D on three short animated films and assets for a personalised digital report, termed the Grab Personal Impact Story, to showcase the positive outcomes of using Grab.

For the environment, Heckler chose to build backgrounds in 3D that looked like they were made of paper. This aesthetic gave the films a playful base to set the action in, along with some intriguing textures. By modelling and rigging photorealistic human fingers to represent different ethnicities and backgrounds, Heckler also gave them human like characteristics, including playful eyes that used expressions to communicate the impact the fingers were having.

Heckler Singapore Creative Director Cody Amos admits dressing the fingers up was a challenge as the animation team had to re-imagine them as a full human body in order to know where the cut of a tank top would end or where the hem of a skirt would begin.

Amos says: “The finger characters themselves were modelled in Maya to look realistic, but with googly eyes and stuck on mouths that we animated to bring their emotions to life. All this detail made it feel halfway between a fun animated film and a puppet show.

“Because the characters are fingers, we wanted to build the world around them in a way that felt like a miniature set that finger puppets could live in. To give it realism, and add some humour, we made it all look like it was made of paper and cardboard, and even put in flying elements on popsicle sticks, held together with sticky tape.”

Notably, these simple taps on screens using Grab have contributed to diverting over 8,100 tonnes of waste from landfills and the planting of 200,000 trees, bolstering forest conservation efforts across Southeast Asia.

Credits
Client: Grab
Senior Software Engineer: Andrew Goh
Software Engineer: Liu Junting
Software Engineering Manager: Xu Pengxuan
Data Scientist: Wynona Raissa
Regional Head of Marketing & Brand: Sulin Lau
Regional Brand & Partnership Lead: Adeline Kwek
Head of Regional Brand & Partnership: Mindy Yap
Regional Brand & Partnership Executive: Joanne Chong
Regional Brand & Partnership Manager: Jess Seow
Agency: BLKJ Havas
Executive Creative Director: Guiherme Machado
Associate Creative Director: Trong Ronakiat
Senior Art Director: Jay Liu
Senior Copywriter: Natalie Goh
General Manager: Fiona Huang
Account Director: Vanessa Aguirre Tan
Account Executive: Isabelle Cheo & Aola Azizan
Senior Producer: Deborah Chia
Post-Production: Heckler Singapore
Executive Producer: Charu Menon
Creative Director: Cody Amos
3D Environmentalist: Kepa Casado
3D Previs: Mohammed Nizam Abdul Khaliff
3D Designer: Woon Yen Cheng
3D Artist: Danielle Melianti
CGI Artist: Ignatius Wong