HZI – Hunter Heritage Wins Video of the Year at the Motion Design Awards
HZI – Hunter Heritage has been named 2022 Video of the Year at the Motion Design Awards.
The award marks the final step in a journey that began with Video of the Day, continued with Video of the Month, and culminated in the highest recognition of all: Video of the Year.
For Racoon Studio, this is a particularly meaningful achievement.
Every award is worth celebrating, but this one feels special because it recognizes a project we have been deeply connected to from the very beginning — a film shaped by creative freedom, visual exploration, and the contribution of an entire team.
From Video of the Day to Video of the Year
Seeing HZI – Hunter Heritage move from Video of the Day to Video of the Month, and finally to Video of the Year, made the recognition even more rewarding.
It’s always nice to see a project continue to resonate over time, and following this progression gave us the feeling that the care and attention invested in the film had truly reached beyond the studio.
For us, the award is not only a celebration of the final result, but also of the creative process that made it possible.
A Project Built on Creative Freedom
When Hitachi Zosen Inova asked us to tell the story of its founder and his journey from Ireland to late nineteenth-century Japan, we immediately saw the potential of the story.
More importantly, we were given an unusually high degree of creative freedom.
Rather than simply reconstructing a sequence of historical events, we had the opportunity to interpret them and develop a visual language that could capture the atmosphere, sense of discovery, and transformation behind the story.
That trust became one of the defining aspects of the project.
Finding the Right Visual Language
The visual research behind Hunter Heritage was extensive.
We wanted to avoid a straightforward documentary approach and instead create something that felt evocative, contemporary, and strongly rooted in illustration and motion.
The project developed through art direction, storyboarding, design, animation, and continuous experimentation. Every choice had to contribute to the same visual world, while still allowing the story to move across different places, periods, and moments.
Rather than separating design and animation into distinct phases, we developed them together, letting movement influence the compositions and visual ideas evolve through animation.
You can discover more about the creative process, visual development, and production behind HZI – Hunter Heritage on the project page.
A Collective Achievement
Hunter Heritage is the result of a collective effort.
Every person involved helped shape the character of the film, from the first concepts to the final frames. Different skills and perspectives came together throughout the production, and the project grew through constant discussion, testing, and refinement.
That is also why this recognition feels so significant to us.
The award celebrates the film, of course, but it also celebrates the collaboration, curiosity, and attention to detail that went into making it.
A Special Recognition
Receiving international recognition for a project we believed in so strongly is an enormous source of satisfaction.
The Motion Design Awards recognition feels like a wonderful conclusion to a project that challenged us creatively and gave us the opportunity to experiment with a great deal of freedom.
It is also a reminder of what can happen when trust, research, and teamwork come together in the right way.
We are incredibly proud to see HZI – Hunter Heritage named Video of the Year.