Santa Monica, California's SimEx Digital Studios has completed work on a new 30-second Kellogg's Frosted Flakes commercial. The artists at SimEx provided 2D animation, compositing and editing for the new Kellogg's spot, called "High Dive," starring Tony the Tiger. Director Jean Perramon's team created Tony in the famous "Tex Avery-style." The commercial revisits classic 1940s style animation while using snappy cuts to keep it fresh.
Mixin Pixls has completed the transitions and visual effects for a new Acura spot entitled "Navigation." In the spot, animated dots guide a path through various terrains demonstrating the Acura's new navigation system. Mixin Pixls' CG animators Harri Paakkonen assisted by Brian Obee, used Maya Live to track natural artifacts in the landscape (rocks, trees, soil and so on) to create the needed effect. Mixin Pixls used Henry to create the look of the spots being painted on the ground. The spot was produced for advertising agency Rubin Postaer & Associates.
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.
ILM created the new Super Bowl spot for Budweiser that has aliens saying, "Whassup!" The spot opens with a dog walking into a country field and is then beamed up into an alien spacecraft. After the head alien asks the dog what he has learned on Earth, the dog unzips and out pops an alien who yells, "Whassup!" The animation was done using Softimage with facial and lip-synchs done with ILM's in-house software Caricature. Modeling was done in Maya and Alias|Wavefront, with rendering handled in RenderMan and compositing in ILM's in-house software CompTime.
Miss Jones, a design and visual effects commercial company, has created an animated spider for AT&T's new media campaign. In the commercial, a spider weaves a web, which represents the AT&T logo. This spot continues in the same vein as other AT&T spots, "Pop," "Newton" and "Balloon," completed by Miss Jones. Miss Jones' spot director Barnaby Jackson said, "With the other spots we start with the [AT&T] logo, and then transformed it. Here, we recreated the logo. We really let the spider have artistic license.
iXL Digital Video Group has wrapped up the visual effects for a new 30-second spot promoting the new toy from Tiger Electronics entitled Chibibotto. In "Attack of the Chibibotto," a giant Chibibotto wreaks havoc in city, resembling a cheap GODZILLA movie. "The spot is an intriguing hybrid between retro monster movie and techno chic," said iXL Digital Video Group senior visual effects designer Doug Dimon.
Toronto-based TOPIX/Mad Dog (T/MD) created the visual effects for the relaunch of T. Eaton Company Ltd., the Canadian department store chain now owned by Sears Canada, Inc. The new campaign was developed by Ammirati Puris of Toronto, and directed by Floria Sigismondi. The campaign contains one 1:55 spot, one 2:35 spot, one 90-, 60- and 30-second spot and three 5-second Billboard spots. The spots recreate the feel of a 1950s Hollywood musical. The spots feature three principal characters: Gracie, the heroine; Harry Carmichael, Gracie's boss; and Arch, Gracie's right-hand man.
Stockholm animation studio Filmtecknarna F. Animation AB has just wrapped on a new 30-second commercial for McDonald´s. The spot features an animated prince, sleeping beauty and dragon. The commercial was directed by Filmtecknarna´s Jonas Dahlbeck, who has previously directed spots for Boddingtons, Sky and Cartoon Network. The 3D backgrounds were designed and produced by Boris Nawratil with Lars Ohlson producing. The ad was created for the British agency Leo Burnett.
FilmCore's editor Michael Bartoli and ILM director Bill Werts have teamed on the new spot for Toyota's new Corolla S Model. The 30-second spot opens on a newspaper floating in the air above a suburban street. On the center of the front page is a large picture of a man who comes to life and tries to hail a ride from a passing car. Werts and the team at ILM shot a real newspaper against blue-screen, with the paper attached to monofilament to make it dance. The actor was shot separately then composited with the newspaper. Initial compositing was performed by Bartoli on Avid.
R!OT, a creative digital studio, has produced a new, CGI commercial for Suissa Miller Advertising and its client SkyTel Communications. "Colorful Conversation" introduces the Talkabout, a wireless communications device made by Motorola that can be used on the SkyTel system to send and receive e-mail messages and pages. In the spot, several of the devices appear like small UFOs in the sky above a large city. While flying around, they send messages to one another about a party in the city below. "The Talkabout is made of a unique plastic," said spot director Carl Seibert.
TOPIX/Mad Dog has wrapped on a new spot for Novartis Nutrition Mexico. The 20-second spot promotes the C-1000-C, a supplement that combines Vitamin C and calcium, and benefits the respiratory system, teeth and bones. TOPIX/Mad Dog used a 2D-animation style completed in 3D. TOPIX/Mad Dog producer Diana D'Amelio explains, "The hand-drawn color-washed characters introduce the new vitamin in an entertaining, humorous and informative way by showing kids in various stages of play demonstrating the benefits of the product." Tyrone McFadden directed the animation for TOPIX/Mad Dog.
A.Film Copenhagen has finished up a new 30-second commercial with Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. The spot is part of a new European revisioning campaign for the Tony the Tiger character. In the commercial, Tony wears a handkerchief on top of his head and makes hip-hop type street-smart signs with his hands. A.Film combined traditional cel animation with live-action. Craig Frank served as the animation director and Easy Film's Thomas Buck directed the live-action. The spot was produced for ad agency Leo Burnett.
Disneys Teachers Pet is all the rage, and Joan Kim finds it easy to understand why. The combination of unique style and great writing bring this crazy cast to life.
R!OT has created the CGI tornado for a new spot for Chevrolet's Monte Carlo. The spot starts out with a realistic tornado traveling down an urban street. The twister final stops backs up and parks in a parking spot. After the storm cloud settles and reveals the Monte Carlo SS, Warner Bros.' animated character the Tasmanian Devil hops out of the car and drops change into the meter. "The idea was to create a realistic tornado in order to take the audience by surprise at the end," said ad agency Campbell-Ewald's executive producer Craig Mungons.
Paris-based Mac Guff Ligne, a part of the Ron Soodalter Associates International consortium of post-production studios, has finished two 3D dinosaurs for a new Lego commercial. The 30-second "Dino's Dinner" spot combines walking and talking dinosaurs in live-action settings juxtaposed against kids playing with their Lego sets. Mac Guff Ligne, which produced the spot for New York ad agency Lowe, Lintas, used the Web as a means to deliver the images to the client. "I think this arrangement worked brilliantly," said spot producer Eve Frumkin of Lowe, Lintas.
Blur Studio recently provided motion graphics design and production services for a new 60-second spot for the U.S. Army Reserve. The spot entitled "Dot You" promotes opportunities in the Army Reserve and highlights the service's Website, goarmyreserve.com. Typography animates over the live-action, echoing values such as "leadership," "dedication" and "adventure." The spot culminates with a series of hero shots over which appears the Army Reserve's Website address.
Black Logic has completed its second spot for Lexmark Printers. The first Lexmark spot was directed by famed fashion photographer Herb Ritts and created by BlackLogic, NYC and Warwick Baker O'Neill, NYC. "This is the second spot we've done for Lexmark," said Black Logic designer/director Patrick Ferguson. "For the Z52, they wanted to maintain the Ritts' style, but point out that this printer is much faster. Essentially, the Z52 is the best of both worlds." The spot opens to the telltale sounds of a jet aircraft preparing for take-off. The camera slowly pans along the Z52.
Design and cross media studio Miss Jones produced three 30-second spots for AT&T's new media services, which started airing during the Sydney Olympics. Against a white background in the first spot, "Pop," AT&T's familiar blue globe morphs into a pan of popcorn, at first popping slowly and then building to a crescendo while the globe swells to bursting. The second spot "Newton" opens on six AT&T globes lined up in a white field.
Digital animation company Mixin Pixls has birthed a new spot for Verizon Wireless entitled "Cellular Division." Directed by See Spot Run's Lawrence V. O'Flahvan, the spot begins with a view through a microscope studying a phone-looking cell. The "cell" divides into two phones, then splits into five, explaining that with Verizon's Family Share Plan one pool of minutes can be divided between up to five phones. "Creating the animated sequence was an exciting creative challenge," said Mixin Pixls CG animation director Harri Paakkonen.
Quiet Man founder Johnnie Semerad handled the visual effects on the new GE Weathermate spot. Beneath the glow of fireworks, a group of workers applies GE Weathermate and a competing product to respective halves of the Atlantic City boardwalk. The next morning, the portion treated with Weathermate is ready for the crowds and the competitors half is still wet and fuses a boys sandals to the wood. "The first thing we had to do with the Weathermate spot was add fireworks and enhance the background," says Semerad.
Class-Key Chew-Po director Voltaire has wrapped up his first national spot for Kelloggs PopTarts Pastry Swirls. The spot features cherries parading in a chorus line then diving into a pool of cream cheese. Innovative Business Communications provided the CGI cream cheese so that the fluid nature would be more believable. The commercial was produced for Chicago-based ad agency Leo Burnett.
TOPIX/Mad Dog has created the visual effects for a 30-second spot entitled, "Stuntman" for Clearnet Communications Inc. Highlighting their new wireless phone, Mike, the commercial is airing in Canada. The ad features a stuntman jumping from a building and making phone calls as he descends. Director Chris Wehfritz brought the spot to life without having a real stuntman jump from a building. Wehfritz took footage of a free-falling parachutist and rotoscoped each frame.
Composer and sound designer Andy Bloch tuned in the newest KeyCorp commercial for JSM. The 30-second spot, "Airplane," features special effects by Digital Domain and highlights KeyCorps retirement planning services. The airy tune follows the flight of a paper airplane on its journey from a New York office building to a sunny beach, where a man unfolds the plane and reads the message, "Im on my way!" Andy Bloch said of the project, "The picture demanded a lyrical approach, a feeling of lightness since we are following the flight of a paper airplane.
Acme Filmworks director Peter Chung (AEON FLUX) has finished his fourth spot for Rally´s and Checker´s hamburger stands. The anime style spots all feature the fast-driving femme fatale, Holly. In the newest commercial "Johnny Law," a cop clocks Holly doing 243 mph in her car. The sly seductress races through a Rally´s/Checker´s drive-thru nabbing two Bacon Cheese Champs. Once cornered by the copper, the cunning character hands over her license conveniently placed between the buns of a burger.
Duck Soup Studios recently produced both the 3D animation and live-action for the 30-second Wal-Mart spot entitled "Sunny Skies." The mixed media spot features Wal-Mart´s friendly mascot, Smiley, who appears this time as the bright sun behind dark stormy clouds and then flies down to a Wal-Mart store to rollback prices once again. The animation was created by using Alias Wavefront´s Maya and was directed by Lane Nakamura with the live-action directed by Gale Tattersall and produced by Jon Derovan. Executive producer for the spot was Mark Medernach.
