Do bats and toucans get along in the wild? Apparently so in a new spot SimEx Digital Studios created for Kelloggs Froot Loops cereal. SimEx provided live-action production, 2D and 3D animation, compositing and editing for the 30-second spot "Batty," which features FruitLoops spokesbird Toucan Sam encountering a cave full of hungry Froot Loops loving bats. Under the direction of SimEx director Jean Perramon, John Howley, Jae Kim and Tom Sito were responsible for creating cel animation with assistant animator Brett Newton and assistant director Ingin Kim. 2D inker was Ed Hartley, 2D effects artist was Dave Bossert, and USAnimation artist was Serena Reid. CGI artists were Jeff Chung, Kieron Lo and Chris MacKinnon. The spot was produced by Minella Palich. Compositing was completed by Nick Bates. Live-action footage was filmed by director of photography Jim Kimura. Maya, Avid Media Illusion and USAnimation were the key software packages used in the spot. SimEx editor Jamie Norton utilized Avid Film Composer for offline editing.
