Part of a three-spot commercial campaign, with print and direct mail elements, the Time Warner Cable project enabled the Gasket team to collaborate once again with FAME. The creative team had already collaborated on extensive broadcast packaging for Time Warner Cable. Once it was determined that a character was needed for this new campaign, Gasket created the original 3D character, nicknamed “Digit.”
  
  

 
Gasket concepted the three spots, which began with the main character and then included the creation of his little digital adapter buddies. The characters needed to be cute, non-threatening, and the process super easy and not complicated. The characters also needed to play well across multiple platforms since it was a complex campaign including broadcast, print, and online.
   
  

 

 
The three-spot “Wave” campaign aired throughout Fall 2011, just in time for the January 2012 All Digital transition.
  
  

  

 
"Gasket's illustration, design and animation teams brought our creative to life in epic fashion in this blowout :60 extravaganza for Best Buy's US In-Store Media Network," notes Best Buy Creative Director Bill Hewett.  "Every step along the way we collaborated and refined this piece to its glorious finish, with Gasket delivering countless lucky strike extras. They care about their work, and put hard muscle and time into bring it to life. This work will stand on its own with it's unique charm, vibrant color and action."
 
  

  

  

 
Not only was the screen time extended for this ever-green Holiday spot, but also the number of characters. Utilizing a cartoon-inspired, 2D-style approach for Shaggy, Gasket created five new characters: Santa, Mom, the Crab, and a host of international buddies for the ship-wrecked hero. The fast-paced story relies on a tight editorial sequence with a series of jump-cuts and 3D-renderings of the 2D-style.
 
  

  

 
A seamless collaboration between the Gasket artists and the internal Best Buy team included extensive creative concepting and storyboarding, and finding just that creative element which would raise the bar for Shaggy and his kooky brand of fun.
  
  

  

  

  
  

  

  

(AICP stands for Association of Independent Commercial Producers.)
 
  

 

 
Conceived as a fully integrated spot with live action, design, animation and visual effect, Gasket leveraged its team approach to the fullest, creating a tight pipeline to produce the multilayered project.  The storyboards and animatic were on a fast track for the shoot in late June to catch the summer prairie flowers in full bloom.  Shooting on the Canon 5D camera with macro lenses and mini-dolly rigs, Gasket captured the microcosm of the prairie for the sea creatures to inhabit. At each location HDR images of the environment were sourced to recreate realistic lighting for all the models and visual effects.

 

 

 
The 19th Annual AICP Show was played at the ultra modern Guthrie Theater on the riverfront in downtown Minneapolis, MN.  Agencies, clients and the production community came across the country to watch the touring show, which first played in New York at the Museum of Modern art in June.
   
  

   

 
The sponsor reel is broken into the various sponsor levels; bronze, silver, gold and platinum. We kept with the idea of presenting exciting, vivid, memorable visuals.  The boards were vital to the process since we needed to shoot live action plates as well as animate our characters within a fully composited world.  Initially the number of sponsors were unknown, so we had to keep our options open for when, where, and how sponsors would be introduced, just in case someone wanted to sneak in at the last minute.
 
 

 
When the color script was created, we looked at the whole picture from the beginning to the end and figured out where the climaxes were in each individual scene.  The script starts out with calming colors, then becomes more vivid during the climax of the reel, and finally returns to calm colors at the very end. By paying extra attention when and how we used the colors, we tried to connect with the viewer on an emotional level to drive our story and enhance the drama of each scene.
 
 

 
 

 

 
We had been experimenting with a whale dressed in a Victorian ruff and clown makeup, swimming through flower garden, with rich, vivid colors. That was the foundation idea for the AICP sponsor reel. We wanted an art and performance piece that would show the versatility of the Gasket team.

We concepted an old magical traveling show, replete with miniature sea creatures that swam through the air, traveling the rolling prairie in hot air balloons, performing in amongst the flowers and hollows. The posters and other art had to look a bit weathered and outdated, with a hint of modern flavor to support the sponsor logos.  We research vintage posters, gramophones, typefaces, and other bizarre sea animals.

The animation style was considerably different than previous work we have done. We wanted the motion to hit a sweet spot between realism and the fantastical while maintaining a graceful and entertaining vibe. We also wanted to make sure each of the characters had their own specific character traits. For example, the zebra seahorse was timid and shy, while the knight and dragon were bold and strong.
 

 
The seahorses were initially inspired by synchronized swimming teams. Then we thought about giving each seahorse a unique look, much like carousel horses. As we designed the costumes, their characters developed various warriors, from an African Zulu fighters, to civil war calvary, to a knight in shining armor fighting a dragon.
 
 

     

 

 
For the print and email campaign, the designs needed to be fresh and light with a sort of weightless feel, but featuring some of the fantastical performers from the piece, as if the were famous actors in a broadway show. 
 
 

 

 
Behind the scenes at the live action shoot.  When shooting with a macro setup, your stage is only about 3 feet, so timings and action become crucial.  Insects were constantly buzzing the camera, but they seemed like 747s at that scale.  The wind had a gale force quality at that size.  The mirror ball was used to capture HDR images to project reflections and lighting on the scenes and models to integrate them environment.  Camera rigs and crew were removed in post. 

The goal was to give the "pins" personality through dexterity, letting them perform crazy actions like shooting bow & arrows, and toasting pints of beer. Using 3D animation techniques, Gasket gave the pins a "foam finger" look to fit the sports theme. The mixing of dimensional characters in a graphical setting created a very unique series of spots that popped off the screen.
  
  

Intended to stand out in the crowded in-store environment, Gasket combined bold 2D graphics with intricate folding and unfolding of the book.  "The spot has a very warm and friendly tone, that focuses our attention on the joy and happiness that giving can bring," notes Gasket Creative Director, Greg Shultz.  "Experiencing a real popup book has the same effect-one of wonder and surprise at the transformation of the story into 3D."

  

 
From the beginning Gasket pitched the concept of a pop-up book, knowing it would work well in the storybook venue, as well as be the perfect vehicle for both the narrative and to showcase the gift cards themselves.  Mixing realistic cutout images with designed characters and bold graphics created a unique style for the spot.
 

  

  
The characters of "Mom's Dad's & Grad's" were designed to successfully function within a pop-up book world, without compromising articulation. The style aesthetic is derivative of a classic golden age family, which is an homage to the rising popularity and production of pop-up books during the 1950's-1970's.
  
  

 
  
  

  

  
The two biggest technical challenges of this spot were making all of the characters and environments to fold up into the book, and having all of our sets and characters be two dimensional images in a 3D world.  In order to fold up the world and characters into the small space, we had to use a number of deformers, corrective animations and compositing tricks. Placement of characters and set pieces was also important.  Objects kept poking outside of the book or colliding with the other pieces of art.  When trying to have two dimensional characters interact with each other, the animators were limited in the amount of motion that could be used before "breaking" the models.  But their flatness was also an asset, giving the characters a fun quirkiness.
  
  

  
rendered image…
  
  

  

  
The styleboards.
  
  

  
  

The campaign ran across nine SuperValu banners nation-wide, along with Spanish and Polish language versions with ethnic food items, and alternative shopper marketing versions featuring specific name-brand products.
 
  

  

  
In a first for SuperValu, the iconic lemon, which is the theme for the spot as well as the anchor for the logo, is entirely digital.  The goal was to create a real lemon that says "fresh off the tree," ready for your summer lemonade.
  
  

  
The final rendered lemon had extensive effects enhancements and moisture droplets. 
  
  

  
English, Spanish and Polish language versions.
  
  

  

  
The live action food photography was shot by Buck Holzmer, with vfx supervision from Gasket. This is the setup for the burger scene, which was highly engineered.
  

  
The burger sequence was the most challenging as it had to look flowing, seamless and amazingly flavorful, yet still come together in a pleasing arrangement.
  
  

  
Using flame, extensive tracking, color correction and animation, the burger patty flips in the air, then reconstructs itself, falling on the bun, followed by lettuce, tomato and onion slices.  Magic!
  
  

  

  
An alternate version of the spot for shopper marketing was suppose to include a 4th of July themed can of Coca-Cola, one of the sponsors.  Unfortunately, the cans were not yet ready.  We shot the plate without the can, then built it in 3D from the packaging art.  Lighting and vfx information was gathered at the shoot, then used to integrate the can back in the shot.
  
  

  
Wire frame of 3D coke can.
  
  

  
The hero Coca-Cola can was composited with the final color corrected shot, married with background graphics.

Long, sweeping extrusions paired with bold colors and clean reflections attract a more mature audience, while the playful arching extrusions coupled with saturated colors and soft textures are geared for the younger generation. Although each spot has a specific audience in mind, all have similar movements to guide you through the animation, and remain clean and simple so that the message is easily communicated to a general audience.
  
  

  
The look of the Time Warner environment was intensively crafted with light and compositing effects. We first created the environment using a colored ramp, sampled from the new Time Warner color palette, designed by FAME. We made a colored HDR for the ambient lighting on the type, which gave it some initial color and helped blend it into the background.  The main shader we used for the type was a black, then a reflective shader, lit with colored lights, helped achieve the colorful and shiny look of the extruded type.  The front faces of the type were then rendered separately and layered on top.  We also layered in ground reflections, shadows and occlusion to achieve the final look.
  
  

  

  
Working with FAME's initial concepts for the brand package, we created individual looks and animation for each promo.  "Free On Demand" was originally slated to be the color "grass" and have a fresh, lively animated style to the extruded type, targeted at a younger demographic that enjoys the "VIP Backstage Pass" type of content. The color was eventually switched to "sky", and given more of a water theme with the type causing light ripples in the floor as it landed.
  
  

  
The Gasket concept for "Premiums On Demand" showcased the epic feel of block busters and wide-screen interest of a theatrical experience.  The type moves in dramatic zooms and sweeps, with moody lighting and effects. Targeted at a broader, high end audience, "Premiums" are one of the cornerstones of Time Warner's subscription services.
  
  

  

  
"Entertainment on Demand"
  
  

  
"Premiums on Demand"
  
  

  
"Free On Demand"
  
  

 
In addition to the broadcast graphics package, we also created a series on in-stadium banners to play at LA Dodgers games in the LED "ribbon" that wrapped the field in the new branded look.