Quiet Man created the chip bouncing effects in the new Doritos commercial featuring Miami Heat basketball point guard Tim Hardaway. Phalana Dias was the lead visual effects artist on the spot. Entering a corner store, Hardaway is observed by an awestruck young fan, who watches the star purchase a bag of Doritos 3Ds, a new pyramid shaped chip. Following Hardaway into the street, the pair engages in a trick-shot-type competition, using chips instead of basketballs. "For Dorito's 3Ds, the chips were shot on rigs in the studio," explained Dias.

a.k.a. Pizazz has rapped on three spots for a new campaign for Sanatogen vitamins. All three spots state that we are all aware by now that a healthy diet is the best way to stay fit, but a vitamin supplement is a reassuring way of maintaining the healthy balance, "Just To Make Sure." "Baby Monitor," "Passport" and "Alarm" were done in a 2D painting style. "Baby Monitor" shows a mother, in spite of the presence of her monitor going to check her child. "Passport" shows a family group going on holiday and the mother constantly checking in her handbag for the passports.

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.

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.

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 competitor’s half is still wet and fuses a boy’s sandals to the wood. "The first thing we had to do with the Weathermate spot was add fireworks and enhance the background," says Semerad.

Editing Concepts’ Jesse Reisner combined live-action and graphics for two new 30-second spots for a new Kids Footlocker campaign. In "Super Hero," star Captain Velocity is going through his morning routine, until his emergency phone rings and he zooms off leaving a trail of smoke behind. In "Street Ball," city teens gather for an intense game of basketball, while a series of graphics pop-up to note the difference between the game as they play it and how basketball is played in a gym. "We knew going in that the graphics would play a huge role in the spot," said Reisner.

Quiet Man has created the "ground breaking" visual effects for Planters’ Nuts’ newest spot. In the spot, a group of golfers say to each other "gophers don't like nuts," making a rodent do a double take and uproot the putting green by tunneling a likeness of the Planters mascot "Mr. Peanut." "The challenge on the Planters spot came toward the end of the project," said Phalana Dias, Quiet Man visual effects artist. "The gopher's double take wasn't boarded, but it was a good idea, so it was up to me to animate the gopher's head using Inferno.

Santa Monica-based R!OT, a digital production studio, recently finished the visual effects for a commercial promoting Tennessee's Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Digital artist Verdi Sevenhuysen helped turn Malibu Beach into the shores of Omaha Beach during D-Day. Sevenhuysen used Discreet Inferno system to alter the live-action footage to match the European topography. He also placed a series of steel tank traps onto the sandy shore. "It was a very close collaboration between director Karsten and I," said Sevenhuysen. "They didn't have the budget to shoot in France, but it didn't matter.

Wild Brain, the San Francisco-based animation house, has wrapped on three 30-second spots for Interline/Scandinavian Designs. The fast-paced commercials pop the furniture company’s many types of chairs and sofas onto the screen with an up-tempo sleek design. "The challenge was to design the spots to showcase their huge selection of furnishings in a visually compelling manner, yet remain true to the clean, sleek feel of the line," said spot director and designer Julia Tortolani.

Santa Maria-based Computer Cafe has created the computer animation for a new spot for Radio Shack. "Topiary" is part of Radio Shack's ongoing campaign featuring Hall of Fame American football player Howie Long and actress Teri Hatcher. Computer Cafe formed the massive garden maze in which Long and Hatcher appear. The celebrities were shot on stage with several green covered set pieces, which were replaced with photorealistic computer animated greenery. Computer Cafe created the 3D hedges using Lightwave 3D software and used Digital Fusion to do the compositing.