With Chuck Gammage Animation handling the traditional animation and TOPIX/Mad Dog taking on the 3D, a new spot for Kellogg's Island Adventure campaign in the U.K. has Uder the Cow bringing excitement to breakfast. The spot introduces Kellogg's new Corn Flakes Cereal and Chocolate Milk Bars. In the 2D spot, Uder armed with a chocolate milk gun takes aim at boxes of Corn Flakes falling from the sky, turning them into Corn Flakes Cereal and Chocolate Milk Bars. Director Chuck Gammage oversaw the production of the entire spot. Gammage enlisted TOPIX/Mad Dog to create the 3D animated product shots for the commercial. Chuck Gammage Animation's team consisted of animation director Gammage, executive producer Susie Ruscka, animators Morgan Ginsberg and Daryl Graham, background illustrator Clive Powsey and digital compositor Rolph Thomas. Gammage said, "We had an opportunity to take a brand new character and introduce him into the marketplace with the initial spot. Working with two of Canada's top character animators, Daryl Graham and Morgan Ginsberg, we created a dynamic sequel for the UK team. This gave us the chance to advance layout and maximize our US Animation compositing system with our lead compositor Rolph Thomas." TOPIX/Mad Dog animator Tyrone McFadden hand painted the texture maps in Photoshop so that both chocolate and Corn Flakes flecks would be visible. "While creating this cereal bar, we had to strike a balance between an artistic and a super-realistic appearance. The product had to be dramatic to give it more interest, yet, it needed to be appetizing," he explained. Inferno* artist Patrick Coffey continued, "The challenge with Uder was capturing the feeling of cel animation, while maintaining the integrity of the 3D product. We also had to track Uder's name onto his belt buckle. This made our job interesting because 2D animation takes a lot of liberties as far as motion and the solidity of objects go. Since it is hand drawn, it tends to change proportionately frame to frame, and it was our responsibility to capture that free-flowing quality." Working for TOPIX/Mad Dog was inferno* artist Coffey, animator McFadden and producer Cheyenne Bloomfield. The spot was produced for Leo Burnett UK.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
