Cartoons

Apparently, all the important causes that a corporation could pretend to care about have already been snatched up, so ice cream manufacturer Haagen-Dazs got stuck with saving honeybees. The operatic CG spot that promotes the campaign was created by Psyop:

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Great music can be a roller coaster of emotion, both figuratively and literally. This new CG spot for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra is a conceptual winner. Watch a quality version on No Fat Clips. Wasn’t able to find production company credits for the commercial but the agency is Euro RSCG Switzerland.

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A 1982 mini-doc about how the impressive CG-less HBO intro was made. The entire spot is shown at the end of the film. Apparently it’s all stop-motion and old-school in-camera effects. (via)

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Motionographer offers up two colorful Genndy Tartakovsky-directed TV spots for Niquitin, the UK equivalent of Nicorette. Genndy had also created a Nicorette spot in 2006, produced through The Orphanage.

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PandaPanther is, hands down, my favorite new commercial studio. Once you see their work, you’ll understand why. This young NYC-based outfit, operating for a little over a year now, is injecting a big whopping dose of artistry into computer animation, and dragging CG out of its literalist photoreal ghetto. It’s headed up by directors Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura, and producer Lydia Holness.

Garin and Nishimura’s CG feels tactile and handcrafted. Their work looks unmistakably digital yet also retains a strong illustrative quality. They also seem to mix techniques quite well, as some of their projects appear to employ “stop motion” sets, like the Zune Arts and Yo Gabba Gabba! ones. Below are a few of their recent projects that I’ve enjoyed, though I recommend checking out everything on their site PandaPanther.com.

Mika’s Marshmallow Train, an animated short for Yo Gabba Gabba!

Nokia “Rock ‘n Roll Decadence”

Tale of the Cheshire Tree

Interstitals for MTV Tr3s. Full credits and brief interview with the filmmakers on this site.

Underwater Jungle Disco

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A nice introduction to the history of French animated commercials by Mark Webster. There’s an exhibit about animated French advertising in Paris right now, but it closes on April 6 so get there quick if you want to see it.

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Gabe Swarr was commissioned to create this Flash-animated musical piece below advertising Radiohead and AniBoom’s “In Rainbows Music Video Contest.” As Brew readers know, I’m not a fan of contests like these, but of all the animation contests one could possibly enter, the AniBoom ones tend to be the least icky. For example, this particular contest is structured in such a way so that storyboards are judged first and you’re not being asked to submit an entirely finished product. Afterwards, the winning storyboards are even given a small sum of money to produce their videos.

As for Swarr’s piece, it’s a large leap from his usually recognizable work. He explains on his blog: “My approach was to keep as close to Radiohead’s established video style. My natural style is kind of opposite of that, so it was a cool creative challenge.”

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Everything’s better when it’s in CG…even presidential candidate Ron Paul. Of all the recent animated political ads, this commercial with its grandiose histrionics and over-the-top imagery ranks in my book as the most memorable spot of this political season. It’s directed by Nathan Evans of ArcFX.

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Speaking of creepy CG translations of 2D characters, the new adult-targeted Cheetos ad campaign starring Chester Cheetah is highly questionable, not only because of its mean-spirited and unfunny message but also for its incredibly poor and unappealing animation. The integration into the live-action is particularly weak, and the character’s scaling into the real-world looks wrong, probably because our eyes have difficulty accepting an adult cheetah the size of a domesticated cat.

Slate magazine, on the other hand, loves the ads calling them “delightfully creepy.” Watch one of the spots below and two more here and here.

(Thanks, Jessica Plummer)

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