Got an anonymous vimeo link by email to this rambunctious little character piece yesterday.

Watch “Mr Eat” in HD

With the recent freeze in New York it’s easy to forget summer is alive and well in other parts of the world. Melbourne’s 3D masters Iloura celebrate the balmy breezes in Oz with an ambitious parade of ridiculous proportions for Nestle’s Drumstick. Agency: Publicis Mojo Melbourne, director: Josh Simmonds & Nice Trees, production: The Directors Group
Watch “Summer Parade”

Sticky Monster Lab – fresh new faces out of Seoul, Korea to keep an eye on – have a good thing going with a series of signature characters they have translated from short films and vinyl into paying work for a certain foot wear company founded on the concept of waffles.
Watch “The Running Company”
Watch “The Monsters”

Lynx spots have featured some ambitious VFX in the past but this spot – directed by Mike Mort from Joyrider with production out of Passion Pictures – is the first all-animation effort. More prod details soon. Agency: BBH, London; director: Mike Mort, production:Passion Pictures.
Watch Lynx “Caveman”

This one nearly slipped by the radar. “The Boy Who Didnʼt Stop, Look & Listen” is the first installment in a three-part series for the Department for Transport THINK! Child Road Safety campaign in the UK.

Leo Burnett set up the series for success by penning “Tales from the Road,” an eerie set of nursery rhymes that show kids what might happen when basic safety rules are ignored.

In the hands of Nexus Productions’ Smith & Foulkes, the stories become painterly visions that are one part children’s book illustration and one part nightmare. They walk a fine line between quiet and creepy, crawling under your skin in the process.

Says Smith & Foulkes, “We wanted these commercials to act as a pause in a child’s TV viewing, holding the gaze of the immobile injured characters almost painfully long as a contrast to the hi-energy multi-coloured frenzy of your average childrenʼs programming break.”

Pay attention to the little details, like the quivering crutch as the boy reaches for his ball or the subtle dimensionality of the vignetting during camera moves. It’s all beautifully realized down to the finest detail in typical Smith & Foulkes fashion.

Client: Department for Transport
Title: ‘The Boy who didn’t Stop, Look & Listen’
Length: 1 x 40″
Production Company: Nexus Productions
Director: Smith & Foulkes
Executive Producers: Chris O’Reilly and Charlotte Bavasso
Head of Production: Julia Parfitt
Producer: Melody Sylvester
Production Assistant: Denise Abraham
Character Designer: Mustashrik Mahbub
Project Lead: Mark Davies

Further credits from Leo Burnett:
Executive Creative Director: Jonathan Burley
Creative Directors: Guy Moore and Tony Malcolm
Copywriter: Christopher Birch
Art director: Caroline Rawlings
Planner (creative agency): Nick Docherty
Media agency: Carat
Planner (media agency): Laura Braithwaite
Editor N/A – animation
Audio post-production: Anthony Moore @ Factory
Exposure: National television

Quick question: What is it about Japanese movie monsters from the 1960’s that makes them such an endless vein of camp? (Leave your answers here.) Andy Boyd, lead CG artist and VFX super says this latest reincarnation – starring Guilala from “The X from Outer Space” – uses Method’s, “Entire bag of tricks. From miniatures and puppets to blue screen compositing and 3D animation. Dante got a fantastic performance from the actor in the rubber suit. All the subsequent animated characters in the spot were rotoscoped from that, so we were able to imbue these very complex contemporary animations with a campy 1960’s feel. We even created a rubber system to make the fingers and toes wobble appropriately.” Agency: Fallon Minneapolis, production: MJZ, director: Dante Ariola, editor: Kirk Baxter (Rock Paper Scissors).
Watch The Ladders “Monsters” (2008)
Watch Hummer H3 “Monster” (2005)

Short Santa video from Mad. Watch now.

New work up from Glasgow’s 3D powerhouse Axis Animation including three minutes of content for the “Motorstorm Pacific Rift” game for Evolution Studios/Sony and a herd of industrious bovines for Robert Wiseman Daires (pic’d here). Watch both spots here.

For Liberty Mutual, a short film for Hill Holliday’s “Responsibility Project” campaign. It’s a real tear-jerker, so be ready with the Kleenex.

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