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.
  
  

  

  

  
  

  

  

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.
  
  

For Gasket, the spots were an exercise in subtlety. The ball needed to have some character attributes, but only enough to be interesting. The ball had to feel like a real rubber band ball AND a living thing simultaneously.  It proved both fun and challenging to add humor and character to a logo that is normally static. "Preston Kelly struck just the right tone with the ball concepts, giving the spots a nice smile that elevated the message. We were honored to work on a national brand icon like OfficeMax," noted creative director, Greg Shultz.
 

  
"Bag Push" spot featured our hero ball pushing a giant bag of discounted office products.  The ball had to be strong, but not overly "squishy," maintaining the integrity of the shape.
  
  

  
In the "Copier Tray" spot, the printer kicks out progressively better and better prints of the ball, becoming more vivid as it goes, with the tag line "We've go your ink."
    
  

  
The "Printer Ball" spot shows a plan tan ball "absorbing" multi-colored ink on it's way to becoming the OfficeMax icon.
  
  

  
The ball was also animated for various end tags and offers, unifying the look of the campaign. Using the reference from the live action spot, we chose to light and render the ball in a more realistic style.  We included ambient occlusion to add shading and depth inside the rubber bands. We also used soft shadows on the ground to keep the ball in a well lit, clean feeling environment. Then we placed specular highlights to match the light direction of the original logo.

  
  

  

  
For the live action spot "Little Helpers" we replaced the printer in the middle of the spot, along with several of the rubber band balls.  Using the ball model from the logo animations, the animators matched the balls movement to the live action plate.  We referenced the light direction from the plate and incorporated it into the lighting for the CG ball.  We rendered mattes for each color of rubber bands so I could change the colors to match the live action reference as closely as possible.  We then added occlusion, specular highlights, shadows, motion blur and film grain to integrate it into the live action plate.  Rendering reflections of the CG ball into the printer also added realism to the final composite. The agency and client were thrilled that they could extend the life of the spot by changing out the printer brand.  Their exact words where “WOW!”
  
  

 

  
  

  
These are the original 2D designs of Swoopy from AKQA/NY.  It was our job to bring him into the 3D world.
  
  

  

  
We did a number of tests exploring the balance between literally interpreting the storyboards and exploring the piece artistically.  The character's bed sheets were simulated using Maya nCloth.
  
  

 

 
These are the original agency storyboards.

TDA_Boulder & Gasket Studios created this character-themed holiday campaign, featuring digital virus monsters and a snowball-throwing little boy that takes them down. The project included a full game microsite, takeover and banner ads, HTML mail and various themed landing pages for the Webroot software sites. Collaborating with numerous creative teams at TDA_Boulder, Gasket Studios co-designed the characters, as well as produced the animation and web development for the campaign.  Flash and game development were also managed by Gasket.
 
 

 

 
Some of our early character sketches exploring monster types, attributes and expressions.
 
 

 
Once we settled on the basic shape, we gave the characters an overall polish in 2D.
 
 

 
And finally we translated the characters into 3D and brought them to life.
 
 

 

 
Here's a screengrab of the game itself. It's simple at first, but ramps up quickly. It is also highly addictive.
 
 

 
Even good things come to an end. At least when this one ends, Webroot generously offers you a coupon for their product. It's a great way to get into the season of gift-giving and virus-stomping.  TDA's creative direction and copywriting kept the game light and humorous.
 
 
 

As the user’s mouse hovers over the ad, the clown comes to life, chasing the user’s cursor with a chainsaw, cutting and slicing up the page as he takes over. Luckily for the now-irate user that just wants to read their daily PC Mag articles, Webroot comes to their rescue by crushing the clown with a giant Webroot software box and smashing the takeover banners, perhaps saving your computer in the process. The banner proudly states in a classic Webroot green: “Protection from online threats.”

Originally slated to run for only 24-hours on PC Magazine’s website, PCMag.com, Webroot extended the run for 72 hours through midnight on Halloween due to high click-throughs on day one.

Inspired by TDA's original circus clown horror concept, Gasket expanded the visuals to include a very scary, very crazy 3D clown character, replete with a ridiculously big chainsaw. Enhancing the character in 3D, the clown truly jumped off the page, using the dimensions of the page like a window with internal depth.

"We felt this would catch users attention, simultaneously nnoying and entertaining them, letting Webroot save the day," noted Gasket creative director, Greg Shultz.  "The TDA creative team were great to collaborate with and really pushed to make the clown creepier and creepier. One of our animators even voiced his crazy laugh."
 
 

 

 
The boards also inspired the outcome of the banner and sidebar frame.
 
We felt their vision was pretty in line with a believably scary, but also somewhat cheesy horror film: The gratuitous blood splatters, the tagline, the small print, and even the burntout lights in the word “circus” gave it a realmovie feel. It felt like the perfect place for a creepy clown to live! When we remade the title type, we drew a lot of our inspiration from antique circus posters and general 80s horror films.
 
 

   

 
We did a lot of research on chainsaws and the villains that wield them.
 
 

 

 
Eventually, we came up with our crazy, evil character: A clown that eerily never stops grinning, taking pleasure in the mayhem he creates with his trusty chainsaw until Webroot helps to catch him.
 
  

 

 
 

 

 
A little progression from concept to completion: On the left we have a sample of the boards we got from the client. On the right is a frame from the final spot.
 
 

 
In the end, the Clown is no match for the might of Webroot.