PORTLAND , Or. – Feb. 14, 2005 – As a brand icon, Tony the Tiger is perhaps one of the oldest and most widely recognized symbols in advertising. Developed by ad agency, Leo Burnett, Chicago in 1951, Tony has witnessed the introduction of color TV, and been transformed from cell animation to CG. But when the agency wanted to give life to his latest incarnation – as a clay stop-motion puppet – they turned to the Portland, Or.-based stop-motion animation facility Bent Image Lab, and director David Daniels.

Daniels is no stranger to redesigning a cherished brand icon. In 1995 he oversaw the complete overhaul and redesign of the modern M&Ms' characters. Directing all of the personalities and animation in the groundbreaking first year and a half, he established the 3D CG M&Ms look in this long lasting character campaign that keeps going a full decade later.

According to Daniels, “This is the first time Tony the Tiger has ever been done in 3-D stop motion. As an animated character, he has existed as cell animation and perhaps CG once or twice, but he's never existed as an object in the real photographic world, moving one frame at a timeThe spot, entitled "Tiger Power," features three short vignettes – three mothers looking after their offspring -- an orangutan, an ostrich and a giraffe – all being interviewed by Tony the Tiger in a reality TV/news style about the importance of protein, fiber and calcium in a child’s diet.

Daniels reported that designing these characters from the start called for an interesting type of aesthetic, somewhere between the ‘almost realism’ of Stuart Little, and the stripped down simplicity of Wallace and Grommet. So for character design, they turned to Peter de Sève, who was responsible for the prehistoric creatures in Blue Sky Studio's “Ice Age”.

“As a designer, Peter de Sève fit the bill better than anybody,” said Daniels. “Bringing him on in the early stages was agency creative director, Peter Lohmeier’s wish. He was somebody that we had already referenced in our own bid work internally at BENT. Both the agency and the production company had the same guy in mind when we were trying to find a style in between these two opposite extremes of characterization,” he explained.

It's an aesthetic zone where Daniels has devoted much of his creative energy. "While I'm known for doing all kinds of styles and mixed-media looks, there's a common theme in much of my stop motion work. I blend in a heavy amount of postproduction with my puppet characters giving them a more highly produced, semi-realistic feel -- never forgetting that great atmosphere is only there to support simple emotions and clean, distinct character personalities."

"Most spots live in the stop motion world or they live in the CG world," he explained. "The aesthetic we’re developing here is a bit of both. More realistic and post-produced than what people typically think of as A-level clay animation, but not losing the simple charm and emotional character resonance in the eyes, the gestures and the features. We keep a little more texture and detail than a typical stop motion cartoon, adding the atmosphere of an effects/realism shot. Imagine ILM doing animated ‘Golden Books’ from the 50’s."

“De Sève did an amazing job bringing charm and feminine identity to the animal characters. He simplifies things based on the deep understanding of the actual physiology. Using the natural bone and muscle structure, he makes the character shapes seem effortless and wonderful. Peter wanted to both extremely push and dramatically streamline certain features as a way of creating identity. An example is the monkeys who have large protruding disc shaped mouths, almost as large as duck bills. This extreme mouth is balanced and synthesized with the other ape features to become a great monkey design like no other.”

As a bonus to the project, Peter de Sève also brought a great deal to the animals personalities in the storyboards as well. “Several of the strongest gags were drawn out by Peter during the character design phase,” says the spot’s Director. “In finding unique quirky characters, he draws them in context of their actions and environment. It was a natural evolution that many of these original drawings influenced the actions that become the final shooting board.”

In terms of CG post effects, Bent Image Lab relies on Adobe After Effects, and other plug ins as needed. A workflow where individual frames are everyday added in as the production is still shooting and AE becomes the de facto Post editorial platform. "We prefer to work in AE for six weeks straight, because we get the treat of having 5 times longer to massage details and small stuff. While subtle on first glance, it probably puts three times more tiny bits of quality on the screen. We're posting full days constantly from the very first footage, to the very last day. It allows a lot of time and love to be put into each comp and we can usually final finish a spot with just a one-hour Da Vinci color grading at the very end," he explained.

“The great thing about this slow and steady 'Volvo not Ferrari' approach is you don’t have to recreate all the software specific isolations, mattes, and all the control features that would come from a Flame finish or some other SGI software package at the very end. For this kind of production style, with animation that takes up to 12 weeks finish, our ‘Constant Post’ approach makes much more sense than throwing all of your problems into a big bucket at the very end and rushing through two or three days, with a gun to your head at $800 per hour.”

He added that, “things are changing in an interesting way. There’s an exponentially large talent pool of comp people who know After Effects but don’t touch flame, so good operators, great software, and sturdy hardware are all very reasonable. More money ends up on screen this way” .

For Tiger Power, the company added effects like volumetric lighting, lens flares, source lighting, rim hi-lights and countless other effects. "There's a sense of haze, with atmospheric details receding in the background to make it feel like it's a dewy, early morning on the jungle canopy or afternoon on the Serengeti," said Daniels.

To create Tony posed a bit of a challenge. "It was very difficult. He’s built on a series of spring coils which allow each section of his body to be individually manipulated and it’s a very odd and unusual armature technique.”

The problem was that Tony isn’t the same shape in every frame. “Tony lives in the world of shapes that never stop. He’s always in some kind of extreme flux; some kind of fast-paced motion and his body mass volume changes so rapidly, you couldn’t make a single shape and have it work through all the different positions, so we couldn’t do it as a traditional stop motion puppet.”

The result is a completely morphic Tony, constructed of coils and paddles, covered with ¼-inch of clay – “just thin enough that you can actually push, pull or bulge it from behind and resculpt it, so it can actually take on new shapes. His big sculpting marks are painted out, and then various filters and software including 'Studio Artist' is used to randomize with out blurring the focus. This softens all the smaller micro-bumps so Tony takes on an effortless perfect silicone look.”

The spot’s other characters were primarily foam with precise computer milled steel armatures. “Tiger Power” relies heavily on the humanity of its characters and Daniels stressed that for this spot, “These characters confess to camera on the small gestures. They do very little things to use a gentler emotional side of the visual and character palette. Restraint is key. There were nine different ways to fail and only one way to succeed.”

In particular, the orangutan mother posed a challenge in this sense. “The Neanderthal aspects of monkey design are hard to counteract and make feminine and yet not make them so typical that they are charmless. Never let anything get too bland, so it loses any of it's quirky integrity,” explained Daniels. “They need a real identity of their own, so they are not actually stamped out with a cookie cutter.”

“Tiger Power” begins airing February 14th. Ken Gilberg served as agency producer. Peter Lohmeier served as agency creative director. T.S. Elliot served as agency art director. Bent Image Lab’s Ray DiCarlo served as executive producer. Director of photography was Mark Eifert. The chief animators were Jeff Riley and Rob Shaw. Paul Harrod handled art direction. Orland Nutt was chief compositor. Steve Balzer handled the Tony Surfacing details. Gretchen Miller was BENT spot producer. David Daniels Directed. Peter de Seve did character design and storyboard.

About Bent Image Lab

BENT IMAGE LAB is a hybrid animation laboratory/live action production studio headquartered in Portland, OR. Named Bent because it bends rules, light and the imagination, the team is highly skilled in many creative disciplines. Their mission is to generate the future in mixed-media / animation / live action, and their credo is “Never twice the same solution”.

Bent Image Lab is represented nationally by Nancy Jacobs. The company is headquartered at 1801 NW Upshur, Portland, OR 97209. Contact them at: 503.228.6206, fax: 503. 228.1007, website: www.bentimagelab.com

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Press Contact: Fran Koenig (203) 661-5090, koenigpr@optonline.net

Credits for: “Tiger Power”

Airdate: February 14, 2005

Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago, IL Producer: Ken Gilberg Creative Director: Peter Lohmeier Art Director: Mark Eifert   Visual Effects: Bent Image Lab, Portland, OR Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo Director: David Daniels Line Producer: Gretchen Miller Character Design: Peter de Seve Production Coordinator: Shilpa Sunthankar Director of Photography: Mark Eifert Gaffer/Grip: Dan Ackerman & Jim Dunn Chief Animator: Jeff Riley 2nd Animator: Rob Shaw Art Direction: Paul Harrod Puppet Supervisor/ Doctor: Sarah Neiman Character Sculptors: Scott Foster & Ben Adams Mold Makers: Matt McKenna & Tim Tanner Armaturist/ Rigging: Jeanne McIvor & Sarah Hall Puppetmaker/ Painter: Katie Scott Puppet Assistant: Gary Santos Rigging R&D/ Model Maker: Charles Daniels Model Maker: Stevie Pagano Set Carpenter: Aaron Hood-Brown Set Wrangler: Sol Burbridge Scenic Artist: Tracy Prescott Storyboard/ Animatic: Josh Anderson CG: Jim Clark & Darrin Casler IT/Technical Support: Craig M. Hermann 2D Compositing/ Clean-up: Orland Nutt & Steve Balzer Production Assistant: Randy Wakerlin Production Asst./Runner: Matt Erickson Office Manager: Alix Iverson

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