WWF's In Hot Water: stop-motion shot on a thermal camera makes ocean warming visible

For its fourth annual film timed to the UN climate conference, WWF needed to make the invisible crisis of ocean warming — rising temperatures and marine heatwaves — feel real and urgent. NOMINT had animated ice, fire and smoke in earlier WWF films; this time the studio had to find a visual language for heat itself.

Shoot stop-motion on a thermal camera, heating every 3D-printed puppet to within 0.1°C, so ocean warming appears on screen as literal, colour-coded heat.

NOMINT built a boy and his ocean world as 3D-printed replacement stop-motion puppets and shot every frame on a thermal camera, heating objects in ovens, under heat lamps and heat guns, and freezing parts with spray to hold separate temperatures within 0.1°C, monitored live through the camera's sensor. As the story's ocean warms, the palette shifts from cool blues to scorched reds, with Radiohead's 'No Surprises' scoring the boy's journey through dying reefs and abandoned boats.

Premiered at COP29 in Baku, the film drew over 8 million organic views within two weeks and was shared by WWF offices worldwide. It won Silver Lions in Digital Craft (Motion Graphics Design & Animation) and Film Craft (Animation) at Cannes Lions 2025, plus a Grand Clio, ADC Best of Show, New York Festivals honours and D&AD recognition.

Ocean warming is one of climate change's most damaging but least visible effects — you cannot see water temperature rise. For WWF's fourth annual film released at COP29 in November 2024, London studio NOMINT asked how to give an invisible crisis a face, and answered with a camera that sees heat.

In Hot Water was shot entirely on a thermal camera. NOMINT built a boy and his underwater world as 3D-printed replacement stop-motion puppets, then heated every object in each frame — in ovens, under heat lamps and heat guns, with freezing sprays for contrast — to separate temperatures held within 0.1°C and monitored live through the camera's thermal sensor. The result is a film where the ocean visibly warms from cool blues to scorched reds as coral dies and the boy struggles to escape, scored by Radiohead's 'No Surprises'.

The painstaking craft was itself the argument: the film's tagline logic was that every fraction of a degree matters, demonstrated frame by frame by puppets that had to be repositioned before they cooled. Launched at COP29, the film earned over 8 million organic views within two weeks and was picked up and shared by WWF offices worldwide.

Juries agreed with the idea. In Hot Water took Silver Lions in both Digital Craft and Film Craft at Cannes Lions 2025, and went on to a Grand Clio, ADC Best of Show, New York Festivals golds and silvers, and D&AD recognition.

The medium was the message: thermal imaging made an invisible phenomenon directly watchable, so viewers saw heat itself rather than a metaphor for it.

The production constraint — holding every puppet within 0.1°C while the scene cooled — mirrored the campaign's argument that every fraction of a degree matters.

It was a genuinely new animation technique, building on the studio's previous WWF films of ice, fire and smoke rather than repeating them.

Launching at COP29 put the film in front of policymakers and global media at the exact moment climate finance and ocean policy were being negotiated.

When the problem is invisible, make the medium the message: capturing heat itself on a thermal camera turned the film's technique into proof of ocean warming — every fraction of a degree mattered.

In Hot Water became NOMINT's most decorated WWF film, adding Cannes Silver Lions, a Grand Clio, ADC Best of Show, New York Festivals awards and a D&AD Pencil to the series' prior record of more than 50 golds. The studio released a making-of video documenting the thermal stop-motion process, and WWF reused the campaign across its global offices via its brand campaign library.