Spontaneous Combustion has created computer-generated environments for a pair of 15-second spots for Johnson & Johnson's battery operated REACH Powerbrush. In "Braces," the camera flows down a roller coaster, which spells out "braces." Once the word is revealed, a cartoonish balloon pops up with a live-action close-up of white teeth in braces. In "Professional Clean," a dental mirror probes a CG mouth as portions of the word, "professional" are laid out like a curved row of teeth. CD/Head of CGI Sam DeWitt said, "It was a challenge to get all of the information at the head of each spot because the back half of each is devoted entirely to the product beauty shot, which we had to make look as real as possible. Viewers have to be able to instantly identify with the animation so it has to be attractive and a quick read. By putting a lot of effort into the pre-production, we were able to determine exactly how to light and texture the animations. We created lots of layers, rendered in multiple passes to get them to look hair-like and then composited in AfterEffects. It was very time and computer intensive." Spontaneous used 3D Studio MAX and AfterEffects on the project. The spots were commissioned by New York ad agency McCann-Erickson. The Blue Rock Editing Company handled the editing, while Blast Audio completed the sound design.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
