Commercials

"Decide and Conquer."
Courtesy of Curious Pictures.

Seeing Spots. New York City-based Quiet Man has completed "Giant Boy," a :30 spot for Fritos Racerz, a race-car shaped snack food. In the spot, a NASCAR race car driver wakens from a dream just before he and his car are eaten by a boy. Johnnie Semerad directed the visual effects, and Philana Dias was the Flame/Effects artist. Richard Sears directed the spot for New York and Hollywood-based production company HKM Productions for New York-based agency BBDO. . . San Francisco-based Curious Pictures has finished "Decide & Conquer," a :30 spot for Lugz athletic shoes. Directed by Jerry van de Beek, the spot resembles a video game and features Fantm Sklz, a hip male character, who maneuvers through the obstacles of New York City, scoring points as he makes his way to his final destination. Curious used 3D Studio MAX, Adobe After Effects and Discreet Paint for this project. New York-based Amster Yard was the agency. . .

UPN rebranding by The Attik.

New York City-based The Attik has created the new visual style for United Paramount Network (UPN), the sixth largest network in the US, to help brand its new identity for its fall season. This includes promos, opens, transitions, and ids. To create the package, The Attik developed a series of models formed from translucent plastic and glass, and photographed them on an animation bed. The elements were edited to generate a sense of fluctuation in the energy of the UPN logo, which was then combined with a second level of abstracted tonal value and a 3D rendered version of the logo. The Attik's Jon Thompson, using Media 100 and After Effects, created the animated elements, and Christian Perez, using Electric Image, created the 3D elements, all of which were taken into Henry and composited at San Francisco-based Realtime Video by Sean McLean. . .

"Aliens." Courtesy of Richard Purdum Productions.

"Cement." Courtesy of Richard Purdum Productions.

London, UK-based Richard Purdum Productions has completed three spots for Nestle Polo mints. In "Aliens," which was designed by Robin Heighway Bury, the mint is chased by aliens. In "Cement," which was designed by John Paul Early, the Polo mint is hounded by a mob, and in "Beach," which was designed by Adrian Johnson, the mint is chased by muscle men into a ladies' changing room. The three designers brought their individual styles to each of the spots, which were all directed by Richard Purdum for agency J. Walter Thompson. . .

The duck in one of Graphiti Multimedia's Limca soft drink spots. Courtesy of Cambridge Animation Systems.

"Cold Start." Courtesy of Spontaneous Combustion.

Mumbai, India-based Graphiti Multimedia has completed two :15 spots for Limca soft drink. In one of the spots, an animated version of Indian movie star Shah Rukh Khan is chased by a dog while on a date with his girlfriend. In the other spot, a cricket player is taunted by a duck. In both spots, the characters are encouraged to "take it easy" with a Limca soft drink. Graphiti used Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo software to composite the hand-drawn characters with the backgrounds, which were created using Adobe Photoshop. . . Santa Monica, California-based Simex Digital Studios has completed "Ice Cliff," a spot for Dunlop Tires and agency Dentsu, Inc. of Tokyo, Japan. In the spot, five luxury sport cars race on rapidly eroding, digitally generated, ice covered cliffs. The camera moves back to reveal that the cliffs are created by a giant digitally created Dunlop tire. CGI Artist Jeff Chung used Alias Power Animator and Maya Media Illusion to create the effects. . . New York-based Spontaneous Combustion has completed "Cold Start," a spot for Prestone antifreeze, for agency Grey Advertising. Spontaneous used 3D Studio MAX to create the engine and antifreeze. Live-action footage was produced by New York-based Zero 2 Sixty.