Amazon Career Growth

Animated films for Amazon’s Career Growth program.

1000 Heads London tasked us with creating nine animated films for Amazon’s Career Growth program on a tight 11-week timeline. It was an incredible marathon to design and direct to bring each story to life, working closely with our talented crew at Onion Skin Studio.

Each film centered around a real Amazon employee, with stories crafted directly from their experiences.
Our task was to visualize these stories for four key Amazon markets in Europe: the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.

Here’s the final result.

UK Films

This first one highlights Ieuan’s journey. From travelling the world to working at Amazon’s HR team.

This second film showcases Rayman, who left construction to start fresh at Amazon and he’s now thriving as an IT engineer.

Meet Jayshri, whose love for the outdoors and family time is supported by Amazon’s Term-Time Contracts.

Germany Films

Marvin’s story leading him from logistic to his new role as a Human Resources Partner.

Dennis got a Master’s Degree funded by Amazon, now he is fine-tuning Amazon’s machines and his own expertise.

France Films

This sixth film shows Catherine, one of Amazon France’s first employees.

Chloe, after deciding university wasn’t for her. Now she coaches others on their Amazon journeys.

Italy Films

Christian’s early fascination with machines brought him to Amazon. He now works as a Robotics Technician.

Desaina’s love for learning led her to Amazon’s career program. Today, she’s an HR Associate Partner.

Design

Each story centered on a unique Amazon employee, meaning we’d need nine distinct 3D characters which was something we couldn’t afford within the schedule. To solve this, we created two base character models, altering their appearances with props like hair, glasses, beards, and more.

Base character design

The client was convinced when they saw the character variety achieved through props and different outfits.

Next, we moved on to designing each employee.

Expressions also had to be limited. Fortunately, there was no lip-sync so we could make this level of variety work.

Storyboard & Animatic

Then we jumped into sketching quick storyboards and assembling rough animatics to define the flow, rhythm, and transitions of each film early on.

Environment

In the meantime, we began designing the environments for each story.

Modeling

Once the designs were approved, our character modeller Beril Öztürk did a brilliant job translating the 2D designs into detailed 3D models.

Meanwhile, environment modellers Civan Sarı and Pelin Korkmazel were busy turning our environment sketches into fully realized 3D sets.

Rigging

Our seasoned rigger, Cüneyt Güçlü, built versatile and animator-friendly rigs for all the characters. His setup allowed for seamless prop switching, and generate entirely new characters with distinctive looks using the same base rigs. Smart, efficient, and essential for staying on schedule.

Animation

It was time to bring everything to life! Mehmet Berber did an outstanding job animating all nine films under an incredibly tight schedule. His skill ensured that each character’s performance felt natural, engaging, and full of personality.

Finally, we exported everything and handed it over to 1000Heads. They worked their post-production magic and brought everything together with beautiful final renders.

The client was happy. The agency was happy…
And that made us happy too.

Credits

Client
Amazon
 
Agency
1000 Heads
 
Animation Studio
Onion Skin

Creative Director
Ian Mann

Director
Cenk Köksal

3D Layout
Cenk Köksal – Cihan Ezerbolat

Character Modeling
Beril Öztürk

Character Rigging
Cüneyt Güçlü

Animator
Mehmet Berber

Additional Animation
Onur Akkayuz – Cenk Köksal

Environment Modelling
Civan Sarı – Pelin Korkmazel

Lighting/Rendering
Ian Mann

Compositing
Ian Mann

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