Recreating Freshcorner in Blender / A 2D Animation for Mol and Wavemaker Hungary
Updated: Sep 11
Some animation jobs look flat at the finish, but the path to get there is anything but flat.
This short animation for Mol / Freshcorner was one of those projects. The final piece had to live in a clean 2D visual world, based on layouts supplied by Zoli Mendrei, head of art, for Wavemaker Hungary. My part was to take those layouts, rebuild the visual elements, set up the shots, model the assets, animate them, and render the whole thing with a 2D finish.
The interesting part was the method. Instead of treating it as a traditional 2D animation from start to finish, I recreated the visuals in Blender. That gave me the freedom to control timing, spacing, perspective, and movement inside a 3D scene, while still delivering something that felt graphic, simple, and designed.
The brief was built around clarity
Freshcorner has a very recognisable type of visual language: quick, readable, friendly, and centred on everyday food, coffee, and on-the-go moments. For a short animation, that matters. There is no room for visual noise. Each object needs to read fast.
The agency side came through Wavemaker Hungary, with layouts from Zoli Mendrei. Those layouts were the foundation. They set the visual direction, composition, and the overall design logic. My job was not to replace that thinking. It was to translate it into animation without losing the original feel.
That translation can be harder than it sounds. A layout works as a still image because every element sits in the right place at one moment. Animation adds another problem. Objects need to move, enter, exit, rotate, scale, or react, and they still need to look like they belong to the same design system.
So the goal was clear:
Keep the graphic 2D look of the layouts.
Recreate the elements in Blender.
Use 3D tools for modelling and animation.
Render the finished result as 2D.
Keep the timing snappy and easy to follow.
That mix shaped every decision in the project.
Rebuilding 2D layouts inside Blender
The first practical step was breaking the supplied layouts into parts. I had to look at each frame not only as a picture, but as a set of objects that might need to move.
That meant asking simple production questions.
Which elements are flat cards?
Which ones need depth?
Which shapes can be built as planes?
Which props need proper simple geometry?
Where can 3D help without showing itself too much?
A cup, a sandwich pack, a sign shape, or a counter element can all look very simple in a finished 2D frame. Inside Blender, though, they still need structure. Even if the final render is flat, the scene needs enough construction to support clean movement.
For this project, I recreated the 2D visuals in Blender rather than importing them as static layers. That gave me more control. If an object needed to swing, slide, scale, or turn slightly, it could do so with the right spacing and perspective. If the camera needed a subtle move, the scene could support it.
The trick was to avoid making the result feel too 3D. Blender can easily add depth, reflections, and realistic lighting. That was not the point here. The finished animation needed to stay close to the layout language, so the modelling had to be restrained.
I treated the scene more like a dimensional illustration than a realistic environment. Geometry served the design, not the other way around.
Why Blender made sense for a 2D result
Using Blender for a 2D-looking commercial animation can seem like taking the long way around. In this case, it was the right tool because the work sat between two worlds.
Traditional 2D animation is great for hand-drawn motion, character acting, and frame-by-frame charm. Motion design tools are great for flat graphics and fast transitions. Blender sits somewhere else. It gives full control over space, while still allowing a graphic render style.
For this animation, Blender helped in a few useful ways.
Camera control
Even a simple push-in or angled movement can make a shot feel more alive. With the scene built in Blender, camera moves could stay smooth and consistent.
Object animation
Props could move with clean arcs, rotations, and timing. Instead of faking every perspective change by hand, I could let the 3D scene do part of the work.
Reusable assets
Once an object was built, it could be reused, duplicated, adjusted, or moved into another composition. That helps a lot when a project has a consistent visual world.
Depth without realism
The scene could have depth, but the render did not need to look realistic. This was the main balance. I wanted the advantages of 3D, without the glossy look that often announces itself too loudly.
That is where the phrase Blender 2D animation becomes useful. The process was 3D, but the output was designed to read as 2D. The final image was not about showing modelling complexity. It was about making the animation feel polished, controlled, and true to the original layouts.
Modelling for a flat render takes discipline
When modelling for a 2D render, too much detail can become a problem. Realistic bevels, complex textures, and physical materials can fight the design. They add information that the viewer does not need.
So I kept the modelling focused on silhouette and readability.
A good silhouette matters more than a perfect object. If a coffee cup reads instantly as a coffee cup, it works. If a wrapped sandwich feels clear in half a second, it does its job. In a short animation, viewers do not inspect details. They follow movement and shape.
The modelling process was guided by a few practical rules:
Build only what the camera needs to see.
Keep forms simple and readable.
Use clean edges and clear proportions.
Avoid texture detail that would distract from motion.
Make objects flexible enough for animation.
The layouts gave the art direction, so the Blender scene had to match that rather than invent a new visual style. That meant paying close attention to proportions and spacing. A small change in the 3D setup can make a graphic object feel heavier, smaller, or less friendly than it did in the original design.
This is one of the quiet challenges of recreating 2D artwork in 3D. The camera can distort things. Perspective can make elements feel less graphic. Lighting can introduce unwanted depth. So the scene has to be built with the final render in mind from the start.
Rendering 3D work as 2D
The render stage was where the whole method had to prove itself.
Everything had been built and animated in Blender, but the final output needed a 2D finish. That meant choosing render settings, materials, lighting, and camera behaviour that supported a flat graphic result.
A 2D render from 3D is partly technical and partly visual judgement. If the shadows are too strong, the scene becomes too physical. If the perspective is too deep, the layout loses its poster-like quality. If edges are too soft, shapes lose their clarity.
The goal was a clean render that held onto the drawn, designed feel.
I treated the final frames as graphic compositions. The Blender scene was the production method underneath, but the viewer did not need to think about that. Ideally, they see a short, clear, polished animation for Freshcorner. The technique should support the message quietly.
That is one of my favourite parts of this kind of work. The production path can be complex, but the final piece should feel simple.
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