Suzuki partners with NZ animator for a unique ad

Damien O'Carroll

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Suzuki New Zealand has teamed up with Auckland-based stop-motion animation studio Awkward Animations to produce what the company says "may be a world first" - a stop-motion animated short using a full-size real car. A Suzuki Swift, of course.

Utilising hand-built sets, the video was made from over 4000 still photographs and to achieve movement, the Swift was jacked up and down more than 700 times to simulate jumps, leans, and weight shift - all while travelling nearly 1 kilometre through a studio no wider than 12 metres wide.

Filming for the project took place inside the Photogear studio located in Mt Wellington, Auckland where a dedicated crew of eight racked up a combined 500 kilometres on foot, travelling many times further than the actual car while repositioning props, moving the car, and finessing every detail.

The project was developed by Awkward Animations, New Zealand’s only dedicated commercial stop-motion studio. Adam Rowland leads Awkward Animations and developed the project, while Pete Whittaker from Howler served as the Director of Photography.

"We’re always looking for unexpected ways to show off the personality and performance of the Swift," said Suzuki NZ Marketing Manager, Fiona Bridgford about the new video.

"When Adam came to us with this wild idea of animating a real car using stop-motion, we were immediately intrigued. It felt playful, unique - and very Suzuki."

As for being world-first though? Well, it could be, depending on how you look at it. Honda and Volvo have both done stop-motion advertisements before, but not using real cars, while Honda also did a later one that looked like real cars on a stop-motion animated background, but they were computer generated.

However, Toyota USA did do a TikTok short for the Toyota Crown in 2023 that features a brief stop-motion animated scene of a full-size real Crown driving through a slalom of obstacles, but it's not for the full length film, as the car drives under its own power at the beginning and end of the ad.

Regardless of whether it is a world first, Suzuki's ad is certainly longer and better than the Toyota one, and also captures the fun nature of the Swift perfectly.

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