Animated pitchmen: they not only help sell products, they create a lasting corporate identity

Post, March, 2005 by Claudia Kienzle

Beloved brand icons like Charlie the Tuna, Tony the Tiger and Snuggle Bear have always been effective "pitchmen" for their products. Now artists and agencies are advancing these characters from their original 2D styles to 3D, and moving them around in 3D and live action settings, while preserving their established looks and personalities.

COST OF USING ANIMATED ICONS: PRICELESS

"Advertisers are taking advantage of all the styles of animation that have ever existed," says Wayne Brejcha, animation director for Calabash Animation (www.calabashanimation.com) in Chicago. "Rather than gravitating to one particular type of animation, like 3D CG animation, agencies and artists are deriving inspiration from historical looks and styles."

Calabash pulled together many popular, recognizable characters for the Debit Mastercard "Priceless" campaign that aired during the recent Super Bowl telecast. In this spot, Calabash's animation producer Monica Kendall created a complex, 450-layer composite that integrated such legendary animated icons as Charlie the Tuna, Chef Boyardee, Mr. Clean, the Jolly Green Giant, Mr. Peanut, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and the Morton Salt Girl, into one spot.

While Mr. Peanut, Mr. Clean, and the Pillsbury Doughboy were 3D CG animated, Charlie the Tuna and Chef Boyardee were hand drawn. In the spot, the characters are all sitting around the table, along with the live-action Gorton's Fisherman. They're sharing dinner and engaging in conversation, underscoring the theme that getting everyone together around the dinner table is priceless.

"One of the biggest challenges we faced is that the Morton Salt Girl had always been a 2D image, with flat polygons of color and heavy line work, and we needed her to appear in this spot as if she had walked off that box," explains Brejcha. "We drew on the skills of a lot of talented people thoroughly steeped in hand-drawn animation, as well as 3D CG experts who knew exactly how to move these characters in 3D space.

"Camera pans across the table showed the characters passing around plates of food," describes Brejcha. "In the live action shoot, actors in blue suits handled the props, such as plates, forks, and other objects, and then there was a separate locked-off shot with just the background so we could remove the actors and replace the background." The primary tools were Alias Maya for 3D animation, US Animation software for compositing and an array of PC, SGI and Linux workstations.

All of the characters were faithfully recreated based upon character model sheets that Chicago-based agency McCann Erickson (senior VP/executive producer Jonathan Shipman and senior VP/creative director Peter Jones) obtained from a variety of agencies that had produced spots featuring these characters.

MONSTER HEADACHE

"Character animation can add humor and fantasy to a spot to help it stand out from the other spots in the break," says Mark Medernach, executive producer for Duck Studios (www.duckstudios.com) in Los Angeles, a full-service animation company in business for over 30 years. "Since you're creating the character, you can make it do anything that you want, which is often more effective than adding effects to a live action actor."

Medernach says, "There's a growing trend of drug companies using 2D and 3D animated characters to convey the benefits of their drug products to the public." One such company is Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK), which commissioned Duck Studios to create a comical, green 3D monster that represented a migraine headache to promote its headache-relief drug, Imitrex.

In the :30 spot, the viewer sees a live-action actress that is being given a migraine by an annoying monster. "The monster does cartoonish things to annoy the actress, like shining a flashlight in her face, banging on the screen with a mallet, turning on a drill, and even slapping the screen with a big, wet fish," says Medernach. The monster was created using Maya, with live-action compositing handled by Duck Studios 3D artist/animation director Lane Nakamura using Discreet Combustion.

SNUGGLE BEAR IN 3D

"Animated characters have a way of bringing personality to the screen, which, when done correctly, can be finessed and sharpened to be the perfect vessel for sales," explains Jeffrey Dates, creative director for Janimation (www.janimation.com) in Dallas, which offers visual effects, design and animation for commercials and film. "If you have a good idea for a commercial that requires an animated character, then you're going to have a successful campaign.

"But if you're incorporating animated characters into your spot gratuitously, just because you want animated characters, then you may have to struggle to make it work," says Dates. "Animation is hard. Good animation is harder. So, knowing when to attempt it is the mark of a good campaign."

Janimation recently brought Snuggle--the famous bear mascot that represents Snuggle Fabric Softener--into the 3D world. "Traditionally, Snuggle Bear was realized by using puppets. So, taking him into the 3D world meant animating, styling and rendering CG fur--tons of it," says Dates, who was the lead animator. A big challenge associated with this project was the fact that Snuggle's appearance (like eye and mouth shapes) is strictly defined and these characteristics had to translate consistently into in 3D world, and throughout the character's performance.