HERITAGE HUNTER VOL.2 & VOL.3
THE SECRET LITTLE AGENCY, NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD
ANIMATION, PIXEL ART / 2022
ANIMATION, PIXEL ART / 2022
Singapore's National Heritage Board (NHB) wanted to promote their newly revamped roots.gov.sg website with a virtual event called Heritage Hunter, where users would look for hidden treasure around the site that would entitle them to a lucky draw, encouraging users to browse the site. Clues on the location of those treasures were shared on their social media platforms, driving engagement there.
I was involved with Volume 2 of the event. It involved a new set of backgrounds and animations that you can see above. The cover was of Singapore River, Town Hall and Anderson bridge, and depicted Hakim the Cat riding on a Sampan alongside river otters.
The second was of Fort Canning park, then the Rainbow HDB, and the last was of a night market. Not pictured is one of Sultan Mosque where Hakim is riding on a hot air balloon, which I couldn't fit due to Behance size constraints.
I wanted to make sure each felt unique, and so took great care in varying up the cat's animation, the color scheme, and they all of course had to loop. Though the design for Hakim came from the previous artist, I wanted to refine some of the animations I felt could be improved. You can see the comparisons above.
The Secret Little Agency then contacted me again to help work on Volume 3, which was for Singapore's National Day in August. This time, Hakim would be joined by August, the official National Day Parade mascot.
Unlike Hakim, I got to make August's sprite from scratch, and although the mascot's design already existed, I had to turn him into pixel art. The concept this time was Singapore through the ages, that's why we had black and white scenes of a march at the Former City Hall, a sepia scene of a football crowd at Kallang Stadium doing the famous Kallang Wave, a parade of tanks in front of the current City Hall, and finally August parachuting on the grandstand of the National Day Parade itself.
As you can see, I also made even more unique animations for both characters, from marching, cheering, doing the wave, and parachuting. I also had to make an animated sprite of three objects to represent your National Day Parade Kit.
Overall, an incredibly fun project with an incredibly pleasant client.
If you like what you see and would like to work together, shoot me an email at nickyinprogress@gmail.com
