Click image to see 5MB QuickTime video of animation: Although the puppets in the animation look CG, no CG puppet animation was done.

Loose Moose "Makes Your Own Fun" In Stop-Motion Spot for Oscar Mayer Lunchables

London-based animation company Loose Moose employed its usual witty style to produce "Make Your Own Fun" (:30 ), an action-packed, stop-motion commercial that combined CG elements with clever puppeteering for Oscar Mayer Lunchables.

The spot is a mixture of CG and puppet animation. The majority of the commercial was filmed on an actual set, the kitchen, but the travelling shot down the corridor is a CG set. Loose Moose used CG sets and filmed the puppets against a blue screen and composited the shot together. The sprinkles, laser, and corridor were created in LightWave on an NT workstation. The rest is all puppet animation in real sets. There was no CG puppet animation done.

Loose Moose used Maya and actual puppets to create the Oscar Mayer spot.

Directed by Loose Moose's Ken Lidster for J.Walter Thompson, Chicago, the film combines stop-motion animation with CGI featuring Dillon and his dog Bumpy who unintentionally wreak household havoc in their quest to invent things.

First they contrive a flying skateboard for one of Dillon's action figures, which zooms down the hallway almost knocking down poor old mum as she leaves the bathroom. Next, a torch laser bruns the wallpaper and melts dad's golf trophy, provoking a pained parental cry, "Dillon!"

Finally, Dillon heads for the kitchen for his favorite snack Oscar Meyer Lunchables Fudge Brownie Fun Snack. There he constructs a machine from kitchen utensils to customize his brownie. In the closing shot, mum is looking for Dillon in the kitchen. Unknown to her, he and Bumpy are crawling about the ceiling with "Mission Impossible" type suctioncups. The action was filmed using stop-motion puppets made by Artem Models and Effects as were the sets. However, the hall corridor for the long tracking shot was rendered in-house by the Loose Moose CGI department, using Maya, to create a crazy, high-speed look.

The action was filmed using stop-motion puppets made by Artem Models and Effects as were the sets

"The challenge was to make a set, which blended perfectly with the models in terms of texture and lighting," said Loose Moose producer Glenn Holberton. "Then we could create a high-speed tracking shot without building a major set or using expensive periscope lenses. By creating the hallway in Maya, we were able to match the CGI with the puppet's movements, which were shot against bluescreen, using our motion control rig. The effect worked perfectly and is quite seamless."

Other effects, including hundreds of thousands of CGI sprinkles, that are jet-fanned onto the brownie, were created at Loose Moose. The film elements were telecined on Spirit and composited on Infinity by Bruce Hancock, at Soho 601. The CGI elements were imported directly into the Infinity using Corkscrew software from Seizmic UK. For further information, contact Glenn Holberton or Penny Foster, Loose Moose, 0270 2873821, or visit http://www.loosemoose.net

For more background on Loose Moose, see http://www.siggraphnews.com/html/2000/August/features/BuildingLooseMoose.htm

Credits:

Product Oscar Mayer Lunchables
Title "Make Your Own Fun" (:30)
Client Oscar Mayer

Agency J Walter Thompson
Creative Director: Doug Kamp
Art Director: Matt McIntyre
Copy Writer: Kevin Johnson
Producer: Kevin Roth
Production Company Loose Moose
Director Ken Lidster
Producer Glenn Holberton
Assistant Producer Penny Foster
Puppets And Sets Artem Visual Effects (London)
Post Production Red Square (London)
Editor Tim Fulford

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