Check out the latest Rob Shaw directed spots for Post’s Fruity Pebbles!

Bossy Breakfast:

Fred and Barney’s boss Mr. Slate learns what happens when you don’t have 64 flavors in every bite of delicious Fruity Pebbles. Catching Fred and Barney in the act of enjoying their breakfast cereal, Mr. Slate yells at them to get back to work. The second they are gone he takes a big bite of Fruity Pebbles, though it lacks the mandatory 64 piece count, turning him into a crocodile! The angry Mr. Slate shakes his fist and yells “Flintstone!!!” as Barney and Fred laugh at him from atop their Brachiosaurus.

Watch it here:

Cop Rock:

It’s a beautiful day in Bedrock and Fred and Barney are enjoying a delicious bowl of Cocoa Pebbles at Bedrock Park, while Dino plays at their feet. A segway riding cop approaches them reminding them that there are no pets allowed in Bedrock Park and tells them to “scram!” Taking advantage of their left over breakfast cereal, the cop eats a bite of the Cocoa Pebbles not containing 64 tasty pieces and immediately turns into a dog himself!

 
Watch it here:


 
The Creds
Title of spot(s):  Fruity Pebbles “Bossy Breakfast” and “Cop Rock”

Airdate: “Bossy Breakfast” aired 3/12/12 and “Cop Rock” aired 4/30/12

Client:  Post

PRODUCTION COMPANY

Production Company/City/State:  Bent Image Lab/Portland/Oregon

Director:  Rob Shaw

Executive Producer:  Ray DiCarlo, Tsui Ling Toomer

Producer:  Kara Place

Associate Producer: Nate Baston

Coordinator: Keith Rice

Art Director:  Greg Arden

Director of Photography: Bryce Fortner

Animator: Jerold Howard

Animator: Julianna Cox

Animator: Jen Prokopowicz

ADVERTISING AGENCY

Advertising Agency/city/state:  Burns Group New York

Producer:  Erin Creighton

VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY:  Bent Image Lab

Composite Artists (After Effects):  Orland Nutt , Barna Howard, Eric Gorski

Flash Animator: Sam Niemann

Flash Animator: Temris Ridge

POST

Editorial Company/City/State:  Bent Image Lab/Portland/OR

Editor: Liam Gillies

Colorist: Jalal Jemison

Bent Image Lab has been very busy lately making the rounds at festival circuits, including Annecy Film Festival where “Jingle All the Way” will screen! Click the link below to see the latest awards, reviews and festival information from Bent!

“Jingle All the Way” to screen at Annecy Film Festival in June

Bing and Koodo have been accepted into the Anifest Czech Republic Film Festival

Koodo won a Certificate of Merit in Commercial Campaigns at the Hugo TV Awards in Chicago

Coke “Spirit of the Euro” won a silver plaque in the beverages non-alcoholic category at the Hugo TV Awards in Chicago

Bing “You Won’t Believe This” and “Hot Yoga” have won bronze Telly awards

Oregon Lottery “Turkeyzilla” won a bronze Telly award

“Jingle All the Way” and Oregon Lottery “Plywood” both won silver Telly awards

The Bing campaign won a silver Addy Award from the regional awards and will head into the national competition

Chel White’s “Bird of Flames” and Carlos Lascano’s “Shadow of Blue” were both accepted into the Cannes Film Festival

“Bucksville” won Best Narrative Feature at the Kansas City Film Festival

Spirit of the Euro was named 4th on Shoot Magazine’s quarterly list of Top 10 Visual FX/Animation spots

Great job Benters!

Bucksville at Kansas City Film Festival

An Interview With Stafan Nadelman About His New Music Video for Lost Lander.  (Interviewed by Holly Petersen and Chel White.)

Director Stefan Nadelman departs from his repertoire of intensely moody music video for Ramona Falls “I Say Fever” and Menomena’s “Evil Bee” with his latest music video achievement. In Lost Landers “Wonderful World” Nadelman infuses his love of prime numbers into a kalidescope ballet of shape and color. Working on this latest vid allowed Nadelman to collaborate with old friends and explore his love of old school video games.

What inspiration did you use to create this video?

I took my fascination of prime numbers and tried to visualize how they would look and behave when they joined together to create larger prime numbers.  The original idea was to make a chroma based video to ostensibly be played on a smart phone that could be placed within the Lost Lander DRRT CD case that unfolds into a mini planetarium. The video changes colors so it would interact nicely with planetarium, which has constellations and designs that appear when lit from within.  Since my last two videos were defined narratives, I wanted to try my hand being more abstract, although a narrative emerged anyway.  I chose the song because it was extremely calm compared to the last two (videos I made), and I wanted to try something more aurally subdued.

You appear to have a fondness for late 70′s / early 80′s video games like Galaga and Space Invaders.   It was an era where video games were uncomplicated; you could even say charming.  Is there a melancholic connection for you that surfaced in this video?

Absolutely. Those old games appeared when I was at a young, impressionable age, and they were the seed of what video games are today. As such, they looked and acted as primitive as we see them now, and they’re so elegant in their simplicity. As time wore on, it was amazing to see the games evolve and build on itself.

There ‘s a definite musical through line from Menomena to Ramona Falls and now to Lost Lander.  How did you first connect with these musicians? Do you feel like there is a connection other than overlapping musicians?

Brent Knopf is my proverbial Kevin Bacon. Since we’ve collaborated and become friends, he’s connected me, through social events, with so many amazing musicians and artists in Portland. Besides the musician connection, I feel I’ve gravitated toward folks like Brent and Matt et al because they’re a little bit geeky, our politics are similar, and they like discussing the technological singularity.

How did the Lost Lander project come to you?

Over the past few years and some collaborations with Brent Knopf, I came to know Matt Sheehy, Lost Lander’s lead man who plays guitar in Knopf’s band Ramona Falls. Matt and I developed a friendship over time and then he proposed…I do a video.

Did you derive the concept for the video or did Lost Lander already have an idea of what they wanted to do?

It was entirely up to me. Matt was open to all the ideas I floated past him and supported of whichever direction and technique I chose.

How much of a back and forth was there between you and Matt Sheehy? Or did he just let you take the ball and run with it?

I did show him the work-in-progress at two points: at the very beginning and the middle. He was thrilled both times and was willing to wait until it was done to see it again. So he left all aspects of the video up to me which was a nice vote of confidence. I took the ball and I ran.

How long did production take?

Since I would work on it and then put it aside to do other work and then pick it up later, I’ve calculated 45 days of production over the course of 6 months.

What animation software did you use?

After Effects.

Were there any specific challenges to making this video?

I spent quite a bit of time making sure all the dots, diamonds, triangles, and hexagons added up to be the actual prime number they represented. As the primes got bigger, keeping track of the values proved to be difficult. As simple as the concept was, it was amazing how much processing power it required to animate these shapes once they started to become more complex.

What is your favorite part of making this video?

Even though it was the most challenging, my favorite parts were designing the new prime numbers, namely in Illustrator. I created this giant specimen sheet that contained all the primitive shapes and I’d just snap them together and see what they added up to.  I think it activated another part of my brain, the math part.

 Watch Lost Lander’s “Wonderful World” here:

If you happen to be in Santiago on April 26th be sure to check out David D’s Strata Cut presentation!

For more information about Chilemonos check out the link to their site: Festival Chilemonos

And for more information on David’s Stratcut check out his new site:
Strata Cut

Bent Image Lab and Taxi 2 have produced two more El Tabador themed spots for Koodo Mobile. Directed by Rob Shaw, the lucha libre wrestler El Tabador celebrates Koodo Mobile’s success as the most recommended national mobile phone company in Canada with a babysitting job and a tattoo.

In “Sitting” El Tab is entrusted to babysit a little “chalupa” while whispering about Koodo’s status of most recommended national mobile phone company. “People really trust us,” says El Tab, just before he realizes that either he or the baby has pooped its pants.

In “Tattoo” El Tabador celebrates Koodo’s status of #1 in Canada and explains that Koodo is #1 because they ended long distance and roaming charges in Canada and has no fixed term contracts. In his exuberance, El Tab orders up a tattoo of a big number “Juan”.

 
Watch “Tattoo” here:


 
Watch “Sitting” here:

The Creds:

Title of spot(s):  “Tattoo” and “Sitting”

Airdate:  “Tattoo” began airing on March 19 and “Sitting” began airing on March 26, 2012

Client:  Koodo Mobile

PRODUCTION COMPANY

Production Company/City/State:  Bent Image Lab Portland, Or

Director:  Rob Shaw

Executive Producer:  Ray DiCarlo, Tsui Ling Toomer

Senior Producer:  Kara Place

Production Coordinator: Keith Rice

Technical Director: Josh Cox

2D/Storyboard Artists: Sam Niemann, Monique Ligons

2D Artist: Stephen Bodin

ADVERTISING AGENCY

Advertising Agency/city/state:  Taxi 2, Toronto, Canada

Creative Director: Lance Martin

Art Director: Craig Ferguson

Copywriter: Tal Wagman

Group Account Director: Natalie Calderon

Producer: Brie Gowans

MTL Account Manager: Julie McGregor

MTL Account Director: Pascale St-Amand

MTL Producer: Anick Rozon

VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY:  Bent Image Lab

Lead Compositor: Brian Kinkley

Compositors: Evan Thomas Phillips, Orland Nutt

Technical Coordinator:  Josh Cox

Lead Animator: Austin Hillebrecht

Animators: Ryan Hayford, Mike Wilson, Joel Brinkerhoff

POST

Editorial Company/City/State:  Bent Image Lab Portland, Or

Editor: Liam Gillies

Colorist for “Sitting”: Jalal Jemison, Bent Image Lab

Colorist for “Tattoo”: John Davidson, Mission Control

AUDIO

Sound Design Company/city/state:  Grayson Matthews, Toronto, Canada

Tylenol takes a direct swing at rival remedy NyQuil in this latest ad from Bent Image Lab and the Martin Agency. Directed by Bent Partner David Daniels, the three :15 stop motion/live action spots highlight Tylenol’s Cold Multi-Symptom Nighttime elixir and turns personality-less inanimate objects into competitive, medicinal pitch-men.

Focusing on Tylenol’s ability to relieve nasal congestion the three spots feature a tall, blue and handsome bottle of Tylenol interacting with an insecure bottle of NyQuil. In each spot NyQuil compares Tylenol’s abilities to his own therapeutic prowess only to discover that Tylenol treats nasal congestion, something that NyQuil does not. In “Label” NyQuil is stunned while reading Tylenol’s label, learning he can relieve nasal congestion and turns comically defensive when it is discovered that NyQuil cannot. In “Twins” NyQuil chases Tylenol down a grocery conveyor belt spouting about their similar medicinal performances but is tripped up when Tylenol reminds him of his nasal decongestant abilities. In “Me Too” NyQuil is once again comparing his attributes to those of Tylenol until Tylenol mentions his extra nose clearing talents which, much to NyQuil’s dismay, is echoed by a feminine box of tissues.

“It’s like two guys showing off to each other,” says Daniels. “Tylenol is a hero but he doesn’t rub NyQuil’s nose in it. He’s a nice guy who just happens to have extra features.”

Created in stop-motion, the animators challenge was to bring personality and articulation to inert bottles of liquid medicine. Working with the Martin Agency’s SVP/Creative Director/Sr. Copywriter Danny Robinson and Art Director Michael Reginelli, Daniels and team fleshed out the bottles’ movements to match their voices. “We all figured out together what level you needed to move the bottles to convey the linguistic emphasis of what they were saying,” says Daniels. “When you can’t see anybody’s mouth move you have to make sure the one that is talking is doing the movement.” The crew used a heroic John Wayne swagger for Tylenol’s movements and a “slumped shoulders”, jagged motion for NyQuil. Daniels also employed outer environmental cues to convey the internal world of the characters. “Dry comedy often works with little or nothing but still air hanging around at the end of a scene,” says Daniels. “But sometimes you could punctuate the ‘inadequacy’ feeling Nyquil has by having the shelf he sits on slip a bit after he is rebuffed, as if one of the hinges just broke (like his inner emotions).”

The bottles’ voices also conveyed their different personalities. Tylenol’s voice is clear and confident while NyQuil speaks in stuffed-up, nasally-tones, reinforcing NyQuil’s inability to fight nasal stuffiness. Creative blocking and camera tricks created the sense that Tylenol is bigger and taller then NyQuil, using low, tight angles on the Tylenol bottle, and rigging him a bit higher and in front of NyQuil during the shots. In the editing room, specific cutting techniques ensured the front of the Tylenol bottle was always visible, by rotating the Tylenol bottle and then cutting to another angle as he finished moving to the other side. “There was a need to show the front of the bottles, so there wasn’t a lot of over the shoulder shots,” says Daniels.

The shoot itself took three weeks and included a live action all nighter at a grocery store to capture the plates seen in the background. Daniels chose wide angle shots to achieve long, heroic vistas of the shopping aisles like something out of a John Ford or Sergio Leone movie. Compressing the environment with a telephoto lens created a “bubble of space” environment that the bottles inhabit, while the humans around them are oblivious to their animation and conversations. “It’s a secret world of bottles with conflict, emotion, ego and interactions all inside a two foot bubble of reality,” says Daniels.

Returning to the studio, the crew shot a tremendous amount of angles and elements. To begin with they built foreground sets in their studio including a small grocery store set with a working conveyor belt, which was a big challenge to work with. “You had to move it a frame at a time,” says Daniels. “It was an enormous challenge to get it consistent, reshoot it and get the right angles on it.” The sides of the conveyor belt were removed in order to access its gears and then returned so that other element plates could be shot. With all of the parts and pieces to the conveyor belt together the animator still needed access to maneuver the 14 millimeter wide angle lens and drop it down so it sat 1 millimeter off of the belt. At the end of the shot the Tylenol bottle ended up 3 inches away from the lens which made it a tiny space in which to animate.

When the practical elements finished shooting the project was put in the hands of lead compositor Orland Nutt, who utilized After Effects to composite the background and foreground elements together and created mattes to help with clean up and color correct. Once the compositing completed the spots were sent to the Martin Agency for release during the latter end of 2011’s cold and flu season.

Daniels contributes the successful completion of the spots to the great working relationship with the Martin Agency and his collaborative crew of great minds.

“At Bent we deeply believe that any animation we create must always be in service of the storytelling needs,” says Daniels. “It’s the thing we always come back to.” When asked about the creative atmosphere at the studio he replies, “I always appreciate the collaborative spirit and how it crosses disciplines and boundaries. We have a wide array of tools and talents that are integral parts in our unique method of working.”

 
Watch the spots here:

 
“Me Too”


 
“Label”


 
“Twins”


 
The Creds:
Client: McNeil Consumer Healthcare
Title of Spot(s): “Me Too”, “Label”, “Twins”

Advertising Agency: The Martin Agency
SVP/Creative Director: Danny Robinson
Account Supervisor: Audra Hicks
Producer: Rebecca Gricus
Art Director: Michael Reginelli
Sr. Copywriter: Danny Robinson

Production Company: Bent Image Lab
Director: David Daniels
Exec Producer: Ray Di Carlo
Senior Producer: Tsui Ling Toomer
Producer: Kevin Sullivan
Production Coordinators: Kevin Hanny
Live Action Production Manager: Spencer Eide
Art Director: Benjamin Hayden
Assistant Art Director: John Pearson-Denning
Art PA: Emily Meyers
Animator: Jeffery Bost
Animator: Javan Ivey
Animator: Scott Kravitz
DP: Kevin Fletcher
Lighting/Stage/Moco: Jim Birkett
Grip/Electric: Joe Bourguignon
Grip/Electric: Matt Hazlerig
Grip/Electric: Dan Ackerman
Grip/Electric: Gregory Wick
Editor: JD Dawson
2D Artist: Dave Manuel
2D Artist: Traci Cook
Lead Compositor: Orland Nutt
Compositor: Sean Saul

Football (Soccer) insanity is personified in a new 3D collaboration between Santo, (Buenos Aires, London, Milan) and Bent Image Lab, (Portland Oregon). Helmed by mixed-media maestro Carlos Lascano, “Spirit of the Euro” is an outrageous romp through stylized landscapes of Eastern Europe with an eccentric cast of chameleonic characters. The Coke-drinking, silly dancing, trumpet blowing, costume wearing, song chanting, stranger hugging football fans are a unique combination of CG animation and real actors’ eyes—a first for Coca-Cola, and a ground breaking technique for cinema 3D stereo. “I can’t say enough about working with Santo and Coca-Cola,” explains Bent Executive Producer/Partner Ray Di Carlo, “They always have really great creative, and are willing to experiment to push the limits of animation.”

 
Lascano, Bent, and Santo were the perfect team to approach this outrageously crazy creative spot which encompassed great storytelling, emotional charged content and technical innovation. Marrying live-action human eyes with 3D animation is a complex process but, as director Lascano says, “It’s worth the effort because it brings life to the eyes and a deeper human connection to the animated characters.” This stylistic approach was achieved through a culmination of techniques that Lascano and Bent Image Lab have developed independently and collaboratively.

 
The main character in “Spirit of the Euro” is a crazed football fan dressed in red and white Coca-Cola colors who flies a giant football shoe that runs on bottles of Coca-Cola and spews out a refreshing exhaust of carbonated bubbles in the shape of soccer balls. The soccer ball bubbles shower the city, transforming its many residents into fun loving crazy fans. “These characters needed to capture the viewers’ attention and the spirit of the game,” says Lascano, “but as the driving force behind the transformations, the main character also needed to possess both an irreverent attitude and an irresistible charm.”

 
When asked about his inspiration for this Coke commercial, Lascano explains, “Every time my country plays football, an irrational passion emerges and my emotions range from sheer happiness to utter suffering. In every World Cup, I watch the game in bars and feel for a moment that all the strangers there are my closest friends.”

 
In describing the human eyes and CG animation composite technique in more detail, Lascano says, “We filmed the eyes of two dozen people. The idea was to achieve emotions that would translate into eyes darting in different directions- which were later incorporated into the characters’ performance. I also had the fun job of getting to choose which take would be appropriate for which scene and emotion and how to create an animated performance that would seamlessly incorporate the live action eyes.”

 
Although the technique of combining real eyes with animation is something that Lascano has been perfecting for quite some time, this Coca-Cola spot is the first time the marriage has been seen in cinema stereo 3D.

 
“The look is uncanny,” says Bent Producer Marissa Weisman “The real eyes instantly fill the characters with that spark of life.”

 
“Carlos is an amazing talent,” Ray Di Carlo adds, “His ability to bring out deep emotions from audiences is unparalleled. He understands the romantic, caring, dream-self in all of us and his directing hones in on the most important elements, the core of the human experience. Carlos’s essential understanding of life and his ability to translate that to the screen is the reason his ‘A Short Love Story’ has had over 10 million views on Vimeo. I love working with him.”

 
Referring to the simpatico he feels with the Bent Image Lab team, Lascano explains, “I needed the production process to allow for creative experimentation, and I knew this approach would demand very long hours. Bent and I share the same work philosophy—do what it takes to put only the best work on the screen. It’s great to work alongside people who love what they do and are uncompromising in their dedication to creativity. It’s a rare collaboration that brings out the best of all involved.”

 
The commercials (a 30-second and 45-second spot for Poland, and a 30-second spot for Ukraine) began airing January 10th 2012 in Poland and on February 1st 2012 in Ukraine.

 
Additional Technical info:
Bent’s CG team, using 3D Studio Max, supplied tracking markers for the character eyes to the compositing department. The pre planning was extensive. Halfway through production, (after blocking the animation) the live action eyes were shot, selected and locked. Using this tracking data, Lascano applied the eyes of his choosing to each CG character using After Effects. Thereafter the animators worked with the eyes to add subtle facial expressions to achieve the performance that Lascano was after. Then, using both After Effects and Nuke, the compositors incorporated the eye comps and CG animation into the finished cinema 3D stereo production.

 

Watch it here:

Coca-Cola “Spirit of the Euro” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

 
The Creds:

Agency: SANTO

Creative: Pablo Minces

Agency Producers: Nadia Lozano, Leandro Sussman

Production Company: Bent Image Lab

Director/Production Designer: Carlos Lascano

Executive Producer: Ray Di Carlo

Creative Partner:   David Daniels

Producer: Marissa Weisman

Line Producer: Paula Lema, Louise Barlow, Kevin Sullivan

Sound Design/Mix: Lance Limbocker

Technical Director: Joshua Cox

CG Art Director:   Javier Leon

Lead Animator: Eric Scheur

Animators: Austin Hillebrecht, Michael Wilson, Ryan Hayford, Jim Donovan, Anthony Soto

CG Artist: Shirak Agresta, Gina Burgess, Donielle Blanc

Modeling/Texturing: Isabel Garcia Jaen, Alvaro Gasco, Omar Sarmiento, Gina Burgess

Modeling: Arantxa Claudio, Libor Batěk, Martin Ličko, JosefKasal, Pavel Šiška, František Štěpánek

Dan Falta, Shirak Agresta

CG Riggers: Gina Burgess, Joshua Cox, Patrick Dorris, Daryn Olson, Shirak Agresta, Donielle Blanc,

Paul Hormis

Character Designers: Carlos Lascano, Colin Batty, Jesse McManus, Abbey Paccia

2D Artists: Abbey Paccia, Dave Manuel, Stephen Bodin, Sally Sherwood

Matte Painter: Nate Hallinan

Lead Compositor: Cameron Carson

Compositors: Evan Phillips, Chris Russo

Lead Editor: Shawn Wight

Editors:  Liam Gillies, Brent Heise

Colorist: Jalal Jemison

Elements Director of Photography:   Jim Birkett

VO Talent: Sam Mowry

Production Coordinators: Nathanael Horton, Jacqueline Fitzgerald, Eryn Murrie

]]> http://bentimagelab.com/blog/2012/03/1587/feed/ 0 http://bentimagelab.com/blog/2012/03/bent-image-lab-to-produce-jingle-sequel/ http://bentimagelab.com/blog/2012/03/bent-image-lab-to-produce-jingle-sequel/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:32:02 +0000 hollyp http://bentimagelab.com/blog/?p=1576

Hallmark Channel announces production will soon commence on “Jingle & Bell,” a Hallmark Channel Original Animated Special, which will premiere on the network this Holiday season. “Jingle & Bell” is the second story and animated special to star one of Hallmark’s most lovable characters, Jingle the Husky Pup™. The Hallmark Channel Original Animated Special “Jingle All the Way,” was a ratings success for the network and generated tremendous response for the Interactive Storybook and Story Buddy™ at Hallmark Gold Crown Stores. In “Jingle & Bell,” Jingle the Husky Pup and his buddy Andrew meet some new friends. A girl Andrew’s age, Sofia, and her Husky pup, Bell, have moved from sunny Palm City to Pineville weeks before Christmas. With no friends yet and not knowing what to expect, Sofia and Bell’s world is upside down and it looks like it might be the worst Christmas ever. But with a little help from Jingle and Andrew, Sofia and Bell will soon discover that Christmas joy isn’t about where you are – it’s about who you are with!

“Jingle & Bell” is a Bent Image Lab Production. Jodie Schade, Diana Stuart, Shawn McClaren and Ray Di Carlo are Executive Producers. Tsui Ling Toomer is Producer. Chel White directs from a teleplay by Allan Neuwirth.

Featuring those iconic pitchmen Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Bent Image Lab has once again teamed with agency Burns Group NY; this time to introduce Post’s Pebbles Boulders Chocolate Peanut Butter cereal.  The lively 15-second spot merges stop motion animation, CG and live action elements to tell the tale of “Volcano.”

Conceived by Gregg Victor (Burns Group) and directed by Rob Shaw (Bent), the Post/Burns/Bent collaboration features regulars Fred, Barney, and for the first time Wilma, Betty and Dino (Fred’s incorrigible pet dinosaur) as they celebrate ‘Mt. Boulder Day.’

With empty cereal bowls in hand, Fred, Barney, and the other Bedrock residents await with anticipation, wondering what tasty surprise will explode out of the volcano’s mouth this time. Just then a peanut butter chocolate swirl bursts through the top of the volcano and rains tasty bite sized balls of Boulder cereal into the bowls of the gleeful residents below.

“We are introducing a new flavor cereal experience and we wanted a fun, imaginative story set in a magical world,” says Shaw.  “The volcano shoots out something great every time so everyone is very excited!”

One of the main challenges producing a spot with such well known 2D animated characters was turning them into 3D stop motion puppets. Making sure that the puppets were shot at the correct angle so that they still resemble their 2D counterparts was part of the creative problem solving process for Bent. “We needed to make sure we shot Barney on his good side and at a three quarter angle,” says Senior Producer Kara Place, “and we knew we needed to make sure that Fred’s hair piece looked just right.”

The spot also demonstrates Bent’s muscle as an animation studio, bringing CG, stop motion and live action into the mix. All of the characters and the majority of the set pieces are stop motion puppets and models, shot separately and composited into the background. Mt. Boulder itself was created in 3D Studio Max, rendered in V-Ray. For the chocolate/peanut butter swirl rising up through the volcano we used Real Flow simulation. The raining cereal pieces are a combination of actual cereal photographed on a down shooter and CG particles. In the final shot, Fred and Barney’s bowls and the cereal box (created in 3D Studio Max) are combined using 3D tracking to seamlessly introduce them into the live table shot of the two glasses of milk, orange and banana.

“With tons of experience, the studio takes particular pleasure in translating 2D drawn characters into their 3D sculpted counterparts,” says Shaw. “Because we have the ability to do all kinds of animation, we offer seamless continuity to the whole thing, doing it all in house.”

Bent’s partnership with Burns Group NY on this campaign has been fun and exciting and both companies truly love working with these franchise characters which they began to develop together as stop motion spots in 2009.

“How cool is this, Fred, Barney and the whole Bedrock gang are hanging out at our studio,” says Bent Executive Producer/Partner Ray Di Carlo. “We really wanted to do this work, and are extremely happy to be part of the team.”

“We are very collaborative with Rob and Kara. There is a lot of back and fourth at the beginning. We like to leave things a little blank so Rob can have his thoughts on sets, costumes, etc,” says Paul Kwong, Art Director at Burns Group NY. “It’s painstaking work but no one takes it so seriously that we don’t still have fun with it.”

“Volcano” began airing on January 27, 2012 on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney XD and The Hub.

Watch it here:

 
The Creds:
Client: Post
Title of Spot(s): “Volcano”
Airdate: January 27, 2012

Advertising Agency: Burns Group NY
Creative Team: Gregg Victor, Paul Kwong, Mark Cacciatore
Account Team: Erin Creighton, Jim Wilday, Marie Damato
Producers: Linda Rafoos, Cassie Hamilton

Production Company: Bent Image Lab
Director: Rob Shaw
Exec Producer: Ray Di Carlo, Tsui Ling Toomer
Senior Producer: Kara Place
Associate Producer: Kirsten Acheson
Production Coordinators: Nate Baston, Keith Rice
Art Director: Solomon Burbridge
Art Department Coordinator: Evan Stewart
Lead Animator: Eileen Kohlhepp
DP: Bryce Fortner
1st AC: Cory Sorenson
Key Grip: Doug Zajaczaowski
Gaffer: Dan Hoxey
Food Stylist: Kierstin Buchner
AC//Moco/Stage Manager: Jim Birkett
Sculptor: Scott Foster
Puppet Costumer: Kate Fenker
Scenic Painter: Brett Superstar
Scenic Lead: Christina Owen
Puppet Fabricator: Matt McKena
Set Fabricators: Brandy Cochrane, Perci Harding
Mold Makers: Eric Bute, Javen Ivey, Marty Easterday
Character/Set Designers: Sam Neimann, Monique Ligons
Art Department PA’s: Laura Walker, Samala Coffey, Charlie James, Abby Paccia
Runner: Mattie Bowden
Runner/PA: Eddie Wickline

Visual Effects Company: Bent Image Lab
Technical Director: Fred Ruff
2D Artists: Traci Cook, Dave Manuel, Stephen Bodin
Lead Compositor: Orland Nutt
Compositor: Bama Howard

Post: Bent Image Lab
Editor: JD Dawson
Assistant Editor: Shawn Wight