Commercials

Quiet Man's "Caterpillar."

Seeing Spots. New York City-based Quiet Man has completed "Caterpillar," a :20 CGI show open for the Sci-Fi Channel, a cable service. The spot features a robot caterpillar who changes into a metallic spider. Todd Mueller directed. . . J.J. Sedelmaier Productions has completed a third season of Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse. Segments included The Ambiguously Gay Duo in "Letters," in which the duo answered questions about their crime fighting techniques and costumes, and "Boys," in which the duo's interest in crime fighting is traced to their high school days. . . Sherman Oaks, California-based Warner Bros. TV Animation Studio has completed a spot featuring the classic cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry, in Promise Buttery Light "Butter Trouble," a :30 for New York-based agency McCann Erickson. In the cel-animated spot, Tom attempts to trick Jerry by switching Promise Buttery Light for plain butter. . .

Filmtecknarna's "Chilled Cream."

Stockholm, Sweden-based Filmtecknarna F. Animation has completed the animation for "Chilled Cream," a three-spot campaign for British beer company Boddington. The three ads combine 2D animation with 3D background and CGI effects. The design of the characters and the overall look of the films were created at Filmtecknarna under the creative direction of Stig Bergqvist and Jonas Dahlbeck. The sound editing and overall production management was handled by London-based Nexus Films with producer Chris O´Reilly in charge. . . White Plains, New York-based J.J. Sedelmaier has completed two :30 spots for Old Navy. "Girls Zip Pocket Flares" features a young magician who conjures up and controls Old Navy's new zip pocket jeans for her friends. In "Boys Boarder Jeans," boys show off their large style jeans while walking the dog, sawing a log, talking to a frog, and paying the rent while skateboarding. The spots feature a '60s retro-style designed by David Sheldon. . .

DMA's program ID for Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay.

Tony Caio of New York City-based DMA has designed a new program ID and title sequence for The Food Network's "Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay." In the ID, a Bobby Flay caricature appears in black tie, and juggles a cocktail shaker, slab of steak, shrimp, and a pickle. Stylized stars dance in the background. Dancing pieces of food spin across the screen and circle onto plates, as the show's logo comes back into view, pulsating in a painterly fashion. . .

TOPIX/Mad Dog's "Explosion."

Toronto-based TOPIX/Mad Dog has completed the computer animated :15 "Explosion" promoting Russell Stover's Pecan Delights. In the spot, which was created with Softimage and Flame, little chocolate men explode the candies to find the pecan treats inside. Livio Passera and Mark Ainslie directed the animation. Toronto-based Generator Productions shot the live-action footage. . . New York City-based Cyclotron has completed a photo-real, CGI end tag for a series of Heineken spots for creative company Vidal, Reynardus & Moya. The commercials are targeted for the US Hispanic market. The 10-second end tag features a frosty cold bottle of Heineken. Cyclotron used Side Effects Houdini software and wrote proprietary shaders for Renderman. Bruce Gionet was the CGI supervisor. . .


Cyclotron's Heineken spot.	Mixin Pixl's open for Deep Blue Sea.

Simon Goodchild's "Colour Screams."

Santa Monica, California-based Mixin Pixls created the opening Warner Bros. logo sequence for Deep Blue Sea. The computer animated sequence presents the Warner shield flying through the sky. As the logo comes into full view, the sky undulates and the logo goes underwater, and transforms in the logo of Mirage Productions. Harri Paakkonen directed the animation using Alias|Wavefront Composer and Sapphire Tools. . . Simon Goodchild, recently signed by London-based Sherbet, has completed his first commercial, "Colour Screams," a :40 spot for Procter and Gamble's new washing powder, Vibrant. The agency was Grey Advertising. The spot, which uses abstract shapes and pure color to create a mood of vibrant, non-bleeding color, was designed with Truespace and Adobe Photoshop. . .

LoConte Goldman's "Hearts of Fire."

Boston, Massachusetts-based Loconte Goldman has completed "Hearts on Fire" which consists of three :30 spots, and one :60 spot, for Grant Marketing, a Providence, Rhode Island-based diamond company. The promos are for a tape that will be used in a direct mail campaign, as well as for walk-in customers. Maria LoConte directed the spots, and New York City-based Kleiser Walczak did the 3D animation. . . London-based Bermuda Shorts has completed "Rear Window," a spot for Natwest bank. The spot explores the things you can do in the privacy of your home once you own the property. The spot includes 2D animated people who sit by a stream, feeding fish, as well as a stop-motion animated man working on his car. Phil Dale did the stop-motion animation. Run Wrake directed the spot for Agency TBWA. . . West Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues has completed "Father and Daughter," a :30 spot for General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal. The spot features an alien pre-teen and her alien father discussing the out-of-this world taste and looks of the cereal. For the spot, real actors were videotaped as references. This reference footage was then used as inspiration when plotting the animation curves in Maya. The spot was made for Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Agency Campbell Mithun Esty. Micheal Patterson directed for Rhythm & Hues, and Santa Monica, California-based Simex Digital Studios did the 3D computer animation. . . Mumbai, India-based Graphiti Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. has completed a :20 spot for ThumsUp soft drink, a Coca-Cola product. In the spot, a mosquito holds a straw like a microphone and sings a 1970s Hindi love song until the ThumsUp hero, played by a live model, squashes the insect. Graphiti used Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo software to composite the three matte layers -- a highlight layer, a mid-tone layer, and a body shadow layer -- making up the mosquito. The 3D environment was created with 3D Studio Max. Sunil Shetty directed the spot.


Bermuda Shorts' "Rear Window."	Graphiti Multimedia's ThumsUp spot.