Global Mechanic recently completed the final commercial in a four-spot campaign for Kelloggs Eggos. Agency Leo Burnett hired Global Mechanic to design the characters, concept the ideas, shoot the product and then animate the spots. The agency creative team really wanted to focus on building a collection of characters each with a different funny personality, said Global Mechanic exec producer Matthew Charde. Leo Burnett cast some fantastic voices, then tossed the design and animation challenge to us with only two guidelines: use the voices and show us the product...
The four :30 spots: IM FRENCH, ME TOO!, THE COUNT, THE CHASE and CHEERLEADER all feature the product dressed in animation as the character they play. The cast of characters includes a Waffle who thinks he is a Frenchman, complete with handlebar moustache, and a Cinnamon Roll that is an energetic cheerleader.
Produced entirely in-house, Global Mechanic shot actual products as digital stills on their stage and then imported multiple angles of food into After Effects. In After Effects, Global Mechanics animation team added character features to complete the build of the heroes. Then with the characters built, they animated the spots frame by frame. Staff directors Nathaniel Akin and Ian Godfrey oversaw the animation for the spots. Akin and Godfrey also served as the key animators and Tina Ouellette was the senior producer. Global Mechanics creative director was Bruce Alcock. The spots were produced by Jacqueline Bellmore. The art director was Monique Kelley, the writer was Cam Boyd, the creative director was Judy John and the creative group head was Israel Diaz. CHEERLEADERS writer was Ken Kamerman and the art director was Johnnie Ingram.
Global Mechanic (www.globalmechanic.com) is a bi-coastal animation and live-action production company in Vancouver and Boston that makes TV commercials, series, independent films and music videos. Techniques include design-based animation, mixed-media, stop-motion/motion control, drawn and live action /vfx. Commercial clients include Anheuser-Busch, Bell Mobility, Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Kelloggs, Mattel, BMWs MINI, Unilever, Hershey, Kraft, Mattel, Nestle and Target.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
