The holidays represent a sacred time for us all. Be it Christmas, Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, or Diwali, we all love the festive seasons. Mostly, because these are the times when the whole family gathers to celebrate. Sadly, because of the jobs we have, we can’t make it to the gatherings every year.
This absence of ours is what inspired Airbnb China to create its animation and seasonal campaign “Fú.” The film was contoured so that the company can prove how its properties can morph into cozy places away from home at a time of the year where Chinese people find it very hard to get back to their hometowns.
By joining hands with Final Frontier and Taiko Studios, Airbnb found the best time to release its creation: Spring Festival, the most important date on the calendar in China. A time when families separated by work and life necessities gather under the same roof, traditionally in the town where the childhood of the grown-ups unfolded.
The three-and-a-half-minute long video features the story of a girl, Jia Jia, who is spotted hanging a “Fú” banner, which represents a small piece of fabric with a good luck inscription on it. Usually, the Chinese hung this upside down to attract good luck and happiness. But the girl, who thinks that her family is a victim of a mistake, turns it the right way. We can notice her doing this until she grows up, when she finally moves away. She is now a lady who works as a nurse in a big city hospital. Because of her job, she can’t go home for the Chinese New Year. Yet, she isn’t domed to celebrate the festivities all by herself. Her mom has an ingenious idea…
The 3D animation was directed by Shaofu Zhang, who felt that the project was something personal for the team. Speaking about the team in Wuhan — that kind of has the same age as Jia Jia — the creative pointed out that they have the same experience of missing the Chinese New Year at home.
“Airbnb was very supportive of creating a non-photoreal art style that felt painterly and handmade…The biggest challenge was creating the dry brushed edge feel for a 3D environment and retain the graphic and 2D look. We partnered with MNPRX to help us develop a system that could achieve the style we were looking for. The difficulty was that we were already in production as we were figuring out how to apply this look, so it was like laying down the track while we were driving the train. Thanks to our amazing team, we were able to find the right feel and achieve a unique look that felt like a moving illustration,” says Zhang.
Zhang co-directed the film with fellow former Disney animator and director, Andrew Chesworth. To bring the film to life, the team worked intensely for four months.
Airbnb China creative lead Justin Leung said: “We wanted to create something that we’ve never done before. By using animation, we brought Airbnb’s unique light-heartedness to address an emotional topic, and tell a story that Chinese millennials can relate to, and feel could have been them or anyone they know.”
Watching this short animation made us realize that there is nothing more important than family is. So, for the next holidays, if we can’t make it to our home, please, Airbnb, do your magic and bring our families to us.