Independent animation studio Wild Brain, Inc., has completed an animated commercial campaign for The Wall Street Journal promoting the redesign of the paper and the introduction of their new consumer-oriented "Personal Journal" section. San Francisco agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners conceived a combination live-action and animated spot and teamed with Wild Brain for the animation. The goal was to bring to life the proprietary stippled illustration style that has long been associated with the publication. "Stipple Guy" (60-seconds; 30-seconds; 15-seconds) features an animation sequence transforming The Wall Street Journal spokesperson into a "living stipple portrait." In the end, the camera pulls back, revealing that the spokesperson is actually in the newspaper, speaking directly from the front page. Wild Brain combined rotoscoped live-action, original stippled illustrations, 2D animation, and After Effects warping and compositing to create a hybrid technique they like to call "Stipple-Vision." To ensure that the look and feel of the animation was consistent with the actual illustrations, Wild Brain worked in association with Wall Street Journal illustrator James Roberts, who provided key frames as reference for each of the scenes. Jim Barton of Picture Park directed the live-action performance. Credits for Wild Brain include director Gordon Clark, producer Amy Capen, executive producer Jeff Fino, animation director Achiu So and animators Billy Burger, Brian Fee, Dick Hill, Sam Hood, Cindy Ng and Aaron Sorenson.âº
