Just beautiful.

Labels: Commercial

My cats think canned cat food is this great. This reminds me of the "Seeds of Love" video from Tears for Fears.

Labels: Commercial

It's rare that I'd want to watch a commercial a few times over but this is funny ad with some nice visual trickery. That's some pretty smooth matching. I'm on a horse. Hahahaha.

Labels: Commercial

You can see the entire ad lineup and time of appearance at USA Today.

From a mograph perspective I think the ad for the Honda Crosstour by Elastic is probably going to shine through, but since many ads aren't public until the Bowl, who knows what will show up?

Honda Accord Crosstour "Squirrel"


Kia's 2010 Sorrento (teaser ad)


"Punxsutawney Polamalu"- truTV


Want to weigh in on the best ad?

Vote at http://www.adbowl.com twitter: @ADBOWL10 | iPhone app | See Past Top 10 Results

Compete against the ad pros at Hanon McKendry "ad peeps vs. net tweeps" for the best of each quarter. Voting begins at the end of the first quarter, Superbowl Sunday @ Superadbowl.com. twitter: @superadbowl

Labels: Commercial, Superbowl

I've really been enjoying this series of funky, stylistic commercials for the Honda Accord Crosstour. Here's the full lineup so far! See more of Elastic's work at http://www.elastic.tv/

Honda Accord Crosstour "Squirrel"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Squirrel" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Honda Accord Crosstour "Snow Trip"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Snow Trip" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Honda Accord Crosstour "Instruments"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Instruments" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Honda Accord Crosstour "Boxes"

Honda Accord Crosstour "Boxes" from Elastic on Vimeo.

Labels: 3D, Character Animation, Commercial, Experimental

Enjoy.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

Colorama - Makeover from Upper First on Vimeo.

Client: Colorama
Agency: McCann Malmo
Direction: Upper First
Director of Photography: Keith Loutit
Production: Upper First
Sound design: Kungen & Hertigen
Year: 2009

The idea is based on a technique called tilt-shift, combined with time-lapse (developed by Keith Loutit). It makes reality appear as a miniature model moving with a stop-motion flow. The thought is to create a visually interesting expression that give the audience something out of the ordinary, while at the same time providing a good overview of events. We would shoot from a high angle using specially developed lenses with a short depth of field. The fact that the world appears to be miniature makes the viewer think ”is it for real or not”. It is hard to tear your eyes from the images, something that works well for our purpose.

A gigantic hand will appear in the middle of events helping the workers to get the house ready for summer. It will light the barbeque with a magnifying glass for example. The idea is to create a visually absurd situation using displacement of scale between the people in frame and the giant hand. It is meant to underline the contrast of small and big, where the hand symbolizes the consumers ability to effect the environment and in the extension his or her own environment. Through time-lapse we’ll reinforce the ”before and after” scenario as you’ll be able to see small changes appear quickly. The film will start in a winter worn backyard and in 30 seconds evolve to a wonderful summer barbeque.

Labels: Commercial

The Michelin man comes to the rescue of small furry animals, prevents roadkill apocalypse. Lovely work from Psyop!

Labels: 3D, Character Animation, Commercial, Film Short

My internet was down all night last night so I watched prime time TV which I haven't done in ages (hence two posts in a row about commercials). This is just eye catching spot, lots of fun.

Labels: Commercial

So funny. They did a beautiful job on the color correction. Magic Bullet Looks perhaps?

Labels: Commercial

According to the description on Vimeo, this group from Mexico City used Nuke, After Affects, 3dmax and Photoshop and created this cool piece in only 2 weeks. The agency: BBDO Mexico
Producer Company: Lemon Films

Labels: 3D, Commercial

I caught one of these last night on the boob tube and it seems there's a whole series of them. Interesting visuals... makes you feel like you had one too many gin and tonics, eh ;-)

Ads from W+K Amsterdam. Produced by Motion Theory.

Labels: Commercial

Okay, I'll admit, my Portuguese is a bit rusty, but basically this Brazilian PSA says "Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!" I hope it saves a lot of water. The animations are quirky and cute (and a little on the creepy side). The ad was created by F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Brazil.

Read more about the ad at Huffington Post.

Labels: Commercial

3 Spots for the Dairy Farmers of Canada that were all done with stereoscopic 3D, by Toronto's Headgear Animation and Due North Communications. Read an article about their process at BoardsMag.

Straw


Kid Kong


Jump Rope

Labels: 3D, Commercial

HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

Response to D&AD Student Awards brief set by Hewlett Packard.

"Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive."

Labels: Commercial, Student Work

CGI babies have come a long way since the creepy dancing baby on Ally McBeal. My six year old wanted to know how the babies learned to dance and skate so well!



And the Making of:

Labels: Commercial

Is it arrogant to put our own stuff up here? Nah. The training will be out in early July. Here's a promo piece I put together for it, which uses Professional Video Templates Pictures Flow Template and features music from the band King Tut. Thought you'd like the artistic approach to the promo. I listen to a lot of electronic music, so yes, the audio is supposed to be like that. :-)


Find more videos like this on MyToolfarm


Watch it in HD at YouTube or Vimeo

Labels: Commercial, Experimental

Exploit yourself is a Spec commercial inspired by NIKE, directed by Carl Erik Rinsch. The commercial was produced in Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects Studio from February to May. Rinsch wanted to "show off the nerve and spark and freshness of the city with the strength and power of modern sport competition, all in a whole 3d environment."

The Runner -Exploit yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

I saw this spot during Jimmy Kimmel Live last night and thought the visuals were very cool. I don't really care for the song, but I do really like the ad. The song is called Doorway by IO Echo, fronted by a woman named Joanna Gikas, who is some sort of celebrity.

They built a gigantic Facebook set for the ad shot at Warner Bros. film studios.

Labels: Commercial

Tomer Bahat sent me this fun new stop motion IKEA bedrooms commercial that he directed, which was shot on location in Rishon Lezion, Israel. Shot on Canon 5D mk. II, PreViz on 3DS Max, Composited in Adobe After Effects.

Ikea Stop Motion Commercial-Bedrooms-"An Ocean of Possibilities" from Tomer Bahat on Vimeo.

Labels: Commercial, Stop Motion

I know it's been out for awhile, but I saw this a few nights ago and was really impressed- just gorgeous CG work by 1stAveMachine. Their site is worth a look, the homepage features an interesting folded cardboard and cell animation "Unbox the Box" for Audi.

Labels: 3D, Commercial, Experimental, Technology, Website

This is more like a film short than a commercial. I mean, we really need smell-o-vision for perfume ads anyway, right?

I just love the shot with the light coming through the train window with the Chanel bottle reflection casting on the wall. I do love Audrey Tautou.



If you're curious, here's a Making of...

Labels: Commercial

Creepy clowns and cops have it out in this short film from Adam Berg. The film was made to promote the new Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV. According to one of the comments (unedited, obviously):

All of the people were posing, trying to stay still. In post-processing they edited to make them perfectly motionless. All the explosions, glass, bullets and crazy stuff was computer generated. The camera was on a dolly, but the tracks were edited out in post.

Thanks Matt Schirado for the link!

Labels: Commercial, Film Short

David Beckham does the Terminator in this new ad for the Motorola Aura, a $2000 phone with a 62 Carat Sapphire Crystal Lens! I'm not going to deny, I don't mind the gratuitous shots of David Beckham, but c'mon... $2000? In this economy?

Labels: Commercial

Nice compositing. I need to teach my kitty Matilda how to dance.

Labels: Commercial

I interviewed Paul Griswold, a director / animator 3D artist who has been collaborating with animator Syd Garon and graphic artist Shephard Fairey on several projects, including the N.A.S.A. video for the song Money and the Earth Hour 2009 spot, below. Check out the interview here.

Earth Hour 2009 again uses the work of Fairey, who is most known for his Obama Hope poster. What is Earth Hour 2009?

On March 28 you can VOTE EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour. Or you can vote global warming by leaving your lights on.

The results of the election are being presented at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. We want one billion votes for Earth, to tell world leaders that we have to take action against global warming.

The Earth Hour 2009 spot has some really cool transitions and I love the illustrated style of the video. Paul had posted to his Twitter account that someone had said he would be famous someday with his high quality and creative work. I completely agree!



Now, I go around switching off lights all the time - my husband and kid are always leaving them on - and I'm a fanatic about recycling and composting, but I never seem to remember the Earth Hour thing. Maybe this year, I will remember!

Labels: Commercial

Is it me or does it look like blood? I'm a Tazo and Celestial Seasonings drinker, so maybe Tetley Red does look like blood. Tasty (if you're a vampire :p) It's really impressive work, none the less. Pretty gorgeous fluid work.

Director: Bearfight & Sehsucht

Labels: Commercial

After watching this, I am really not sure what exactly Autofuss is, but it appears to be a studio in San Francisco. This piece is just lovely. I love the effects in the last 10 seconds. Gorgeous work.


Katelyn from autofuss on Vimeo.

Labels: Commercial, Film Short

I really don't understand this commercial, but its fun to watch. Is this really all roto'd? I would have shot it all on greenscreen. The music is "Air War" by the group Crystal Castles. Thanks for the link, Ko!

Labels: Commercial

The lyrics are hysterically funny. Is this guy for real or is this a only milk commercial? I really have no idea, but the visuals are larger than life and completely fabulous. This song is an instant classic!

Labels: Commercial, Music Video

"Sea Orchestra" is a whimsical, Hieronymus Bosch-styled commercial for United. The elements were produced by Shy the Sun, a South Africa-based directing team; using hand-drawn textures, computer animation characters and photographs of water, reefs and skies. The elements were then finished by Lung Animation, who did the 3D modeling and final animations.


Sea Orchestra from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Shy the Sun’s founders, The Blackheart Gang, also created this equally awesome and trippy animated short; "The Tale of How".


The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Commercial, Film Short

Amazing organic visuals by Sehsucht. The camera motion matching the first person perspective and truck movement is executed well.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

The newest iPod commercial featuring Viva la Vida by Coldplay is just gorgeous! Lots of color and eye candy. It almost looks like a big ad for Trapcode plug-ins. Ha ha. I wonder if that is what they used? It was done by Logan.

Labels: Commercial

This is the second spot in TBWA China's campaign for the 2008 Beijing Olympics by Psyop. Gorgeous work- I like the pencil drawing/hand drawn look.

Labels: 2D, 3D, Commercial

This is a nice piece by Glassworks for the Bank of Ireland. This is the last in a series of ads that are all very well done. Their work was recently featured on the Best of STASH 2007 reel at the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival.

Labels: 3D, Character Animation, Commercial, MGFest

Club Social are pizza flavored snack crackers, I'm guessing. It's in Portuguese. The animation is so cool. Awesome 3D layer work with AE.

Labels: Commercial

YouTube has put a Super Bowl Ad Blitz up, allowing you to watch the spots without all that football. Okay, honestly, I didn't watch the Super Bowl. I went out shopping, went swimming at the gym and came home and watched some bad reality tv.

I watched some of the spots on YouTube and there were a couple of cute ones. I really liked the Coke ad with Stewie and Underdog parade baloons.



E*Trade Talking Baby - kinda creepy.



FedEx Carrier Pigeons - I love the Giant birds.



Feel free to leave a comment and talk about your favorites or least favorites.

Labels: Commercial

In case you missed it, here's a few of the highlights from "Best of Stash 2007" at MGFest08.




Microsoft Zune Ad by Fulltank.



Music Video: Faithless-Music Matters by Micros Image.



Coca-Cola Happiness Factory- The Movie by Psyop.

Labels: Character Animation, Commercial, Experimental, Film Short, MGFest, Music Video, Television

What do you think? Good motion tracking with Trapcode Lux or they actually jammed flashlights up their bums? Awesome commercial!

Labels: Commercial

Lift Motion Design and Creative Chaos created this astounding intro video for the Motion Graphics Festival 2008 in Chicago, Jan 15-21st. The production process heavily integrated the motion design with the sound design by The Great Mundane.

The inspiration came from the integration of several creative practices at this year's festival, which focuses on motion design, sound design and motion programming.

Production, costuming, and makeup were done at Foundation Post and the piece was edited by Matthew Glover.

Adobe After Effects was used for almost all the animating and compositing. The final edit was done in Final Cut Pro and the audio composition was created in Ableton Live.

The final piece will play before a live audience at each of the 4 motion graphics screenings at the festival: Stash's Commercial Art screening, Lumen Eclipse's Video Art screening, the Art in Motion screening, and the Conscious Motion screening.

"It was wonderful to have the opportunity to collaborate with other motivated and talented artists. I really do not think this project would have been possible with out each individuals passion and dedication to do what they love. And that love is responsible for the drive to follow through on the never ending quest for perfection to create a positive final product." from Jeffrey Acciaioli (The Great Mundane, Composer/Sound Designer)

Labels: 3D, Bizarre, Commercial

A big golden zeppelin flies over major cities of the world, dropping beautiful metallic snowflakes, making the cities light up. This was created by the Russian agency Агентство MILK (we'll see if that holds up - it looks like AreHTCTBO MILK in Cyrillic)

Labels: Commercial

Two of four 30 second animated commercials for the launch of the new PictureBox movie channel. The spots are directed by Alon Ziv and created by Th1ng, a Soho, London based collective of directors. Fun motion work.

Romance:


Horror

Labels: Commercial

I know they've been around for awhile, but some of these Zune spots are very well done and are interesting to look at (shocker!).

Labels: 3D, Bizarre, Character Animation, Commercial

Here's a lovely new spot for Dell called Out with the Old where a couple dozen old monitors and CPU's shatter into bits. I can't imagine the amount of cadmium, mercury and lead floating through the air in that room. I digress...

From rhinofx CD/VFX Supervisor Vico Sharabani (from Joey Tomatoes):

This project was quite challenging from a visual perspective, lending itself to a wide variety of both creative and technical timing solutions. During the original planning process, we were working closely with The Snorri Brothers, and determined that the entire piece should be shot in live action and we would later manipulate and augment the footage digitally. Having done quite a bit of these slow-motion stylized effects, we suggested they shoot with a Phantom camera-a high-speed, HD digital camera that captures 1000 frames per second. The challenge here was that we had only one take with three camera angles for each explosion and had to manipulate the timing, synchronization, and details of footage to really make it work. Working with live pyrotechnics can always be difficult in compositing, as we have to turn unpredictable and instantaneous explosions into a consistent and cohesive visual output. To do this, our artists worked in Flame to recreate scenes, enhance some explosions, clean up others, match debris consistency, manage timing, and color correct to maintain the crisp starkness of the background environment. We also took advantage of the latest Linux Flame HD technology to preserve detail for the high-res rendering. Overall, it was really a seamless translation between production, effects, editing, and post production, and I think that really comes across in the timing and flow of the final product.

I love knowing what happens behind the scenes like that.

Via JoeTomatoes.com

Labels: Commercial

My friend Mike sent me this video from Consumer Reports, putting the Chrysler Jenga commercial to the real world test. Needless to say, it's easier to play computer generated Jenga in your minivan than it is to do it for real. I like the ad though. Truth in advertising? I can't answer that.

Labels: Commercial

Who knew eating high fructose corn syrup could turn you into a rugby monster! Very cool character animation.

YouTube: "Spy Films finishes another Snickers Spot With Directing team Alex & Steffen. Agency: BBDO Moscow, Russia"



Via Antville

Labels: Character Animation, Commercial

Zune has really stepped up the advertising with this series. Here's their newest, Intergalactic Swap Meet. It was created by 72 and Sunny and directed by Stockholm's againstallodds. The colors are poppin' and the characters are superb. It's just lush.

Via Stash

Labels: Character Animation, Commercial

SplendAd.com is a site that tells you which songs are featured in commercials. Commercial music is usually really good, you know. Not the garbage spewed on FM or MTV. I saw this ad posted for XM Radio, XM-erator which features the music of DJ Mehdi (feat Chromeo) with a tune called 'I Am Somebody'. Chromeo had this kick ass video for Tenderoni that was out this summer and that fact alone made me want to watch the commercial.

XM has some fun commercials utilizing their yellow archy lines from their logo. You've probably seen the one which features the song 'I Ran' from Flock of Seagulls and their logo making the different styles of hair according to the music. Very clever. Watch it here.

They have hq versions of the ads on the XM site.

Labels: Commercial

I'm watching Planet Earth on Discovery Channel tonight and they're playing these commercials. Wieden + Kennedy did the ads (I think that agency has come up twice this week on the Inspirations). The spots up aren't on their site yet.

I'm guessing that all the footage must be tracked and placed on to the screens in post. I can't imagine that they did this live. They did use a vfx artists. I saw her name in the credits - Sophie Gateau. Do you know how the commercial was done? Please leave a comment.

Labels: Commercial

Another goodie via Jim G. Old school hand-drawn animation combined with the hands drawing them. They interact, it's neato, you buy Vitamin Water. The circle is complete.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

This is a really bizarre and entertaining viral ad for Playstation 3 from Norm Murro and TBWA\LONDON. The Mill did the VFX/post on the ad.

Via Stash Media

Labels: Bizarre, Commercial

A cute animation for Starbucks from Wieden + Kennedy featuring a girl in snowshoes who gives a bear a bear hug. The music is by Badly Drawn Boy called 'I Love N.Y.E.'.

Labels: Commercial

Some awesome 3D, interspersed with video game footage.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

This gorgeously shot commercial for Microsoft Zune, The Ballad of Tina Pink, was sent to me today by two different people. It's really making the rounds, I guess. It was produced by Method Studios of Southern California and it's a visual knock out of the ball park.

You may recognize Method Studios from their Audrey Hepburn spots for The Gap.

Labels: Commercial

Bad ass is right.

Labels: Commercial

Great animation! I love the Flickr and YouTube sections. Really nice 3D and use of the Kaleidescope filter too.


Via Big Mike Design Blog

Labels: 3D, Commercial

Daf - a Chilean production company has created this great PSA for Face it Act Now (FIAN). They have fun, captivating concept that precisely support their message.

I have a student from Chile this semester and we were just talking about Chilean video production.

Via Motionographer

Labels: Commercial

My friend Dru IM'd me the link to this facinating ad for Hummer. It was directed by Joseph Kosinski, and award-winning artist who is based in L.A.

This is one of the coolest commercials I've ever seen. It gives the feel of a video game without going too far in that direction. The effects are inspiring.

I'd never buy a Hummer though, as awesome as this commercial is. I'm more of the eco-friendly type of driver. Did you hear the next generation of Prius will get 80mpg and have a more powerful engine!?

Labels: Commercial

Royal Electric Feilfri... Beautiful eye candy with a pair of shoes forming in an underwater enviroment from the cellular level.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

Incredible VFX spot by Campbell-Ewald. I've never had my car stolen, but I can imagine it would feel just like this.



Via Ninja Crayon

Labels: Commercial

Bill Bergen, a former student of mine, sent me the link to this great Pontiac commercial. The particles are just beautiful.



The commercial was done by The Mill, who also did the Snow Patrol "Set The Fire To The Third Bar" video, with the cool juxtaposed faces on the one-way glass.

Labels: Commercial, Music Video

Toolfarm Forum Expert Jim Geduldick worked on a video about the Red camera. That's the back of Jim's head at 1:11.

When I was 18 I worked at Chi-Chi's as a hostess. I'd have to check IDs in the evening to let people in the bar. The jukebox played Kickstart My Heart non-stop. I can't hear Motley Crue without thinking of Chajitas.

Labels: Commercial, Film Short

I've been away on vacation for a week and the Toolfarm Expert Forum has been crazy busy while I was away. Zach posted a question about how this video was created. Mylenium gave him a good honest answer. Read the post and feel free to add your own comments and ideas.

Labels: Commercial

Matt Armstrong at Studio Daily has authored a great article on Using Maya and 3D Rotoscoping for CG Football Action. The video link is in the article.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

Erik Rubner, son of Michael Rubner, a Detroit camera guy, shot & edited this spot for the Heinz Challenge with John Mabila and Charles Green. Three-man crew, one day shoot. Michael posted it to the Michigan production email list to which I subscribe.

It is a really cool spot, combining an old film look with the modern world by the television liason. They have the effect of the hand reaching out of the TV (not quite as ominous as the similar action in 'The Ring' and use spot color, as seen in 'Sin City'. It's a clever ad.

Labels: Commercial

A clever animated piece with a 3D frog's eye view of the world.

Labels: 3D, Commercial

Chris Zwar posted this gem to the AE-List today. It was on the front page of Digg, so you may have seen it. Oh, the interwebs... such a place of sharing.



And Ken Broomfield posted this link to the NBC logo from 1971, which I think is rather beautiful.

Labels: 2D, Commercial

An interesting collection of 14 year old spots and I have to say, their predictions were (mostly) right on target. Our GPS isn't quite that fancy, even in 3D mode, but it's pretty darn accurate. Eerie... or actually, that was only 14 years ago so I'm sure everything was in development at that time.

The lady with the phone booth though, um, yeah. I left my mother-in-law at the mall once and told her to call me from a phone booth when she was ready. There were two phones at the mall and neither of them worked, much less having video features. She ended up having to use the phone behind the counter at The Gap.

Labels: Commercial

Some seriously gross but cool medical animations and effects showing the damage those cancer sticks are doing to smokers. I've been trying to get my husband to quit for good since the day we wed. Maybe showing this video to him will finally convince him to give it up for good.

Labels: Commercial

Two animated fighter pilots try to blow each other out of the sky with beautiful explosions and smoke that morph into dragons and rainbows and other psychedelic stuff. The song in the commercial is Special Thing by Viva Voce.

Labels: Commercial

Just caught this one on tv. This might be old, but I have a habit of ignoring commercials or surfing to another channel at ad time. This commercial is totally groovy, man.... great fluid effects and a P-Funk tune that we all know.

Labels: Commercial

This is one of the coolest stop-motion animations I've seen in a while. I can't imagine the planning that went into this! This is for South African telecom company MTN. Cape Town's Wicked Pixels did the commercial.

Labels: Commercial, Stop Motion

A delicious spot for Anagram Skateboards. Jim G. sent me the link, but Jim has a log-in and he could post it. Jim oh Jim. ;-) He tells me that it's shot and produced by a Frenchman and they used Magic Bullet 2.

Labels: Commercial

A very stylistic commercial for booze. The coloring is really cool and the peach tree that grows like the dandelions in my yard... super fast... is really nice.

Labels: Commercial

A spiffy animated ad for the Zune.

Labels: Commercial

This is a little different that the type of stuff I usually post here, but I thought you might enjoy it. This was one great piece of marketing! The section about a minute in where you see the little girl on the broom - well, that's my kid, Lily. She came out to the shoot and was having a fabulous time in front of the camera. I think she'd make a great child star but I'd rather not have her addicted to meth by age 24. I kid, I kid!

So, I helped out on this video shoot, a Harry Potter book promotion for Meijer, a grocery store chain in the midwest. We had a tent that was about 12 foot by 12 foot with a green screen and three lights, as well as a little camera and a hardware keyer. The screen was set up at fairs, ball games, movie theatres and other places where people tend to congregate. One or two (sometimes 4!) people would pretend to fly on their broom. First, we'd take a snapshot, then record video for 10 seconds. They were given a postcard with the ominous words "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows is Coming" and a photo themselves flying on the broom in front of Stonehenge. Below the photo is a website and a code where they can download their video and share it with friends, put it on MySpace, YouTube, etc.

People were so into it. I was at a theatre, the opening night of the Harry Potter movie and lots of people came dressed up in their Gryffindor robes and witch hats and red and yellow striped scarves. I have some photos of the shoot that I'll share with you, as soon as I find my camera cable. Man, I swear that cable grows legs or slithers away.

Labels: Commercial

Another you've probably seen. The usual silhouetty iTunes style, it's a pretty, happy commercial.

Labels: Commercial

I'm sure you've seen this very cool light writing ad for Sprint. I'm not exaclty sure of the technique, but it looks like stop motion stills with a long exposure. It's amazing stuff, man.

The song is called Souvenirs by Architecture in Helsinki, if you're curious.

Labels: Commercial

A cool ad that goes from the depths of the earth to a peaceful sky. Clever. Nice job on the visual effects.

Labels: Commercial

Some really bizarre commercials featuring Salvador Dali. The last commercial has some seriously old school motion graphics, but I have to say, the Alka Selzer spot is my favorite. I never thought of the Pink Stuff as artistic.


Via Fark.com

Labels: Commercial

Studio Daily has a story about the new commercial HarvesTED for Toohey's Extra Dry. Animal Logic is the company behind the visual effects. They discuss how they created the effect of seasonal change.

It's a pretty weird commercial, but I love weird.

Labels: Commercial

There's been a lot of talk about the London 2012 fugly logo on the AE-List. No one seems to like it. No one in the entire world. I had some earrings with that shape and color when I was in 7th grade. They turned my earlobes green.

I actually like some of the London 2012 Brand animation. It's dynamic and colorful and there is some nice examples of tracking and masking. It's very well timed too. But in areas it looks like 1982 puked in the pool. If you have epilepsy or are bothered by flashing video, you might want to refrain from clicking the link.

Trish Meyer posted an interesting slogan for the 2012 olympics to the AE-List: Here's a new slogan: "If you thought that steroids were bad, wait until the triangles get you...London 2012"

Labels: 2D, Commercial

This absolutely gorgeous underwater ad won Best-in-Show of the Grand Clio. I love the fish-scarf. Clios are the biggest award in advertising, if you're wondering.



Via Gizmodo:

Labels: Commercial

I originally posted this spot on May 18, but decided to repost it since Studio Daily has a great article about the commerical. Check out the article: Animating a Coffee-Lovers' Fantasy: Stardust Studio Creates Animated HD Spot for Finnish Coffee Brand written by Matt Armstrong.

Here is the original post:

My friend Alicia sent me this gorgeous Paulig Presidentti Coffee, the most popular brand in Finland, they say.

The ad was done by Stardust Studios. There's a great press release regarding the spot, which started airing only in Finland in early May. Finland is one of the largest consumers of coffee in the world. Who knew. I thought it would be the Italians and their espresso or the Seattlites and their Starbuck and Seattle's best.

"They had certain things that they wanted in the spot," Bibby explained, "which ultimately had to be all about transformation... a moment of solitude where one's mind wanders, going on a journey, where one thing leads to another and another, until it all comes back to the coffee."

In the finished spot, on a field of dark green, a golden droplet appears and splashes down into dark liquid, forming a golden wave that instantly transforms into a lion's head. The golden liquid pours down over dark mountains to a waterfall, where particles stream into a lake before soaring comet-like into a dark green sky above a forest, and exploding like fireworks. One of the fireballs takes the form of a glowing golden bird, which soars past, leaving a wake of floating feathers which become butterflies, and then, a field of golden flowers. An elk runs through the field, and golden particles mix with the northern lights, before the brand's golden cup appears, with the campaign tagline, "Maailman parhaista kahvilaaduista," (which translates into, "from the best coffees in the world"). The spot features a rich orchestral score throughout, which was composed by Tuomas Kantelinen, and mixed at Helsinki's Soundtrack Studios by Mikko Oinonen.

Lots of impressive 3D work, but we both Alicia and I thought that if coffee makes you see beautiful images like this, it must contain some psychedelic mushrooms. It really is a gorgeous spot. You'd never see Sanka or Foldgers doing an ad like that!

Labels: 3D, Commercial

The Video Toaster was revolutionary at the time. Toaster Paint and Lightwave 3D... for just four grand. This is VERY entertaining stuff right here. The voice over guy talks to himself and the transitions are straight from the 80s. It says Todd Rungren was an animator on the video. That Todd Rungren?

Kiki Stockhammer, presenter from NewTek and Kiki Wipe model will be the guest on our next podcast. She's all over this video. That is going to be one great interview, so don't miss it.

We had a toaster during my last semester of college and I used Toaster Paint at my old company for a while. It was a great product.

Labels: Commercial

Labels: Commercial

The Uber talented Katie Gobright sent me this Sears commercial which is part of their new campaign. Time goes by with a page flip... a Sears catalog possibly? The effects are somewhat subtle and this one takes a few watchings to really catch it all. The Song is called "Coming Home" by The 88.

Labels: Commercial

So awesome.

Labels: Commercial

PBS Frontline - When Kids Get Life was sent to us by Steve Audette. He was kind enough to give us a look at his work process. It's great to have a behind-the-scenes peek at a popular show like Frontline. Thank you, Steve!

"This FRONTLINE promo was cut entirely on Adobe's After Effects v.7.01. Originally I built the sound track and blocked out all the video elements on an Avid Media Composer using the AniMatte key, but given the limitations of that effect I quickly moved to After Effects. I brought all the files in as Quicktimes using the Avid Codec. however, next time I will use Wes Plate's Automatic Duck.

The music in the spot is from APM and was chosen by the producer, as were the sound bites and narration. The narrator is, of course, the signature FRONTLINE voice of Will Lyman. The weave of voices that surround Will Lyman are cut to fill out the negative spaces and give the over all effect of a what I call a Voice Fugue. There are three sound effects mixed into the music. A piano string strummed opens the spot. A tympani roll mixed with a hum a buzz of an old TV set closes the spot.

The opening shot is one of the most complicated. I wanted the PBS and FRONTLINE lens logos to blend within an on the coil of concertina wire. Ultimately, I had to use a combination of a screen mode blend, track mattes, and a luma key. I also added transparency keyframes to help the transitions.

To get the shot right, I had to scale up and then position the the wire layer to center the coil tunnel. I think this scaling maybe distorted the wire edges too much to really see, but I still like the overall effect.

The first child mug shot (Justin at 14) is a layered composition I made in Adobe Photshop. I separated the boy from his background and cloned the lines to appear behind him. It was a low resolution file so I was pretty much stuck with this scale factor.

The idea was to offset the younger Justin with his older counterpart as he comes on screen to give his analysis. The older Justin is masked out over his own background which dissolves out to the first of several newspaper headlines. The headlines not only add a text element, but reenforces the program content. These elements then fade to a background plate of chain-link fence.

A second younger/older set is masked out over the fence with a second headline. The primary narration begins, and a pair of haunting frightened eyes of a younger boy peer over the headline "Locked up for ever."

The headlines start out scaled back and defocused with fast blur. As they scale up, I transition out the fast blur before bringing the transparency to zero. The original artwork for the headlines were from microfiche, so I decided to invert the luma of the layer to give it that look. I think the negative elements adds to the spookiness of the audio track.

The mask of the imprisoned boy dropping his head was the most difficult. I originally started by adding key frames to the mask every frame. I dropped that approach on preview because the shape around the boy's head was too animated and didn't follow a smooth path. Instead, I created a mask with fewer points - and fewer keyframes (at critical motion starts and ends). The mask may not be perfect, but I think it is much less distracting than the frame by frame mask I originally started out with.

The woman also has a simple mask with few keyframes. Her hair was much more wispy than it appears in the spot, but again it is on so short a time, that I think the effect works. If you look close you can see where I missed a bit. Behind her is the the last of the headlines.

The father sat very still so his mask was easy. I went back to a full background plate before the last shot to give his voice the feel of a "reasoned response."

Finally there is the flash and blur of a security camera tuning in. Because this was such a low resolution file (VHS on SLP), I really felt it would not withstand scaling up - like the camera was zooming in. Also I wanted the negative space for the FRONTLINE title and logo. My solution was the warp mesh (under the distort menu tree). After applying the effect I reduced the center grid points down to push the boy back, while the walls and floor used stretched pixels. I then created an adjustment layer and added venetian blinds effect (under transition menu tree). I used the preset "Bad TV warp." It seemed to work so I kept it.

The original version of the spot had a cooler font treatment for the title, but was toned down to helvetica condensed to fit within FRONTLINE font standards. I think that was probably a good idea. The rest of the end packaging is pretty standard FRONTLINE stuff. I offset some of it to match the center of the table.

It took four days to edit and finish. I did the final mix myself in the Avid. I hope that something about all this inspires you and your work. As the spot says, you can watch the program online (and many, many more) at the FRONTLINE website."

Steve Audette

Labels: Commercial, Television