A curious magpie fetches hidden gems in an animated intro for a Facebook series

We had so much fun creating the animated intro and outro for “The Creative Shop Magpies”. Narrated by Caitlin Ryan, VP at Facebook, the series includes a set of interviews with the global team to celebrate their achievements.

To praise the team’s efforts, the magpie was chosen to be the main character, since it is known for its bold personality and love to collect shiny treasures. We wanted to highlight these characteristics through short and witty animation loops, so we sketched fun scenarios that could take place while it is fetching these gems.

Then came the part we enjoy the most, research and observation! We went outdoors, gathered footage of real life magpies to analyse their movement, and explored design poses for the bird.  

We simplified the form to a graphical basic shape, which helped us make snappy and energetic movements during the animation.