Commercials
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| (Colossal) Pictures' two new Coca-Cola commercials, Delivery Truck and Happy Fizz. Images courtesy of (Colossal) Pictures. |
Spotlight. San Francisco-based (Colossal) Pictures has completed two new 30-second animated commercials for Coca-Cola. Delivery Truck, directed by George Evelyn, is a sequel to last year's Factory spot featuring 1920s-style black & white characters (animated by Chuck Gammage Animation). The new addition is a CGI delivery truck (animated by Little Fluffy Clouds) powered by a mouse on a treadmill inside the engine, drinking--what else?--Coke. The second spot, Happy Fizz is another retro-styled spot fashioned after Japanese "kiddie-manga" comics, directed by Charlie Canfield and designed by Margeigh Joy. . . . . San Francisco-based Radium created 3-D logo animation for Walgreens, highlighting the drug store's new "Touch Tone Prefills" prescription service. Digital artist Debora Santosa used Softimage to model and animate the rotating pill in the spot. Radium recently opened a satellite office in Santa Monica, California. It will be headed by Dana Townsend. . . . London-based Passion Pictures' CG and effects team created an animated spot featuring the character Tom Total for Colgate Total toothpaste. Directors Chris Knott and David Sigrist and animators Chris Ratcliffe and Chris Hemming used Newtek's Lightwave 3D software to bring the character to life, crawling out of a toothpaste tube. The spot is airing in Europe. . . . New York-based J.J. Sedelmaier Productions created a black & white "film noir" cartoon to open the New York Art Directors Club 77th Annual Awards show. It was based on the drawings of comic artists Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve) who designed the program for the event. . . .
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| Charlex's feature film title sequence for On the Run, inspired by legendary designer Saul Bass. Image courtesy of Charlex. |
New York-based Charlex created its first feature
film title sequence, for Bruno de Almeida's comedy, On the Run. Inspired
by the title design of Saul Bass, Charlex director Alex Weil and designer
Heath Ivan Hewett employed a "brickolage" (brick layering) animation
technique and used Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Flame to achieve a flat,
cut-out look. . . . New York-based Tape House Digital created CGI visual
effects of a huge gold disc flying over Manhattan--a take-off of Independence
Day--for a 30-second spot for the Goodwill Games. The director of CGI
was Floyd Gillis and the CGI animator was Kevin Gillen. . . . North Hollywood-based
Film Roman animated three 30-second spots for SeaWorld, featuring an
animated version of the park's killer whale mascot, Shamu. The spots are described
as animated "vignettes" rather than commercials, because although
the air time is purchased (on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids),
the spots are designed more like movie trailers or mini-episodes of a program,
called Shamu and Crew. Busch Entertainment Corp. president Chris Shea
said, "Although they are branded with the SeaWorld logo, these segments
are pure entertainment.". . . . Montréal, Canada-based Pascal
Blais Productions created two commercials for Oscar Mayer Foods' Lunchables.
Both spots are clay and puppet-animated and directed by Richard C. Zimmerman.
. . . San Francisco-based Wild Brain created a series of 2-D animated
commercials for The Willy Wonka Candy Factory, which will air on U.S. kids
programming through the summer. The spots directed by Phil Robinson bring
viewers on a wild ride through the Wonka candy factory, complete with Oompa
Loompas. 3-D backgrounds were created by Imagination Plantation using Alias
Power Animator. . . . Toronto-based Topix created two 30-second spots
for Honeycomb cereal which combine computer animated character animation and
morphing with live-action footage. The director of animation was Livio Passera,
and the character animators were Sean Montgomery, Richard Rosenman and Andrea
Leo. . . . Boston-based Loconte Goldman Design created a package of
ids for Hearst-Argyle Television, combining live-action film with 3-D animation
and 2-D typography, using the Henry system. The 2-D animator was Erica Nieges
and 3-D animator was Randy Cates. . . . New York-based Curious Pictures
created four 15-second spots combining live-action with animated graphics
for Barnes & Noble's Internet book store. Director Mike Bade and designer/compositer
David Kelley used After Effects software to combine the elements. . . .
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| Renegade Animation's Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce commercial. Image courtesy of Renegade. |
Burbank, California-based Renegade Animation
created the animation for a 30-second spot for Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce and Foote,
Cone & Belding, in which a red bull on the bottle label comes to life
through 2-D cel animation, directed by Darrell VanCitters. Live-action was
produced by Morton Jankel Zander in Los Angeles. . . . Palo Alto, California-based
Pacific Data Images (PDI) created a singing, dancing Statue of Liberty
for the New York, New York Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. Animation director
Richard Chuang and animators Konrad Dunton, Peter Plevritis, Krzysztof Rostek
and Adam Valdez used PDI's proprietary computer-animation system to create
the character animation. . . . New York-based J.J. Sedelmaier Productions
created two 15-second commercials for Connecticut's People's Bank. Both spots
were designed by Keith Bendis and animated with watercolor paintings. . .
. New York-based Curious Pictures and designer/director Steward Lee
created a cel animation sequence for a commercial for R.W. Baird Investment
Banking and Financial Services. The spot brings the viewer through a maze
which zooms out to become a thumbprint. . . . San Francisco-based (Colossal)
Pictures produced two animated commercials for Old Navy, with director
John Kricfalusi. The spots introduce a new line of jeans for kids with a retro-50s
style. The spots were animated by Chuck Gammage Animation, and ink & paint
was done by Chapow! and Galaxy World. . . . (Colossal) Pictures also
created a series of 11 animated station IDs for Nickelodeon, using a variety
of techniques. Candy (stop-motion) was directed by Lucy Blackwell and
Jim Matison; Cootie-Catcher (live-action/animation) by Lucy Blackwell;
Doodle Guy (cel animation) by Laurie Keller and Tom Rubalcava; Cut-out
Dolls (live-action/animation) by George Evelyn and Michael Bartalos; Flipbook
(live-action/animation) by George Evelyn, Tom Rubalcava and Lucy Blackwell;
Puppet Legs (stop-motion) by Jim Matison and Lisa Davidson and Socks
(stop-motion) by Jim Matison. Four additional spots were created solely with
live-action. . . .
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| Passion Pictures' Dairylea commercial. Image courtesy of Passion Pictures. |
London-based Passion Pictures and stop-motion
animation director Paul Berry (The Sandman) completed a 30-second spot
for Dairylea Triangles. The puppets for this spot were created by Mackinnon
and Saunders. . . . Palo Alto, California-based PDI created a computer-animated
spot for Circle K Convenience Stores. It features a couple of thirsty lizards
that refresh themselves with drinks from the store. The spot director was
Larry Bafia. . . . New York-based The Ink Tank created an animated
PBS-sponsorship spot for Chef Boyardee, which will air before the Barney
and Friends show. The spot director was Joey Ahlbum. . . . The New York
branch of Blue Sky|VIFX created a 30-second computer animated commercial
for Tennant's Lager called Reincarnated. Directed by John Payson (Joe's
Apartment), the spot depicts a human which comes back to earth in the
form of an insect. . . .
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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