Creativa 
Author – Will Archer
How a cheeky green frog became the face of fast Aussie internet
Recently, Leaptel, an up-and-coming Internet Service Provider, approached Creativa to create a character-led animation advertisement that would promote their services to a broader audience. The goal was to highlight their 100% Aussie-based service with rock-solid reliability and lightning-fast speeds — all while making their charismatic frog mascot, Lenny, the star of the show.
Delivered to us before we began was a complete 3D model of Lenny the Frog, along with detailed storyboards to guide the process. While Lenny was partially rigged, our team quickly discovered the need for several technical solutions to get him moving in a way that maximised his appeal. Our animators pulled out every trick in the book to breathe life into his character, giving him a playful, highly memorable presence on screen.
Working from the supplied storyboards, we then brought even more personality and energy to Lenny by weaving him into motion graphics that matched Leaptel’s brand and vision. The timelines were tight, with three ads needing to run within a 15-second window, but every detail mattered. These spots had to hit hard and fast, ensuring Leaptel’s message came through clearly for the video suite of YouTube campaigns.
Creating an Animatic
To ensure we nailed the timings and pacing of the animations, we got to work on creating animatics—timed-out versions of the storyboard using the supplied assets for three 15-second and three 6-second cutdowns from the supplied graphics. This stage helped us and the client test the structure, refine the timing and flag any areas where the script or visuals might need adjusting and fine-tuning many aspects of the videos that will save us time later down the line.
The animatic stage wasn’t just about fitting things in; it was also about refining the overall narrative. It was a great time to play with Lenny’s personality. With such an energetic and charismatic mascot, we wanted every pose, movement, and glance to feel intentional, playful, and full of character. Understanding the importance of exploring Lenny’s character in depth. There already existed video collateral that had been created before we took on this project, and it was a matter of taking what existed and evolving it, bringing character to the forefront, really thinking about what makes a mascot so memorable.
It was a great time in the pipeline to experiment with Lenny’s movement and actions, planning out his hero movements to nail those character beats, as well as the little movements and all those quirky actions that caught the camera—our viewers. Our animator dived into Photoshop to quickly draw out those major action poses and rough out “Keyposes” over the top of the designed elements. Nailing those actions was crucial when it came to Lenny’s character, letting viewers know that this isn’t just any ordinary frog promoting a random new ISP; this is Lenny, the energetic, bouncy, and cheeky Australian green tree frog!
Animation
2D Motion Graphics
After timing out the actions and story beats, we took the animatic as a guide for the motion graphics before jumping into 3D animation. We wanted the motion to remain refined and professional but still push the bouncy, fun, quirky aesthetic through the animation. Animators Julian Rodriguez and Will Archer put together a motion set and animated the motion graphics for the first 15-second video. For us to send off for approval to the client.
Creating not only a specific visual look for the text animation and transitions throughout the suite of videos, we also supplied a set of logo animations for Leaptel to choose from, leave feedback and adjust. We wanted to give them as much choice as possible to refine their Motion Branding so that they could use and reference it going forward with other collateral, informing both motion and design decisions.
3D Animation
After creating some motion tests to explore the rig’s versatility and become familiar with how Lenny moves and animates, the team had some concerns. Initially, we were supplied with an older version of Lenny’s rig. Posing some challenges when it came to matching the outfits seen in Leaptel’s pre-existing imagery. Before diving into custom builds to re-create the outfits, we reached out. That’s when Leaptel connected us directly with the original rigger, Jamie Dunbar.
Swiftly getting back to us, Leaptel set up a meeting between Creativa and the artist. Presenting an excellent opportunity to speak to the modelling/rigging artist himself! A pretty unique position and amazing opportunity to jump on a call with Jamie Dunbar, a big name within the animation community and organiser of the DLF group in Australia. Throughout the call, Jamie offered great insight and reasoning into the process behind how Lenny had been set up for animation. An incredible opportunity to delve deep with the rig so that our character animator could get the most out of the rig and his character animation, allowing for the potential to push Lenny’s poses.
Bringing it into Blender
The next step was to move on to character animations. Taking what we had created already, importing the motion graphics into Blender. We used these renders as a reference and a backdrop for the camera to frame Lenny properly, ensuring he interacted with all the elements in the right place and at the right time. Things like hand placement and landing position were crucial at this point in the project to save time later on when compositing elements together.
We moved back and forth between After Effects and Blender to refine the feel that Lenny was interacting with these 2D elements within a 3D space. Using the animatic as a rough guide for the character beats, the timing of these moments would change slightly over the course of the back and forth, but ensuring we still remain within a reasonable time for the information on screen. This process helped sell those interactions and impacts, making the animation feel more cohesive and tactile.
Compositing
With all the animation locked in, we rendered out Lenny’s performance to integrate it back into the scenes. Updating the placeholder reference renders that were used to refine the interactions throughout the pieces.
At this stage, there were times we wanted to push the animation in certain ways, keyframing the position and scale of our rendered plates to really sell and push punchy moments. To sell interactions, we masked out Lenny’s hands and feet when interacting with the 2D elements. To finish off, adding some effects over the top of the animation, adjusting the brightness and contrast and adding a bit of vector motion blur to marry the elements, 2D and 3D, together.
Delivery
The final product landed exactly where we wanted it to. The collaboration with Leaptel left us all very satisfied with the end result, an excellent showcase of a great creative brief, character animation and client collaboration. Built on trust, open feedback and shared commitment to getting it right. Working with Leaptel was a treat from start to finish. We’re always happy to hear our ideas and push boundaries so that we can deliver something that is both creatively fulfilling and matches the brief. Nailing the client’s vision and expectations.
But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Chris from Leaptel (Our main point of contact throughout the project) had to say.
Beyond your phones and TV screens
A week after wrap, Leaptel got in touch again with an exciting request to adapt the animations for stadium signage for the Wrexham matches in Melbourne and Sydney. With multiple ultra-wide formats to deliver and a tight deadline, we jumped straight back in.
Building on everything we learned in the previous weeks, our team refined the animations from the earlier stages of the project to suit the massive stadium screens. These ultra-wide formats were delivered for both Marvel Stadium in Melbourne and Allianz Stadium in Sydney, with 12 different resolutions tailored across all displays.
Delivered across multiple aspect ratios for platforms, including YouTube ads, vertical phone screens, square social media formats, and stadium displays. Our time with Leaptel has been a creatively fulfilling and fun series collaboration with a great brand, with which we’re super excited to team up time and time again.
This first project has already sparked a growing partnership, with more exciting work now underway!
Credits
Producer: Russell Jenkins
Director: Will Archer
Writer: Leaptel
Design: Leaptel
Character animation: Will Archer
Rigging: Jamie Dunbar
Motion graphics: Will Archer & Julian Rodriguez
Sound design: Numpark Sribanditmongkol
Voice over: James from Abes
Let’s make your story leap off the screen!
If you have a character, campaign, or brand story that needs more personality, animation could be the solution. From playful mascots to platform-tailored content, we’d love to help you bring it to life across any screen or format you can imagine!
At Creativa, we specialise in blending creative storytelling with technology; delivering experiences that are as meaningful as they are memorable. The result? Work that turns passive viewers into engaged audiences.
Let’s make something unforgettable together! Reach out to our team and let’s bring your vision to life.
