Artist Pascal Teunissen earns third place in the “Business & Commercial” category of the Reallusion 2024 Animation at Work contest. In this article, he walks us through the complete workflow behind his winning entry, “Fictive Commercial: Pilgrim Travel Mug”.
Pascal Teunissen
Hello, I’m Pascal Teunissen. My professional background is quite diverse. I began my career as an architectural drafter in infrastructure, focusing on electricity and water pipelines. Currently, I work as a civil servant at Rijkswaterstaat, where I’m responsible for data delivery and processing to support the planning of major maintenance on provincial roads in the Netherlands.
Alongside my professional work, I’ve always had a passion for creativity. I started by developing simple games in Unity, but I soon felt the urge to do more, including creating my own characters and worlds. My first attempt was with OpenToonz, but I quickly ran into its limitations and technical issues. While working with Unity, I discovered Character Creator, which seemed like the perfect tool for building 3D characters.
At one point, I explored cryptocurrency trading, but eventually chose to invest in something far more fulfilling: my creative hobby. That decision was perfectly timed with a bundle offer for iClone, Character Creator, and Cartoon Animator, which was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
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Using Cartoon Animator
Cartoon Animator turned out to be the tool I had been looking for. Especially after mastering Affinity Designer, I was able to design and animate my own characters. I invested in all the Reallusion add-ons and taught myself the software through practice and experimentation. Cartoon Animator has become my favorite animation program, enabling me to work faster and more efficiently, even with my busy family life.
Among my favorite new features in Cartoon Animator are the spring bones function and the image/sprite sequence options. These tools allow me to animate props quickly and add frame-by-frame action to my scenes. When I need to create animations rapidly, these features significantly enhance my workflow, helping me achieve a more professional animation style.
Background Story & Concept
The idea for the portable cup commercial came from a personal moment. I had just started my new job at Rijkswaterstaat, and on my first day, I received a travel mug. I liked it so much that I thought “it would make a great idea for an animation”. I’ve created several commercial-style animations Supsman.
Preparing this particular entry took me about two to three weeks. The first week is usually spent on design and storyboarding. Weeks two and three are focused on animating, reviewing, and refining any errors. Storyboarding is a major part of my process. I invest a good amount of time into it, as it helps shape the flow and visual structure early on.
Tip to fellow artists: keep things simple but clear. A strong storyboard doesn’t have to be perfect—it just needs to communicate your ideas effectively.
Character Design with Affinity Designer
My creative process often begins with inspiration from Pinterest or AI-generated characters. I then design my own versions in Affinity Designer, working directly in a vector style. I’ve also gained experience in rigging, partly through feedback received while selling my creations on the Reallusion Marketplace. In addition, I share free content on the marketplace as a way to give back to the community.
I’ve experimented with rigging in Moho and After Effects, but Cartoon Animator remains my preferred tool due to its intuitive workflow. I discontinued my previous YouTube channel due to copyright issues and a lack of focus, but I’ve since launched a new one called Kleine.wijsneuzen.kanaal, focusing on educational content for children.
Building the Animated Scene
One of the most challenging scenes to create was one where the color palette didn’t align with the rest of the film. Balancing the look and feel to match the overall tone proved to be especially tricky.
When it comes to crafting strong backgrounds, I rely on a wide range of references. These include photos I’ve taken of buildings while on vacation, images from Pinterest, and even AI-generated concepts. I often use AI to create cartoon-style visuals from specific camera angles. By blending these various sources of inspiration, I’m able to distill the strongest elements and shape them into a style that reflects my own vision.
I used a lot of 2D and 3D motions from the Reallusion Marketplace as starting points and adjusted them to fit my needs for the animated scene.
I kept my VFX as subtle adjustments, such as lighting adjustments, adding shadows, and occasionally a slight wiggle in the lines, which can be seen in my kitchen scene.
Advice to Future Contestants
For future contestants, I would say: don’t be afraid to experiment or make mistakes. The learning journey is just as valuable as the final result. Take time to understand the judging criteria and focus on the elements that carry the most weight. Have a clear plan before you begin, but stay flexible and adjust your approach when needed. Seek feedback from others and use it to strengthen your work.
Use references and lots of them. Study professional animations and let yourself be inspired by other artists, but always bring your own unique style and vision to the project. Most importantly, be honest and authentic in your work. Stay positive, even if you don’t win. Be grateful for the experience, and see it as a step forward in your creative growth. I won the Honorable Mention from last year’s contest, but as I practiced more with the techniques, the better I eventually improved.
Closing Thoughts
My final thoughts on this competition are overwhelmingly positive. It was an intense, yet highly educational experience. I learned a great deal, especially in the areas of storytelling and storyboarding, which I now realize are skills I want to continue improving. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved through this process.
To future contestants, my advice is simple: enjoy the journey. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Be open to experimenting, embrace mistakes as part of the process, and learn from every step along the way. Most of all, stay true to your creative vision.
If you’d like to connect, feel free to send me a message through one of my items on the Reallusion Marketplace – Joekie. You can also reach out to me through my other YouTube channels for Kids: kleine.wijsneuzen.kanaal. Thank you for having me in this contest!
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