Editing Concepts' Jesse Reisner just finished editing a new spot entitled "Takes It Slow," a new 30-second spot for Pillsbury Toaster Strudels. In the spot, time slows down when a teenager takes a moment to savor a Toaster Strudel before heading off to school. Reisner softened colors, silenced sounds and let the final piece of the tasty food hang in the air before hitting the kid’s mouth. "This project was all about pacing," said Reisner. "It starts out fast and frantic, then everything slows down when the toaster pops.

Soho, U.K.-based The Hive, a 3D animation company, has completed a series of idents to promote the launch of Flextech Interactive’s brand-new digital TV cable channel, SceneOne. Launched on July 5, 2000, SceneOne is the first-ever television channel to be developed from an Internet site, and focuses on music, film and entertainment. The Hive created three idents – "The Club Scene," "The Film Scene" and "The Gig Scene" - to reflect the hip style of SceneOne’s three main weekly review programs.

Quiet Man unzipped the tuxes of some penguins for a new Pepsi ad "Zoo," which introduces new lemon-flavored Pepsi Twist (currently being test marketed in Texas and Minnesota), and has some plucky penguins strip down to their Speedos to take a cooling dip in a pool. Quiet Man creative director and the spot’s visual effects director Johnnie Semerad used Discreet Logic Inferno software to remove the black from the penguins' bodies, and tack on new arms to allow the movements of a simulated striptease. "The key was to determine how to make the penguins look naked," said Semerad.

New York-based animation and design house, So! much, has created a 3D animated 30-second spot for MCI Worldcom and Blockbuster Video. The "FreeFlix Follies" campaign highlights the free movie bonuses of signing up for MCI with a send-up of vaudeville shows. The commercial reunites Abbott and Costello-like characters Seymour the Movie Ticket and Answer the Telephone, which were created for a previous spot by So! much three years ago. "We’re really committed to marrying thoughtful, passionate design work with top-quality CG animation," says Jennifer Yeh, executive producer at So! much.

The first commercial for the Center for Digital Imaging and Sound (CDIS) includes a clip from VANCOUVER UNDER ATTACK, created by CDIS Visual Effects and Digital Animation (VEDA) Program graduate Sean McQuarrie. The excerpt shows a monstrous alien space craft hovering above Vancouver Science World before unleashing a laser beam that blows up the centre. "It involved two days of filming in DVC Pro and miniDV formats," said McQuarrie. "To get the mix right, I used Maya, Maya Live and the Discreet Station for building up 20 layers of visual effects in total.

TOPIX/Mad Dog has wrapped up the 3D animation and design elements for the new 30-second spot for Kellogg’s All-Bran Buds. "Chart" features an anatomical poster of the insides of a healthy woman, who leaps from the wall when no one is around to enjoy a bowl of Kellogg’s All-Bran Buds. TOPIX/Mad Dog producer Diana D'amelio said the 3D character "began as a real woman shot on set, wearing a body-stocking, actually going through the actions in a series of takes. We then recreated her as a glass figure, with a skeletal structure and a stylized heart and circulatory system.

New York-based Charlex was brought in by British Petroleum to give a face-lift to their image. "The challenge was to make an interesting commercial using only the British Petroleum logo," said Charlex founder and spot director Alex Weil. "It was an idea originated by BP themselves, but nobody has been able to make it sufficiently interesting until we got hold of it. As [creative director] David Fowler put it, ‘The idea went from the trash can to Charlex.’ It’s a good thing too.

Eyeball has woven live-action dance footage together with graphic design elements for the new PBS documentary FREE TO DANCE. "We were provided with live-action footage, which we incorporated into a stylized environment that allowed the dancers’ movements to be shown to best effect, taking our inspiration from classic art deco posters," said creative director Limone Shur. Designer Tatiana Arocha created the simulated spotlights, which the dancers appear in. "I began by thinking about the colors and about stage lights over dancers," said Arocha.

The New York-based design and production studio hey! has wrapped up 22 thirty-second animations for Arista Records. Presented at Bertelsmann Music Group’s marketing conference, hey! created musical sequences highlighting Arista artists Whitney Houston, Santana, Run DMC, Toni Braxton, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin and many more. "Essentially, we have made stills of the artists come to life by creating 2D animations in inferno*.

ATTIK shot, designed and produced three 15-second spots previewing Sony’s Digital Network Recorder with TiVo service. The product allows TV viewers the chance to record programs digitally while they watch something else. ATTIK creative director/designer/director Aporva Baxi said, "We enhanced the existing agency concept with dynamic animated visuals that were specifically designed to reflect the copy line of each commercial. It was also vital that the visuals appear authentic.

Class-Key Chew-Po director Voltaire has wrapped up his first national spot for Kellogg’s 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.

Eyeball has livened up the newest spot for Nike’s latest shoe line, Presto! The spot that airs in Nike stores shows off the bright colors of the shoes with slick retro style. Director Limore Shur said, "We were after a moving, driving, fun-looking piece to exemplify what the shoes are all about. I think we achieved that. There was a nice aesthetic appeal to the whole thing." Curious Pictures used Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and Discreet edit* to blend the graphics with the colors and product shots.

Ring of Fire has finished two spots for Sony’s Walkman entitled "Spaceship" and "Dorm." Both spots center around the space alien Plato. In "Spaceship" after downloading tunes onto his Sony Memory Stick Walkman, Plato fights Los Angeles traffic in his shuttle on his way to his new college. In "Dorm," Plato enters his room after a shower to find that his female over-night visitor loves the mini disk of songs Plato has made her on his MiniDisk Walkman.

Curious Pictures has completed the opening for the new Cartoon Network series THE BOB CLAMPETT SHOW. The spot highlights the mix of Clampett’s styles from his Warner Bros.’ shorts to his later puppet work. In Flame, the Curious artists created smiles on the puppets’ faces and a film transition into a puppet theatre. Steve Patrick was the creative director for Cartoon Network and Denis Morella directed the open for Curious Pictures.

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.

Spontaneous Combustion has designed, directed, produced and edited a 30-second spot for Estee Lauder’s new skin refinisher, Idealist. The commercial started with a wire-rail globe spinning and changing into a square, triangle and back to a sphere then finally revealing the new laser technology from Estee Lauder.

Wild Brain has finished three spots for Sony Music Entertainment’s "Pass It On" campaign. "Adventure," "Love" and "Street Party" air exclusively on MTV and highlight several of Sony Music’s top artists by combining live-action music video footage with traditional cel animation. Creative director Ed Bell brought to the project his futuristic hip hop/anime designs, while director Robert Valley helped bring to life the surreal tone of the spots. "Ed Bell created a new genre of animation that isn’t confined by stylistic boundaries," said Valley.

Ring of Fire has created the newest completely CGI spot for Suntrust. "Sunrise/Sunset" is a 30-second commercial that brings to life fire-flies dancing, thunderstorms and a brilliant sun to ring in the bank’s name change from Crestar Bank to Suntrust. Using Maya 2.5, Ring of Fire created motion test rough landscapes for advertising agency West Wayne’s approval. Once the thumbs up was given Ring of Fire artists, led by creative director Jerry Spivack, added richer detail to the long tracking shot that changes from night to day.

Ring of Fire finished the visual effects for two 30-second commercials for Unisys. "Pigeons" starts with a man sitting down on a park bench next to a Unisys specialist. As the ad progresses, the female specialist gets wrapped up in telling the man all about e-business, and her head becomes encased in a monitor. When she calms down the monitor disappears and the tag line says, "At Unisys, we eat, sleep and drink this stuff!" Again in "Golf," Bob, the Unisys specialist, has his head encased in a monitor as he tells his friends about e-business on the golf course.

hey!, a design and production studio, finished new opens, bumpers and background elements for five History Channel shows. The firm created an open for SPY WEB, revised opens and bumpers for HISTORY’S GREATEST BLUNDERS and WEAPONS AT WAR, and opens for MOVIES IN TIME and HARDCOVER HISTORY. For SPY WEB, hey! used a mainly gray palette and added bits of color to evoke a feel of coded messages. "We had this coding going on in a textured background, with letters that cycle and change and evolve into the SPY WEB logo," said creative director Laura Tolkow.