Did you know that four out of five Australians with coeliac disease remain undiagnosed? This is partly because many people believe they don't fit the traditional profile of someone with the autoimmune condition.

To change this, Coeliac Australia launched a national awareness campaign to show that the 'face' of coeliac disease is as diverse as its symptoms.

Jumbla produced this pro-bono TVC in support of the campaign.

Pairing the story with the right style

"When we learned about Coeliac Australia's need for a video to help raise awareness about the disease, we jumped at the opportunity to be involved,” Jumbla Executive Creative Director Callan Woolcock said.

Other than a style guide provided by Coeliac Australia, we were given creative freedom for everything else.

“The narrative really gelled with a 3D, character-based approach,” Cal said.

"The story is told from a family's perspective, so we designed characters to reflect the diverse age groups that can be affected by coeliac disease, and the impact it has.”

Supporting the story with visual clues

Because of the campaign's key message that coeliac disease is hard to spot, we included several narrative devices to reinforce its 'master of camouflage' reputation.

For example, the very first scene features a chameleon that blends in with its surroundings, while each character, such as the lethargic teenager and bellyaching toddler, displays certain traits that could be dismissed as age-related ailments.

Even minor details, like the teenager’s clock showing 10am despite the fact he’s still tired, demonstrate how detrimental coeliac disease can be in everyday life.

In the final scene, we see every character full of life and energy, which might not have been the case if they weren’t diagnosed with or received treatment for coeliac disease.

The production process

Our production team for this eight-week project featured a director, concept artist, character designer, modeller, rigger, renderer, and two 3D animators.

All characters were modelled with Maya, a 3D simulation and rendering application used for Hollywood blockbusters including Transformers, Pacific Rim, Brave, and Frozen.

This gave us the creative control to model characters that were representative of Coeliac Australia’s original vision.

"Even when we create really awesome-looking work, I have to ensure it meets the brief and ties back in with the client's branding," Cal said.

“This was true of Coeliac Australia’s final animation, which everyone was really happy with.”