Animation

Here’s an update on the Mercenaries 2 commercial that I talked about last week on this site. Apparently the people in charge over at DraftFCB have been watching you guys and liked the response that they’ve been seeing over the music used in the spot.

They recently went back to the Wojahn Brothers in Los Angeles (the folks who created the original music score) and had them create a full length version of the song, which is now available for free download on the recently added download section of the game’s website. Or you can click on the direct link to the song here:
Mercenaries 2 - Oh No (Full Length).mp3

Also included is a ‘making-of’ video (found above), showing what went into the production of the commercial thanks to the team over at Shilo.

Fancy that, an agency that is pro-activly responding to consumer feedback! Nice work.

A big ‘tip of the hat’ goes out to Colin McRae + Isaac Clemens from DraftFCB for the update.

Now this just makes me want to be a kid again. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the introduction of LEGO MiniMen, the company has release this video on their website (and select target markets). Here we get to see all the different MiniMen that were included in the various LEGO ’scenes’ - Deep sea diver, fireman, astronaut and even the race car driver.

The accompanying website for this celebration is www.gominimango.com. If you’ve got kids I’m sure they’d love all the cool LEGO stuff that’s on there. You can even watch this promo in 3D.

Credits:

Client: Lego
Title: Go Miniman Go
Agency: Pereira & O’Dell
City | State: San Francisco, CA
Pres/Chief Creative Officer: PJ Pereira
Creative Director: PJ Pereira
Copywriter: Robert Lambrechts
Art Director: Jason Apaliski
Executive Producer: Jeff Ferro
Interactive Producer: Juliana Hasegawa
Production Company: The Ebeling Group
Executive Producer: Alberto Lopes, Sergio Salles
Creative Director: Mateus de Paula Santos
Head of Production: Loic Dubois
Director : Cadu Macedo
Lead Modeler: Franck Falgueyrac, Olavo Chagas
Lead Render: Franck Falgueyrac
Storyboard: Libero Malavoglia, Cadu Macedo
Modeler: Cadu Macedo, Rafael Segnini, Sergio Rochas, Diego Aragão Maia
Animators: Yuri Lementy, Cadu Macedo, Marco Antonio Trandafilov, Jason Tadeu de Oliveira, Alexandre Martins, Helio Takahashi, Vitor Viela
3D Rendering: Franck Falgueyrac, Olavo Chagas, Ivan Imanishi, Daniel Sampaio
Textures: Cadu Macedo
Compositor: Cadu Macedo
CG Script Development: Paulo Nogueira, Ivan Imanishi
Stereoscopic Consultant: Andre Rosa

Not far behind last weeks Mercenaries 2 spot comes the new trailer for Sony Playstation’s first person shooter Resistance 2.

Not much to comment on this trailer other than “amazing!” It’s a video game about an alternate world history. Don’t worry, eventually everyone will be counting on you to save the world from evil…that’s for certain.

The folks from Playstation had this to say about the spot:

The brief was to create a promo outlining key moments in our ‘twisted’ history of the Resistance universe. Where most first-person shooters are based in either a Sci-fi or World War II context, Resistance blends the two with a story set in an alternative version of the 20th Century. In this reality WWII never happened and there was no Nazi enemy. Instead, humanity is threatened by brutal invaders, the Chimera. And the situation is looking desperate… [source]

The transitions in this movie are absolutely stunning!
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Here’s the latest commercial for the upcoming Mercenaries 2 video game. The music selection is uniquely awesome. We’re so use to seeing combat games being dressed up with special effects and a dark soundtrack that this one immediately stands out….High School Musical style. Also, THIS IS THE DIRECTORS CUT! Enjoy! (Original “on-air” version is posted below)

Draft/FCB, San Francisco was the agency responsible for this spot with Dan Watson as the Senior Broadcast Producer.

The folks over at Shilo directed this spot with co-founder Jose Gomez as Creative Director. Gomez, along with Curtis Doss, was also Lead Designer. Nate Davies, Eugene Gauran Ed Laag, Jon Lorenz and Curtis were the 2D Animators. Tamir Sapir, Cody Smith, Blake Guest and George Longo did all the 3D Modeling. Blake Guest, Trentity DeWitt, Nate Davies and George Longo also did all the 3D Animation. Kiel Figgins, Blake Guest, Jorma Auburn and Bren Wilson did the Character Animation.

Santino Sladavic and Jake Hibler were the Executive Producer/Producer team for this piece with Dara Norris as the Sound Producer for Wojahn Bros Music. Scott and Rojer Wojahn were the composers for the on-air version of this cheery-yet-badass soundtrack. You may have noticed that the music used in the directors cut is different from what was used in the “on-air” version, it’s because the directors cut audio was created by a team from Beacon Street Studios. Special arrangements for that song’s use were made between Shilo and Beacon Street for that release.

Here’s the version that made it to broadcast -
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Ok, when I first saw this my initial reaction was to wonder who in their right mind would use characters from Adult Swim’s Squidbillies show to represent their products. After the second time watching though I realized it’s just a cheap knockoff…not an authentic Adult Swim endorsement. I will point out that it does manage to give off the same weird-but-unsettling feeling that the show does. If that’s what you were going for guys, kudos.

Created by Ogilvy Group UK for Coca-Cola owned soda brand Fanta, this animated :30 shows us a security guard squid whose days of toying with what could be either school kids or prison inmates comes to an end. I couldn’t help noticing that the basketball court that our hero is playing on resembled a prison yard in that there are cameras everywhere, they’re all wearing black and white and it’s completely fenced in. Is this spot trying to target the youth demographic or the fresh-out-of-juvenile-hall market?

Kate Paull and Stuart Pantoll were the Creatives for this piece with Kim Parrett as the Agency Producer. Tokyoplastic was once again the Director for Picasso Pictures, London (with Jane Bolton as the Producer). Tokyoplastic was also the production company used for the animation in this commercial. Sound Design was by James Saunders at Jungle with music from Plan 8 at Hear no Evil.